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The civil rights movement was a time where there was a struggle for social justice that took place during the 1950s-1960s. Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. It wasn’t until the Civil War that slavery was abolished, but it did not end discrimination against Black Americans. They continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in he south. By the mid 20th century, Black Americans along with many other Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

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Jim Crow Laws

During Reconstruction, Black people took on leadership roles like never before. They held public office and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote. Still, many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they'd once enslaved were now on a more-or-less equal playing field.

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they'd made during Reconstruction, " Jim Crow " laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century. Black people couldn't use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people couldn't vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Jim Crow laws weren't adopted in northern states; however, Black people still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education. To make matters worse, laws were passed in some states to limit voting rights for Black Americans.

Moreover, southern segregation gained ground in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that facilities for Black and white people could be "separate but equal."

World War II and Civil Rights

Prior to World War II, most Black people worked as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, war-related work was booming, but most Black Americans weren't given better-paying jobs. They were also discouraged from joining the military.

After thousands of Black people threatened to march on Washington to demand equal employment rights, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the racial barrier to become the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Yet many Black veterans were met with prejudice and scorn upon returning home. This was a stark contrast to why America had entered the war to begin with-to defend freedom and democracy in the world.

As the Cold War began, President Harry Truman initiated a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. These events helped set the stage for grass-roots initiatives to enact racial equality legislation and incite the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. Segregation laws at the time stated Black passengers must sit in designated seats at the back of the bus, and Parks complied.

When a white man got on the bus and couldn't find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus, the bus driver instructed Parks and three other Black passengers to give up their seats. Parks refused and was arrested.

As word of her arrest ignited outrage and support, Parks unwittingly became the "mother of the modern-day civil rights movement." Black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., a role which would place him front and center in the fight for civil rights.

Parks' courage incited the MIA to stage a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. On November 14, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating was unconstitutional.

Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 4, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and prejudice.

Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Even though all Americans had gained the right to vote, many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass.

Wanting to show a commitment to the civil rights movement and minimize racial tensions in the South, the Eisenhower administration pressured Congress to consider new civil rights legislation.

On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.

Sit-In at Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Despite making some gains, Black Americans still experienced blatant prejudice in their daily lives. On February 1, 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina when they refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter without being served.

Over the next several days, hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. After some were arrested and charged with trespassing, protesters launched a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the owners caved and the original four students were finally served at the Woolworth's lunch counter where they'd first stood their ground.

Their efforts spearheaded peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations in dozens of cities and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage all students to get involved in the civil rights movement. It also caught the eye of young college graduate Stokely Carmichael, who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC, giving his famous speech in which he originated the phrase "Black power."

Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, 13 " Freedom Riders"-seven Black and six white activists-mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.

Facing violence from both police officers and white protesters, the Freedom Rides drew international attention. On Mother's Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus but were badly beaten. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames were widely circulated, and the group could not find a bus driver to take them further. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy) negotiated with Alabama Governor John Patterson to find a suitable driver, and the Freedom Riders resumed their journey under police escort on May 20. But the officers left the group once they reached Montgomery, where a white mob brutally attacked the bus. Attorney General Kennedy responded to the riders-and a call from Martin Luther King Jr.-by sending federal marshals to Montgomery.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi. Though met with hundreds of supporters, the group was arrested for trespassing in a "whites-only" facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington. It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.

More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King's speech in which he continually stated, "I have a dream..."

King's " I Have a Dream" speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964-legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination -into law on July 2 of that year.

King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated.

Bloody Sunday

On March 7, 1965, the civil rights movement in Alabama took an especially violent turn as 600 peaceful demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery march to protest the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white police officer and to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment.

As the protesters neared the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were blocked by Alabama state and local police sent by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a vocal opponent of desegregation. Refusing to stand down, protesters moved forward and were viciously beaten and teargassed by police and dozens of protesters were hospitalized.

The entire incident was televised and became known as " Bloody Sunday." Some activists wanted to retaliate with violence, but King pushed for nonviolent protests and eventually gained federal protection for another march.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, he took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 several steps further. The new law banned all voter literacy tests and provided federal examiners in certain voting jurisdictions.

It also allowed the attorney general to contest state and local poll taxes. As a result, poll taxes were later declared unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966.

Part of the Act was walked back decades later, in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision ruled that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated.

Civil Rights Leaders Assassinated

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room's balcony. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King's assassination. It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and countless protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment and housing practices.

Sources

A Brief History of Jim Crow. Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. National Archives.
Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. African American Odyssey.
Little Rock School Desegregation (1957). The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Rosa Marie Parks Biography. Rosa and Raymond Parks.
Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965). BlackPast.org.
The Civil Rights Movement (1919-1960s). National Humanities Center.
The Little Rock Nine. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
Turning Point: World War II. Virginia Historical Society.

Photo Galleries

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Civil Rights Movement: Timeline, Key Events & Leaders | HISTORY

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The civil rights movement was a struggle for justice and equality for African Americans that took place mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its leaders were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and many others.

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During the time that my mother and father were both born, racism had impacted the lives of thousands. School systems were segregated based on the color of students and their skin. If you were white, hung with other whites. If you were black, you hung with other blacks. However, if any of them were seen integrating with one another, they would face serious consequences. There was no such thing as interracial relationships or friendships which caused hardships for all. Because of the racism back then, my family has dealt with multiple negative and hurtful interactions. This caused many African Americans to have negative impressions of White Americans because of their past experiences.

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In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldón, an athletic, handsome student at Santa Monica High School, would often escape class to Bay Street Beach, a half-mile stretch of shoreline roughly between Pico and Bicknell Streets, by the Casa Del Mar hotel. Derisively called "the Inkwell" by some white Angelenos, Bay Street Beach was a haven for people of color.

Here, Gabaldón would bodysurf for hours, impressing two white lifeguards who loaned him a rescue board. With this heavy, 13-foot board, Gabaldón taught himself to surf, becoming the first documented Black surfer in America. He eventually took to riding the waves in Malibu, paddling six miles north and another six miles back, because he knew he would not be welcome walking on most of Santa Monica's beaches.

From the 1910s to the 1960s, Bay Street Beach was a recreational center for people of color. Although restrictions keeping African Americans off Southern California beaches had been struck down in 1927, Black people often faced discrimination and abuse when they ventured onto L.A. County beaches. Many chose to go to Bay Street for safety, comfort and community.

Today, a small marker honors its place in California history as well as the legacy of Gabaldón, who died in a surfing accident in 1951. In 2019, the 53-acre Bay Street Beach was recognized as a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places. But Bay Street Beach represents a fraction of Santa Monica's African American legacy.

A Growing Community

In the 1880s, Louis Green and his family were the first African Americans to settle in the tiny, brand new beach community of Santa Monica, according to Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson, historian and author of Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era. For years, Jefferson, a historian and author, has worked to uncover the history of the Black communities that thrived in Santa Monica.

Green holds an important place in L.A. history. He was the first Black person to register to vote in the region after the 15th Amendment, which affirmed the right of U.S. citizens to vote regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," was passed in 1870.

More African Americans joined the Greens by moving to Santa Monica during the 1890s, establishing a small neighborhood around Broadway between 4th and 6th Streets. The heart of the community would form in approximately a half-mile radius around the Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, located in an old Colonial Revival schoolhouse on the corner of 4th and Bay. It still stands today in the Ocean Park neighborhood.

According to the Santa Monica Conservancy:

"That was the center of the African American Community from the standpoint of an institutional base," Jefferson says.

Pastor James A. Stout and his wife, Mary, were honored elders and leaders in the Santa Monica community. They were beloved in the neighborhood and their descendants still live in Santa Monica.

During the early 20th century, more African Americans would move to greater Los Angeles, lured by stories (propagated by such figures as W.E.B. Du Bois) of a golden world free of racism and oppression.

"My father migrated here during The Great Migration," Santa Monica resident Carolyne Edwards told The Argonaut in February 2020. "He came here just because he had heard it was such a wonderful place. So, he went back to Texas, packed up everything and bought property in Santa Monica. We've been here ever since."

But the Golden State was no racial paradise. In Santa Monica, as in greater Southern California, many African Americans found their opportunities almost as limited as in the rest of Jim Crow America. According to Jefferson, before the 1950s, "Most African Americans were working in some sort of service capacity, whether it be working as domestics, working for companies as janitors, or working in laundries."

Some Black people also opened hair salons, restaurants, shoe repair shops, barber shops, gardening companies, trucking services and other small businesses. Charles E. A. Brunson, who had settled in Santa Monica by the early 1900s, operated a horse and wagon service, taking luggage from the local train station to fancy Santa Monica hotels like the Arcadia.

Although most Black Santa Monicans were working class, a middle and upper class made up mostly of property owners, clergy and business people began to emerge.

Marcus O. Tucker, the first Black doctor in Santa Monica, opened his own practice in the 1930s. In 1937, he and his wife, Essie, hired legendary African American architect Paul R. Williams to design a large Colonial Revival home in the city. Their cocktail parties, along with the goings-on at Santa Monica social clubs such as the Les Uniques Charity Club, frequently made the pages of Black-owned L.A. papers like the Los Angeles Sentinel.

Essie Tucker, an educator and activist, promoted business entrepreneurship among African Americans although she was not allowed to teach in Santa Monica Public Schools.

"African Americans in Santa Monica could not generally get jobs utilizing their education," Jefferson says. "For instance, there were several people that were teachers who came to Santa Monica prior to 1950 and they couldn't get jobs with the Santa Monica school system because they wouldn't hire them." Instead, teachers had to teach for the LAUSD, which had been hiring Black teachers since the 1910s.

Less than a mile away from Phillips Chapel was the Belmar neighborhood, which grew up around Fourth Street and Pico Boulevard. Historian and Santa Monica Conservancy board member Nina Fresco says the area was more commercial and transient than the neighborhood around the church.

By 1914, La Bonita, a bathhouse catering to people of color, had opened on Pico. Over the years, this bathhouse, where vacationers could rent bathing suits and stay for the evening, would go by many names. In different iterations it would have a tennis court, an outdoor lawn with an open pit for weenie roasts and a bar.

"On Thursday night, that was a fun place to go because of all the maids when they got off, they would go there and hang out," a longtime resident named Lloyd Allen told Jefferson.

These Black-owned restaurants, bars, rental cottages and stores gave people of color a sense of community and security.

"That neighborhood was very important because it gave African Americans the ability to utilize the beach... They could be assured that with the church and the bathhouse and the few restaurants and the people that they knew, they could have someplace to go to get some food, to change their clothes, to go to the beach," Jefferson says.

However, racism often prevented simple enjoyment. In the 1920s, a man named George Caldwell opened a dance hall and event space on Third Street. He held weekly Sunday Dances and other events. On June 10, 1921, an ad in the California Eagle proclaimed that an "Emancipation Celebration" would feature live music and good company. "Everybody will be there," the ad said. "Plenty of barbeque for all."

"It sounded like it was jumping," Jefferson says. Too jumping for racist residents and Santa Monica officials.

First, they banned dances on Sundays so Caldwell couldn't host his weekly shindig. When Caldwell moved it to another night, the city adopted a total ban on dance halls in residential districts, Jefferson says.

According to the Los Angeles Times in July 1922:

Caldwell's was forced to close.

"White people closed it down because it was too successful. That's what I think. And they didn't like the fact that these Black people were there having a good time, and they couldn't legislate them having a good time at night. So they passed ordinances to say that you couldn't have this dance hall. Now, mind you, white people who may have been attending those same kinds of places on the pier, they weren't closing them down," Jefferson says.

During the early 1920s, the Santa Monica Bay Protection League ramped up its attacks on Black commerce. According to the Los Angeles Times, the group hoped to eliminate "all objectionable features or anything that now is or will prove a menace to the bay district... or prove detrimental to our property values."

Writing in the Los Angeles Times in 2005, historian Cecilia Rasmussen says:

The league found another target in 1922 when prominent L.A. businessman Norman O. Houston (who would later found Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company) and lawyer Charles S. Darden bought land at the end of Pico Boulevard (where Shutters is now located). They planned to build a Black beach resort and amusement facility but were blocked by the odious Protective League, which according to Jefferson was formed expressly to keep Black people out of Santa Monica and its beaches.

In 1922, 600 white residents showed up to a Santa Monica City Council meeting to protest the plans. The council capitulated, passing an ordinance stating that only a single-family home could be built on the property.

Two years later, the Santa Monica City Council moved to let white investors build the Casa Del Mar resort, among other white beach resorts, on the same land. "This white supremacist economic sabotage was instituted to stymie Black economic development and community development," Jefferson says.

Despite all that, Black people refused to stop enjoying the simple pleasure of a sunny day at Bay Street Beach.

"You would see everybody... all your friends there," Ivan J. Houston told Jefferson in the Argonaut in 2015.

Verna Deckard Lewis Williams told the Los Angeles Times about driving down in her little Ford from Los Angeles by way of Pico with her "joy girls," excited to spend a day at the beach.

Santa Monica's first African American mayor, Nat Trives, who served from mayor 1975 to 1979, told the Los Angeles Times that as a teenager, "I may have taken advantage of the beach parking lot to explore the mysteries of lovers' lane."

Beachgoers also found innovative ways to deal with the white beach clubs built at Bay Street Beach. According to Rasmussen, Black vacationers would dance on the sand to the sounds of bands coming from Casa Del Mar and used their powerful lights to aid in nighttime swims. However, they still faced discrimination from the club's white members. Rasmussen writes:

Racism also affected Santa Monica's Black-owned businesses.

There was the Arkansas Traveler Inn, which according to an ad in California Eagle, offered "southern style barbecue with genuine barbeque sauce and fried chicken." Thurman's Rest-A-While Apartments, located at 5th and Broadway, offered overnight accommodations. Max-Mac's Café, at 2115 Beach Front, enticed customers with hamburgers and soft drinks.

Many of these small businesses suffered since most white people wouldn't patronize them, according to Jefferson.

Destruction In The Name Of Progress

By the 1940s, African American neighborhoods in Santa Monica were also increasingly threatened.

"Santa Monica, we always think of it as a rich place, but that's actually really recent history, and in the old days there was always kind of a scrabbly quality to the city," Fresco says.

In the late 1940s, city manager Randall Dorton aimed to redevelop large chunks of the beach town, especially those areas with majority minority populations. "Dorton wanted to 'clean up the city,' and make it richer, fancier and better, so he had this idea to do all of this condemnation and build all this stuff," Fresco says.

In 1957, the city adopted its first master plan. Not only was the Belmar area mostly flattened by eminent domain to make way for the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and other public areas, the 10 Freeway was also planned for majority minority residential neighborhoods in the Pico area.

Fresco, who has studied archival maps of the area, says it's obvious that racism and classism led leaders to choose these areas. "It's shocking that they chose the route that they chose," Fresco says. "I mean it's very visible just with the naked eye."

The construction of the freeway, which was completed in 1964, took out around 500 small homes and businesses, according to Jefferson. Some families were forced to move more than once as the city gobbled up more land through eminent domain.

"We tried to stop (the freeway)," Santa Monican Vabel Reed told the Los Angeles Times in 1994. "Some of us stood in front of the bulldozer to stop it. We walked. We fought. We picketed. They overwhelmed us. After the freeway came, things started to go downhill."

The one-two punch of the Civic Center and the freeway had a devastating impact on Santa Monica's Black communities.

"You knocked out folks who were living by the beach, whether they owned or rented, and they had to move. Some of those people moved into the inland neighborhoods, and some of them just moved out of Santa Monica. As for the freeway construction... that impacted the development of the African American middle class and other communities of color in Santa Monica," Jefferson says.

At its peak, Black people made up approximately 25% of Santa Monica's population in certain neighborhoods, depending on how they were drawn. Today, they make up around 4% of the city's overall population. However, their roots run deep. Families still come from all over the Southland to attend services at Phillips Chapel.

Alison Rose, who is project historian for an initiative spearheaded by the City of Santa Monica called the Belmar History + Art Civic Commemoration Project, is part of a team unearthing and recording the history of Black Santa Monica.

On August 25 of this year, the Santa Monica City Council named the city's newest open space. Historic Belmar Park, which will abut a new soccer field next to the Civic Auditorium, will honor the history of African Americans in Santa Monica. The outdoor memorial will include interpretive text and panels researched and written by Jefferson, as well as a public art installation by the artist April Banks that reimagines destroyed beach cottages. The project is scheduled to open in early 2021.

Two other projects are also in the works, according to Nadra Nittle of KCET. The 18th Street Arts Center's Culture Mapping 90404 is archiving the history of the community using maps and oral histories. Santa Monica native Carolyne Edwards is also documenting Black and Brown Santa Monica histories through the Quinn Research Cente r.

Jefferson hopes these projects will help Californians better understand their rich, often hidden, history.

"It is about making this area more accessible so that people understand that there weren't just a bunch of white people out here," Jefferson says. "There were people of color who were striving to have businesses and to enjoy California's outdoor resources just like everybody else. This whole project, for me, is an environmental and social justice statement. African Americans and other people of color have historic and cultural sites. They shouldn't be erased from the narrative of who has lived here."

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Wiped out by the 10 freeway, the Belmar neighborhood, at Fourth and Pico, was once a hub for Black life.

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Coming at you nice and hot! This delectable mac n cheese will have everyone joining you on any special holiday. It is creamy on the inside containing milk, eggs, and over 4 different cheese's, so you definitely need to try it out. I have heard that it is so good, you'll be coming back for 3rd's!! This dish is a very popular food item for holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. It originated first from Mae Betty who then passed the tradition and recipe down to her daughter/ my mother, Joyce Pace. It is my comfort food and the one thing I absolutely ENJOY about each holiday.

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https://www.britannica.com/event/Mississippi-River-flood-of-1927

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Henry Lee and Mae Betty Buried together 

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Henry Lee and Mae Betty Buried together 

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My father, John Givens, was born on July 2, 1948 and passed away on August 4, 2020. He has five siblings. Greg, Stanley, Ernest, Lawan, are his brothers and sisters, and his last sibling is unknown by me. They all were born and lived in Louisiana for the majority of their lives. His mother's name was Zilthan Givens, and his father's name was John Givens. They lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they raised all of their children. My father, John, was never married, but he had seven children, making them my half siblings. Kelsey, Carlos, Leticia, Demetria, Katrinca, Taylor, and Steven. Kelsey, has no children and is not married either, but he is currently living in the Valley, California. Carlos, has one child named Ayana, and is engaged to a woman named Toni. Carlos and Toni are currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada, but previously Carlos lived in Georgia. Demitria lives in Los Angeles, California, and she is neither married nor has any children. Steven was never married, and had no children as well. Sadly, he passed away last year due to AIDS. My other two sisters, Katrinca and Leticia, both live in Louisiana still; and neither of them have children. This is where the story ends, but it is just beginning for myself.

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Elaine was born April 23, 1953, and had three children. Elaine was previously married, to a man named Melvin, but later divorced due to complications. Elaine’s childrens names are Shanese, Devona, and Champ. Shanese, has two children named Brandon and Amaya, and never married. Brandon is the oldest, making him 28 years old, and Amaya is 19. Devona has two children named Dorian and Devon, and she was married to a man named Roosevelt. Sadly, he passed away about 4 years ago, due to a heart attack. Lastly, Joyce was born on December 27, 1958 and had one child named Taylor. Joyce is my mother, and my father is John Givens. Joyce and John never married, but she was previously married to another man under the name John as well.

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Years later, May and Henry migrated to California, for better conditions for their children. They actually did not flee until around 1952, a few years after their first son Henry Jr. was born. Henry jr. had five other siblings, Elaine, Joyce, Dione, John, and Robert. Henry Jr. was born December 24, 1947, and he had no children, but was married to a woman named Louise. He later died in the year of 2012. Henry was the oldest out of all his siblings, following Robert. Robert was born October 21, 1941, and had no children and was never married. Him and his brother Henry both died in the same year of 2012, which emotionally damaged the entire family. Robert died of pancreatic cancer, and Henry died of heart complications. Next, Dione was born March 22, 1970, in which she had three children named; Joseph, Dionica, and Dominic. Dione was actually never married, but she had several partners as well. Her and her children currently reside in Los Angeles, California. John Sr., born August 24, 1955 was never married, but had one child, John Jr. John was married, and had one child, and is currently still living.

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Devona Young & Shanice Harding - My Cousins

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Devona Young & Shanice Harding - My Cousins

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Simon and Jane planned their children, accordingly, having them exactly two to three years apart. Jennie Thames was born in 1872 in Newton, Mississippi and resided in 1800 Beat 2. Her relationship status was single, and she never got married. Charley Thames, Jennies brother, was born just three years later in 1875. Charley later married Willie Guice, but the year they got married is undetermined. Charley and Willie’s relationship will play a relevant role later on, but let’s continue further with the other siblings. Rob Thames was born two years later after Charley, in the year of 1877. Rob was never married, but he did have other relations with multiple women throughout the years. Finally, Newton Thames was born in 1880, just three years after Rob. Newton was born in December, and the exact birth dates of his siblings are still to be determined. Newton as well, never married but he also had relationships with women over the years. Sadly, this is where the story ends for the Thames family, due to there being no further information. But, as stated earlier, Charley Thames and Willie Guice play a significant role.

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It all began in the year 1822, where Jane Thames was born. Jane was born in North Carolina, and later moved to Newton, Mississippi in 1900. She was considered to be African American, but her husband's ethnicity is still to be determined. Her spouse is currently unknown, but with him she had a child named Simon Thames. Of course she had other children as well, but they are unknown, because they could not be further searched. Simon was born in 1854, in Mississippi, and later married Emma Thames. Emma and Simon had four children, Jennie, Charley, Rob, and Newton. They lived in Mississippi their entire lives, and they did not have the best jobs, and they did not make much money. But, they made enough to sustain a living and to sustain four children as well. It was very stressful at the time, because dealing with four children and still having to go to work had placed tons of pressure on the family.

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After Charley and Willie got married, they had nine children. Fred, Harvey, Lucinda, Alma, Charlie, Mary, Travis, and twins Jim and Joe. Starting off with the twins Jim and Joe, they were both born in the year 1906. They were actually the third oldest out of all their siblings. Jim and Joe’s marital status could not be determined as well, but im sure they had relationships throughout their years as well. Lucinda was actually the first born out of all the siblings. She was born in 1902, and she too was never married. Harvy was the second child that was born, in the year 1903, just a year after his sister was born. Emma was born four years after her twin brothers Jim and Joe in 1910. Charlie was born two years later after Emma, and later died in 1976. The cause of his death is unknown and so is his marital status as well. Fred was born in 1921 and died in 2010, and Travis was born in 1924, later passing away in 1984. Finally, May Betty Thames was born in 1923 and died in the year 2001. May Betty is the only sibling who has deeper information on who she was married to, and the children she had as well.

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May Betty later changed her name to Mary Betty, and after her marriage, she changed it once more. May was born on May 31, 1923, in Forest, Mississippi, where her father Charlie was 48, and Willie was 34. May later married Henry Lee Pace, in 1943, where they had six children. Henry was the son of John Pace, and Alma Bryant, where they had six children together. John and Alma’s children’s names were Henry, George, Robert, Florence, Corrine, Jake, Jim, and Quincy.. There was not much information that could be researched on that side of the family, but I included only what was found. George, had three children named Donnie, George Jr, and Beverly. George was also once married to a woman named Emma, but they later passed away. Robert, had two children named Bonnie and Gloria, and was married to a woman under the name Lynn. Florence, was married to a man named R.B, and they unfortunately never had any children. Corrine was married to a man named AJ, and they too had no children. Jake, was never married and had no children. Jim, was also never married and never had any children. Lastly, Quincy was married to a woman named Lulubell, in which they had three children. The three children's names were, Mary, Raymond, and Evelyn. May Pace Was actually born around the same time that the Mississippi River flooded, and had forced thousands of them to leave their homes. Fortunately, for her and her family, they did not have to leave their homes.