Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

Axia College Material

Appendix C

Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements

Identify leaders of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and their contributions to their respective causes. How did these social pioneers forge the way for this important ratification? What legislation was relevant during these critical times?

Part I

Complete the following matrix by identifying 7 to 10 leaders or legislative events from both the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The first leader is provided as a model.

Leader and Associated Legislation, if any Date(s) Organization and/or Cause Contribution

A. Philip Randolph 1941 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which fought Discrimination His threat to march on Washington to protest discriminatory treatment caused former President Franklin D. Roosevelt to react with new policies on job discrimination.

Harriet Tubman 1849 Founder of the Underground Railroad After escaping slavery, she was inspired to help others do the same and started the Underground Railroad.

Rosa Parks

1955 NAACP member Her arrest for not giving up her seat on the bus led to the buses being desegregated in 1956

Abraham Lincoln

1863 United States President Abolished slavery by signing the Emancipation Proclamation and freeing the slaves

Stokely Carmichael

1966 Leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University Paved the way for young blacks to have a place in the Civil Rights Movement

James Meredith

1962

1966 First black student to enroll in the University of Mississippi. Encouraged African Americans to vote Started a one man march for voting rights and was later shot

Martin Luther King Jr.

1955-56 & 1963 Southern Christian Leadership Conference Boycotted buses 1955-1956

Led several marches and rallys for equal rights

Lyndon B Johnson 1964 United States President Outlawed the poll tax that stopped blacks from voting

Harry Truman

1948 United States President Signs Executive Order 9981 for equal treatment of armed forces regardless of color, race religion

Dwight D Eisenhower 1957 United States President 9 black students are prevented from entering a school in Little Rock Arkansas and the president