People+that+lead+Civil+Rights+movement

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born in 1921. He is the son of Martin Luther King, Sr, and Alberta Williams King. His mother was a teacher who taught him how to read before he entered school. She also taught him the prejudice and the laws that separated whites and Blacks. With the other black leaders, he formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.L.C) in order to fight unjust laws. In 1964, he received the Nobel Peace prize. The day before a march, James Earl Ray, a man who could never get along with blacks, assassinated him in Memphis, Tennessee.

Harriet Tubman: She carried a gun along with her escapes just in cases of emergencies, because she didn’t want anyone during escaping to go home and snitch on there escape. Her childhood was very hard and lonely. She had to work inside the house, while her family slaved away in the hot summer field all day. Her greatest fear was her master’s death. Harriet Tubman was a second generation slave who dedicated her life to fulfilling her cry to the slaveholders, “Let my people go!” She escaped slavery herself, yet returned to the South nineteen times to free over three hundred slaves. People called her the “Moses of her people”, Tubman never lost a slave or failed on her mission. She has also served as a soldier.

Jhon F. Kennedy: During Kennedy’s Presidential Inaugural address in 1961, he promised to end racial discrimination. During Kennedy’s office time, he appointed black people to many federal positions. No other President had done that in the past. President Kenny appointed about forty blacks to administrative posts such as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, Associate White House Press Secretary, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Secretary, and deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. This act helped raise hope for black people. In 1960, a Supreme Court decision ruled that segregation was illegal in bus stations that were open to interstate travel. Civil right activists started taking Freedom Rides (This means white and black people ride the bus to check out the law and see if it is taking action.) Rosa Parks: In 1955 a petite 42 year old black woman named Rosa Parks live in Montgomery, Alabama. One evening, Rosa was riding in the white section of the bus. All the seats in the colored area were filled. The driver threatened her by telling he was going to call the police. She refused and got arrested. This event helped start the end to the segregation laws in the south. When they heard of Rosa’s arrest, the leaders of the Women’s Political Council agreed to call for a boycott of the buses in Montgomery starting on December 5, 1955, the day of Rosa’s trial. They walked shared rides, or took the black owned cab to work and school. On early February of 1956, Rosa’s layers filed suit in the United States District court saying that bus segregation is over, but the city’s commissioners appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.

Made by Matthew (and edited by other people)



Thurgood Marshall: He was a civil rights lawyer during the period of racial segregation, when people were seperated into different racial groups. He realized one way to bring a change was through the legal system. During 1938 & 1961 he presented more than 30 civil right cases in the Supreme Court and won 29 of them. His most important case was called __Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka__ in 1954, and it ended segregation in public schools. ~Ashleigh