AP US History AMSCO Guided Notes
8.6: Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1960
AMSCO Guided Notes
AP US History Guided Notes
AMSCO 8.6 - Early Steps in the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1960
Learning Objectives
- Explain how and why the civil rights movement developed and expanded from 1945 to 1960.
I. Origins of the Movement
1. What conditions did African Americans in the South face in the early 1950s regarding segregation, voting, and economic opportunity?
A. Presidential Leadership
1. How did President Truman use executive power to challenge racial discrimination?
2. What obstacles prevented Truman from achieving more comprehensive civil rights legislation?
B. Changing Attitudes in the Cold War
1. How did Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union influence American attitudes toward racial segregation?
II. Desegregating the Schools and Public Places
A. Brown Decision
1. What was the NAACP's legal strategy for overturning segregation, and what did Thurgood Marshall argue in Brown v. Board of Education?
2. What were the two key rulings made by Chief Justice Earl Warren in the Brown decision?
B. Resistance in the South
1. How did Southern politicians and states respond to the Brown decision?
2. What role did President Eisenhower play in the Little Rock crisis, and what was the outcome for school desegregation in the South?
C. Montgomery Bus Boycott
1. What triggered the Montgomery bus boycott and how did Rosa Parks's arrest lead to a broader civil rights movement?
2. How did Martin Luther King Jr. emerge as a leader during the Montgomery bus boycott, and what was the outcome?
D. Nonviolent Protests
1. What organizations did Martin Luther King Jr. and student activists create to advance the civil rights movement?
2. How did sit-ins work as a protest tactic, and what facilities did activists target during the early 1960s?
E. Federal Laws
1. What civil rights laws did President Eisenhower sign in 1957 and 1960, and what were their limitations?
Key Terms
Jackie Robinson
Harry S. Truman
Committee on Civil Rights
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Thurgood Marshall
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Earl Warren
desegregation
Southern Manifesto
Little Rock
Rosa Parks
Martin Luther King Jr.
nonviolent movement
Montgomery bus boycott
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
sit-in movement
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Civil Rights Commission