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Introduction

The Civil Rights Movement The NAACP vs. Topeka School Board The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), challenged the Supreme Court about their decision made on Black American's education, in 1954. The court ruled that segregation was acceptable as long as the different schools had `equal` facilities. The NAACP tool the Topeka school board in Kansas to court as a test case. In the `Brown vs. Topeka, Kansas`, NAACP argued why didn't they send seven year old Linda Brown to the nearest school to her, which was a few blocks away, than the all black school several kilometres away. Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court ruled on the 17 May 1954 `in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place`. This verdict stated that Black and White American children attended the same schools. The Montgomery Bus Boycott Segregation on buses was horrible and endured by black people on a daily basis. In Montgomery, Alabama on the 1 December in 19555, a forty-two year old woman named Rosa Parks refused a direct order by the bus driver to give up her seat to a white man and stand at the end of the bas, as required by law. Ms Rosa Parks was arrested and fined $10; however within 48hours her angry friends and family had staged a 24 hour bus boycott that was extremely successful a and so decided to continue with the boycott until the bus company agreed to seat all passengers on a first-come basis. Since about 75% of people that took the bus boycott was extremely damaging to the bus company financially. However integration was under attack, the bus company backed by the Mayor and most of the white communities wouldn't back down. In spite of this the black community refused to back down and stood united and determined with the slogan `People don't ride the bus today. ...read more.

Middle

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up to investigate complaints * 1965-Voting Rights Act-stopped racial discrimination with the respect to vote * 1967-Supreme Court-ruled that state laws forbidding inter-racial marriages were unconstitutional * 1968-Civil Rights Act (Fair Housing Act)-made racial discrimination in housing illegal Martin Luther King Martin Luther King was born Michael Luther King on the 15 January 1929 in Alabama, he was one of three children and at the age of six, he was renamed to Martin Luther King. His father, Martin Luther King senior, was a pastor at the church and his mother Alberta King was a former schoolteacher. Martin Luther King was well educated and enrolled in college in 1944. When Dr King received his bachelor's degree in 1948 he attended the Crozer Theological Seminary and graduated an outstanding student. On the 18 June 1953, Martin Luther King married Coretta Scott, and then he returned to the south to become pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr King had his first child (Yolanda Denise) who was born on the 17 November 1955 in Alabama. Here in Montgomery, Alabama was where Dr King made his first major break through by mobilizing the black community in a 382 day bus boycott. King was arrested and received other violent harassment including the bombing of his home. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was `unconstitutional`. On the 27 January 1957 an unexploded b**b was sound on Martin Luther King's front porch. In 1957 a meeting was held which was attended by a number of black leaders about an organisation called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King was elected president of it, in which he soon began helping other communities organise protests against discrimination. Dr King published his book Stride Toward Freedom: Montgomery on the 17 September 1958, when autographing his book at a department store in Harlem he was attacked by a deranged black woman who tried to stab him. ...read more.

Conclusion

Dr King helped integrate buses through the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He set up organisations such as the Student Non-Violent Co-0rdinating Committee (SNCC) and moved his members so much so, that some dropped their studies to work full-time in areas most resistant to integration. He lea mass demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1963, which forced President Kennedy to submit the civil rights legislation that later became an act. Dr King organised the March on Washington o the 28 August 1963 that brought about the Voting Rights Act. Martin Luther King is probably best known for his `I have a dream` speech which is known worldwide and still moves people to this very day. Lastly when the other strong civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, the black community mourned, however when Martin Luther King was assassinated a wave of violence spread throughout the US nation, and the President even announced an official day of mourning for the whole of America. In addition 300000 people attended his funeral and today he has a national holiday in America called Martin Luther King Day held on his birthday the 15 January. In the USA at the end of the 1960's racial inequality still existed, although there were acts to stop this. Black people had many basic rights that were made law, unlike white people who were born with this right (ie. right to vote). Black Americans had the right to vote (Voting Act 1965), equal education (Little Rock, 1954), a civil rights act passed in 1957 which made discrimination illegal and another one in 1964 that outlawed racial discrimination in employment and a Fair Housing Act passed in 1968 made racial discrimination in housing illegal. Although these cats were passed, lynching of black people still happened even in the 1980's when a `young black man` called `Douglas McDonald` was `lynched on the 12 October 1981`. This lynching shows the issue of race hadn't gone away. ...read more.

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