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A Witness to the Planning of the March on Washington

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In 1960, Ruby Bridges (September 8, 1954-) walked through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. By doing so, she became the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the Southern United States.

On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges became a symbol of the U.S. civil rights movement. She was just 6 years old. This marked the beginning of integration for U.S. public schools.

Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, on September 8, 1954. A few months before, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling on five combined cases. The court's decision would impact Bridges's life and change American history.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas aimed to end the idea of "separate but equal schools." In many states, black students and white students could not attend the same school. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in U.S. public schools was against the Constitution.

Although it was illegal for schools to separate students by race, some states-especially in the South-did not follow the ruling. Five years after the Brown decision, little Ruby would become the first student to integrate a Southern elementary school.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

A Promising Student

When Bridges was 4, her family moved from Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana. Her parents hoped a new city would offer better jobs. Her father, Abon, found a job working at a gas station. Her mother, Lucille, worked nights to help support the family.

Bridges attended kindergarten at a segregated school in New Orleans. But in 1960, a federal court ordered that Louisiana desegregate Desegregate to eliminate segregation (verb) Eventually the city's schools desegregated and allowed all children to attend. all of its public schools. Bridges was a good student. She was chosen to be part of a small group of black students who would take a test given by the school district. The test determined which students would attend the all-white schools. Bridges was one of six black children who passed the test. She enrolled in William Frantz Elementary School. It was just blocks from her home.

At first, Bridges's father did not want to enroll his daughter in the all-white school. He was afraid angry people would harm his family. However, her mother convinced him that it was the right decision. She believed their daughter would get a better education at an all-white school. Bridges's parents, who could not read or write, wanted her to succeed. On November 14, federal marshals escorted Bridges and her mother to Ruby's new school.

School of One

In a 1997 television interview, Bridges remembered preparing to leave for her first day at the school. She remembered looking out the window of a car driven by a U.S. marshal. "Driving up, I could see the crowd," she said. "But living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras."

An angry crowd had gathered outside the school before Bridges arrived. They chanted, "Two, four, six, eight, we don't want to integrate!" They tried to block the entrance to the school. While Bridges and her mother sat in the principal's office, hundreds of parents entered the school and removed their children from classrooms

. The next day, Bridges was led past the screaming crowd and into the school by four marshals. When she arrived at her classroom, she found a teacher but no students. Her teacher, Barbara Henry, from Boston, Massachusetts, had moved to the South hoping to help schools integrate. She was the only teacher willing to teach Bridges. "She would greet me, take me to my classroom, and it was just her and I," said Bridges. Although Bridges and Henry remained in the classroom alone for the rest of the school year, neither missed a single day of class.

A Lasting Legacy

The following school year, Bridges attended second grade at William Frantz. This time, the crowds had disappeared, and her classroom was full of students. In 1999, Bridges created the Ruby Bridges Foundation to teach tolerance to students. The following year, she was made an honorary deputy federal marshal in Washington, D.C. "I am so proud to have received such an honor," she said. "Deputy U.S. marshals are peacemakers and advocates of justice." Today, Bridges is an author, activist, and public speaker. She continues her work helping people learn to be more accepting of others.

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In 1960, Ruby Bridges (September 8, 1954-) walked through the doors of William Frantz Elementary School, in New Orleans, Louisiana. By doing so, she became the first African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the Southern United States....

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John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 - July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights leader. He was the U.S. Representative for GA's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

Lewis, who as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

John Lewis was born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama to Eddie Lewis and Willie Mae Lewis (née Carter), who were sharecroppers in Pike County, Alabama. Sharecroppers were people who were allowed to rent a part of a piece of land for return of a share of the crops they harvested. He was the third of ten children.

He experienced segregation as a young boy in the Southern United States. When he went to visit relatives in the Northern US, he learned that places there were integrated and served Black people and white people equally.

Personal Life

Lewis married Lilian Miles in 1968. They had a son, John-Miles. Lillian died on December 31, 2012.

In December 2019, Lewis was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. He died in Atlanta, Georgia on July 17, 2020 from the disease, aged 80.

Images for kids

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John Lewis (civil rights leader) for Kids

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John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 - July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights leader. He was the U.S. Representative for GA's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

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Children's Crusade of 1963 | American Freedom Stories | Biography

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Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6, 1917-March 14, 1977) was a civil rights activist. She fought to expand voting rights for African Americans.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi, during a time of segregation. African Americans in the South couldn't eat at the same restaurants as white people. They couldn't go to the same schools either.

Hamer's parents worked long hours on a cotton farm. She began picking cotton when she was only 6 years old. By age 12, Hamer had dropped out of school. She began working full-time in the fields.

But Hamer's life changed in 1962. That's when she attended a civil rights meeting. She was 45 years old. "They talked about how it was our rights as human beings to register and vote," she told the New York Times. "I never knew we could vote before. Nobody ever told us."

At the time, African Americans had the legal right to vote. But many Southern states made it extremely difficult for them to register to vote. For example, African Americans often had to pass literacy tests before they could register. The tests required them to read and understand complicated government documents. In addition, many African Americans who attempted to register faced violence.

Braving Threats

Despite these challenges, Hamer decided to brave the voter-registration process. In 1962, she took a bus to the Sunflower County Courthouse, in Mississippi. There, she was allowed to complete the paperwork. But she was not allowed to register. Why? She was told she had failed the literacy test.

Hamer's right to vote was also challenged by her boss. He gave her a choice. She could either withdraw her voter-registration application or lose her job. Hamer walked off the plantation. She dedicated herself to the civil rights movement.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Call to Action

Within a few months, Hamer began working as an organizer with a major civil rights group. She traveled around the South to educate black people about voting rights. Her life was threatened many times.

In 1963, Hamer was arrested in Charleston, South Carolina, on false charges. In jail, she was badly beaten. The attack left her with kidney damage and a limp. But the beating didn't stop Hamer from continuing her fight for justice.

In 1964, Hamer organized Freedom Summer. It was a major effort in Mississippi to help African Americans register to vote. That same year, she gained national attention when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention. It was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

During her speech, Hamer described the terrible effect of segregation. She also explained why the convention's Mississippi delegation should be integrated. "Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave," she said, "where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings-in America?"

Hamer's speech was televised around the country. It became a key moment of the civil rights movement. Four years later, Hamer achieved her goal. She joined an integrated delegation from Mississippi at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

For the rest of her life, Hamer would continue to champion black voting rights. Andrew Young Jr. spoke at her funeral. He was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. According to the New York Times, Young said that the civil rights movement was indebted to the "sweat and blood" of activists like Hamer.

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Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6, 1917-March 14, 1977) was a civil rights activist. She fought to expand voting rights for African Americans. Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi, during a time of segregation. African Americans in the...

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Read Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott on Epic

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Author - Karen Latchana Kenney

Create an Epic account to start reading!

Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Supreme Court's decision to desegregate buses, and the national civil rights movement to follow.

Read this Book on Epic!

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Read Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott on Epic

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Author - Karen Latchana Kenney Create an Epic account to start reading! Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Supreme Court's decision to desegregate buses, and the national civil rights movement to follow. Read this Book on Epic!

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Ella Baker - 'The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement'

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Kids learn about the history of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 including the background and work by leaders such as President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott |American Freedom Stories | Biography

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Fannie Lou Hamer Risked Her Life for the Right to Vote

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Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Definition, Summary & Significance | HISTORY

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.

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Article, Brown V BOE

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Organizing a Movement: SCLC and Bus Boycotts

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Fannie Lou Hamer: Stand Up
Civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer is remembered by those who worked side by side with her in the struggle for voting rights. An African-American sharecropper from the Mississippi Delta, Hamer's difficulty registering to vote in 1962 led to her career as an outspoken activist, congressional candidate, and fierce fighter for the rights of all.

Aired: 10/05/17

Rating: NR

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Fannie Lou Hamer: Stand Up Civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer is remembered by those who worked side by side with her in the struggle for voting rights. An African-American sharecropper from the Mississippi Delta, Hamer's difficulty registering to vote in 1962 led to her career as an outspoken activist, congressional candidate, and fierce fighter for the rights of all.

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Mighty Times: The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham braved arrest, fire hoses, and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. In the spring of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was the "do-or-die" battleground for the Civil Rights Movement. Heavy intimidation by Birmingham authorities left the Movement floundering. Using word-of-mouth under a veil of secrecy, more than 4,000 African American schoolchildren organized to desert classrooms at exactly 11 a.m. on "D-Day," May 2, 1963, touching off a week of mass demonstrations and rioting that shocked the nation. Police tried to stop them. Yet, the children prevailed.

Mighty Times: The Children's March offers a rare glimpse into the 1963 Birmingham children's march from the ground up. More than 100 eyewitnesses contributed to the storytelling, with appearances by notable participants and organizers James Orange, Gwendolyn Webb, James Bevel, Harry Belafonte, Dick Gregory, and Andrew Young. [Producer's description.]

"The Children's March" is not available to stream. Check your library for a DVD version.

Trailer

Produced by Learning for Justice in association with HBO.

Background on the Birmingham Children's March

As is explained on the Stanford University's Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project, the King Research and Education Institute website:

Aware that support for protests in Birmingham was waning during April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC looked for ways to jumpstart the campaign. When the arrest and jailing of King did little to attract more protestors, SCLC staff member James Bevel proposed recruiting local students, arguing that while many adults may be reluctant to participate in demonstrations for fear of losing their jobs, their children had less to lose. King initially had reservations, but after deliberation he agreed, hoping for the action to "subpoena the conscience of the nation to the judgment seat of morality." SCLC and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) members immediately canvassed colleges and high schools for volunteers and began training them on the tactics of nonviolent direct action.

As is described on the Civil Rights Movement Archive:

A passion for freedom sweeps through Parker High and the other Black schools of Birmingham and Bessemer, an emotional firestorm ignited by SCLC's young field workers, led by class presidents and prom queens, cheerleaders and football players like big James Orange. A fire stoked and spread by "Tall Paul" White and other DJs at the Black radio stations.

Thursday, May 2nd, is "D-Day" as students "ditch" class to march for justice. In disciplined groups of 50, children singing freedom songs march out of 16th Street Baptist church two-by-two. When each group is arrested, another takes its place. There are not enough cops to contain them, and police reinforcements are hurriedly summoned. By the end of the day almost 1,000 kids have been jailed.

The next day, Friday May 3rd, a thousand more students cut class to assemble at 16th Street church. With the jails already filled to capacity, and the number of marchers growing, Eugene "Bull" Connor (Commissioner of Public Safety in charge of the police and fire departments) tries to suppress the movement with violence. Instead of arresting the first group of marchers he orders his fire department to disperse them with firehoses. But the students hold their ground, singing " Freedom" to the tune of the ancient hymn " Amen." Connor orders the water pressure increased to knock them off their feet and wash them away. Still singing, the young protesters sit down on the pavement and hunch their backs against the torrent. Continue reading.

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Mighty Times: The Children's March - Zinn Education Project

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Film. By Hudson and Houston. Learning for Justice. 2005. 40 minutes. This Academy Award-winning documentary film tells the heroic story of the young people in Birmingham, Alabama, who brought segregation to its knees.

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March on Washington - Date, Facts & Significance | HISTORY

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The March on Washington was a massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered i…

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"That day, for a moment, it almost seemed that we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real; perhaps the beloved community would not forever remain the dream one dreamed in agony."

James Baldwin, novelist and poet

A Day of Hope
With the words and music still ringing in their ears, the demonstrators boarded buses and trains for their journeys home. Many would return to the same hardships, discrimination, and violence that had prompted them to join the March on Washington. But the legacy of that day endured and increased popular support for the civil rights movement. In the months and years that followed, the march helped sustain and strengthen the work of those who continued to commit themselves to the ongoing struggle for social justice.

Two demonstrators linger at the Reflecting Pool at the end of the day's events.

Responses to the March
In the months after the March on Washington, ongoing demonstrations and violence continued to pressure political leaders to act. Following President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson broke through the legislative stalemate in Congress.

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were turning points in the struggle for civil rights. Together the two bills outlawed segregated public facilities and prohibited discriminatory practices in employment and voting.

Equality for All
The success of the March on Washington and the achievements of the modern black freedom struggle reverberated throughout society and provided a model for social change. The power of mass nonviolent demonstrations inspired Americans fighting for equal rights and access to opportunities regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities.

Gay and Lesbian Rights Protest Sign

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19631863"That day, for a moment, it almost seemed that we stood on a height, and could see our inheritance; perhaps we could make the kingdom real; perhaps the beloved community would not forever remain the dream one dreamed in agony."James Baldwin, novelist and poet

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John Lewis: The Selma To Montgomery Marches | MLK | TIME

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The Selma March was a political march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery. It is also called the Selma to Montgomery March. Civil rights activist Martin…

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Who Were the Freedom Riders? | The Civil Rights Movement

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Reflections on the Greensboro Lunch Counter

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Judge Fixes Civil Rights Case 50 Years Later

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Judge Fixes Civil Rights Case 50 Years Later

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Civil Rights Activists Test Supreme Court Decision

The 1961 Freedom Rides, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), were modeled after the organization's 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. During the 1947 action, African American and white bus riders tested the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morgan v. Virginia that found segregated bus seating was unconstitutional.

The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well. A big difference between the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation and the 1961 Freedom Rides was the inclusion of women in the later initiative.

In both actions, Black riders traveled to the Jim Crow South-where segregation continued to occur-and attempted to use whites-only restrooms, lunch counters and waiting rooms.

John Lewis

The original group of 13 Freedom Riders-seven African Americans and six whites-left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961. Their plan was to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation of the nation's public schools was unconstitutional.

The group traveled through Virginia and North Carolina, drawing little public notice. The first violent incident occurred on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. John Lewis, an African American seminary student and member of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), white Freedom Rider and World War II veteran Albert Bigelow and another Black rider were viciously attacked as they attempted to enter a whites-only waiting area.

The next day, the group reached Atlanta, Georgia, where some of the riders split off onto a Trailways bus.

Did you know? John Lewis, one of the original group of 13 Freedom Riders, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1986. Lewis, a Democrat, continued to represent Georgia's 5th Congressional District, which includes Atlanta, until his death in 2020.

Freedom Riders Face Bloodshed in Alabama

On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama. There, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station.

The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus. The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob.

The second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes. Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and violence awaited them, he posted no police protection at the station because it was Mother's Day.

Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied riders appeared on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country and around the world the next day, drawing international attention to the Freedom Riders' cause and the state of race relations in the United States.

Following the widespread violence, CORE officials could not find a bus driver who would agree to transport the integrated group, and they decided to abandon the Freedom Rides. However, Diane Nash, an activist from the SNCC, organized a group of 10 students from Nashville, Tennessee, to continue the rides.

U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, began negotiating with Governor John Patterson of Alabama and the bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the new group of Freedom Riders. The rides finally resumed, on a Greyhound bus departing Birmingham under police escort, on May 20.

Federal Marshals Called In

The violence toward the Freedom Riders was not quelled-rather, the police abandoned the Greyhound bus just before it arrived at the Montgomery, Alabama, terminal, where a white mob attacked the riders with baseball bats and clubs as they disembarked. Attorney General Kennedy sent 600 federal marshals to the city to stop the violence.

The following night, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a service at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, which was attended by more than one thousand supporters of the Freedom Riders. A riot ensued outside the church, and King called Robert Kennedy to ask for protection.

Kennedy summoned the federal marshals, who used tear gas to disperse the white mob. Patterson declared martial law in the city and dispatched the National Guard to restore order.

Kennedy Urges 'Cooling Off' Period

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders departed Montgomery for Jackson, Mississippi. There, several hundred supporters greeted the riders. However, those who attempted to use the whites-only facilities were arrested for trespassing and taken to the maximum-security penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi.

That same day, U.S. Attorney General Kennedy issued a statement urging a "cooling off" period in the face of the growing violence:

"A very difficult condition exists now in the states of Mississippi and Alabama. Besides the groups of 'Freedom Riders' traveling through these states, there are curiosity seekers, publicity seekers and others who are seeking to serve their own causes, as well as many persons who are traveling because they must use the interstate carriers to reach their destination.

In this confused situation, there is increasingly possibility that innocent persons may be injured. A mob asks no questions.

A cooling off period is needed. It would be wise for those traveling through these two Sites to delay their trips until the present state of confusion and danger has passed and an atmosphere of reason and normalcy has been restored."

During the Mississippi hearings, the judge turned and looked at the wall rather than listen to the Freedom Riders' defense-as had been the case when sit-in participants were arrested for protesting segregated lunch counters in Tennessee. He sentenced the riders to 30 days in jail.

Attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), a civil rights organization, appealed the convictions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed them.

Desegregating Travel

The violence and arrests continued to garner national and international attention, and drew hundreds of new Freedom Riders to the cause.

The rides continued over the next several months, and in the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals.

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Freedom Riders - Facts, Timeline & Significance | HISTORY

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Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals.

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The Sit-In Movement in Fayetteville, N.C.

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Ducksters Article

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Kids learn about the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., African-Americans stopped riding the buses for over a year.

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'I Had a Right to Be at Central': Remembering Little Rock's Integration Battle

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Sixty years ago, a group of nine students walked into a school and changed America. "I had a right to be at Central," one of them tells TIME

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Kids learn about the history of the Little Rock Nine, African-American students who fought to end segregation by attending an all-white high school.

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60 Years On, A Look Back at the Little Rock Nine

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Kids learn about the history of the March on Washington including Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, the Big Six planners, and the results such as Civil Rights Act in 1964.

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Skip to main content

This content is related to The March, a virtual-reality museum exhibit.

In the years leading up to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, civil rights leaders and activists had been protesting our nation's injustices. They encouraged people of all backgrounds to come together and demand equal treatment for every American.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was a peak moment of the civil rights movement. His words inspire people today, as the fight for justice and equality continues.

With its virtual-reality exhibit The March, TIME has given participants the superpower to become one of the 250,000 people who went to Washington, D.C., on that hot day in August 1963. You'll experience this moment in history as if you're there. We hope it will help you understand how the civil rights movement relates to life today.

There's a new wave of activism by young people who are standing up for what they believe in. The future leaders of our nation are showing us that age is nothing but a number! They inspire us, and we hope that The March inspires them in return.
To view the full PDF of this special issue, or scroll down to read the individual articles online.

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This content is related to The March, a virtual-reality museum exhibit. In the years leading up to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, civil rights leaders and activists had been protesting our nation's injustices. They encouraged people...

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Overview on the lead-up to the Voting Rights Act

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Overview on the lead-up to the Voting Rights Act

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Table of Contents

1. Selma to Montgomery March

2. Literacy Tests

3. Voting Rights Act Signed into Law

4. Voter Turnout Rises in the South

5. Changes to the Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.

Selma to Montgomery March

Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency in November 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the presidential race of 1964, Johnson was officially elected in a landslide victory and used this mandate to push for legislation he believed would improve the American way of life, such as stronger voting-rights laws.

After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude." Nevertheless, in the ensuing decades, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans, particularly those in the South, from exercising their right to vote.

During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, voting rights activists in the South were subjected to various forms of mistreatment and violence. One event that outraged many Americans occurred on March 7, 1965, when peaceful participants in a Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights were met by Alabama state troopers who attacked them with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refused to turn back.

Some protesters were severely beaten and bloodied, and others ran for their lives. The incident was captured on national television.

In the wake of the shocking incident, Johnson called for comprehensive voting rights legislation. In a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965, the president outlined the devious ways in which election officials denied African American citizens the vote.

Literacy Tests

Black people attempting to vote often were told by election officials that they had gotten the date, time or polling place wrong, that they possessed insufficient literacy skills or that they had filled out an application incorrectly. Black people, whose population suffered a high rate of illiteracy due to centuries of oppression and poverty, often would be forced to take literacy tests, which they sometimes failed.

Johnson also told Congress that voting officials, primarily in Southern states, had been known to force Black voters to "recite the entire Constitution or explain the most complex provisions of state laws," a task most white voters would have been hard-pressed to accomplish. In some cases, even Black people with college degrees were turned away from the polls.

Voting Rights Act Signed into Law

The voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote on May 26, 1965. After debating the bill for more than a month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 333-85 on July 9.

Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony.

The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.

In 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal in federal elections; poll taxes in state elections were banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Did you know? In 1965, at the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, there were six African American members of the U.S. House of Representatives and no Black people in the U.S. Senate. By 1971, there were 13 members of the House and one Black member of the Senate.

Voter Turnout Rises in the South

Although the Voting Rights Act passed, state and local enforcement of the law was weak, and it often was ignored outright, mainly in the South and in areas where the proportion of Black people in the population was high and their vote threatened the political status quo.

Still, the Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.

Changes to the Voting Rights Act

Since its passage, the Voting Rights Act has been amended to include such features as the protection of voting rights for non-English speaking American citizens. It has also been walked back. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated. In the wake of the Shelby County v. Holder decision, several states began enacting laws limiting voter access, including ID requirements, limits on early voting, mail-in voting and more.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Definition, Summary & Significance

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The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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Justice for All - Time for Kids Article, Little Rock 9

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Justice for All - Time for Kids Article, Little Rock 9

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September 4, 1957, was supposed to be the first day of school for 14-year-old Carlotta Walls. But as she and eight other black teenagers approached Little Rock Central High School, in Arkansas, they were met by angry . Members of the Arkansas National Guard blocked the teens from entering the building.

Three weeks later, the students finally walked through the school's front doors. This time, they were protected by U.S. Army soldiers.

Carlotta and her classmates weren't just going to school. They were making history. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that in public schools was illegal. The teens were among the first black students in the country to attend an all-white school. They became known as the Little Rock Nine.

"[It is important] for people today to understand why kids are sitting in classrooms with those who don't look like them," Carlotta Walls LaNier, now 75, told TFK. "It was due to our success at Central [more than] 60 years ago."

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES

The Fight for Rights

The Little Rock Nine were assigned military for the school year. But the troops were not allowed to enter classrooms, bathrooms, or locker rooms. So Carlotta, like the other eight black teens, dealt with and violence daily. Students spat on her. They pushed her down the stairs. They knocked books out of her hands. Then they kicked her when she picked them up.

But Carlotta stayed strong. "I considered my to be ignorant people," she says.

Upsetting photos of the Little Rock Nine appeared in newspapers and on televisions across the country. The images increased public support for desegregation. "When people saw what was going on, they were genuinely horrified," Michael Brenes told TFK. He is a historian at Yale University. Brenes says the crisis at Central High School sparked school desegregation nationwide.

Today, Carlotta Walls LaNier still works to promote equality. She hopes young people will continue to stand up for justice. "We still have work to do," she says. "We have to make sure the progress we've made is not reversed."

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September 4, 1957, was supposed to be the first day of school for 14-year-old Carlotta Walls. But as she and eight other black teenagers approached Little Rock Central High School, in Arkansas, they were met by angry protesters. Members of...

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Thanks to virtual reality, a man who attended the 1963 March on Washington returns to the scene with his great-grandson.
TIME's virtual-reality exhibit The March re-creates the historic March on Washington of 1963. Visitors can walk with the 250,000 people who went to the nation's capital that day. And they can witness Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

The exhibit's producers want visitors to feel as if they're really at the march. To reconstruct the crowd, they used a process called motion-capture. Actors were scanned from every angle. Later, the images were put together to make digital characters.

Thousands of actors responded to a call to participate in the motion-capture. About 80 were selected. One of them was 8-year-old LaVell Thompson Jr.

The producers met LaVell in Los Angeles, California, in September 2019. What they didn't know at the time is that LaVell has a personal connection to the march. His great-grandfather, Reverend Jeffrey Joseph, was there on August 28, 1963.

Looking Back

Joseph, 90, is a pastor at New Heaven Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Most of what LaVell has learned about the March comes from stories his great-grandfather told in church. "It was very scary for black people back then," LaVell says. "Martin Luther King wanted to help all people have a better experience in the world."

Joseph can remember the days when civil rights protesters experienced violence in the South. He'd been a pastor in Jennings, Louisiana, which was segregated, and later in Louisville, Kentucky. In April 1963, Joseph saw TV footage of police in Birmingham, Alabama, spraying fire hoses at protesters. He started raising money for civil rights causes.

That August, Joseph hopped a train from Louisville to Washington, D.C., to take part in the march. He recalls standing about 50 feet from King that day.

Marching Forward

Joseph joined his great-grandson on the film set for The March. Cameras scanned him in a specially designed light booth. It couldn't have been more different from what he saw in 1963. Still, it brought back memories. He says the march gave him hope and a feeling of "brotherhood."

Though it didn't end discrimination, Joseph says, the march had many positive effects. "Without that March on Washington, all of those black politicians would not be in office," he says. "It made an impression."

Now, with The March, the event makes a new kind of impression. Visitors can stand with a quarter- million others-including the re-created figure of Reverend Joseph, marching with his great-grandson.

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Thanks to virtual reality, a man who attended the 1963 March on Washington returns to the scene with his great-grandson. TIME's virtual-reality exhibit The March re-creates the historic March on Washington of 1963. Visitors can walk with the 250,000 people...

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What was it like to attend the March on Washington? TIME magazine spoke with people who were there.

Joan Baez, Singer

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"There are some times when you know something is going to be historic. I remember it was hot, I remember what I was wearing, I remember singing, and there was that ocean of people. I'd never seen anything like it. I remember the electricity in the air."
Rachel Robinson, Founder, Jackie Robinson Foundation

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"We listened very carefully to the words as if they were almost like instructions. We all wanted to do something, and we wanted to have goals that we were going to work toward. And the speech gave a lot of ideas in terms of that. It wasn't just a spiritual thing. It was also very informative and instructive. We were looking for leadership, and he was offering it."
Nan Orrock, Georgia State Senator

GREGORY SMITH-AP PHOTO
"I resolved at that moment that I was going to be active, that I was going to be a part of changing the country, raising these demands and lifting my voice for people who were doing everything they could."
John Lewis, U.S. Congressman

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"You saw signs from all over America: political signs, religious signs. People representing different faiths. Churches from the heart of the Midwest, the far West. People coming from all over the country to bear witness, to participate. Many of the people were well dressed. It was like going to church or temple or synagogue. People then, when they went out for a protest, they dressed up."

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Skip to main content What was it like to attend the March on Washington? TIME magazine spoke with people who were there. RICH FURY-GETTY IMAGES "There are some times when you know something is going to be historic. I remember it was hot, I remember what I was wearing, I remember singing, and there was that ocean of people.

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Table of Contents

1. Selma to Montgomery March

2. Literacy Tests

3. Voting Rights Act Signed into Law

4. Voter Turnout Rises in the South

5. Changes to the Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.

Selma to Montgomery March

Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the presidency in November 1963 upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the presidential race of 1964, Johnson was officially elected in a landslide victory and used this mandate to push for legislation he believed would improve the American way of life, such as stronger voting-rights laws.

After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude." Nevertheless, in the ensuing decades, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans, particularly those in the South, from exercising their right to vote.

During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, voting rights activists in the South were subjected to various forms of mistreatment and violence. One event that outraged many Americans occurred on March 7, 1965, when peaceful participants in a Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights were met by Alabama state troopers who attacked them with nightsticks, tear gas and whips after they refused to turn back.

Some protesters were severely beaten and bloodied, and others ran for their lives. The incident was captured on national television.

In the wake of the shocking incident, Johnson called for comprehensive voting rights legislation. In a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965, the president outlined the devious ways in which election officials denied African American citizens the vote.

Literacy Tests

Black people attempting to vote often were told by election officials that they had gotten the date, time or polling place wrong, that they possessed insufficient literacy skills or that they had filled out an application incorrectly. Black people, whose population suffered a high rate of illiteracy due to centuries of oppression and poverty, often would be forced to take literacy tests, which they sometimes failed.

Johnson also told Congress that voting officials, primarily in Southern states, had been known to force Black voters to "recite the entire Constitution or explain the most complex provisions of state laws," a task most white voters would have been hard-pressed to accomplish. In some cases, even Black people with college degrees were turned away from the polls.

Voting Rights Act Signed into Law

The voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote on May 26, 1965. After debating the bill for more than a month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 333-85 on July 9.

Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony.

The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.

In 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal in federal elections; poll taxes in state elections were banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Did you know? In 1965, at the time of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, there were six African American members of the U.S. House of Representatives and no Black people in the U.S. Senate. By 1971, there were 13 members of the House and one Black member of the Senate.

Voter Turnout Rises in the South

Although the Voting Rights Act passed, state and local enforcement of the law was weak, and it often was ignored outright, mainly in the South and in areas where the proportion of Black people in the population was high and their vote threatened the political status quo.

Still, the Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.

Changes to the Voting Rights Act

Since its passage, the Voting Rights Act has been amended to include such features as the protection of voting rights for non-English speaking American citizens. It has also been walked back. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated. In the wake of the Shelby County v. Holder decision, several states began enacting laws limiting voter access, including ID requirements, limits on early voting, mail-in voting and more.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965 - Definition, Summary & Significance

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The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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1940s

In the early 1940s Rustin joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an organization based on peace and nonviolence. He was also an early member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). CORE was an interracial, nonviolent organization founded to combat racism. Rustin led campaigns and nonviolence workshops for both organizations. As a pacifist he opposed war and refused to fight in World War II (1939-45). Because of that he spent more than two years in jail. In 1947 Rustin and others were arrested for participating in FOR and CORE's Journey of Reconciliation, an interracial bus ride through some of the Southern states. At the time Jim Crow laws in the South tried to keep Blacks and whites separated. The Journey of Reconciliation served as a model for the 1961 Freedom Rides.

Rustin traveled to India in 1948 to study the nonviolent principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Supported by FOR, Rustin also traveled to Africa to work with West African independence movements. In 1953 he was asked to resign from FOR after he was arrested for being homosexual. At that time being homosexual was not as accepted as it is today.

1950s

Rustin became King's adviser in 1956 during the Montgomery bus boycott. Rustin introduced King to Gandhi's teachings and performed other important roles. Rustin was also involved in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC).

1960s

In 1962 the activist A. Philip Randolph approached Rustin about organizing a march to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. King was interested as were the major civil rights organizations in the country. Rustin and his team wrote the organizing manual. They also advertised the march throughout the country and helped to make sure that everything went smoothly. More than 200,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the march.

Later Years

Rustin continued to work for social justice for the rest of his life. In 1966 he became president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a civil rights organization in New York City. He served in that position until 1979. He also served on the board of the International Rescue Committee where he helped refugees. Rustin died in New York City on August 24, 1987.

In 2013 Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor. The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice was founded in 2018. The center honors the work he did as a civil rights activist.

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1940s In the early 1940s Rustin joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an organization based on peace and nonviolence. He was also an early member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). CORE was an interracial, nonviolent organization founded to combat racism. Rustin led campaigns and nonviolence workshops for both organizations.

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Booker T. Washington

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Biography: Booker T. Washington for Kids

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Kids learn about the biography of Booker T. Washington, educator and civil rights leader who opened the Tuskegee college for African Americans.

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W.E.B. Du Bois was an early leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. His goal was to win equal rights for African Americans.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He went to Fisk University and to Harvard University. He earned a doctoral degree at Harvard in 1895.

Du Bois became a professor who studied and wrote about Black life in the United States. Du Bois believed that white people would think more highly of Black people if they knew more about them.

Du Bois disagreed with Booker T. Washington, another important African American leader. Washington opposed protest as a way to change society. Du Bois believed that Blacks could achieve racial equality only through protest. His most famous book, The Souls of Black Folk, encouraged Blacks to fight inequality.

In 1905 Du Bois began organizing groups to demand equal rights for Blacks. In 1909 he helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Late in life Du Bois lost hope that the United States could solve its racial problems. He joined the Communist Party in 1961 and moved to Ghana, in West Africa. He became a citizen of Ghana in 1963. He died there on August 27, 1963.

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W.E.B. Du Bois was an early leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. His goal was to win equal rights for African Americans. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He went to Fisk University and to Harvard University.

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Read National Geographic Readers: Rosa Parks on Epic

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Read National Geographic Readers: Rosa Parks on Epic

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Create an Epic account to start reading! Read the story of Rosa Parks and how her actions in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 helped end racial segregation in America. Read this Book on Epic!

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Read Amazing Young People: Ruby Bridges on Epic

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Read Amazing Young People: Ruby Bridges on Epic

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Create an Epic account to start reading! Get to know the life and legacy of Ruby Bridges and her brave role in ending segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Read this Book on Epic!

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Read The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on Epic

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Read The Passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on Epic

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Create an Epic account to start reading! Learn about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Read this Book on Epic!

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Todd Purdum, author of "An Idea Whose Time Has Come," thank you so much.

One of the interesting things about this book I find is that, as we sit here on Capitol Hill, there are so many people who most folks have never heard of who really were the force behind the Civil Rights Act.

TODD PURDUM, Author, "An Idea Whose Time Has Come": No, absolutely.

I mean, one of them worked here in this building in the Judiciary Committee Hearing Room, Congressman Bill McCulloch from Ohio. He was the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, rock-ribbed conservative from West Central Ohio. His district is represented today by John Boehner.

And he was just as conservative as John Boehner in most ways, but he was a fierce supporter of civil rights. His ancestors had been abolitionists before the Civil War, and as a young man out of law school at Ohio State, he'd gone to practice down in Jacksonville, Florida, and was appalled by Jim Crow segregation, and made it his business to become a strong supporter of federal civil rights legislation.

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How the Civil Rights Act changed America

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Wednesday marks 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, ethnicity and sex. Gwen Ifill is joined by Todd Purdum to discuss his new book, "An Idea Whose Time Has Come," which tells the story of how the legislation came to be.

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Audrey Faye Hendricks is the youngest known child to be arrested during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, at just 9 years old, Hendricks marched with other children in Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation. She was arrested and held in custody for 7 days.

Young Hendricks was born into a family that was very involved in the Movement for Human Rights, so she was no stranger to activism. She wanted to join the Children's Crusade being organized to support the Civil Rights Movement and stand up for equality and justice. The children were trained by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to protest peacefully and never respond to the police or white segregationists with violence. During the first week of May, in 1963, thousands of children were arrested for marching peacefully to protest the Jim Crow Laws that discriminated against African-American citizens.

The among the youngest to march was Audrey Faye Hendricks. The children gathered at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama in the morning or May 2st, 1963. They waked a half a block before they were all arrested. Hendricks was held for 7 days, her parents were not allowed to see her or have contact with her. The Children's Crusade continued for several days with new waves of youth. They were meet with more arrests and police brutality.

People all over America saw photographs of young nonviolent marchers being abused and arrested by the Birmingham police and were outraged. The city felt pressure and knew that something had to be done. The White city leaders came to an agreement with the Civil Rights leaders, which ended legal segregation in Birmingham.

These children helped move a mountain of discrimination. Audrey Faye Hendricks, at age 9, helped accomplished so much with her bravery and conviction. We honor this truly amazing human being.

Audrey Faye Hendricks

Sources and links:

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Audrey Faye Hendricks is the youngest known child to be arrested during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, at just 9 years old, Hendricks marched with other children in Birmingham, Alabama to protest segregation. She was arrested and held in custody for 7 days.

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Dorothy Irene Height (1912-2010), civil rights and women's rights activist, is recognized as one of the most influential women in the civil rights movement.

Born in 1912, in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Rankin, Pennsylvania where Height excelled as a student. In high school she joined the anti-lynching protests, this turned out to be just the beginning of her distinguishing career in social and political justice.

Height was a talented orator in high school and won a national oratory competition which earned her a college scholarship. In 1929, she was admitted to Barnard College but was not allowed to attend because the school had already met their allotted quota of African Americans - 2. Height was heartbroken but did not give up, instead, she immediately headed to New York University and was admitted on the spot. Height earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and a Masters in Educational Psychology from New York University in four years.

At age 25, Height began her career as a civil rights activist when she joined the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) after meeting the organizer's founder, Mary McLeod Bethune. Through Height's work at the NCNW, she fought for equal rights and improving circumstances for both African Americans and women. She eventually became the president of NCNW, which she led for 40 years until 1997.

Because of Height's acclaim in the civil rights movement and her exceptional knowledge in organizing, she was frequently called on to give advice on political issues. She frequently counseled Dwight D. Eisenhower, Elenor Rosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1963, Height co-organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

One of Height's most inspiring accomplishments includes the creation of " Wednesdays in Mississippi ", bringing together black and white women from the North and South to open up the dialogue about civil rights and support each other. Height was also a founding member of the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, an umbrella group formed in 1963 to organize and regulate the Civil Rights Movement. Height is considered one of the "Big Six", but her role was frequently ignored by the press and left out of our history books due to sexism.

Over the years Height was recognized by many organizations for all her efforts during the Civil Rights Movement and received an estimated 24 honorary degrees. In 1989, she received the Citizens Medal Award from President Ronald Reagan. In 2004, Height was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal and inducted into the Democracy Hall of Fame International.

President Obama put out a statement on the day Dorothy Height Passed away in 2010 calling her "the Godmother of the civil rights movement":
"Dr Height devoted her life to those struggling for equality. She led the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years, and served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement - witnessing every march and milestone along the way. And even in the final weeks of her life - a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest - Dr Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith."

-Dorothy Height

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Her Story: Dorothy Height · She Made History

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Dorothy Irene Height (1912-2010), civil rights and women's rights activist, is recognized as one of the most influential women in the civil rights movement. Born in 1912, in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Rankin, Pennsylvania where Height excelled as a student.

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Rosa Parks helped to launch the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. Georgia Gilmore was instrumental in helping sustain this movement for 13 months until the Supreme Court handed down the ruling that segregation of public buses is unconstitutional.

Gilmore was a midwife, cook, and single mother of 6, living in Montgomery Alabama. She joined the Montgomery Improvement Association association as soon as the boycott began in 1955. She wanted to find a way to help with the boycott, She loved to cook and decided to use her skills to support the cause. She organized friends and other local black women to make baked goods to help fund the Montgomery bus boycott. They called themselves the "Club From Nowhere" in order to avoid retribution from the authorities and employers. When asked, "Where did that pie come from?" the women would respond "From Nowhere." The cooks went door-to-door selling bakery items, sandwiches, and full meals. The profits were donated to the Montgomery bus boycott leaders to help keep the carpools going so that black people could get to work, church and meetings while the African-American community boycotted the busses.

Eventually, Gilmore's boss learned of her activism and she was fired from her job. Sadly this was not an uncommon practice. Gilmore didn't let that stop her, she turned it into an opportunity. With the encouragement of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she turned her house into an informal restaurant. She started to cook meals in her kitchen and sell her delicious food to anyone that stopped by. The city tried to shut her down, but King helped her remodel the kitchen to meet the city standards, and she continued to cook. Her food not-only nourished workers and volunteers of the Civil Rights Movement, her grassroots organization helped make the Civil Rights Movement possible.

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Rosa Parks helped to launch the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. Georgia Gilmore was instrumental in helping sustain this movement for 13 months until the Supreme Court handed down the ruling that segregation of public buses is unconstitutional.

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Addie Wyatt was one of our country's most notable labor union leaders, a pioneer in the civil rights movement, and an influential force in the women's equality movement.

Addie Wyatt was born into poverty in Mississippi, and moved to Chicago, Illinois with her family during the depression. She was the oldest of eight children, she took care of her younger siblings while her mother worked. Wyatt credits her mother for teaching her empathy and instilling a sense of responsibility to others. She married her high school sweetheart, and in 1941 went to work in a meatpacking plant and transform history.

Initially, Wyatt applied for a job as a typist for Armour and Company, but she was placed on the canning line because the company didn't hire black people to work in the front office. In the early 50's She joined the United Packinghouse Workers of America and quickly became a forefront leader of black women within the unions. In 1953 Wyatt was elected Vice President of her branch, Local 53, the first black woman to hold senior office in an American labor union. By 1956, Wyatt was the Program Coordinator for District One of the UPWA. Wyatt's contributions helped unions become more progressive, and helped redefine women's roles within the labor movement.

In the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Addie Wyatt was a leader and force to be reckoned with. Wyatt was ordained as a minister in 1955, she and her husband founded a church in Chicago. From 1956 to 1968, she joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in major civil rights marches, including the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and grassroots efforts in Chicago.

Rev. Wyatt's work had a profound influence on Women's Equality Rights Movement. Eleanor Roosevelt recognized her leadership abilities and appointed her to a position on the Labor Legislation Committee of the United States Commission on the Status of Women. In 1974, Rev. Wyatt was one of the founders of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the country's only national organization for union women. She is also a founding member of the National Organization of Women (NOW).

In 1975, Time magazine named Rev. Wyatt one of its 12 women of the year and the first African-American woman to be so honored by the publication. In 1976, she became the International Vice President of the United Food and Commercial Workers, making her the first African-American woman to lead an international union.

Rev. Wyatt dedicated her life to protect and enhance the rights of women in and out of the workplace. She fought as a laborer, she fought as a black person, and she fought as a female. On the anniversary of her death, March 28th, we celebrate the life of this fighter.

Links To Learn:
Veteran Feminists of America Pioneer Histories: Rev. Addie Wyatts

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Addie Wyatt was one of our country's most notable labor union leaders, a pioneer in the civil rights movement, and an influential force in the women's equality movement. Addie Wyatt was born into poverty in Mississippi, and moved to Chicago, Illinois with her family during the depression.

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Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) was a civil rights activist and educator. She was instrumental in founding nearly 900 citizenship schools, which ultimately helped over 50,000 African-Americans register to vote. She is known as, "The Mother of the Movement" for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.

Clark was a teacher and fierce advocate for literacy, education, and social progress. As a school teacher, she protested and won the right for African-Americans to teach in public schools in South Carolina. Clark worked with Martin Luther King Jr., the NAACP, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference throughout her lifetime to improve the rights of African-American people.

She developed the Citizenship School model which held literacy classes and citizen workshops that helped enable African-Americans to register and vote. She taught some of the most influential activists, including Rosa Parks, and Fannie Lou Hamer. She was a catalyst for change in the United States by empowering Black communities and helping African-American's gain the right to vote.

Clark embraced chaos, fought ignorance, and sought to empower people through literacy. Today we honor her vital contributions to America, She Made History.

-Septima Clark

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Her Story: Septima Clark · She Made History

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Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) was a civil rights activist and educator. She was instrumental in founding nearly 900 citizenship schools, which ultimately helped over 50,000 African-Americans register to vote. She is known as, "The Mother of the Movement" for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.

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You searched for civil rights · She Made History

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Read Amazing Young People: Claudette Colvin on Epic

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Read Amazing Young People: Claudette Colvin on Epic

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Little Rock Nine - Definition, Names & Facts

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The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine Black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in pub…

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Independent Lens
Clip: Season 13 Episode 13 | 1m 2s

Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional, and largely forgotten heroine of the civil rights movement who led the charge to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.

Aired: 02/02/12

Rating: TV-PG

The full episode is no longer available for online streaming. Why?

Please continue to enjoy extra(s) from this episode. The full episode is still available for purchase through the "Buy Now" links.

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Independent Lens | Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Hero Who Put Her Life on the Line | Season 13 | Episode 13

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Independent Lens Clip: Season 13 Episode 13 | 1m 2s Daisy Bates was a complex, unconventional, and largely forgotten heroine of the civil rights movement who led the charge to desegregate the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Aired: 02/02/12 Rating: TV-PG The full episode is no longer available for online streaming.

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In 1959 Nash began attending the workshops on nonviolence that were being led by James Lawson. She also became a leader of the Student Central Committee. The following year she and other activists, including John Lewis, staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville. At the sit-ins, African Americans would sit down at a lunch counter and refuse to leave until they were served or forced to leave. The protesters were peaceful, but they were often treated roughly. The sit-ins gained much attention for the movement, and many people stopped going to the segregated businesses. Nash pushed the city's mayor, Ben West, to publicly recommend that lunch counters should be desegregated. She served on the biracial committee he established to study the issue.

In 1960 Nash attended the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and eventually worked for the organization full-time. In 1961, in the face of grave danger, she led Freedom Rides through the South. On the Freedom Rides Black and white people rode buses to protest segregation. Nash was arrested dozens of times and even served time in jail while pregnant. Along with Lewis, Nash advocated the "jail, no bail" policy. This meant that people should serve time in jail and not pay their way out. The policy brought more attention to the cause.

Nash married fellow student activist James Bevel in 1961. She later joined him on the staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 1965 Nash and Bevel were awarded the SCLC's highest honor, the Rosa Parks Award. The award honored their involvement in the 1963 March on Washington and other campaigns.

Nash continued to be involved in causes for social justice (fairness for all people). She participated in Vietnam War protests and worked for feminist causes. She later moved back to Chicago and worked as an educator, lecturer, and fair housing advocate.

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In 1959 Nash began attending the workshops on nonviolence that were being led by James Lawson. She also became a leader of the Student Central Committee. The following year she and other activists, including John Lewis, staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville.

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Read Ruby Bridges and the Desegregation of American Schools on Epic

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Author - Tom Head, Duchess Harris

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In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first black student to attend the previously all-white school.

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Read Ruby Bridges and the Desegregation of American Schools on Epic

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Author - Tom Head, Duchess Harris Create an Epic account to start reading! In 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first black student to attend the previously all-white school. Read this Book on Epic!

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Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist. She is known for being the first black child to attend an all- white elementary school in the South. She went to William Frantz Elementary School.

Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, to Abon and Lucille Bridges. When she was 4 years old, the family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960, when she was 6 years old, her parents allowed her to participate in the integration of the New Orleans school system.

Integration

In a 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court made Racial segregation against the law. Ruby was chosen to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School. The school board said that black children could attend the first grade if they passed a test. Bridges passed the test. On her first day of school, four U.S. Marshals had to go with her to school. Angry crowds of parents shouted threats at her. For the next six months, the marshals took her to and from her school. People tried to hurt her family. Her father lost his job and her grandparents were thrown off their farm in Georgia. Ruby never missed a day of school that year. The story of her going to a white school is the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting called The Problem We All Live With.

Ruby finished elementary school and graduated from high school. Bridges went on to become a travel agent for American Express. Mrs. Ruby Bridges Hall is married and has four sons. In 1999, she wrote a children's book, "Through My Eyes," telling her story. The same year she started the Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote "the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences." She travels and talks to children all over the country.

On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Ruby Bridges the Presidential Citizens Medal. She was one of 28 to receive the medal that day.

Interesting Facts About Ruby Bridges

Ruby enjoyed jumping rope, climbing trees, and playing softball when she was young.

On November 14, her first day at William Frantz Elementary School, she was the only student there.

Barbara Henry was the only teacher who agreed to teach Ruby. She began teaching Ruby on her second day of school.

Ruby's courageous story can be read to children from the book The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles.

Ruby was one of only six children who passed the entrance test, which was designed to be difficult.

Ruby Bridges quotes

"Don't follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail. When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you!"

"I now know that experience comes to us for a purpose, and if we follow the guidance of the spirit within us, we will probably find that the purpose is a good one."

"Racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it."

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Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist. She is known for being the first black child to attend an all- white elementary school in the South. She went to William Frantz Elementary School. Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi, to Abon and Lucille Bridges.

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The Jim Crow laws were a number of laws requiring racial segregation in the United States. These laws were enforced in different states between 1876 and 1965. "Jim Crow" laws provided a systematic legal basis for segregating and discriminating against African Americans. The laws first appeared after the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era and were enforced through the mid-twentieth century.

They were about segregating black and white people in all public buildings. "Jim Crow" was a racist term for a black person. Black people were usually treated worse than white people. This segregation was also done in the armed forces, schools, restaurants, on buses and in what jobs blacks got.

In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that such segregation in state-run schools was against the US Constitution. The decision is known as Brown v. Board of Education. The other Jim Crow laws were abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) fought against the Jim Crow laws.

Background

After the Civil War, the U.S. government tried to enforce the rights of ex-slaves in the South through a process called Reconstruction. However, in 1876, Reconstruction ended. By the 1890s, the Southern states' legislatures were all-white again. Southern Democrats, who did not support civil rights for blacks, completely ruled the South. This gave them a lot of power in the United States Congress. For example, Southern Democrats were able to make sure that laws against lynching did not pass.

Starting in 1890, Southern Democrats began to pass state laws that took away the rights African Americans had gained. These racist laws became known as Jim Crow laws. For example, they included:

Laws that made it impossible for blacks to vote (this is called disenfranchisement). Since they could not vote, blacks also could not be on juries.

Laws that required racial segregation - separation of blacks and whites. For example, blacks could not:

Go to the same schools, restaurants, or hospitals as whites

Use the same bathrooms as whites or drink from the same water fountains

Sit in front of whites on buses

In 1896, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a case called Plessy v. Ferguson that these laws were legal. They said that having things be " separate but equal" was fine. In the South, everything was separate. However, places like black schools and libraries got much less money and were not as good as places for whites. Things were separate, but not equal.

Images for kids

Freedmen voting in New Orleans, 1867

1904 caricature of "White" and "Jim Crow" rail cars by John T. McCutcheon. Despite Jim Crow's legal pretense that the races be "separate but equal" under the law, non-whites were given inferior facilities and treatment.

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The Jim Crow laws were a number of laws requiring racial segregation in the United States. These laws were enforced in different states between 1876 and 1965. "Jim Crow" laws provided a systematic legal basis for segregating and discriminating against African Americans.

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James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government (an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement). Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans.

In 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi; he wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He did not want major civil rights organizations involved. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While Meredith was recovering, more people from across the country became involved as marchers. He rejoined the march and when Meredith and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, they were leading an estimated 15,000 marchers, in what was the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. During the march, more than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote, and it was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration.

In 2002 and again in 2012, the University of Mississippi led year-long series of events to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Meredith's integration of the institution. He was among numerous speakers invited to the campus, where a statue of him commemorates his role. The Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the center of the campus has been designated as a National Historic Landmark for these events.

Early life and education

Meredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the son of Roxie (Patterson) and Moses Meredith. He is of African-American, English Canadian, Scots and Choctaw heritage. His family nickname was "J-Boy". European traders intermarried with some Choctaw during the colonial period. In the 1830s, thousands of Choctaw chose to stay in Mississippi and become United States citizens when most of the tribe left their traditional homeland for Indian Territory during the federally imposed removal. Those in the state had unions with European Americans and African Americans (some of whom were enslaved), adding to the multi-racial population in the developing territory.

Meredith completed 11th grade at Attala County Training School (which was segregated as "white" and "colored" under the state's Jim Crow laws) and completed 12th grade at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. He graduated from high school in 1951. Then, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.

Afterward Meredith attended Jackson State University for two years, achieving good grades.

University of Mississippi

Challenge to the University

In 1961, inspired the day before by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Meredith started to apply to the University of Mississippi, intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university. It still admitted only white students under the state's culture of racial segregation, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, as they are supported by all the taxpayers.

Meredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. He said,

Nobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility... I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi.

He was twice denied admission. During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, who was head of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP).

On May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The case went through many hearings, after which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported the ruling of the appeals court.

On September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith. The Democratic Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor". The state legislature quickly created a plan. They passed a law that denied admission to any person "who has a crime of moral turpitude against him" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The same day it became law, Meredith was accused and convicted of "false voter registration," in absentia, in Jackson County. The conviction against Meredith was trumped up: Meredith both owned land in northern Mississippi and was registered to vote in Jackson, where he lived. "Later the clerk testified that Meredith was qualified to register and vote in Jackson [where he was registered]." On September 20, the federal government obtained an injunction against enforcement of this Act and of the two state court decrees that had barred Meredith's registration. That day Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him. On September 28, the Court of Appeals, en banc and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be arrested and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2. On September 29, Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. (elected Governor on November 5, 1963) was also found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1. Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face.

Barnett committed to maintain civil order. Robert Kennedy ordered 127 U.S. Marshals as well as 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration. On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to "cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith", citing his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 332, § 333, and § 334 to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.

Rioting at the University

On the evening of September 29, the day after State Senator George Yarbrough withdrew the State Highway Police, a riot broke out. Whites opposing integration had been gathering at the campus and began fighting with federal agents. Despite the Kennedy administration's reluctance to use force, it ordered the nationalized Mississippi National Guard and federal troops to the campus. In the violent clashes which followed, two civilians were killed by gunshot wounds, and white rioters burned cars, pelted federal agents and soldiers with rocks, bricks and small arms fire, and damaged university property.

Enrollment

The day after the riots, on October 1, 1962, after federal and state forces took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States.

Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus, but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table. He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science.

Education and activism

Meredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B ( law degree) in 1968.

In 1966, Meredith organized and led a solo, personal March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, beginning on June 6, 1966. Inviting only black men to join him, he wanted to highlight continuing racial oppression in the Mississippi Delta, as well as to encourage blacks to register and vote following passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight and enforcement of rights. Governor Paul Johnson promised to allow the march and provide State Highway Police protection. Meredith wanted blacks in Mississippi to overcome fear of violence.

Despite police, on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined, and who pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital. Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, but succeeded in attracting more than 10,000 marchers from local towns and across the country by the end.

Meredith recovered from his wounds and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, when 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again. Black voters in Mississippi have established a high rate of voter registration and voting participation.

Political career

In 1967, while living and studying in New York, Meredith decided to run as a Republican against incumbent Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a multi-term Democrat, in a special election for the Congressional seat in Harlem. He withdrew from the race and Powell was re-elected. Meredith said later of his campaign, "The Republican Party [of New York] made me an offer: full support in every way, everything." He had full access to top New York Republicans.

After returning to Mississippi to live, in 1972 Meredith ran for the US Senate against Democratic senator James Eastland, who had been the incumbent for 29 years in what had operated as a one-party state. Following provisions of a new state constitution in 1890 that made voter registration extremely difficult, African Americans had been effectively disenfranchised and the Republican Party had been crippled. Meredith conceded that he had little chance of winning unless Governor George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential race and split the white vote.

An active Republican, Meredith served from 1989 to 1991 as a domestic adviser on the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms. Faced with criticism from the civil rights community for working for the avowed segregationist, Meredith said that he had applied to every member of the Senate and House offering his services, and only Helms' office responded. He also wanted a chance to do research at the Library of Congress.

In 2002, officials at the University of Mississippi celebrated the 40th anniversary of Meredith's historic admission and integration of the institution with a year-long series of events. Of the celebration, Meredith said,

It was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God. I want to go down in history, and have a bunch of things named after me, but believe me that ain't it.

He said he had achieved his main goal at the time by getting the federal government to enforce his rights as a citizen. He saw his actions as "an assault on white supremacy." In 2003, he was far more proud that his son Joseph Meredith graduated as the top doctoral student at the university's graduate business school.

Legacy and honors

In 2002, the University of Mississippi honored the 40th anniversary of Meredith's admission with numerous events.

In 2006, a statue of him was dedicated on campus in his honor.

In 2012, the University commemorated the 50th anniversary of the historic admission, featuring a range of speakers, artists, lectures and events during the year.

That year Meredith received the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Medal for Education Impact' and was the school's convocation speaker. Meredith said it was the first award in 50 years he had accepted.

Cultural depictions

In 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, he was portrayed by Matthew G. Brown in episode five of the series, Life Sentences.

Political viewpoint

A highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind."

Meredith was a supporter of the unsuccessful 1967 gubernatorial bid of ex- Mississippi Governor (and avowed segregationist) Ross Barnett, as well as the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of Louisiana State Representative and ex- Klansman David Duke.

In a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith said of his efforts to integrate Ole Miss, "I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government-the Kennedy administration at that time-into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen."

Personal life

On March 14, 1956, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins. She later worked as a high school English teacher. They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. Mary June Meredith died of heart failure in December 1979.

In 1982, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana. She had one son, Kip Naylor, from a previous marriage. Jessica Howard Meredith was born to their union. The couple live in Jackson, Mississippi.

In 1966, his memoir, Three Years in Mississippi, was published by the Indiana University Press.

He has self-published several books on politics and society.

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James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government (an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement).

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Martin Luther King Jr. and March on Washington 

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Martin Luther King Jr. and March on Washington 

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Read Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington on Epic

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Learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington, the organizers, the march's purpose, and King's famous speech.

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Read Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington on Epic

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Author - Stephanie Watson Create an Epic account to start reading! Learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington, the organizers, the march's purpose, and King's famous speech. Read this Book on Epic!

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Read Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine on Epic

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Author - Blythe Lawrence, Duchess Harris

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Activist Daisy Bates helped nine black students integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.

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Read Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine on Epic

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Author - Blythe Lawrence, Duchess Harris Create an Epic account to start reading! Activist Daisy Bates helped nine black students integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Read this Book on Epic!

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Learn about the Little Rock Nine: who they were, what they went through to attend a whites-only school, and what they'd go on to accomplish.

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Create an Epic account to start reading! Learn about the Little Rock Nine: who they were, what they went through to attend a whites-only school, and what they'd go on to accomplish. Read this Book on Epic!

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Read Amazing Young People: Ruby Bridges on Epic

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Get to know the life and legacy of Ruby Bridges and her brave role in ending segregation during the Civil Rights Movement.

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Read Amazing Young People: Ruby Bridges on Epic

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Create an Epic account to start reading! Get to know the life and legacy of Ruby Bridges and her brave role in ending segregation during the Civil Rights Movement. Read this Book on Epic!

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Kids learn about the biography of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice who argued the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education for the NAACP.

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When was the last time you sat in a place? Were you in a park? Maybe a restaurant or a movie theater? Perhaps it was a coffee or ice cream shop. Did anyone come over and ask you to leave? We sure hope not! Odds are, you were probably allowed to sit there without issue.

For many people, things weren't always that way. During segregation, places discriminated against people of color. Often, Black Americans weren't allowed in the same restaurants, cafes, or theaters as White people. And if they were, they often had to use a different door. They were also made to sit in separate sections. During the Civil Rights Movement, many people protested against this practice. One way they did so was through sit-ins.

What is a sit-in? It's when protesters seat themselves in a location to . It could be on a street, inside a restaurant, or in front of a government building. They stay seated until their demands are met. Often, they are taken away or arrested instead.

Sit-ins are one of the most successful forms of nonviolent . They stop the normal flow of business. That helps sit-ins draw to the protesters' cause. If they are arrested, this has the further effect of creating for protesters.

During the Civil Rights Movement, sit-ins often took place in segregated areas. Black Americans sitting in "White only" areas helped change racist practices. Sit-ins played a part in pushing for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The history of sit-ins dates back farther than the 1960s, though.

Experts note that sit-ins took place as early as the late-1930s. For example, a Black attorney named Samuel Wilbert Tucker led a sit-in in 1939. It took place at a segregated library in Alexandria, Virginia.

One of the most famous sit-ins was on February 1, 1960. It was at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Everyone was free to shop at the Woolworth's department store, but the lunch counter was for "Whites only."

On that day, four Black college students took seats at the Woolworth's lunch counter. They asked for coffee and were refused service. Instead of leaving, they sat patiently and waited. They continued to sit quietly from customers and other people in the store.

Eventually, their peaceful drew the of many people in the area. They stayed until the store closed for the day. They showed up again the next day, and even more people joined their cause. They continued their sit-in for multiple days.

The Greensboro sit-in spurred a wave of similar sit-ins in other cities across the South. The largest of the sit-ins to follow in Nashville, Tennessee. The Greensboro sit-in caught the eyes of the entire nation.

Can you imagine what it would be like to take part in a sit-in? It takes a lot of courage to continue sitting angry . Without brave people taking part in sit-ins, change may have come at an even slower pace.

C3.D2.Civ.12, C3.D2.Civ.14, C3.D2.His.2, CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.2, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.W.4, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2

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When was the last time you sat in a place? Were you in a park? Maybe a restaurant or a movie theater? Perhaps it was a coffee or ice cream shop. Did anyone come over and ask you to leave? We sure hope not! Odds are, you were probably allowed to sit there without issue.