African American Politicians & Civil Rights Activists
CHAPTER ONE SOWING THE SEEDS FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 4 CHAPTER TWO FOUR LEADERS FOR FREEDOM 8 CHAPTER THREE THE CRISIS IS BORN 15 CHAPTER FOUR ORGANIZING FOR THE CAUSE 20 CHAPTER FIVE THE FEARLESS IDA B WELLS-BARNETT 25 CHAPTER SIX CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON LEARNING FROM THE BEST 32 CHAPTER SEVEN DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR A TIMELY LEADER 39 GLOSSARY 46 FURTHER READING 47 INDEX 48 CONTENTS
SOWING THE SEEDS FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT What What are civil rights Civil rights are the rights that all citizens are supposed to have for example the right to go to school to ride a bus and to eat in a restaurant The right to vote The right to be protected equally by the law But in the United States the laws have not always been fair Even after the Civil War ended slavery black Americans were not treated the same as whites Many states particularly in the South had laws and traditions that discriminated against black Americans Along with many whites black citizens have fought against those practices ever since JIM CROW PLAGUES THE SOUTH Following the Civil War blacks living in the South were segregated segregated from whites on trains and buses in schools and restaurants restaurants and even in public bathrooms Some laws made it illegal illegal for blacks and whites to shake hands or play checkers These racist Jim Crow laws got their unusual name from minstrel 4 CHAPTER ONE
SOWING THE SEEDS FOR THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT African American people were not allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people shows Minstrel stage shows featured white performers performers with their faces painted black The actors were pretending to be African Americans They portrayed blacks as being inferior whites One minstrel minstrel performer sang a song called Jump Jim Crow This song was so popular that the term Jim Crow became a nasty way to refer to black Americans A Louisiana law said that railroads had to provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races In 1892 a light-skinned black man challenged it Homer Plessey sat in a whites only train car When he told the conductor he was part African American he was ordered to move Mr Plessey refused He was arrested and convicted of breaking the law His lawyers fought back Sadly shockingly in a case called Plessey v Ferguson the US Supreme Court decided that separate but equal laws were legal Understandably black and many white Americans felt that separate but equal laws were terrible Prejudice and racial problems were becoming worse In 1908 in Springfield Illinois two black men were accused of committing crimes against whites The arrests triggered race riots For two long days whites attacked blacks They killed two people injured hundreds and burned down many black-owned black-owned homes and businesses 5
