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plessy v ferguson
case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority one justice did not participate, advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. -
The NAACP legal strategy
commenced what has become its legacy of fighting legal battles to win social justice for African Americans and indeed, for all Americans. The most significant of these battles were fought and won under the leadership of Charles Hamilton Houston and his student and protégée, Thurgood Marshall. -
A developing civil rights movement
This essay has largely focused on the development of the Civil Rights Movement from the standpoint of African American resistance to segregation and the formation organizations to fight for racial, economic, social, and political equality. -
changing the world with soul force
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a respected civil rights leader who espoused non-violence as a means to overcome oppression and create a just society. On the third Monday of every January, Americans honor King’s life and work. In 2017, “MLK Day” occurs on January 16th. -
Brown v Board of education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Resistance to school desegregation
Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. of Virginia along with his brother-in-law as the leader in the Virginia General Assembly, Democrat Delegate James M. Thomson of Alexandria, to unite white politicians and leaders in Virginia in a campaign of new state laws and policies to . -
Boycotting segregation
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
Crisis in little rock
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas -
from the grassroots up
A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is one which uses the people in a given district, region, or community as the basis for a political or economic movement] Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at the local, regional, national, or international level. -
Demonstration for freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest human rights rallies in US history, took place 50 years ago in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke, delivering his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
