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Civil Rights

The Basics - The following information has appeared on New York examinations

• African-Americans had suffered discrimination in North America since slaves were first brought to North America by the Dutch in th late 1600s. While African-Americans and whites are guaranteed equal rights by the 15th Amendment, Jim Crow laws and the 1894 Plessy Ferguson case (stating that "separate but equal" facilities was constitutional) did not allow this to happen.

• John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was President from 1960 until his assassination in 1963. One of his major achievements was getting the U.S. to look at the discrimination between the races.

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached civil disobedience to protest what many considered to be social injustices. He felt that if a law was unfair, then the citizens have a duty to violate it. King insisted that his protests, however, all be nonviolent. Martin Luther King became known during the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, which orginated with the arrest of Rosa Parks. King gave the most famous spreech on the Civil Rights Movement when he delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1963. He was assassinated in 1968 because of his beliefs and actions to push for equality of the races.

• Malcolm X was a radical leader of the Civil Rights Movement who, early in his career, advocated the use of violence if necessary to get his point across. He was assassinated in 1965 by Black Muslims.

• The Black Panthers were a radical African-American group headed by Stokley Carmichel and advocted the use of violence and fear to forge a place in society for Blacks.

• In 1954, The Supreme Court reversed its Plessy v. Ferguson decision in the landmark Brown v. Board od Education - Topeka, Kansas Case. Seven year old Linda Brown sued her school district to go to the white school in her neighborhood despite the fact she was not permitted because of segregation and Jim Crow laws. The Supreme Court decided in her favor, stating that segration in public school must end "with all deliberate speed."

• The "Little Rock Nine" were African-American students who enrolled in an all white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. These students faced the challenge of racial slurs, mobs, threats of violence, and the National Guard. Finally, President Eisenhower sent 10,000 troops to ensure the students' safety and to make sure they were permitted at the school. The story of the Little Rock Nie made national news and influenced many people in the country.