The Role of Black Civil Rights Organizations
Civil rights organizations played a crucial role in structuring and advancing the movement:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), established in 1909, focused on:
- Pressuring politicians to enact change
- Fighting discrimination in schools through legal means
Highlight: The NAACP's efforts led to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, which legally enforced school desegregation.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formed to give young people a voice in the movement:
- Organized freedom rides to challenge segregation in interstate travel
- Gained sympathy and support after facing violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan
Vocabulary: Freedom Rides were bus trips through the Southern United States to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals.
These organizations provided the structural backbone for the Civil Rights Movement, although some, like the SNCC, became more radical over time and eventually disbanded.
Continued Prejudice and Discrimination
Despite progress, prejudice and discrimination persisted:
The case of Oliver Brown v. Board of Education in 1952 challenged school segregation:
- Led to the desegregation of schools across the USA
- However, other public areas remained segregated
Example: While schools were desegregated, restaurants and other public spaces often remained segregated for years afterward.
The tragic murder of Emmett Till in 1955 highlighted the extreme racism still present:
- Till's body was found in a river after a confrontation with a white man
- His mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral exposed the brutality of racism to the nation
Highlight: The death of Emmett Till, while tragic, served as a catalyst for growing support for the Civil Rights Movement.
