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From 1955-1956 in Montgomery,Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger sparked a year-long boycott of the Montgomery bus system, a pivotal moment in the fight against segregation.

https://edsitement.neh.gov/media-resources/why-here-selma-bloody-sunday-and-long-civil-rights-movement#:~:text=Why%20Here?:%20Selma%2C%20Bloody%20Sunday%2C%20and%20the,what%20happened%20when%20they%20reached%20that%20point?

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The brutal murder of a 14-year-old African American boy, Emmett Till, for allegedly whistling at a white woman, galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and exposed the brutality of racial injustice in the South.

http://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/the-mississippi-civil-rights-movement-1955-1970-when-youth-protest

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When Youth Protest: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1970 - 2001-08

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“When nobody else is moving and the students are moving, they are the leadership for everybody.” Ed King Mississippi Civil Rights worker 1963

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A large-scale desegregation effort in Albany, Georgia, involving sit-ins, marches, and boycotts, while not immediately successful, served as a learning experience for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/albany-movement

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Four Black college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, sparking similar protests across the South and challenging segregation in public accommodations.

https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/civil-rights-movement/

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Most North Carolinians believe the Civil Rights Movement occurred strictly in the 1960s, with the start of the sit-ins at the Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The movement, however, began much earlier, and one can argue that its roots lay in the Civil War period.

The Civil Rights Movement was an effort, among many things, to overturn segregation, commonly known as Jim Crow legislation. Throughout the Jim Crow South (1890-1960), state laws required blacks and whites to use separate facilities, attend different schools, sit in different places in theaters and buses, and even to be buried in different areas in cemeteries-to draw only four illustrations from various cases. As early as the 1930s, African Americans protested these laws. In Greensboro, black ministers boycotted the War Memorial Auditorium's opening, and young people there started a theater boycott. Lumberton youth marched to protest a lack of educational opportunities. Meanwhile during the twentieth century, municipality leaders, including Charlotteans, used local ordinances to create residential segregation.

The Civil Rights Movement, as it commonly known, began in the 1950s. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Brown decision, and schools were ordered to desegregate. For some time North Carolina avoided compliance, with various creative ideas such as the Pearsall Plan. Meanwhile in the 1950s, North Carolina blacks started what would become known as sit-ins. In 1957 seven blacks, for example, demanded service in the white section of a Durham ice cream parlor.

In 1960, a series of events occurred in North Carolina and began the Civil Rights Movement in earnest. The Greensboro Sit-In occurred in North Carolina, and this demonstration gained national attention and set an example for others to follow throughout the Jim Crow South. Four N.C. A & T State University students walked to the downtown Woolworth's store in Greensboro, sat in the white section of the store's restaurant, and demanded service. In time, more and more students started protesting in Greensboro and protests spread to Raleigh. In the capital city, Shaw University and St. Augustine's College students carried out sit-ins at various stores. At other times, college students picketed stores. Picketers, in one instance, were arrested at Cameron Village. Although storeowners initially resisted accommodating the blacks, they eventually complied for legal and economic purposes.

Several organizations helped organize and energize the Civil Rights Movement. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored the Freedom Rides in 1961; black and white bus riders boarded Greyhounds and Trailways buses and challenged segregation on the buses and in the bus stations. In North Carolina, the riders experienced no violent resistance. The following year, the organization led a successful campaign against Howard Johnson's restaurants. During the mid-1960s and under the leadership of Floyd B. McKissick, a Durham attorney, CORE embraced black nationalism. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), like CORE, evolved into a more confrontational group. Ella Baker of Raleigh trained students to live in the rural South and to participate in task forces assigned to educate rural blacks and register them to vote. In the mid-1960s, student enthusiasm waned for the nonviolent approach, but under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael, student interest revived as the organization promoted black nationalism and black power. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a legal arm of the Civil Rights Movement, worked to ensure that the law was applied in a nondiscriminatory manner.

Reginald Hawkins was a prominent leader. Kelly Alexander reorganized the Charlotte NAACP chapter and emerged as one of the Tar Heel State's leading civil rights leaders during the 1950s and 1960s. Ministers led the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC), an influential organization that consistently employed nonviolent means. A well-known North Carolina SCLC leader was Golden Aros Franks; he led various protests in eastern North Carolina towns.

Although Kenneth R. Williams served on the Winston-Salem Board of Aldermen during the late 1940s, North Carolina blacks, as a voting bloc, had lost political power as far back as the late 1890s. For the most part, they and lacked political powe, until the passage of national legislation such as the Voting Rights Act. After blacks regained their suffrage rights, more and more blacks could run for political office and were elected to public office. Others were appointed to public office. Henry E. Frye, for example, was appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court and became the first African American to serve in that capacity.

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Civil Rights Movement - North Carolina History

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Most North Carolinians believe the Civil Rights Movement occurred strictly in the 1960s, with the start of the Sit-Ins at the Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The movement, however, began much earlier, and one can argue that its roots lay in the Civil-War period.

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A protest against segregation at a bowling alley in Orangeburg resulted in the killing of three Black students by state highway patrolmen, highlighting the ongoing struggle for racial equality. https://civilrightstrail.com/destination/orangeburg/

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Sit-ins, Protests and the Persistence of Students in the Fight for Desegregation

Orangeburg was the center of South Carolina's desegregation movement from 1950 to 1972. In 1960, students organized a sit-in there at S.H. Kress & Co., a department store with a lunch counter where Black and white patrons were not permitted to dine together. Following this event, students continued to boycott stores in Orangeburg that remained segregated, culminating in a march of 1,000 students that turned violent when the peaceful protestors refused to disband. In 1968, tensions continued to rise in Orangeburg, leading to several incidents at the local All Star Bowling Lane because the owner was not willing to desegregate. This led to the violent clash known as the Orangeburg Massacre on February 8, 1968, wherein the South Carolina Highway Patrol fired guns into a crowd of 200 protestors gathered on South Carolina State University's campus, killing three students and injuring 27 people. Though the officers were charged with using excessive force, all nine were acquitted, despite the fact that multiple witnesses testified that students were not attacking the officers and that no students were found to have had weapons, as the police had claimed.

When you're ready to experience the history of the United States Civil Rights Trail firsthand, download a state itinerary. These guides have information about the sites you can visit in each state as well as directions and other useful tools to help you successfully plan your trip.

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Explore Orangeburg's Civil Rights History - US Civil Rights Trail

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Discover the city that was the center of South Carolina's desegregation movement from 1950 to 1972. A clash known as the Orangeburg Massacre happened here.

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A court order mandated the desegregation of New Orleans' public schools, though it faced significant resistance from local authorities. https://www.louisianacivilrightstrail.com/

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A Story of Pride. A Story of Courage. Louisiana Civil Rights.

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Civil Rights activists of the '50s and '60s inherited a legacy of courage and resilience passed on through the generations. On the Louisiana Civil Rights Trail, discover the real-life heroes who strategized, organized, preached, marched, boycotted, stood up, sat down, and sang for change. Real people who dedicated themselves and their lives to Making Rights Real.

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The attempt to integrate Little Rock Central High School, met with resistance from the governor and local mobs, required federal intervention to ensure the safety of the "Little Rock Nine," demonstrating the challenges of implementing desegregation. https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/digital/collection/Civilrights

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Virginia led the resistance to school desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, enacting laws to prevent integration and leading to the closure of schools in Prince Edward County.https://virginiahistory.org/learn/historical-book/civil-rights-movement-virginia

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Civil Rights Movement in Virginia | Virginia Museum of History & Culture

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The civil rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s was one phase in the longer black freedom struggle that began when the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619 and continues today. Much of the civil rights movement was seen on television. Because the most notorious events and horrific ima…