The civil rights movement

The civil rights movement

A. When did the civil rights movement begin?

·         December 1, 1955

B. What was the civil rights movement about?

·         The civil rights movement was a mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery. Although American slaves were emancipated as a result of the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, by then militant black activists had begun to see their struggle as a freedom or liberation movement not just seeking civil rights reforms but instead confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression.

C. Some of the significant incidents that took place in the civil rights movements. (Choose 2-3 incidents and state them briefly not in great detail)

·         Over 25 race riots occur in the summer of 1919 with 38 killed in Chicago. 70 blacks, including 10 veterans, are lynched in the South.

·         5000 federal troops are sent by Pres. Kennedy to allow Meredith to register for classes. Riots result in 2 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

D. Which American President supported the civil rights movement?

·         President John F. Kennedy

E. What was the outcome of this movement?

·         As a result to the civil rights movement African-Americans are now as equal as whites.

F. In what way is the civil rights movement related to the novel?

·         The novel was set in the period of the civil rights movement where the blacks were still segregated with the whites. Tom, in the novel, was convicted because of the discrimination of Blacks during that era.