SB: Civil Rights Movement
Involved protest campaigns to highlight injustice and oppression
African Americans in USA have struggled for equality since the late
19th century
They protested against segregation and discrimination
African Americans had come to the USA as slaves
They were mostly located in the southern states which became
known as “slave-states”.
Slavery was abolished in 1865
Southern states did not recognise the rights of former slaves
Jim Crow Laws:
Laws of segregation that discriminated against African Americans
and taken on by almost all southern states.
Public facilities and transport were racially segregated
African Americans were expected to act as if they were subordinate
to whites
Jim Crow laws usually enforced racial segregation:
Interracial marriages were forbidden
Segregation of trains and buses
Segregation of restaurants
Different entrances to public buildings
Forms of protest taken by the CRM in fighting for equality:
1. Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955
Rosa Parks refused to stand up and give her bus seat to a
white passenger so she was arrested and fined
In response, African Americans organised a bus boycott I
Montgomery that lasted 381 days
It was the first mass protest in the CRM
The bus company lost 75% profits
2. Sit-ins
Focused on civil disobedience
Against laws that segregated all forms of society
African Americans challenged authorities y deliberately sitting
in “whites only” sectors
They endured insults and abuse but did not retaliate
3. Freedom Rides
13 students (activists) travelled from WDC to the South on
Greyhound buses in May 1961
In Anniston, Alabama, the buses were attacked by an angry
white mobes that stoned and burned the bus
This was not the first or last incident of this nature
Involved protest campaigns to highlight injustice and oppression
African Americans in USA have struggled for equality since the late
19th century
They protested against segregation and discrimination
African Americans had come to the USA as slaves
They were mostly located in the southern states which became
known as “slave-states”.
Slavery was abolished in 1865
Southern states did not recognise the rights of former slaves
Jim Crow Laws:
Laws of segregation that discriminated against African Americans
and taken on by almost all southern states.
Public facilities and transport were racially segregated
African Americans were expected to act as if they were subordinate
to whites
Jim Crow laws usually enforced racial segregation:
Interracial marriages were forbidden
Segregation of trains and buses
Segregation of restaurants
Different entrances to public buildings
Forms of protest taken by the CRM in fighting for equality:
1. Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955
Rosa Parks refused to stand up and give her bus seat to a
white passenger so she was arrested and fined
In response, African Americans organised a bus boycott I
Montgomery that lasted 381 days
It was the first mass protest in the CRM
The bus company lost 75% profits
2. Sit-ins
Focused on civil disobedience
Against laws that segregated all forms of society
African Americans challenged authorities y deliberately sitting
in “whites only” sectors
They endured insults and abuse but did not retaliate
3. Freedom Rides
13 students (activists) travelled from WDC to the South on
Greyhound buses in May 1961
In Anniston, Alabama, the buses were attacked by an angry
white mobes that stoned and burned the bus
This was not the first or last incident of this nature
