The Civil Rights Movement•The Movement Begins Nearly 100 years after the Civil War• The 1960s were called the civil rights decade•Anti-discrimination organizations:

- The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured people NAACP - - The National Urban League NUL- The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee SNCC

• The civil rights of African Americans were limited by state laws and discrimination.

• In the early 1950s, segregation was legal.

• An Alabama law said that African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus.

• In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus. She was arrested.

• African Americans boycotted the buses until buses were desegregated.

Black Residents Walking, Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

• Martin Luther King Jr. helped lead the boycott. He believed in nonviolent protest.

• He wanted people to fight back using peaceful actions.

• In 1954, the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of public schools.

• In 1956, the Supreme Court said that segregation on buses was illegal.

Civil Rights Victories

• In 1960, African Americans held sit-ins in 54 cities.

• They sat at lunch counters that only served food to white people. They would not leave until they were served.

• In 1963, Congress was discussing a bill to end segregation.

• Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders organized a protest march in Washington, D.C., to show support for the bill.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned segregation in schools, at work, and in public places.

• Affirmative action to give minorities increased opportunities for higher education and in the workplace

• Busing to promote desegregation

• In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. • Along with non-violent protest the rise of

separatist movements:• Nation of Islam & its leader(s) Louis Farrakhan

& Malcolm X

HOWEVER • African-Americans tend to have a high dropout rate: only

15% complete 2 or more years of college Vs 26% of whites• Glass ceiling: For those who reach higher positions,

discrimination prevents them from the top positions and professional advancement

• They are hit twice as hard by unemployment as the rest of the population

• They live in inner cities where violence and crime are widespread

• The leading cause of death for a young black male is murder (very often by other black teenagers from different gangs.

• Half inmates of American prisons are black• Housing segregation leads to poor social integration