Civil Rights

Unit Review Sheet

Facts and Definitions

Lesson 1: Life Under Segregation

• Civil rights are the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution, including the right to participate equally in the political and civic life of the nation. The right to free speech is a civil right, as is the right to vote (for those of legal voting age).
• Prejudice is an opinion that is formed without the benefit of experience, reasoned argument, or factual information. If someone thinks negatively about a particular group of people without having any rational basis for that opinion, then that person may be prejudiced against that group.
• Discrimination is unjust treatment of someone based on their membership in a certain category. For example, if someone with a prejudice against people with disabilities refuses to serve them at his place of business, that would be discrimination.
• Racism refers the belief that all of the members of each race possess particular traits, skills, or characteristics unique to their race; the belief that one or more races may be superior to others; and the discrimination that is based on those kinds of beliefs. (While racism is a form of prejudice and often leads to discrimination, it is not the only kind of prejudice, nor is it the only cause of discrimination.)
• Segregation is the act of setting someone or something apart. During the time of the Civil Rights Movement, segregation referred to the enforced separation of people of different races within a community.

Lesson 2: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted over a year and was the first mass action of the Civil Rights Movement in protest of segregation.
• A young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as a leader in the bus boycott. He eventually became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and became one of the most well-known activists and inspirational leaders in American history.

Lesson 3: School Desegregation

• Be sure that you know the significance of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.

Lesson 4: Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides

• Nonviolent direct action was an important strategy of the Civil Rights Movement. "Nonviolent" meant that activists would protest peacefully, even if others used force against them. "Direct action" meant that people publicly and actively did things to cause change, like marches, sit-ins, or boycotts.
• Sit-ins started when African-American students would go to the "white-only" section of department store lunch counters and ask to be served. The practice became a movement across the South involving thousands of activists and other segregated facilities.
• Civil disobedience is the refusal to obey laws that you believe to be unjust.
• Freedom Rides involved interracial groups riding buses through the South to protest segregation on buses and trains, a practice that was illegal but still widespread in the South.

Lesson 5: Music and Youth in the Movement

• In May 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, young people participated in protests led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. You should know what happened in these protests.
• By the end of this lesson, you should be familiar with the protest songs of the Civil Rights Movement.

Lesson 6: Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Remember the concepts of non-violence, direct action, and civil disobedience from earlier lessons.
• Be able to explain how Dr. King's work drew on those three concepts.

Lesson 7: Freedom Summer

• In 1964, hundreds of college students from northern schools joined Freedom Summer, traveling to Mississippi to help register African-American voters and open freedom schools.

Lesson 8: Conducting Your Research

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Lesson 9: Legacies of the Movement

• Be able to explain some of the ways that the Civil Rights Movement changed America in the 1950s and 1960s.

Final Project: Presenting Your Research

• Know what nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience are.
• Review your activity pages and readings from this unit for your unit test.