Modern Civil Rights Movement

Montgomery Bus Boycott

This was one of the largest movements of all time. Although precipitated by the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1965 was actually a collective response to decades of intimidation, harrasment,and discrimination of Alabama's African American population. By 1955, judicial decisions were still the principal means of struggle for civil rights, even though picketing, marches, and boycotts sometimes punctuated the litigation. At the Museum, this exhibit features a Mongomery city bus restored ot its 1955 appearance and condition.

Greensboro Sit-Ins

In this city, on February 1, 1960, four African American college atudents from North Carolina A+T College (an all-black college) went to get served in an all-white resturant st Woolworths. The shop was open to all customers regardless of color, but the resturant was for whites only. They asked for food, were refused service and were asked to leave. The students had done research on what they were doing and had reast a handout on tactics of resistance by CORE (an organization of racial activists). This direct action by Ezell Blair Jr, David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil sparked offthe so-called sit-ins. However, they were not heroes to all African Americans. One Black lady, a dishwasher, behind the counter was heard to shout at them that they were "stupid, ignorant, rabble-rousers, troublemakers." When the four students returned to their campus, they were greeted as heroes by fellow students.

The photo pictured above was taken on February 2, 1960 of students who followed their example over the following days in February. It consisted of 24 students at Woolworths food counter.

Mississippi Freedom Summer

The Mississippi Freedom Summer Movement eventually was knowa as the great turn around for the Civil Rights Movement. As a result of marches, boycotts, student sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, there was progress in the South in desegregating public facilities as schools, resturants, parks, terminals and interstate buses and trains. But without the power of the vote, blacks everywhere could not politically direct and control their own lives and communities. Nowhere in the country were Africn Americans so completely removed from the seat of power than in Mississippi, where the white population continually devised means to keep them in a condition of bondage, both in practice if not in name. Concerned groups worked for many years to change the plight of voter registration. In spite of unrelieved fear, inadequate funds, and violence, they made the registration of African Americans a major focus for over three years. The Freedom Summer of 1964 developed out of these ongoing efforts. But if segregationists in Mississippi had hoped to intimidate the civil rights movement, they were nistaken. Crime broke out and spurred renewed efforts in the state to register Africna Americans to vote and national indignation over the murders of three young activists helped President Johnson pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act whilch, together with the Voting Rights Act passes the following year, ended legally mandated segregation in Mississippi and throughout the South. Seven people were eventually convicted of federal civil rights charges relating to the murders and served prison sentences ranging from3 to 10 years.

The Albany Movement

With the many accomplishments to the Civil Rights Movements, such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, there also were failures. One of the largest failures was the Albany Movement lead by Martin Luther King Jr. This movement took place in Albany in 1961 and originated as a voter regisrtation project for the town and ended up attempting to desegregate the community instead. This movement turned out to be one of the Civil Rights Movement's biggest defeats. Mant activists were arested the attempt to desegregate the bus terminals and prosecuting against the segregation of Albany. The Albany Movement never won and never made any changes in the hopes of the desegregation of Albany.

Statistics of African American population from before and after the Civil Right Movement show the majority in which they were and how important it was to them that they could vote to make a difference in the Political issues going on in the world.