US civil rights movement (1954–1965)

Southern state laws (roughly 1877–1965) that forced racial segregation in schools, transport and public spaces.

Treating a group unfairly because of their race, religion or another feature.

Keeping racial groups apart, either by law or by social custom.

That segregation was legal as long as facilities were 'separate but equal' — even though they rarely were.

That segregated public schools were unconstitutional, overturning the 'separate but equal' idea.

Blocking a group's right to vote. In the South it was done with literacy tests and a poll tax.

A 14-year-old Black boy murdered in Mississippi in 1955; his killers were acquitted, exposing racial violence.

A white supremacist group that used threats, beatings and lynching to enforce segregation through fear.

De jure is segregation forced by law (the South); de facto is segregation by custom, housing and money (the North).

Laws (segregation), Votes blocked (disenfranchisement) and Violence (the threat that enforced it).

A judgement: weigh both sides and reach a supported conclusion — not just a list of examples.

A 381-day refusal by black residents to ride Montgomery's buses after Rosa Parks's arrest; it ended bus segregation there and launched Martin Luther King Jr.

Peacefully breaking or blocking unjust rules on purpose to force change and win public sympathy.

Keeping black and white people apart by law, giving black Americans worse schools, separate facilities and, in many places, no real vote.

Four black students sat at a whites-only lunch counter and refused to leave; the tactic spread across cities and led to the formation of SNCC.

CORE activists rode buses into the South to test desegregation; mob violence forced the federal government to enforce desegregation of bus terminals.

Police turned fire hoses and dogs on peaceful marchers, including children; the shocking images built national support for a civil rights law.

A peaceful gathering of about 250,000 people demanding jobs and freedom, where King gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech.

After 'Bloody Sunday' violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the outrage helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Boycotts, sit-ins, Freedom Rides and marches (B-S-R-M).

When peaceful protesters were attacked, the media images won public sympathy, embarrassed the government and made ignoring the movement impossible.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A judgement: weigh the factors against each other and reach a supported conclusion, not just a list.

A campaign by Black Americans and their allies to end segregation and win equal rights, especially in the Southern states.

Laws that forced Black and white people to use separate facilities and treated Black people as second class.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (founded 1909); it fought segregation through the courts.

The NAACP lawyer who won Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, making school segregation unconstitutional.

A year-long boycott of Montgomery's buses, sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest and led by Martin Luther King, that ended bus segregation there.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by King in 1957 to organise large nonviolent protests.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (founded 1960), a youth group that grew from the lunch-counter sit-ins.

The Freedom Rides, which tested and challenged segregation on interstate buses.

He rejected nonviolence, calling instead for Black self-defence, self-reliance and Black pride rather than integration.

The NAACP fought mainly through the courts, while the SCLC organised mass nonviolent protests and marches.

By explaining the source's origin, purpose and content — never just saying 'it is biased'.

The NAACP, Martin Luther King and the SCLC, the student groups SNCC and CORE, and Malcolm X.