INTRODUCTION REMEMBERING THE PAST We are not makers of history We are made by history Dr Martin Luther King Jr Do you remember something that happened to you last year Do family pictures help you remember some special time years ago Maybe it was a family trip or a birthday party The other people who were there may have a different idea of what happened that day These memories are part of who you are It is your history Our country’s history is made from memories too Historians search for these memories They ask questions about life and events They keep looking for information to understand what happened Sometimes it is easy to find this information because they have many sources It is much harder to find out exactly what happened centuries ago because there are fewer sources Historians use many sources to build a picture of the past This book is about uncovering memories of the civil rights movement in the United States It took place during the 1950s and 1960s Because it wasn’t very long ago there are many sources DEFINITIONS Historians use special words to talk about time Decade A period of 10 years Century A period of 100 years Era A period during which something an event or a person is very important It describes a time period not a set number of years This book is about the civil rights era Generation Refers to a group of people who were born around the same time parents are considered to be a separate generation from their children 4 UNCOVERING THE PAST ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
EVIDENCE RECORD CARD The March on Washington D C for Jobs and Freedom LEVEL Primary source MATERIAL Photograph Photographer Warren Leffler LOCATION Washington D C DATE August 28 1963 SOURCE The Granger Collection The March on Washington D C was held on August 28 1963 About 250,000 people marched into the city to ask the United States Congress to pass a civil rights bill CIVIL RIGHTS 5
INTRODUCTION THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT The civil rights era was from about 1954 until about 1971 During it many people fought for African Americans to have the same civil rights as white Americans Civil rights are the rights and protections the government promises all people In the United States they include freedom of speech the right to be treated the same as others in public places and the right to vote People also wanted to end racism This is a belief that one race is not as good as another The U S constitution grants the same civil rights to every person The laws in some southern states took these rights away from African Americans They were discriminated against because they were not white In September 1962 President Kennedy sent troops to The University of Mississippi Whites were rioting because a federal court ruled that James Meredith must be allowed to become its first African American student DEFINITIONS What we call people changes The words that everyone used in the past may be an insult today Here are a few terms used for the people whose ancestors came to America from Africa African American The modern most acceptable term for people in the United States with dark skin whose ancestors came from Africa Black A common term used for people who have dark skin Negro The most common polite term until the late 1960s Today it is considered rude unless it is used in something written in the past Colored A term for people who have dark skin It is no longer considered acceptable in the United States Other more racist words were used Some people in the South used them without thinking Others screamed them as an insult no school in our state will be integrated while I am your Governor I shall do everything in my power to prevent integration in our schools Governor of Mississippi Ross Barnett September 13 1962 disagreeing with the federal court’s ruling 6 UNCOVERING THE PAST ANALYZING PRIMARY SOURCES
Discrimination is when a person’s civil rights are interfered with just because of one thing such as their race During the civil rights movement people held a series of organized events to get equal treatment and protection for African Americans But every movement has two sides Some white Americans especially in the South were violently against these changes Because of these differences people on both sides went to court marched voted and rioted Historians of the civil rights era tell the story of a movement that changed the United States This campaign button for Barack Obama tells that it was used in 08 2008 when he ran for office with Joe Biden That year he became the first African American to run for president and win He became a symbol of how the civil rights movement had changed the United States CIVIL RIGHTS 7
