Rights and Resistance: Social Movements of Period 8 (1945–1980)

Civil Rights Movement

The struggle for racial equality that transformed from legal challenges into mass movement and included various methods of resistance.

De Jure

Legal reality, referring to laws that enforce segregation.

De Facto

Social reality, referring to customary practices that maintain segregation regardless of laws.

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led legal challenges against segregation.

Thurgood Marshall

The attorney who led the NAACP's legal challenges and later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

Brown v. Board of Education

The landmark court case that overturned segregation in public schools.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The Supreme Court case that established the 'separate but equal' doctrine.

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., promoted nonviolent direct action.

Civil Disobedience

Intentionally breaking unjust laws to provoke a reaction and gain media attention.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A protest against racial segregation on public buses, initiated by Rosa Parks.

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, focused on grassroots activism and voter registration.

Freedom Summer

A 1964 campaign to increase voter registration among African Americans in Mississippi.

Greensboro Sit-Ins

A series of nonviolent protests against segregated lunch counters, which sparked widespread sit-ins across the South.

Freedom Rides

Interstate bus trips to challenge segregation in the South, met with violence.

Birmingham Campaign

King’s protest in Birmingham, known for its violent backlash, highlighted through media coverage.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

A famous open letter by MLK that articulates the moral imperative for civil disobedience.

I Have a Dream

The iconic speech given by MLK during the March on Washington advocating for racial harmony.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Legislation that banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

24th Amendment

Prohibited poll taxes in federal elections, which disenfranchised many African Americans.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Outlawed discriminatory voting practices and aimed to increase voter registration in the South.

Malcolm X

Civil rights leader who advocated for black separatism and self-defense before moderating his views.

Black Power

A movement emphasizing racial pride and economic independence, popularized by Stokely Carmichael.

Black Panthers

A radical activist group that advocated for self-defense and community programs.

Second-Wave Feminism

The movement focusing on social and economic equality for women in the 1960s-1970s.

Betty Friedan

Author of 'The Feminine Mystique', which challenged women's roles in society.

NOW

National Organization for Women, founded to advocate for women's rights and equal opportunities.

Roe v. Wade

Supreme Court case that established a woman's legal right to an abortion.