In this digital age of disinformation, it’s easy for simple facts about the Civil Rights Movement to get misconstrued. During this era, which rose to prominence in the 1950s, Black folks worked diligently—and even lost their lives along the way—to level the racist playing field and achieve equal rights. As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, here are some important things to get right about one of the most vital movements in American history.
The Freedom Riders were a group of activists who traveled in the South in 1961 to participate in non-violent protests. Though some believe that they were all Black activists, the original Freedom Riders consisted of 13 people, seven Black and six White.
In March 1955, Claudette Colvin was a 15-year old Black teen who was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman at the front of a bus in Montgomery, Ala. This happened several months before Rosa Parks was arrested for the exact same thing. However, Parks became the more prominent figure of the bus boycotts that followed as Colvin became pregnant shortly after.
Brown v. Board of Education made the segregation of public schools and facilities illegal, with many people in the South publicly scoffing at the decision. The North wasn’t free from segregation as many believed, as techniques like redlining and blockbusting were employed to stop Black people from buying property in the 1960s.
Though Black Panther members did carry firearms to defend themselves, they also worked diligently to build their communities. They started programs such as the Free Breakfast Program for Children and helped folks with tuberculosis testing, legal aid and transportation assistance.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had different approaches to the Civil Rights Movement, which led folks to speculate for decades that the men were enemies. However, Malcolm and King only met once in Washington, D.C. in 1964. Less than a year later, Malcolm was assassinated.
Even though Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the center of the Civil Rights Movement, he was feared and hated by white people—which was only exacerbated after he spoke out against the Vietnam War. According to one account, President Lyndon B. Johnson allegedly said, “What is that goddamned n**ger preacher doing to me? We gave him the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we gave him the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we gave him the War on Poverty. What more does he want?”
Though some think that the Civil Rights Movement began in the 1950, two Supreme Court decisions mark two important dates within it. The 1896 ruling of Plessy v Ferguson permitted “separate but equal” racial segregation. The court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education would overturn Plessy.
Coretta Scott King was an activist before she married Martin Luther King Jr. She led the Poor People’s campaign after his passing, and helped inspired the 1972 National Black Political Convention. Coretta was also an advocate of gay rights. Rosa Parks was an activist as well and played a significant role in mobilizing communities.
Even though Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected voting rights for Black people, attempts to register Black voters in southern states continued to was met with fierce resistance. The act also did not address all the legal and illegal methods white people used to systematically deny Black people the right to vote in state and local elections. On Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to remedy this.
In 1957, nine Black students agreed to register at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas as southern states continued to block integration. When they arrived for the first day of classes on Sept. 4, they were accosted by a mob of white students as well as 250 Arkansas National Guard officers sent by Governor Orval Faubus to stop them from entering. The standoff lasted several weeks until President Dwight Eisenhower sent U.S. troops to enforce the integration order.
Local news media during the Civil Rights movement downplayed peaceful Black protests about segregation while portraying white people sympathetically even though they violently resisted integration. Black leaders were often portrayed as dangerous and not as part of a larger movement.
Nonviolent protests were often met with violence from law enforcement officials. One of the most prominent examples of this in 1965 when Alabama state troopers carrying night sticks, tear gas and other weapons rushed a group of some 600 protestors who planned to March from Selma to Montgomery. The officers beat them back to Selma. Television cameras captured the assault, which became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Though the Civil Rights Movement did result in important gains for Black people, there is still a modern-day discrepancy when it comes to wages, housing, income, education access and incarceration rates. Black people suffer significantly more than their white counterparts—Donald Trump’s presidency will worsen these conditions.
