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Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement

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Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement

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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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The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a major event in the Civil Rights Movement. It occurred in Montgomery, Alabama where the city buses were segregated. Black passengers were required by law to ride in the back of the bus. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give her bus seat to a white person. She was arrested and sent to jail. In protest about 40,000 black people boycotted the Montgomery city buses, refusing to ride. The boycott lasted 381 days. On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision to desegregate the buses. In response the city of Montgomery passed a law allowing black passengers to sit anywhere on the buses. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956. Many important people in the civil rights movement took part in the boycott. This included Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy.

Under the system of segregation used on Montgomery buses, the ten front seats were reserved for white people at all times. The ten back seats were supposed to be reserved for black people at all times. The middle section of the bus consisted of sixteen unreserved seats for white and black people on a segregated basis. White people filled the middle seats from the front to back, and black people filled seats from the back to front until the bus was full. If other black people boarded the bus, they were required to stand. If another white person boarded the bus, then everyone in the black row nearest the front had to get up and stand so that a new row for white people could be created; it was illegal for white and black people to sit next to each other. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person, she was sitting in the first row of the middle section.

Often when boarding the buses, black people were required to pay at the front, get off, and reenter the bus through a separate door at the back. Occasionally, bus drivers would drive away before black passengers were able to reboard. National City Lines owned the Montgomery Bus Line at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott. Under the leadership of Walter Reuther, the United Auto Workers donated almost $5,000 (equivalent to $51,000 in 2022) to the boycott's organizing committee.

Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005) was a seamstress by profession; she was also the secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. Twelve years before her history-making arrest, Parks was stopped from boarding a city bus by driver James F. Blake, who ordered her to board at the rear door and then drove off without her. Parks vowed never again to ride a bus driven by Blake.

In 1955, Parks completed a course in "Race Relations" at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, where nonviolent civil disobedience had been discussed as a tactic. On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting in the foremost row in which black people could sit (in the middle section). When a white man boarded the bus, the bus driver told everyone in her row to move back. At that moment, Parks realized that she was again on a bus driven by Blake. While all of the other black people in her row complied, Parks refused, and she was arrested for failing to obey the driver's seat assignments, as city ordinances did not explicitly mandate segregation but did give the bus driver authority to assign seats. Found guilty on December 5, Parks was fined $10 plus a court cost of $4 (combined total equivalent to $142 in 2022), and she appealed.

Some action against segregation had been in the works for some time before Parks' arrest, under the leadership of E. D. Nixon, president of the local NAACP chapter and a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Nixon intended that her arrest be a test case to allow Montgomery's black citizens to challenge segregation on the city's public buses. With this goal, community leaders had been waiting for the right person to be arrested, a person who would anger the black community into action, who would agree to test the segregation laws in court, and who, most importantly, was "above reproach". When Colvin was arrested in March 1955, Nixon thought he had found the perfect person, but the teenager turned out to be pregnant. Nixon later explained, "I had to be sure that I had somebody I could win with." Parks was a good candidate because of her employment and marital status, along with her good standing in the community.

Between Parks' arrest and trial, Nixon organized a meeting of local ministers at Martin Luther King Jr.'s church. Though Nixon could not attend the meeting because of his work schedule, he arranged that no election of a leader for the proposed boycott would take place until his return. When he returned, he caucused with Ralph Abernathy and Rev. E.N. French to name the association to lead the boycott to the city (they selected the " Montgomery Improvement Association", "MIA"), and they selected King (Nixon's choice) to lead the boycott. Nixon wanted King to lead the boycott because the young minister was new to Montgomery and the city fathers had not had time to intimidate him. At a subsequent, larger meeting of ministers, Nixon's agenda was threatened by the clergymen's reluctance to support the campaign. Nixon was indignant, pointing out that their poor congregations worked to put money into the collection plates so these ministers could live well, and when those congregations needed the clergy to stand up for them, those comfortable ministers refused to do so. Nixon threatened to reveal the ministers' cowardice to the black community, and King spoke up, denying he was afraid to support the boycott. King agreed to lead the MIA, and Nixon was elected its treasurer.

On the night of Rosa Parks' arrest, the Women's Political Council, led by Jo Ann Robinson, printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery's black community that read as follows:

Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday.

The next morning there was a meeting led by the new Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) head, King, where a group of 16 to 18 people gathered at the Mt. Zion Church to discuss boycott strategies. At that time Rosa Parks was introduced but not asked to speak, despite a standing ovation and calls from the crowd for her to speak; she asked someone if she should say something, but they replied, "Why, you've said enough." A citywide boycott of public transit was proposed, with three demands: 1) courteous treatment by bus operators, 2) passengers seated on a first-come, first-served basis, with black people seated in the back half and white people seated in the front half, and 3) black people would be employed as bus operators on routes predominately taken by black people.

This demand was a compromise for the leaders of the boycott, who believed that the city of Montgomery would be more likely to accept it rather than a demand for full integration of the buses. In this respect, the MIA leaders followed the pattern of 1950s boycott campaigns in the Deep South, including the successful boycott a few years earlier of service stations in Mississippi for refusing to provide restrooms for Black people.

The MIA's demand for a fixed dividing line was to be supplemented by a requirement that all bus passengers receive courteous treatment by bus operators, be seated on a first-come, first-served basis, and that Black people be employed as bus drivers. The proposal was passed, and the boycott was to commence the following Monday. To publicize the impending boycott it was advertised at black churches throughout Montgomery the following Sunday.

On Saturday, December 3, it was evident that the black community would support the boycott, and very few Black people rode the buses that day. On December 5, a mass meeting was held at the Holt Street Baptist Church to determine if the protest would continue. Given twenty minutes notice, King gave a speech asking for a bus boycott and attendees enthusiastically agreed. Starting December 7, J Edgar Hoover's FBI noted the "agitation among negroes" and tried to find "derogatory information" about King.

The boycott proved extremely effective, with enough riders lost to the city transit system to cause serious economic distress. Martin Luther King later wrote, "[a] miracle had taken place." Instead of riding buses, boycotters organized a system of carpools, with car owners volunteering their vehicles or themselves driving people to various destinations. Some white housewives also drove their black domestic servants to work. When the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in the carpools, the boycott leaders arranged policies at Lloyd's of London.

Black taxi drivers charged ten cents per ride, a fare equal to the cost to ride the bus, in support of the boycott. When word of this reached city officials on December 8, the order went out to fine any cab driver who charged a rider less than 45 cents. In addition to using private motor vehicles, some people used non-motorized means to get around, such as cycling, walking, or even riding mules or driving horse-drawn buggies. Some people also hitchhiked. During rush hours, sidewalks were often crowded. As the buses received few, if any, passengers, their officials asked the City Commission to allow stopping service to black communities. Across the nation, black churches raised money to support the boycott and collected new and slightly used shoes to replace the tattered footwear of Montgomery's black citizens, many of whom walked everywhere rather than ride the buses and submit to Jim Crow laws.

In response, opposing whites swelled the ranks of the White Citizens' Council, the membership of which doubled during the course of the boycott. The councils sometimes resorted to violence: King's and Abernathy's houses were firebombed, as were four black Baptist churches. Boycotters were often physically attacked. After the attack at King's house, he gave a speech to the 300 angry African Americans who had gathered outside. He said:

If you have weapons, take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: "He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword". We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries: "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you". This is what we must live by. We must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this movement will not stop, because God is with the movement. Go home with this glowing faith and this radiant assurance.

King and 88 other boycott leaders and carpool drivers were indicted for conspiring to interfere with a business under a 1921 ordinance. Rather than wait to be arrested, they turned themselves in as an act of defiance.

King was ordered to pay a $500 fine or serve 386 days in jail. He ended up spending two weeks in jail. The move backfired by bringing national attention to the protest. King commented on the arrest by saying: "I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice."

Also important during the bus boycott were grassroots activist groups that helped to catalyze both fund-raising and morale. Groups such as the Club from Nowhere helped to sustain the boycott by finding new ways of raising money and offering support to boycott participants. Many members of these organizations were women and their contributions to the effort have been described by some as essential to the success of the bus boycott.

Pressure increased across the country. The related civil suit was heard in federal district court and, on June 5, 1956, the court ruled in Browder v. Gayle (1956) that Alabama's racial segregation laws for buses were unconstitutional. As the state appealed the decision, the boycott continued. The case moved on to the United States Supreme Court. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling.

The bus boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956, after 382 days, with Day 1 being December 5, 1955. The Montgomery bus boycott resounded far beyond the desegregation of public buses. It stimulated activism and participation from the South in the national Civil Rights Movement and gave King national attention as a rising leader.

In Spanish: Boicot de autobuses de Montgomery para niños

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Learn Montgomery Bus Boycott facts for kids

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.; January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D. and a pastor, King is sometimes called the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. (abbreviation: the Rev. Dr. King), or just Dr King. He is also known by his initials MLK.

Led by Dr. King and others, many African Americans used nonviolent, peaceful strategies to fight for their civil rights. These strategies included sit-ins, boycotts, and protest marches. Often, they were attacked by white police officers or people who did not want African Americans to have more rights. However, no matter how badly they were attacked, Dr. King and his followers never fought back.

King fought for equal rights from the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 until he was murdered by James Earl Ray in April 1968.

At age 6, King first went through discrimination (being treated worse than a white person because he was black). He was sent to an all-black school, and a white friend was sent to an all-white school.

Once, when he was 14, King won a contest with a speech about civil rights. When he was going back home on a bus, he was forced to give up his seat and stand for the bus ride so a white person could sit down. At the time, white people were seen as more important than black people. If a white person wanted a seat, that person could take the seat from any African American. King later said having to give up his seat made him "the angriest I've ever been in my life."

Civil rights work

Montgomery Bus Boycott

King first started his civil rights activism in 1955. At that time, he led a protest against the way black people were segregated on buses. They had to sit at the back of the bus, separate from white people. He told his supporters, and the people who were against equal rights, that people should only use peaceful ways to solve the problem.

King was arrested for starting a boycott. He was fined $500, plus $500 more in court costs. His house was fire- bombed. Others involved with MIA were also threatened. However, by December 1956, segregation had been ended on Montgomery's buses. People could sit anywhere they wanted on the buses.

March on Washington

In 1963, King helped plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This was the largest protest for human rights in United States history. On August 28, 1963, about 250,000 people marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Then they listened to civil rights leaders speak. King was the last speaker. His speech, called " I Have a Dream," became one of history's most famous civil rights speeches. King talked about his dream that one day, white and black people would be equal.

That same year, the United States government passed the Civil Rights Act. This law made many kinds of discrimination against black people illegal. The March on Washington made it clear to the United States government that they needed to take action on civil rights, and it helped get the Civil Rights Act passed.

Nobel Prize

In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When presenting him with the award, the Chairman of the Nobel Committee said:

Today, now that mankind [has] the atom bomb, the time has come to lay our weapons and armaments aside and listen to the message Martin Luther King has given us[:] "The choice is either nonviolence or nonexistence"....[King] is the first person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence. He is the first to make the message of brotherly love a reality in the course of his struggle, and he has brought this message to all men, to all nations and races.

Voting rights

In 1963 and 1964, civil rights groups in Selma, Alabama had been trying to sign African-American people up to vote, but they had not been able to. At the time, 99% of the people signed up to vote in Selma were white. However, the government workers who signed up voters were all white. They refused to sign up African-Americans. In January 1965, these civil rights groups asked King and the SCLC to help them. Together, they started working on voting rights. However, the next month, an African-American man named Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a police officer during a peaceful march. Jackson died. pp. 121-123 Many African-American people were very angry.

The first march was on March 7, 1965. Police officers, and people they had chosen to help them, attacked the marchers with clubs and tear gas. They threatened to throw the marchers off the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Seventeen marchers had to go to the hospital, and 50 others were also injured. This day came to be called Bloody Sunday. Pictures and film of the marchers being beaten were shown around the world, in newspapers and on television. Seeing these things made more people support the civil rights activists. People came from all over the United States to march with the activists. One of them, James Reeb, was attacked by white people for supporting civil rights. He died on March 11, 1965.

On August 6, 1965, the United States passed the Voting Rights Act. This law made it illegal to stop somebody from voting because of their race.

After this, King continued to fight poverty and the Vietnam War.

Assassination

On April 4, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tennessee. He planned to lead a protest march to support garbage workers who were on strike. At 6:01 pm, King was shot while he was standing on the balcony of his motel room.

King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. His heart had stopped. Doctors there tried to make his heart start pumping again. However, they were unable to save King's life. He died at 7:05 p.m.

King's death led to riots in many cities.

"

[After I die,] I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others.

"

After his death, King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. King and his wife were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

In 2003, the United States Congress passed a law allowing the beginning words of King's "I Have a Dream" speech to be carved into the Lincoln Memorial.

More than 900 streets in the United States have also been named after King. These streets exist in 40 different states; Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico. and many others

In 2011, a memorial statue of King was put up in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

There are also memorials for King around the world. These include:

Interesting facts about Martin Luther King Jr.

He was born in his Grandparents house in Atlanta, Georgia.

He was named "Michael King" when he was born. He decided to change his name as a teenager to Martin Luther King Jr. after his father.

He graduated from high school early and entered college at just 15 years of age in 1944.

He only earned $8,000 a year as a preacher, which is just under $ 60,000 today, so he wasn't wealthy when he died.

In 1964 he was the youngest person (35 years) to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in in the United States.

His favorite foods were fried chicken and pecan pie.

Martin Luther King Jr. would be 92 years old today.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.; January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968) was an American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was best known for improving civil rights by using nonviolent civil disobedience, based on his Christian beliefs. Because he was both a Ph.D.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the leading men involved in the civil rights movement.

He was a Baptist Minister and most well-known for following Mahatma Gandhi's belief of non-violent protest.

King was involved in many of the social and political activist movements from the mid 1950's until the day he was assassinated in 1968.

Martin Luther King Jr. born and raised

He was born in 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia and was from a family that had its roots in the country areas of Georgia; and his father and father-in-law had been ministers in the local church.

He and his father adopted the name of 'Martin Luther' to honor the German protestor that established the Protestant religion.

King's family environment discouraged any prejudice based on race, religion or economic situation.

These lessons would be the founding base for King's beliefs for the rest of his life.

What school did Martin Luther King Jr go to?

By 1944, King attended Moorehouse College an early-admission student at the age of 15 and then Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.

He was considered to be a good student, but rebelled against what he thought was the more conservative religious attitude of his father.

A friend of his father, theologian Reinhold Niebbuhr, became the single individual that had the most influence over King's growing spiritual and intellectual development.

King was accepted by a number of colleges and universities for his doctoral study which included Yale and Scotland's Edinburgh; he chose to go to Boston University.

He graduated when he was 25 years old and became pastor of a Montgomery, Alabama church.

Rosa Parks

December 1, 1955 was the date that Rosa Parks, a Black American woman, refused to give up her seat to a white person and was arrested.

The segregation and prejudice of the time was bad and the local chapter of the NAACP met with King and other community members to arrange a boycott of the bus system.

King was elected to speak to the community and this speech started his career on the road to the many protests against unfair situations.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The success of King's reception and his ability to speak to the people led him and others to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Their purpose was to address unfair practices for the Black American community and other race-related topics. He traveled all over the country preaching reform and especially non-violent protest.

Martin Luther King Arrested

Dr. King encouraged and participated all types of non-violent protest efforts including 'sit-ins' at lunch rooms where the black and whites were separated.

Returning to Atlanta, he took over his father's church, and continued to support civil rights.

He was arrested in 1960 when he and 75 other Black Americans entered a department store and requested service at the lunch counter and were denied due to their race.

They continued to sit until the time they were arrested.

The story was brought to the attention of the then candidate for President, John F. Kennedy, who called King's wife and expressed concern for the treatment.

What happened in Birmingham Alabama 1963?

In 1963 King organized a demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama.

Police turned fire hoses on the demonstrators and the attention for mistreatment became nationwide.

King was arrested along with a number of other people and it was from his jail cell that he announced the nonviolent way to achieve success:

"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."

I Have a Dream Speech

King worked with others to organize a massive 1963 demonstration to Washington, D.C. Over 200,000 people showed up and it was there, at the podium, that Dr. King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech.

Tensions were mounting in cities and towns across the country and it became obvious that change in discrimination had to occur.

Dr. King's actions helped the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize.

What happened on Bloody Sunday in Selma?

While Dr. King always asked for nonviolence and peaceful protest, violence broke out in Selma, Alabama during Civil Rights march.

This horrible situation became known as "Bloody Sunday" and while Dr. King wasn't there, the nation watched as police turned violent against the demonstrators.

By the time a third march was planned, Dr. King knew they couldn't violate the restraining order that had been set in place, so instead, white and black demonstrators marched to the Pettus Bridge where the barricades had been set in place and everyone kneeled in prayer.

They then turned and walked away.

His point had been made at the bridge, without violence, but some of the less patient younger supporters began to shy away from these kinds of tactics. Dr. King made the decision to extend the protests to include the Vietnam War.

The unpopular and politically motivated war was taking American lives and many across the country was in opposition to it.

He added additional positions to address the poor and unemployed.

In 1968, Dr. King was frustrated with the slow movement of civil rights and equality and was attempting to broaden the range of programs that he wanted to address in the hope that it would attract leaders that would take action.

Martin Luther King Assassination

On Thursday, April 4th, 1968, while standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, he was killed by a sniper bullet from James Earl Ray who was a former convict.

King's last words were to musician Ben Branch, "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty."

James Earl Ray was later sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment for the murder of Dr. King.

Facts about Martin Luther King

Born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia

His birth name was Michael, not Martin

He went to Booker T. Washington High School

He started his college education at Morehouse College in 1944

Arrested on Oct 19 1960 at Atlanta sit-in

The civil rights leader went to jail 29 times

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Assassinated On Thursday, April 4th, 1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday held on the third Monday of each January.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the leading men involved in the civil rights movement. He was a Baptist Minister and most well-known for following Mahatma Gandhi's belief of non-violent protest. King was involved in many of the social and political activist movements from the mid 1950's until the day he was assassinated in ...

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Martin Luther King facts | National Geographic Kids

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Learn about the world-famous civil rights campaigner in our Martin Luther King facts. Born in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America, Martin Luther King is famous for campaigning for the rights of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and his assassination in 1968...

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Kids learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s biography. A great civil rights leader.

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What Was "Freedom Summer"? | PBS LearningMedia

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This video from American Experience: "Freedom Summer" introduces the events of 1964, when over 700 students, black and white, came to Mississippi to help black citizens register to vote as well as combat other forms of discrimination, such as inadequate schools and lack of legal aid.

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Kids learn about the biography of Cesar Chavez, civil rights leader who fought for the conditions of migrant farmers and Latinos.

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Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 - April 20, 2010) was an American civil rights and women's rights activist. She worked with issues of African American women. She did unemployment, illiteracy and voter awareness work. She worked for the National Council of Negro Women for forty years. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 and the Congressional Gold Medal ten years after that.

Height was born in Richmond, Virginia. She was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she graduated high school. She died in Washington, D.C. at age 98.

Images for kids

Dorothy Height with Eleanor Roosevelt, 1960

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Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 - April 20, 2010) was an American civil rights and women's rights activist. She worked with issues of African American women. She did unemployment, illiteracy and voter awareness work. She worked for the National Council of Negro Women for forty years.

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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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Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, better known as Daisy Bates, was an American civil rights activist who was a key advocate of the integration of the "Little Rock Nine" in Arkansas. She was also a journalist and newspaper publisher.
See the fact file below for more information on the Daisy Bates or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Daisy Bates worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information

Early Life and Education

Daisy Bates was born on November 11, 1914 in Huttig, Union County, Arkansas.

Her biological parents were Hezakiah Gatson and Millie Riley.

When she was three years old, her mother was sexually assaulted then murdered by three white men.

Upon the murder of her mother, her father left and she never saw him again.

Daisy was adopted by Orlee and Susie Smith.

What happened to her mother left a mark on Daisy, both mentally and emotionally.

It led her to live a life pursuing justice and championing racial equality.

Daisy attended segregated public schools in Huttig, where she gained firsthand experience on the poor facilities and learning conditions experienced by black students.

Arkansas State Press

She married Lucious Christopher Bates who was also a journalist and an insurance agent.

In 1941, they put up the Arkansas State Press, a weekly African-American newspaper that championed civil rights.

As they operated the publishing of the paper, Bates also joined the Civil Rights movement.

In 1952, Daisy Bates was elected president of the Arkansas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Racial Segregation

As NAACP President, Bates was at the forefront in confronting racism and fighting against racial segregation in public schools.

Racial segregation separated the schools of the whites (Americans) from the blacks (African-Americans).

School facilities were also differentiated.

In 1954, racial segregation was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in the lawsuit Brown v. Board of Education.

Despite that federal ruling, black students were still denied entry in "white schools" in Arkansas.

Daisy and Christopher Bates documented this battle in the Arkansas State Press.

They chronicled the violations of the US Supreme Court's ruling in Arkansas public schools.

Little Rock Nine

In 1957, she became the primary agent of helping nine black kids enrol in Little Rock Central High School.

She personally guided the kids who became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Governor Oral Faubus was strongly opposed to school integration and called out the National Guard to prevent the Little Rock Nine from entering.

They faced further opposition in the form of death threats, rallies, and acts of violence.

White Americans gathered to threaten the students and harassed the activists and journalists covering the story.

This battle carried on relentlessly against Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Nine Rock safely to school and to enforce the law upon the public schools.

September 25, 1957, was their first day of school.

Daisy Bates remained the students' guide and supporter throughout their stay in the school, in which they continued to face opposition and discrimination.

She wrote and published a book that documented their fight against segregation, which is entitled The Long Shadow of Little Rock.

More Activist Work

The Arkansas State Press was forced to close in 1959 because of low revenue mainly caused by the involvement of the Bates in the Little Rock battle.

Daisy's involvement in the Little Rock battle was just the start of her contributions in seeking equality for the African-Americans in the South.

Her continuous work and advocacy gained her national recognition.

She then moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the Democratic National Committee.

She also worked with the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson's anti-poverty programs.

In 1965, she suffered a stroke and went back to Little Rock.

In 1968, she moved to Mitchellville, Arkansas and spent much of her time working for community revitalization projects such as programs for concrete streets, sewer systems, a working water system, and a community centre.

After her husband died in 1980, she revived the Arkansas State Press in 1984.

She oversaw the operations of the newspaper from 1984 to 1988 before selling it.

Recognition

She received an honorary degree from the University of Arkansas Fayetteville.

In 1986, her book The Long Shadow of Little Rock was republished by the University of Arkansas Press.

Her book earned an American Book Award.

Death and Legacy

Bates died on November 4, 1999, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In honor of Bates, Little Rock opened the Daisy Bates Elementary School.

Arkansas also proclaimed Daisy Gatson Bates Day an official state holiday on the third Monday in February.

A documentary film Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock, directed and produced by Sharon La Cruise, was released in 2012.

Daisy Bates Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Daisy Bates across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Daisy Bates worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, better known as Daisy Bates, who was an American civil rights activist who was a key advocate of the integration of the "Little Rock Nine" in Arkansas. She was also a journalist and newspaper publisher.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

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Daisy Bates Facts, Worksheets, Biography, Activism & Life For Kids

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Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance.

The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience, originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government".

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi) used non-violent civil disobedience in South Africa in a campaign for civil rights for the people who came from India and lived in South Africa. This campaign was from 1893-1914. When Gandhi returned to India, he used civil disobedience in the campaign for the independence of India in 1930 from the British rule, when India was a British colony.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and young activists in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, during and after the Vietnam War.

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Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. The American author Henry David Thoreau pioneered the modern theory behind this practice in his 1849 essay Civil Disobedience , originally titled "Resistance to Civil Government".

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Civil Disobedience ( Resistance to Civil Government) is a text by Henry David Thoreau. It was first printed in 1849. It says that people should not allow a government to order them to do wrong things.

About "Civil Disobedience"

In 1848, Thoreau lectured at the Concord Lyceum (a place for people to meet and learn in the town of Concord, Massachusetts). The words of the lecture were later printed with the name Resistance to Civil Government in 1849. Now many people call it " Civil Disobedience" which means: "not doing what the government orders you to do."

In the early 1840s Thoreau stopped paying his " poll tax" (a tax that is the same amount for everybody). He was angry that the government used tax money to make people slaves and to war with Mexico. Thoreau did not want to help them do these things. In 1846 the tax agent put Thoreau in prison for one night. Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience to say why he would not pay.

Thoreau says governments are more bad than good, and society without government would be more good. Letting people vote does not make government good, because people may vote for bad things. One person with their conscience (their feeling of right and wrong) may make decisions that are more good than decisions made by governments or by most of the people who vote.

Thoreau says the United States government, because it makes people slaves, cannot be his government. People should end such a government. To end a government is difficult, but because the government is so bad, we must end it anyway.

Most of the people Thoreau was talking to also did not like slavery or the war with Mexico. But Thoreau said they must do more than to dislike these things, or to vote against these things, or to hope these things will end. They must also stop supporting these things by paying taxes. If the government puts you in prison because you do not pay taxes, then it is good to be in prison because, if the government is bad, prison is the right place for good people. If the government attempted to put all good people in prison, the government would end first, and this would be a revolution of peace.

It is easier to be brave if you have less that the government can take from you. So Thoreau suggests that people own less, and that they value what is good and not value property only.

Some people who liked "Civil Disobedience"

Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi (or Mahatma Gandhi) liked what Thoreau wrote. In 1907, when Gandhi was starting his first satyagraha fight in South Africa, he printed a short outline of Civil Disobedience that he wrote in an Indian language. He said that Civil Disobedience was the largest cause for the end of slavery in America, and that Indians in South Africa should learn from that example.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also liked what Thoreau wrote. In his autobiography, he wrote that Thoreau taught him that it is as important not to help bad people as it is to help good people. He said that Thoreau's lessons "came alive" in the civil rights movement.

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Civil Disobedience (Thoreau) Facts for Kids

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Civil Disobedience ( Resistance to Civil Government) is a text by Henry David Thoreau. It was first printed in 1849. It says that people should not allow a government to order them to do wrong things. In 1848, Thoreau lectured at the Concord Lyceum (a place for people to meet and learn in the town of Concord, Massachusetts).

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Kids learn about the biography of Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to attend an all white elementary school in the South.

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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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EEOC Facts - 2: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. Title VII, regarding Discrimination by Private Employers, established the federal agency known as the EEOC.

Facts about the EEOC for kids The following fact sheet continues with facts about EEOC.

The EEOC Facts - 17: 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was passed prohibiting employment discrimination by the private sector, state and local governments on the basis of disability.

EEOC - President Lyndon Johnson Video
The article on the EEOC provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following Lyndon Johnson video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 36th American President whose presidency spanned from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969.

● Interesting Facts about EEOC for kids and schools
● Summary of the EEOC in US history
● The EEOC, a major event in US history
● Lyndon Johnson from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969
● Fast, fun facts about the EEOC
● Foreign & Domestic policies of President Lyndon Johnson
● Lyndon Johnson Presidency and EEOC for schools, homework, kids and children

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EEOC Facts - 2: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. Title VII, regarding Discrimination by Private Employers, established the federal agency known as the EEOC. Facts about the EEOC for kids The following fact sheet continues with facts about EEOC.

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Brown v. Board of Education

Argued December 9-11, 1952
Reargued December 7-9, 1953
Decided May 17, 1954

Full case name
Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al.

Citations

347 U.S. 483 ( more)

Subsequent history

Parties were ordered to return to determine how the ruling should be applied in Brown II, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)

Holding

Separate but equal educational facilities for racial minorities is inherently unequal, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Court membership

Case opinions

Majority

Warren, joined by all other Justices

Laws applied

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) (in part)

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (full name Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas) was a Landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1950 in Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grade girl named Linda Brown had to walk more than a mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her segregated school for black children. However, there was an elementary school for white children less than seven blocks away. At that time, many schools in the United States were segregated. Black children and white children were not allowed to go to the same schools.

Her father, Oliver Brown, tried to get Linda into the white school, but the principal of the school refused. The two schools were supposed to be " separate but equal." However, they were not.

In 1951, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) helped the parents file a class action lawsuit. There were five lawsuits in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and the district of Colombia about having black students going to legally segregated schools. In 1896, the Supreme Court had ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that segregation was legal, as long as separate places for blacks and whites were "separate but equal." The NAACP's lawyers argued that the white and black schools in Topeka were not "separate but equal."

Kenneth Clark is a Psychologist that gave young African American children black and white dolls to see how they felt about segregation and integration. The children liked the white dolls. After the doll test Clark also gave the black children drawings of a kid and asked them to color it like themselves, some of those kids colored themselves white or yellow crayon which they also used in the case.

The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court. After years of work, in 1954, Thurgood Marshall and a team of other NAACP lawyers won the case. It was named "Brown" because she was alphabetically the first name on the list of plaintiffs. After the lawsuit many of the plaintiffs lost their jobs and respect in society.

The Supreme Court has nine justices. The vote on Brown v. Board of Education was unanimous, meaning that all nine justices voted the same way. One of the judges, Robert Jackson, had recently had a heart attack and was not supposed to come back to court until the next month. However, he came to the court when the judges read their decision, possibly to show that every one of the judges agreed.

The ruling in the case was written by Earl Warren, who was Chief Justice. He said "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This decision made the racial segregation of schools against the law in every US state.

Some states did not obey this court decision at first. The supreme Court ruled the schools had up to 5 years to desegregate. It was not until the early 1970s that all United States public schools were integrated (the opposite of segregated). Integrating America's schools required many state and Supreme Court decisions to force schools to integrate.

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Brown v. Board of Education Facts for Kids

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Brown v. Board of Education Argued December 9-11, 1952 Reargued December 7-9, 1953 Decided May 17, 1954 Full case name Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al. Citations 347 U.S. 483 ( more) Subsequent history Parties were ordered to return to determine how the ruling should be applied in Brown II, 349 U.S.

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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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The March on Washington was a political demonstration held in Washington, D.C., in 1963. Its official name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Civil rights leaders organized more than 200,000 people to protest discrimination against African Americans. They also marched to show support for major civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress.

On August 28, 1963, people of different races gathered peaceably by the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal...

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The March on Washington was a political demonstration held in Washington, D.C., in 1963. Its official name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Civil rights leaders organized more than 200,000 people to protest discrimination against African Americans.

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sit-in movement, nonviolent movement of the U.S. civil rights era that began in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. The sit-in, an act of civil disobedience, was a tactic that aroused sympathy for the demonstrators among moderates and uninvolved individuals. African Americans (later joined by white activists), usually students, would go to segregated lunch counters (luncheonettes), sit in all available spaces, request service, and then refuse to leave when denied service because of their race. In addition to creating disruptions and drawing unwanted publicity, the action caused economic hardship for the owners of the businesses, because the sit-in participants took up spaces that normally were filled by paying customers. Although the first lunch-counter sit-in began with just four participants, the attention paid to the protest created a movement that spread across the South in 1960 and 1961 to include 70,000 Black and white participants. It affected 20 states and resulted in the desegregation of many local businesses in those communities.

Origins of the sit-in movement

During the Indian struggle for independence from the British, followers of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's teaching employed the sit-in to great advantage. A tactic similar to the sit-in, the sit-down strike, has been used by unions to occupy plants of companies that they were on strike against. The sit-down was first used on a large scale in the United States during the United Automobile Workers' strike against the General Motors Corporation in 1937. An early antisegregation sit-in was staged by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) at a Chicago coffee shop in 1942, and similar actions took place around the South.

The lunch-counter sit-in that began the movement, however, took place in Greensboro, North Carolina, on the afternoon of February 1, 1960. Four freshmen from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (North Carolina A&T; now North Carolina A&T State University), a historically Black college, made some purchases at the local F.W. Woolworth department store. They then sat down at the "whites only" lunch counter and placed an order but were refused service. They remained seated and were eventually asked to leave the premises; instead, they stayed until closing and returned the next day with more than a dozen other students. One of the students, David Richmond, acknowledged later that the action began "on impulse"-though the group, who were familiar with Gandhi's nonviolent protests against the British, had previously discussed taking action against Jim Crow laws-and that the students were surprised at the impact their local initiative had on the entire civil rights movement.

Interest in participating in the sit-in spread quickly among the students of North Carolina A&T. The large supply of local students increased the effectiveness of the tactic; as demonstrators were arrested by local law enforcement and removed from the counter, others would take their place. Soon, as word about the Greensboro movement spread across the upper South, African American students from other historically Black campuses began their own protests. In places such as Salisbury, North Carolina; San Antonio, Texas; and Chattanooga, Tennessee, local officials and business owners agreed to desegregate facilities after local sit-in movements took hold. The Woolworth in Greensboro was desegregated in July 1960.

The sit-in movement destroyed a number of myths and stereotypes about Southern Blacks that white segregationists had commonly used to support the Jim Crow system. For example, with widespread and spontaneous demonstrations across the South, it became clear to observers that Southern Blacks were not content with Jim Crow segregation. The grassroots nature of the protest, arising locally from local Black populations, also crushed the myth that all civil rights agitation came from outside the South. Moreover, the nonviolent and courteous behaviour of the Black sit-in protesters played well on local and national television and showed them to be responsible people. The cruelty of the segregated system was further exposed when local ruffians attempted to break up the sit-ins with verbal abuse, assault, and violence. The local people who cooperated in sit-ins provided a community of Black citizens willing to agitate for change and to suffer violence for a greater cause.

Growth of the sit-in movement

As the movement grew and more students, both Black and white, became involved, civil rights organizations such as CORE and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized training sessions in nonviolence for participants. Expecting violence from whites, arrest, and abuse, CORE held workshops to instruct the students in the tactics and ideas of nonviolence so as to increase the power and scope of the movement.

Key to the success of the sit-in movement was the moral high ground that the participants took. Their peaceful demonstrations for basic legal rights and respect increased favourable public opinion of their cause. Facing violence with nonviolent resistance required that the students take no action against white aggressors and police who physically harassed and assaulted them and arrested them on spurious charges. Student participants came to understand the higher moral purpose of their own movement, and they practiced those principles in hundreds of small encounters across the upper and middle South.

Knowledge of the sit-in movements spread rapidly across the South as the local nonviolent action took on a regional character. By the end of February 1960, lunch-counter sit-ins had occurred in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, and Florida. They spread in March to Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia and later to West Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri.

At nearly every historically Black college, students organized and met with local officials from CORE and SCLC in workshops and conferences on nonviolence. Those meetings often brought together hundreds of students from communities in several states, who then began to form coordinated efforts at civil rights action. The creation of such communities of students led to greater coordination in the civil rights movement as the sit-ins phased out.

In April 1960 Ella Baker, former executive director of the SCLC, organized a student leadership conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, that resulted in the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Baker had long been active as a local leader in the civil rights movement, but she gained a new prominence with the student-led sit-in movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke at the conference, emphasizing his philosophy of nonviolence. Demonstrating through nonviolence would force federal intervention, he argued, yet would permit the ultimate reconciliation between the races after the scourge of segregation had passed away.

In an article published shortly after the conference, Baker crystallized the message of the students when she stated that those who participated in sit-ins were concerned with something "bigger than a hamburger." She encapsulated their goals by quoting a student newsletter of the historically Black Barber-Scotia College (Concord, North Carolina):

We want the world to know that we no longer accept the inferior position of second-class citizenship. We are willing to go to jail, be ridiculed, spat upon, and even suffer physical violence to obtain First Class Citizenship.

Although the sit-in movement demonstrated success, the participants at the Raleigh conference clashed about the proper strategies for the civil rights movement. Activist and minister James Lawson argued that the legal strategy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was too slow to effect the major social change needed to bring about justice. CORE and SCLC had assisted in the sit-in movement, but mostly after the fact, and Lawson saw the need for an organization focused on developing local leaders in local communities that could operate outside the mainstream organizations.

SNCC was formed with Lawson's advice serving as its founding principles. It began working to organize students and local Black communities to advance the civil rights movement, often in tandem but sometimes at odds with the other civil rights movements and leaders.

The legacy of the sit-in movement

The sit-in movement produced a new sense of pride and power for African Americans. By rising up on their own and achieving substantial success protesting against segregation in the society in which they lived, Blacks realized that they could change their communities with local coordinated action. For many white Southerners, the sit-in movement demonstrated Blacks' dissatisfaction with the status quo and showed that economic harm could come to white-owned businesses unless they desegregated peacefully. The sit-in movement proved the inevitability of the end of the Jim Crow system. Most of the success in actual desegregation came in the upper Southern states, such as in cities in Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, and Tennessee. On the other hand, no cities in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, or South Carolina desegregated as a result of the sit-in movement.

The sit-in movement marked the first major effort by thousands of local Blacks in civil rights activism. However, the sit-ins failed to create the kind of national attention necessary for any federal intervention. Although SNCC did develop out of the sit-in movement, becoming a permanent organization separate from CORE and the SCLC, the sit-ins faded out by the end of 1960. A new phase of Black protest arose in the form of Freedom Rides, and new coordinated white resistance changed the tactics of civil rights leaders, dramatically raising the level and degree of violence by white civil rights opponents.

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Sit-in movement | history & impact on civil rights movement

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Sit-in movement, nonviolent movement of the U.S. civil rights era that began in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. The sit-in, an act of civil disobedience, aroused sympathy among moderates and uninvolved individuals. African Americans (later joined by white activists) would go to segregated lunch counters.

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The Greensboro Four | Kid Reporters' Notebook | Scholastic Inc.

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On February 1, 1960, four college freshmen in Greensboro, North Carolina, stunned the world by a simple act. Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond sat down at a "whites only" lunch counter at the local Woolworth's. The young black men politely asked for coffee.

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US Government for Kids: Constitution Amendments

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Kids learn about the amendments in the United States Constitution. Seventeen not included in the Bill of Rights of the twenty-seven total.

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The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on January 23, 1964.

The amendment outlawed poll taxes in federal elections.

What does the Twenty-Fourth Amendment say?
Section 1 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax." "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
What is a poll tax?

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment banned poll taxes. Poll taxes were a fee that people were required to pay before they could vote.

In states that required poll taxes, many African Americans and other poor voters were unable to exercise their right to vote.

A Brief History of Poll Taxes

After the Constitution was ratified, many states limited the right to vote to people who owned property. The idea was that property owners would have the most interest in politics and would be most affected by elections.

Soon, many states moved away from the property requirement. Instead, they started requiring voters to pay a poll tax. In most cases, this expanded voting rights. It was easier to pay a poll tax than to purchase property.

Eventually, most states abandoned both property requirements and poll taxes. They expanded the right to vote to all white male citizens.

The Return of the Poll Tax

Then, the Fifteenth Amendment was passed. The Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to all men, regardless of race or color. This meant that black men, including former slaves, could now vote.

Many states were not happy about the new amendment. These states passed laws and policies that they hoped would continue to prevent black men from voting.

This included literacy tests and the return of poll taxes. Since slaves had not been allowed to learn to read or write and were not paid, these requirements made voting impossible for many recently freed African American men.

Poll taxes also affected some poor white men. The poll taxes were often $1 or $2, but that's the equivalent of about $20-$40 today, which was a large sum of money for poor voters.

The Supreme Court repeatedly ruled that poll taxes were allowed, so the practice continued. By 1962, most states had stopped requiring poll taxes. They were still required in Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas.

Ratifying the Twenty-Fourth Amendment

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy's State of the Union address encouraged the elimination of both poll taxes and literacy tests.

There had been attempts to ban poll taxes for many years, and JFK's speech helped provide a necessary push in that direction.

The proposed amendment would only eliminate poll taxes in federal elections. They would still be allowed in local and state elections.

This was a compromise with representatives who strongly believed in states' rights. It was an attempt to make sure that the Amendment would pass in both the Senate and the House.

The compromise worked, and the amendment passed successfully through Congress. It was quickly adopted by the required three-fourths of the states, and it became official in 1964.

Response to the Twenty-Fourth Amendment

Some states still tried to resist the ban on poll taxes. Virginia tried to create a new version of the poll tax, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court.

In 1966, the Supreme Court expanded the Twenty-Fourth Amendment. In Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, the Court ruled that poll taxes were also not allowed in local or state elections under the Equal Protection Clause.

Some modern practices have also been challenged, with people believing that they violate the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.

For instance, people have opposed indirect costs on voting, like the cost of getting documents required for voter identification.

People have also challenged laws that require ex-convicts to pay prison debts before they can register to vote. However, these practices are still allowed by the Supreme Court.

Other Interesting Facts About the Twenty-Fourth Amendment

The Twenty-Fourth Amendment was proposed by Senator Spessard Lindsey Holland of Bartow, Florida.

The House passed the amendment by a vote of 295 to 86.

South Dakota was the final state to ratify the amendment and provide the required three-fourths majority.

Legislation to end poll taxes had been introduced every year in Congress since 1939. It was finally passed after about 23 years of attempts.

Constitutional Amendments.

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Twenty-Fourth Amendment Facts The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on January 23, 1964. The amendment outlawed poll taxes in federal elections. What does the Twenty-Fourth Amendment say?

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Social Studies for Kids:  The 24th Amendment

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Social Studies for Kids:  The 24th Amendment

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The 24th Amendment

The 24th Amendment prohibits states from enacting a poll tax for voting in federal elections.

The 15th Amendment prohibited discrimination from voting based on race or color but not in economic terms. With the passage of the 15th Amendment, African-Americans could vote; several states, primarily Southern ones, created a financial requirement for voting, known as a poll tax, since the fee was collected before voters went to the polls to vote. (Southern states were not the only ones to have a poll tax, however. California had one until 1914.)

The fee for voting was $1 in some states and $2 in other states. That was a lot of money for many people, especially poor people. Some states furthered the divide between rich and poor by incorporating a "grandfather clause," allowing anyone whose grandfather had voted in a previous election to skip the poll tax altogether. This kind of clause effectively prevented former slaves from qualifying and was part of a coordinated effort at disenfranchisement. Other methods included literacy tests and general intimidation at polling booths.

Poll taxes continued for several decades and were declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1937. Some states abandoned the poll tax eventually. In the 1960s, though, five states still had such a tax: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia.

Congress passed the Amendment on August 27, 1962. Less than a year later, on January 23, 1964, the three-quarters threshold was reached on the 24th Amendment became the law of the land.

Significantly, though, the 24th Amendment applied only to federal elections, not to state elections. Some states continued to have poll taxes for state elections, until this practice was outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1966.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. The Text of the 24th Amendment

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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The 24th Amendment The 24th Amendment prohibits states from enacting a poll tax for voting in federal elections. The 15th Amendment prohibited discrimination from voting based on race or color but not in economic terms. With the passage of the 15th Amendment, African-Americans could vote; several states, primarily Southern ones, created a financial requirement for voting, known as a poll tax, since the fee was collected before voters went to the polls to vote.

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NAACP Logo

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids: Fast Fact Sheet
Fast, fun facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about the NAACP Facts.

What does NAACP stand for? The NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Who founded the NAACP? The NAACP was founded by a group of white progressives and liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard and African American civil rights activists including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell

What was the reason for the founding of the NAACP? The NAACP was founded in response to racial discrimination and violence against African Americans including the practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois

What did the NAACP do?: The NAACP fought for civil rights, the elimination of racial discrimination, desegregation, fair voter registration and the advancement of African Americans through lobbying, legal action, and education..

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids: The Progressive Era and the Niagara Movement social problems, passed laws, amendments and reforms to protect workers and regulate big business during the presidencies of Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson. However there were limits to Progressivism which failed to address African American reform issues. In 1905 twenty-eight Prominent African American leaders and civil rights activists, led by W.E.B. Du Bois, formed the
The NAACP was sparked by the spirit of the Progressive Movement that tackled many Niagara Movement. Members and supporters of the Niagara Movement formed the NAACP four years later in 1909.

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids
The NAACP facts and history timeline details important people and political events in the NAACP Facts and History Timeline. Interesting facts via the NAACP Facts and History Timeline are detailed below. The information via the NAACP Facts and History Timeline is told in a factual, date sequence consisting of a series of short facts providing a simple method of relating the history and events in the fight for civil rights.

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids

In 1896 the Supreme Court decided in NAACP Facts Timeline 1896: Plessy vs. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities satisfied the guarantees of 14th Amendment, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow Segregation Laws

W.E.B. Du Bois, formed the NAACP Facts Timeline 1905: Niagara Movement in 1905

NAACP Facts Timeline 1913: in 1913 the federal government, under President Wilson, imposed racial segregation in government offices in Washington, D.C.

'Birth of a Nation' perpetuated demeaning stereotypes of African Americans and glorified the Ku Klux Klan.

Many NAACP members protested at the premieres of the movie in numerous American cities and riots broke out in Boston and Philadelphia.

The Assistant Field Secretary of the NAACP, Walter White, travels into the south IN 1918 and reports on NAACP Facts Timeline 1918:
lynching and other violence against African Americans, including the lynching of 15 year old Sammie Smith in Nashville, Tennessee.

Harlem, New York had the highest concentration of black people in the world, and was the cultural heart of African-Americans with many NAACP members. The whole of the all-black 369th Infantry regiment called the NAACP Facts Timeline 1919: Harlem Hellfighters received the French Croix de Guerre.

The NAACP appointed James Weldon Johnson as its first African American executive director. James Weldon Johnson was a NAACP Facts Timeline 1920: Harlem Renaissance writer and, with his brother, had written the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Continued...

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids

NAACP Facts and History Timeline
Details of important people and interesting historical events continue in the NAACP facts and history timeline for kids.

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids

NAACP Timeline 1920's/1930's: The NAACP provided legal, financial, and moral support in the Great Depression of the 1920's and 1930s

Support is given to A. Philip Randolph's proposed mass NAACP Facts Timeline 1941: March on Washington to protest discrimination in defense industries and armed forces.

The first segregated airman unit, the 99th Squadron, famously known as the NAACP Facts Timeline 1941: Tuskegee Airmen, was established in 1941

NAACP Facts Timeline 1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional

Martin Luther King became involved in protests against the incident involving Rosa Parks and the NAACP Facts Timeline 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott beg an.

The president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP Branches, Daisy Bates, leads the fight to NAACP Facts Timeline 1957:
desegregate Arkansas schools.

The 1989 Silent March protesting against U.S. Supreme Court decisions reversing many of the gains NAACP Facts Timeline 1989:
made against discrimination.

NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids

For visitors interested in the history of African Americans refer to the following articles:

Black History for kids: Important People and EventsFor visitors interested in African American History refer to
Black History - People and Events. A useful resource for teachers, kids, schools and colleges undertaking projects for the Black History Month.

NAACP Facts for kids - President Theodore Roosevelt Video
The article on the NAACP Facts provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following video will give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 26th American President whose presidency spanned from September 14, 1901 to March 4, 1909.

NAACP Facts

● Interesting Facts about NAACP Facts for kids and schoolsTheodore Roosevelt
● Key events and NAACP Facts for kids

● The NAACP Facts, a major event in US history
● Theodore Roosevelt Presidency
● Fast, fun facts about the NAACP Facts
● Foreign & Domestic policies of President ● Theodore Roosevelt Presidency and NAACP Facts for schools, homework, kids and children

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NAACP Facts and Timeline: US History for Kids ***

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NAACP Logo NAACP Facts and History Timeline for kids: Fast Fact Sheet Fast, fun facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) about the NAACP Facts. What does NAACP stand for? The NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Who founded the NAACP?

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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States. It was created in 1909 to work for equal rights for African Americans and other minority groups. The NAACP has fought discrimination in schools, the workplace, and public places. Its goal is to end racism -the belief that one group of people is better than other groups.

Members of the NAACP try to make sure that everyone is treated equally under the law. They ask the U.S. Congress to pass new laws to guarantee that equal treatment. In this way they act to ensure the civil rights of all citizens. Civil rights are those that are granted by the laws of the country. These include the right to vote and to own property.

The NAACP's most famous success is the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. In 1954 lawyers for the NAACP argued that segregation in public schools should end. The justices of the Court agreed and ruled that segregation was illegal. As a result Black children could attend the same schools as white children.

The NAACP played an important role during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Its members helped to organize the March on Washington, a large demonstration for civil rights, in 1963. The NAACP also asked Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

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national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp)

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States. It was created in 1909 to work for equal...

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Scholastic Kids Press Corps
The Scholastic Kids Press Corps is a team of about 50 Kid Reporters around the nation. The interactive site brings daily news to life with reporting for kids, by kids.

Freedom Riders hang posters from a bus during nonviolent civil rights protests in 1961. Both blacks whites rode together on buses across state lines in the south to test a court ruling outlawing segregation. (Courtesy Corbis)

One of the most important Civil Rights moments comes to life

The Freedom Rides of 1961 started small, with a group of 13 black and white men and women standing up for their rights. This nonviolent group's goal was to sit together on buses to protest segregation. Expecting some mean slurs and, at worst, a night in jail, they had no idea what was coming.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides. A new documentary was recently released to commemorate the people and struggle behind one of the most important moments of the Civil Rights movement.

Freedom Riders, directed by Stanley Nelson, documents the 1961 Freedom Rides by letting the participants tell their truly remarkable stories. The movie was shown at the ImageNation Revolution Awards at The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City recently. It will air on PBS May 16.

Congressman John Lewis, who is featured in the movie, told the Scholastic Kids Press Corps about how as a participant in the Freedom Rides he was violently beaten and sustained severe head injuries.

"I was hit in the head by an individual with a wooden soda crate and I was knocked unconscious," he said. "My seatmate was seriously hurt. He was hospitalized for several days."

One of President John F. Kennedy's aides, John Siegenthaler, tells how he was involved in negotiations to protect the riders, but even he was violently attacked when he tried to offer help to one of them.

There are many intense moments in the documentary. One of the most violent comes after the Freedom Riders reach Alabama. They faced terror and abuse from angry mobs, heavily supported by the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group. Two buses were attacked. Miraculously, no one died.

This brutality continued throughout the rides, and more and more people were hurt. When the riders almost couldn't take it any longer, new groups of men and women from Fisk University joined the rides to help. They were thrown into Mississippi's toughest prison.

But that didn't stop the Freedom Rides. More people kept coming to volunteer and participate, and more and more attention was brought to what the rides were all about-upholding an existing law that forbid segregation on interstate transportation. The Freedom Rides inspired many other civil rights movements and marches.

"You have to stay with it," Lewis said. "It became a part of you. You had to hang in there, you had to keep the faith, you had to keep your eyes on the prize."

Nelson allows the participants to tell their own stories, which makes the terrible events like those in Alabama come alive. He shows footage, photographs, and documents never seen before. It's a blend of happiness and sadness-the riders' initial optimism, then the devastating violence they faced.

"Because of what we did, young people, students need to know in the matter of a short time, those signs that can said White Waiting, that said Colored Waiting, White Men, Colored Men, White Women, Colored Women, those signs came tumbling down," Lewis said.

Be sure to check out Kid Reporter Henry Dunkelberger's video interview with Rep. John Lewis about the Freedom Rides.

CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH

For more on the achievements and contributions of African Americans to U.S. History, return to the Scholastic Kids Press Corps' Black History Month Special Report.

NEWS FOR KIDS, BY KIDS

Get the latest on national and international events, movies, television, music, sports, and more from the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

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Scholastic Kids Press Corps The Scholastic Kids Press Corps is a team of about 50 Kid Reporters around the nation. The interactive site brings daily news to life with reporting for kids, by kids. Freedom Riders hang posters from a bus during nonviolent civil rights protests in 1961.

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See the fact file below for more information on Freedom Riders or alternatively, you can download our comprehensive worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Freedom Riders is a term used to refer to those who rode interstate buses into segregated states in 1961.

They rode as part of the Civil Rights Movement, trying to gain equality for all.

Even though federal law and U.S. Supreme Court decisions mandated an end to segregation, or the separation of blacks and whites, many bus depots in the South as well as the buses themselves were still segregated.

Freedom Riders tried to use whites-only restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states.

The groups were confronted by police officers, as well as horrific violence from white protesters along their routes.

In 1947, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized an earlier attempt to end segregation on public bus transportation called The Journey of Reconciliation, an interracial ride from Washington D.C. to Kentucky.

The group only got as far as Chapel Hill, NC, where they were met with violent resistance and arrest.

In 1961, resurrecting the 'Journey' seemed appropriate, as the CORE-inspired lunch counter sit-ins of February, 1960, had brought the problem of segregation to the national stage.

The sit-ins involved primarily college students who sat at white-only lunch counters, which led to violent beatings by the mostly white opposition.

The original group of 13 Freedom Riders, consisting of seven African-American and six white people, 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 African-American 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.

On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama.

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 traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob with
metal pipes.

Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Connor, stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and that 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 with 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.

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 Jr. 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.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders departed Montgomery for Jackson, Mississippi.

Hundreds of 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.

During their 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.

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

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

Freedom Riders Worksheets

This bundle includes 11 ready-to-use Freedom Riders worksheets that are perfect for students to learn about The Freedom Riders who were a very brave group participating in the Civil Rights Movement in 1961. They were an interracial group of black and white people who sought to desegregate America's public bus transportation system.
This download includes the following worksheets:

Freedom Riders Facts

Summary

Segregation

Violence

First Ride

Rides Continued

Greyhound Bus

Riders

Fill in the Blanks

Synonyms and Antonyms

CORE

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The Freedom Riders Facts, Worksheet, Movement & Impact For Kids

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From Academic Kids

The Freedom Riders were a group of men and women from many different background and ethnicities who boarded buses, trains and planes headed for the deep South to test the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing racial segregation in all interstate public facilities.

The movement began in the 1950s. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was involved in the struggle to end segregation on buses and trains. In 1952, segregation on interstate railways was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. This was followed in 1954 by a similar judgment concerning interstate buses. However, states in the Deep South continued their own policy of transport segregation. This usually involved whites sitting in the front and blacks sitting nearest to the front had to give up their seats to any whites that were standing.

African American people who disobeyed the state's transport segregation policies were regularly arrested and fined. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a middle-aged tailor's assistant from Montgomery, Alabama, took an action that was a turning point in the American Civil Rights Movement when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.

Many people have said she was tired after a hard day's work and this may have been true in part, but in her own story, Parks - who had volunteered to help the NAACP - said it was more that she was tired of giving in to the bigotry and mistreatment of African Americans. She was seated in a row of two bus seats which each seated two people. One white man got on the bus and when no seat was available for him in the front section, the bus driver (who had mistreated Parks in the past) told all four of the black passengers in the front row of the rear section to move. The other three did, but Parks stayed where she was and refused to move. The driver called for the police and Parks was arrested and taken to jail.

After her arrest, Martin Luther King, Jr., a pastor at a local Baptist Church, helped organize protests against bus segregation. It was decided that black people in Montgomery would refuse to use the buses until passengers were completely integrated. King was arrested and his house was fire-bombed. Others involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott also suffered from harassment and intimidation, but the protest continued.

For 13 months, the 17,000 black people in Montgomery walked to work or obtained lifts from car owners in the city who volunteered to help. Eventually, the loss of revenue and a decision by the Supreme Court forced the Montgomery Bus Company to accept integration.

Even after this decision, transportation segregation continued in some parts of the Deep South, so in 1961, a civil rights group, the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) began to organize Freedom Rides. After three days of training in non-violent techniques, black and white volunteers sat next to each other as they traveled through the Deep South.

James Farmer, national director of CORE, and 13 volunteers left Washington, D.C. on May 4, 1961. Along the way, they met up with many other volunteers as they traveled through Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Rock Hill, South Carolina, Georgia and Anniston, Alabama.

In Anniston, the original bus carrying the Freedom Riders was fire bombed. As they struggled to get out of the bus, the group was beaten. They and riders on another bus were attacked by men armed with clubs, bricks, iron pipes, and knives. Still, the group continued on.

Meanwhile, a second group of riders left Nashville, Tennessee on May 14, 1961 headed for Birmingham, Alabama, where they joined with the first group of Freedom Riders on May 20, 1961. The U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, sent his assistant, John Seigenthaler Sr., to accompany the Freedom Riders.

There in Birmingham, the passengers were greeted by members of the Ku Klux Klan with further acts of violence and the group was forced to spend the night in the "colored" waiting room at a bus station, but they journeyed on together to Montgomery, Alabama.

In Montgomery, the Alabama state capital, another mob beat the riders with chains and ax handles. Seigenthaler was knocked unconscious when he went to the aid of one of the passengers. The riders were forced to take refuge from mobs in a church.

"The KKK threatened to bomb the church," recalled John Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders.

The Ku Klux Klan hoped that this violent treatment would stop other young people from taking part in freedom rides. However, over the next six months over a thousand people took part in freedom rides throughout the South. With local authorities unwilling to protect these people, President John F. Kennedy sent Byron White and 500 federal marshals from the North to do the job.

During their journey, the original group of 13 grew to as many as 1,000, but the ride ended May 25, 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, where they were met by an angry mob of white segregationists.

"They beat us, bloodied us, beat me unconscious," Lewis recalled. The riders were then arrested and jailed.

Sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $250 fine, Lewis spent 37 days in city and county jails and a state penitentiary. Mississippians raised the bail money to free Lewis and the others.

During the summer of 1961, Freedom Riders also campaigned against other forms of racial discrimination. They sat together in segregated restaurants, lunch counters and hotels. This was especially effective when it concerned large companies who, fearing boycotts in the North, began to desegregate their businesses.

Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to draft regulations to end racial segregation in bus terminals. The ICC was reluctant, but in September of 1961 it issued the necessary orders and the new policies went into effect on November 1, 1961.

As with the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the conflict at Little Rock, the Freedom Riders gave world publicity to the racial discrimination suffered by African Americans and, in doing so, helped to bring about positive change.

The 1961 Freedom Riders along with their families, friends and supporters, celebrated their 40th anniversary with a reunion held on Veterans Day Weekend, November 8th- November 11th, 2001, in Jackson, Mississippi.

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The Freedom Riders were a group of men and women from many different background and ethnicities who boarded buses, trains and planes headed for the deep South to test the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing racial segregation in all interstate public facilities. The movement began in the 1950s.

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Learn Civil Rights Act of 1964 facts for kids

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History >> Civil Rights for Kids

African-American Civil Rights Movement

March on Washington Aug 28, 1963
from the United States Information Agency

The African-American Civil Rights Movement was an ongoing fight for racial equality that took place for over 100 years after the Civil War. Leaders such asMartin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and Rosa Parks paved the way for non-violent protests which led to changes in the law. When most people talk about the "Civil Rights Movement" they are talking about the protests in the 1950s and 1960s that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Background

The Civil Rights Movement has its background in the abolitionist movement before theCivil War. Abolitionists were people that thought slavery was morally wrong and wanted it to come to an end. Before the Civil War, many of the northern states had outlawed slavery. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln freed the enslaved with the Emancipation Proclamation. After the war, slavery was made illegal with the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Segregation and the Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow Drinking Fountain
by John Vachon

After the Civil War, many southern states continued to treat African-Americans as second class citizens. They implemented laws that kept black people separate from white people. These laws became known as Jim Crow laws. They required separate schools, restaurants, restrooms, and transportation based on the color of a person's skin. Other laws prevented many black people from voting.

Early Protests

In the early 1900s, black people began to protest the Jim Crow laws that southern states were implementing to enforce segregation. Several African-American leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells joined together to found the NAACP in 1909. Another leader, Booker T. Washington, helped to form schools to educate African-Americans in order to improve their status in society.

The Movement Grows

The civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s when theSupreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was illegal in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Federal troops were brought in to Little Rock, Arkansas to allow the Little Rock Nine to attend a previously all white high school.

Major Events in the Movement

The 1950's and early 1960's brought about several major events in the fight for the civil rights of African-Americans. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted for over a year and brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to the forefront of the movement. King led a number of non-violent protests including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington.

Lyndon Johnson signing Civil Rights Act
by Cecil Stoughton

Civil Rights Act of 1964

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law byPresident Lyndon Johnson. This act outlawed segregation and the Jim Crow laws of the south. It also outlawed discrimination based on race, national background, and gender. Although there were still many issues, this law gave the NAACP and other organizations a strong base on which to fight discrimination in the courts.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

In 1965, another law was passed called the Voting Rights Act. This law said that citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on their race. It outlawed literacy tests (a requirement that people be able to read) and poll taxes (a fee that people had to pay to vote).

Interesting Facts about the African-American Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Act was originally proposed by President John F. Kennedy.

The 1968 Civil Rights Act, also known as the Fair Housing Act, outlawed discrimination in the selling or renting of housing.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee was once the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in 1968.

Today, African-Americans have been elected or appointed to the highest positions in the U.S. government including Secretary of State (Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice) and President (Barack Obama).

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Kids learn about the history of the African-American Civil Rights Movement including segregation, Jim Crow laws, protests, Martin Luther King, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.