Civil+Rights

Kris Cody Grace O'Donnell Julia Primeau Kyle Thomas Emma Peterson Julianne Salmon Maddy Maierhofer Ben Nelson Brooke Buxbaum

Fighting Segregation with Non-violence:

Rosa Parks
 * Rosa Parks-** This was a black woman that was tired. She sat in the front of the bus. When the bus filled up a white man came on the bus and asked her for her seat. When she refused the bus driver called the police and she was arrested. She realized that when she was arrested she would be brought to Montgomery’s Jail where blacks, like her, were abused and beaten. All this didn’t make her change her mind about making a difference. She was tired of segregation and having blacks always being pushed around. Rosa Parks was realizing that she was ready to go to jail and the fact that she was determined to make a change. This sparked a large part in the civil right movement. When she was arrested it created a boycott of the busses. When King was asked to do it he gladly said yes to this project with the other leaders.
 * Bus Boycott- The bus boycott was expected to only last one day where every black person in Montgomery would not use the public buses for transportation. The ministers in town supported this idea are urged everyone to participate in the boycott. One of these ministers was Martin Luther King Jr., who would become the leader of the boycott. Those ministers knew that it would be hard to convince the black citizens since they sometimes lived several blocks away from their work and needed the quick transportation. Others were poor and elderly. However, most blacks seemed to gather all of their courage and put away the fear, just like Rosa Parks did. Instead of lasting one day, the boycott went on. It kept going through the rain, the cold of winter, and the heat of summer. The many black citizens found other ways of transportation, like carpooling ad walking. During the boycott, many of their houses and churches were burned down and several people were put in jail for carpooling, but the black people stood their ground and stayed off of the buses. Finally the boycott ended 13 months after Rosa Parks’s arrest when the Supreme Court decided that segregation on Alabama buses was unconstitutional. **

Martin Luther King Jr.
 * Martin Luther King Jr.-** MLKJ was an able boy and wanted to learn and he was motivated by his parents. They wanted him to get in a good school and do well in life. He did exactly that he decide to be a preacher and he did when he made his family he did all the things he wanted to do. And when he got into the bus boycott he was watched and listened to by everyone. He promoted non-violence to the black people and they didn't fight back. Eventually the court declared that segregation was unconstitutional. MLKJ did not only inspire people but his idea for nonviolence and noncooperation was inspired by one of his heros Gandhi. Gandhi showed that you can achieve much more by the use of nonviolence and MLKJ took Gandhi's idea and mixed it in with his own beliefs.

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 * I Have a Dream Speech-** This speech was about black rights, it said that he MLKJ wanted his children to interact with whites and be equal with them. The speech made people very motivated to make blacks have voting rights. The crowd was huge and the people were cheering. MLKJ was a very good speaker and this made everyone listen to him. After the I have a dream speech he was shot and killed.


 * Plessy vs. Ferguson-** Plessy vs. Ferguson was one of the many court cases that helped expose the horrors of segregation. Unfortunately, the outcome of the case was exactly the opposite of what the blacks were trying to achieve. It all started when Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a whites-only railroad car. Many questioned if this was against the constitution to limit the rights of others, but many whites thought this was fair. The end result of the court case legalized segregation, but this wasn’t the end of the blacks fight for freedom, it was just the beginning.


 * Brown vs. Board of Education-** Brown vs. Board of Education was a court case that made a change in the fight against segregation. Linda Brown, a seven year old African American little girl was forced to walk across the train tracks and onto a bus to get to her black school when just a few blocks away from her house was a white school. Her dad didn’t let that go unnoticed. Oliver Brown took the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to court, not only did he make it to court but their case was brought all the way up to the supreme court. This case was fighting against the Plessy vs. Ferguson case which made separate but equal constitutional basically stating that segregation was legal. Eventually after much hard work the supreme court ruled that separate but equal was in fact unconstitutional and the case was won by Oliver Brown and the other parents of African American children who were forced to attend schools much further away from their homes than needed. This victory brought light and hope to integration and the civil rights movement.

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 * Little Rock Nine-** It was finally their chance. Three boys and six girls were going to go through the horrors and an experience of a life time that would always be remembered in history. Growing up all their lives treated unfairly and being told they couldn’t do certain things was about to change. “The Civil Rights Movement” was growing and Little Rock High School was part of that. LR High School was one of the first schools to be integrated. After the Brown v. Board of Education case said that schools should be offered to blacks and whites LR was the first school to do just that. It was one of the best high schools in the nation and Melba Pattillo wanted to go to there. She was 15 years old and had always been told that education was the best thing in life. When she got the chance Melba knew it was what she wanted to do, but it wasn’t going to be easy. People threw rocks and shouted hateful comments as the nine girls and boys. Although, it was hard not to fight back, they restrained from violence and kept to themselves. Orval Faubus was the governor of Arkansas. He called in the National Guard to Protect the nine students. Each one of them had a personal body guard that followed them around all day. Elizabeth Eckford was another one of the students entering Little Rock. She was quiet and when she entered the school surrounded by white kids, she heard loud and clear what they had to say. They spat, stared and threatened her. It was going to be a long year. Out of all the hateful actions presented people in Arkansas there was some good that had come out. Ernest Green was the first black student to graduate from Little Rock High and ended up becoming the vice president of New York investment firm. It was a hard journey but in the end they all came out as one and equal.=====

Peaceful Protest
 * Roaring Bull-** In the summer of 1962 in Birmingham, Alabama the white leaders closed down 68 parks, 38 playgrounds, 6 swimming pools and 4 golf courses. The white leaders didn’t want to see there recreational facilities integrated. One of the white leaders that did this was Eugene “Bull” Connor as police chief. He was elected by the white Ku Klux Klan members. He tried to do everything in his power to have segregation. Connor helped the civil rights movement a lot even though thats not what he intended to do. The African American people of Birmingham decided to have a peaceful protest, even Martin Luther King Jr. got involved. While on the protest the police brought everyone to jail, so the African American people decided that they should have children and teens join the protest. It started with girls 13 to 18 years old and then went to the young men. During their protests they were sprayed with high powered hoses, enough power to knock them on the ground. The police put 75 children into a cell that was made for 8, but this did not stop them from fighting for their rights. Camera crews were all over taping this horrifying sight. When the world saw this atrocity they started to see the evil of segregation and knew things needed to be changed.

Malcolm X:  Malcolm X, an African American civil rights leader, was a major 20th-century spokesman for black nationalism. Earlier in his life, he was a smart, focused student, that graduated from junior high at the top of his class. Despite that, when a favorite teacher told Malcolm his dream of becoming a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger," Malcolm lost interest in school. He dropped out, spent some time in Boston, Massachusetts working various odd jobs, and then traveled to Harlem, New York. Malcolm was arrested for petty crimes in New York, and then on his parole, in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with his new last name "X." He considered "Little" a slave name and chose the "X" to signify his lost tribal name. Malcolm became a large spokesman for Black Muslims. He encouraged many blacks to fight for their own rights. As one of his most famous quotes says, “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything,” you can tell that he is a very determined man and with that speech, he is telling blacks that they have to stand up or else they will keep being segregated. At the end of his life, he was just beginning a speech when a group of men ran up and shot him 15 times in the stomach. He accomplished a great amount of things in his lifetime.

