Civil Rights Movement
By: Hanah Cronin
journey to the movement
how we got there
One of the main events of the Civil Rights movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It first started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus to a white man. To protest the segregation of busses all African Americans stopped riding the bus for almost a whole year. This caused the entire economy of the town to suffer because the majority of bus riders were African American, it also affected the restaurants and stores because no one could get there unless they walked. In the end the court decided to desegregate the busses and they were back in business.
Another big event was Brown v. Board of Education. A young girl named Linda Brown was unable to attend an all white school that was right down the street and was forced to walk almost two miles to get to school everyday. Her parents; along with help from the NAACP, sued the school. On May 17, 1954 segregation was banned in schools because it violated the clause from the 14th amendment.
Lastly, one of the big events that occurred during the Civil Rights Movement was the Crisis In Little Rock. In September 1957 nine African American teens were sent to attended Little Rock High School. The white townspeople didn't like the fact that they were going to be attending school with their children. The Little Rock nine ended up not attending school until a few weeks after it had started. The National Guard was sent to protect the children from threats and being bullied, sadly it didn't help very much and the teens were still treated unkindly.
the march on Washington
Thousands of African American's and Whites gather to hear MLK Jr. give his "I Have A Dream" speech.
voter march
Black activists start a march for voter registration.
March in Memphis
Coretta King leading a march five days after the assassination of her husband.
the Unsung hero
Emmett Till was the boy who made everyone aware of how African Americans were being treated in the South and all over America. One summer he was traveling from Chicago to visit his great uncle who lived in Mississippi. He was told things were different in the South but he didn't realize how different. He was said to have told a white women who worked in a local store "Bye baby". This simple fraise determined the remaining days to his life. Two white men snuck into his uncle's house and kidnapped Till. They beat him to death with a bat and shot him in the head. The were taken to court basically told the judge they killed him and they were let off scotch free because they were white.
Henry Dee was a 19 year old kid who had decided to go down to Mississippi for the Young Freedom Summer job opportunity. Little did he know that was a big mistake. He and Charles Moore were killed by the White Knights (part of the KKK). Their bodies were discovered in the Mississippi River during a search for three Civil Rights Workers who were white. Two members of the White Knights were arrested for the crime and shortly confessed to the murders but the judge dismissed the case for a reason that was unknown.