Civil Rights: Like a Mighty Stream

 

Brown v. Board of Education inspired hopes that African Americans could achieve equal rights in American society. After decades of segregation and discrimination, African Americans were willing to take incredible risks to stand up against unfair laws. But just what types of risks would they and other civil rights activists be willing to take? Read the seven statements that follow, and record whether you believe each is true or false.

The Civil Rights Movement: True or False? 1. On the first day of a bus boycott to protest segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, 90 percent of the city's African American riders stayed off the buses. 2. Leaders of the Montgomery busy boycott brought their case before the Supreme Court, which declared segregation unconstitutional. 3. On the first day of desegregation at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African Americans students faced an angry White mob that tried to stop them from attending school. 4. After college students staged a "sit-in" at an all-White lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation, the city became the first large Southern city to end segregation. 5. The protests led by children in Birmingham, Alabama, were considered successful because police arrested few participants. 6. Around 250,000 people traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C., to participate in a 1963 demonstration protesting racial discrimination. 7. In 1964, Freedom Summer participants in Mississippi faced violence, including beatings, bombings, and shooting, and at least six people were murdered.