[3] Civil Rights Movement

WW2, 1942

Started by Pittsburgh Courier to increase the recruitment of African Americans in war to win battle overseas and against racism

Proposed by African American labor leader, Philip Randolph, to pressure Roosevelt with demand to end segregation in defense industries

Executive Order 8802, which stated that there would no discrimination in employment.

1960, lasted for 6 months. Influenced by MLK

Four African-American sophomores from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College. They sat at the lunch counter of a segregated Woolworth’s.

The Greensboro Sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in 1960 where African American college students sat at segregated lunch counters, sparking a wave of similar demonstrations across the South. The effect was increased momentum for the civil rights movement and eventual desegregation of public facilities.

1944: Arrest, 1946: US Court Case

Started because of the arrest of Irene Morgan for refusing to give up her seat in 1944. The court case would then overrule her conviction due to its conflict with the interstate commerse clause of the Constitution.

Led to the Journey of Reconciliation, where 8 Black and 8 White men would take a bus together through the Upper South states to test the South’s enforcement of the court decision.

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

Sparked civil rights movement, increased awareness of racial injustice, led to changes in legal system and public opinion.