Civil rights movement in the United States: Protests & action

Protests & Civil Disobedience

Sit-ins: A form of protest popularised by students of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Participants would simply sit in segregated places and refuse to leave until served, or until closing. These started from the iconic Greensboro sit-in in 1960.
Freedom Rides: Organised by organisations like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), mixed racial groups travelled on interstate buses to challenge the non-enforcement of desegregation rulings.
Marches: Many marches were organised to highlight and protest against racial inequality, including the Selma to Montgomery marches which were instrumental in the passing of the Voting Rights Act (1965).
Boycott of segregated buses: Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, and sustained by the figure like Martin Luther King Jr., this nonviolent boycott led to the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

Brown v. Board of Education: The 1954 Supreme Court case ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the previous ‘separate but equal’ doctrine.
Civil Rights Act (1964): This act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.
Voting Rights Act (1965): This act prohibited racial discrimination in voting, removing barriers like literacy tests.

Martin Luther King Jr.: A prominent leader of the civil rights movement and a proponent of nonviolent protest, his influence was key to the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
Rosa Parks: Her refusal to relinquish her seat to a white passenger sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the first major protests against segregation.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC): An organisation of young activists who were influential in events such as sit-ins and Freedom Rides.
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): Committed to bring about equality for all regardless of race, creed or national origin, it played a major role in the Freedom Rides.

Little Rock Nine (1957): This courageous group of black students faced anger and violence when they were the first to integrate into a white school following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Los Angeles Riots (1965): These riots occurred in the predominantly black Watts neighbourhood, highlighting the racial tension and discrimination prevalent in the north as well as the south of the country.
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968): The murder of King led to national (and international) mourning, and incited many riots in various American cities. His death marked the end of a significant chapter in civil rights history.