The Fight for Civil Rights: 15 Images From America's Past
Wednesday marks 50 years since the enactment of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. The landmark piece of legislation outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and ended segregation in public services in the United States. The bill followed decades of bloody struggle by civil rights lawyers, activists and ordinary people to gain racial equality for African-Americans, in the face of determined opposition from white supremacists. During that time, the battle moved from the court to the streets as Martin Luther King Jr. spearheaded a strategy of nonviolent resistance with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The group organized peaceful protests in the deep South with the expectation that opponents would attack protestors, causing bad media coverage and public outrage.
Biography for Kids: Ruby Bridges
History >> Biography >> Civil Rights for Kids Occupation: Civil Rights Activist Born: September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi Best known for: First African-American student to attend an all-white elementary school in the SouthBiography: Where did Ruby Bridges grow up? Ruby Bridges grew up on a small farm in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her parents were sharecroppers, meaning they farmed the land, but didn't own it. When Ruby was four years old, her family moved to New Orleans.
Segregation Now: The Resegregation of America’s Schools
White students once accounted for a majority of the Tuscaloosa school district's students. But by the mid-1990s, they made up less than a third. Total enrollment had dropped from 13,500 in 1969 to 10,300 in 1995. Many white parents had decided to send their children to nearly all-white private schools or to move across the city line to access the heavily white Tuscaloosa County Schools. Tuscaloosa's business leaders and elected officials had witnessed the transformation of other southern cities after their school districts had reached a tipping point—the point at which white parents become unsettled by the rising share of black students in a school, and pull their children from the school en masse.
March on Washington
History >> Civil Rights for Kids Background to the March Despite gaining their freedom from slavery after the end of the civil war, African Americans were still facing legal discrimination in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Black Peoples of America - How Slaves Lived - History
For more information on counter-intuitive facts of ancient, medieval, and modern history, see Anthony Esolen’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization. Africans sold as slaves in the Americas had to rely on their owners providing them with housing or building materials, pots and pans for cooking and eating, food and clothing. Many slaves did the best they could with what they were given.
MLK's Selma march captured by Stephen Somerstein's lens
18 January 2015Last updated at 19:18 ET Student newspaper editor Stephen Somerstein travelled to Alabama to see Martin Luther King, Jr Some of the most memorable news imagery of the post-war years came from the struggle for black equality, when photojournalism doubled as iconography.
Jim Crow Laws
History >> Civil Rights for KidsWhat were the Jim Crow laws? Jim Crow laws were laws in the South based on race. They enforced segregation between white people and black people in public places such as schools, transportation, restrooms, and restaurants. They also made it difficult for black people to vote.
How Rosa Parks Fought for Civil Rights
Sitting Down On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, after a long day of work as a seamstress for a Montgomery, Alabama, department store, Rosa Parks boards a city bus to go home. Tired as she is, Mrs.
Segregation
Before 1954 Although Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the US through his Emancipation Declaration in 1863, blacks were still being discriminated against for almost another century. It was not before the beginning of the 1950s when the 1896 Supreme Court ruling separate but equal gradually ceased to exist. In 1955 it was Mrs Rosa Parks who protested against separate seating in buses in Montgomery, Ala, by refusing to stand up from her seat in the front of a public bus, as it was customary for blacks only to be seated in the back.
Martin Luther King Slideshow
Civil-rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of King’s death, this B1 sequence will allow pupils to explore his life and legacy. After briefly sharing what they already know about this inspiring figure, students will watch a video and learn more about MLK’s final days and his assassination. In groups, they will then collect more information from adownloadable animated slideshow about his life and achievements in order to write MLK’s obituary. Culture, language and structures
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in practice Jim Crow Laws condemned black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities. Education was segregated as were public facilities such as hotels and restaurants under Jim Crow Laws. In fact, the United States military was segregated until integrated by Harry S. Truman after World War II.
Remembering Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws robbed African Americans of basic rights. Danger, Violence, Exploitation Blacks in the Jim Crow South faced lynchings, insults and thievery at the hands of whites. Communities "Behind the Veil"African Americans built vital social institutions to fight segregation and uplift the race.
The rise of racially diverse superheroes
Groundbreaking Australian series, Cleverman (ABC) has pop-culture junkies excited for ethnic and cultural diversity in hero and post-apocalyptic worlds. As the first convincing Aboriginal superhero made an explosive debut on our screens this month, we look at how, simply, having racial diversity on-screen is a milestone for an industry of blockbusters with white Supermans, Barry Allens, Oliver Queens, Rip Hunters, Jessica Joneses, Johnny Dominos, Agent Carters, Supergirls, James Gordons and even, Buffy the Vampire Slayers (*phew*). Koen West, played by Hunter Page Lochard, is the Cleverman (Image: ABC) Dr Terri Jenke, an Indigenous Solicitor Director and NAIDOC 'Person of the Year', recently told SBS that when she was growing up, her perception of the world told her that 'her skin, was not the skin of a winner.' Fortunately, we are seeing a shift in the industry’s casting.
Tommie Smith on 1968 Olympic protest with John Carlos, athlete activism - Sports Illustrated
There wasn’t a specific plan in place on that day in Mexico City in October 1968, when 24-year-old Tommie Smith won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 200 meters and approached the podium alongside third-place finisher and fellow American John Carlos. But both men knew they would protest against racial injustice in some form. What they didn’t know is that their actions would spark a legacy of athlete activism. “We were preparing to walk across the track and get on the victory stand and receive the award. John Carlos and I had talked and we knew we were going to do something,” says Smith, now 76. “But nobody knew exactly what Tommie Smith and John Carlos were going to do, including Tommie Smith and John Carlos.”
