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The big idea: The US civil rights movement of 1954 to 1965 was not the work of one hero. It was a team of organisations and leaders who each pushed in a different way, from courtrooms to street marches.
By the 1950s, Black Americans in the Southern states still lived under segregation, a system of laws that kept them apart from white people and treated them as second class. To break it down, different groups picked different tools.
Some fought through the courts, some organised huge peaceful protests, and some, later on, argued that peaceful protest was not enough. Knowing who did what is the heart of this topic.
Spot it: two kinds of actor: Every actor here is either an organisation (like the NAACP or SNCC) or an individual leader (like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X). Sort them that way and the topic gets simple.
The movement had a courtroom wing, a mass-protest wing, a student wing, and a more radical wing. Each mattered, and they often worked at the same time.
Here is who they were and what each one actually did.
The NAACP — the courtroom fighters
The NAACP fought segregation through the law. Its lawyer Thurgood Marshall won the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional.
Martin Luther King and the SCLC
Martin Luther King Jr. rose to fame leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to 1956, sparked when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat.
In 1957 King helped found the SCLC, which organised large nonviolent campaigns across the South.
The student groups — SNCC and CORE
Younger activists wanted faster, bolder action. SNCC grew out of the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins, and CORE organised the 1961 Freedom Rides, testing bans on segregated interstate buses.
Malcolm X and a different path
Not everyone agreed with nonviolence. Malcolm X, long a spokesman for the Nation of Islam Nation of Islam, argued that Black Americans should defend themselves and build their own power, 'by any means necessary'. He challenged King's peaceful approach.
How the actors built the movement, step by step
1954 · The NAACP wins in court
Thurgood Marshall wins Brown v. Board, making school segregation illegal and giving the movement legal momentum.
1955–56 · King leads Montgomery
After Rosa Parks's arrest, King leads a year-long bus boycott that ends segregation on Montgomery's buses.
1960–61 · Students step up
SNCC runs sit-ins and CORE runs the Freedom Rides, forcing the government to protect protesters.
1963–65 · Peak and pressure
The 1963 March on Washington and 1965 Selma marches push Congress toward the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.
Courts, then buses, then students, then the world watching.
Nonviolent wing (King, SCLC, SNCC early on)
- Believed peaceful protest would win public sympathy and change the law
- Used boycotts, marches and sit-ins
- Wanted integration, meaning Black and white people living together as equals
More militant wing (Malcolm X, Nation of Islam)
- Doubted that peaceful protest alone could end deep racism
- Called for self-defence and Black self-reliance
- Stressed Black pride and separate Black power rather than integration
| Year | Actor | What they did |
|---|---|---|
| 1954 | NAACP (Thurgood Marshall) | Won Brown v. Board — ended legal school segregation |
| 1955–56 | King and the SCLC | Led the Montgomery Bus Boycott |
| 1960 | SNCC | Organised the student sit-ins |
| 1961 | CORE | Ran the Freedom Rides |
| 1963 | King and the SCLC | Led the March on Washington |
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How this is tested (Paper 1): Paper 1 is source-based, so a source might be a leader's speech or a photo of a march. A common 4-mark task asks you to judge a source's value and limitations using its origin, purpose and content.
A source is a 1963 printed leaflet from the SCLC urging Black citizens to join a peaceful march. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the values and limitations of this source for a historian studying the civil rights movement.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Common mistakes: Do not just say a source is 'biased' and stop there. Explain why its origin or purpose makes it useful or limited, and answer the exact words of the question.