Day of Courage: Civil Rights

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates -- both African American and white -- showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. This was the program for the day held at the Lincoln Memorial, along with a map of the site where the march began and ended.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942, pioneered nonviolent civil rights activism. Members organized and participated in many sit-ins, freedom rides and other nonviolent actions during the Civil Rights era. This newsletter from 1960 informs readers about the arrests throughout the South of CORE members and Martin Luther King, Jr. for lunch counter sit-ins.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942, pioneered nonviolent civil rights activism. Members organized and participated in many sit-ins, freedom rides and other nonviolent actions during the Civil Rights era. This newsletter from 1961 pictures Jim Farmer, one of the founders of CORE, and informs readers about the continuing struggle to desegregate lunch counters throughout the country.

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in 1942, pioneered nonviolent civil rights activism. Members organized and participated in sit-ins, freedom rides and other nonviolent actions during the Civil Rights era. This newsletter informed members about a sit-in in Miami, Florida.

In 1931, nine black youths were unjustly accused of raping two white women in Alabama. White juries quickly convicted and sentenced eight of the defendants to death. This 1932 issue of the Labor Defender urged readers to support the efforts by the International Labor Defense, the legal arm of the Communist Party of the United States, to free the "Scottsboro Boys."

Some of those opposed to civil rights during the 1960s tried to discredit the movement and its leaders. The Alabama Legislative Commission to Preserve the Peace produced this document to expose potential communist threats. This brochure spoke out against the 1964 Civil Rights Bill as a threat to America and the American way of life.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her courageous act of protest sparked the Civil Rights movement. This publication from April 1956 contains details and a timeline of the months following Parks's arrest. Its cover depicts African Americans boycotting the bus line in nonviolent protest.

The term "Jim Crow" implied the systematic practice of discriminating against and segregating African Americans, especially in the American South, from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries. The Civil Rights Congress (1946-1956) became a brief force in civil rights battles. However, with its ties to the American Communist Party, it became victim to Cold War anticommunism and government repression.

Since 1945, Ebony has focused upon issues, personalities, and interests geared to the African-American market. During the civil rights era of the 1950s and 60s, the magazine regularly kept Americans apprised of the movement for equality. This cover features the 1965 March on Montgomery. This nonviolent demonstration helped secure voting rights legislation for all American citizens.

By 1900, most southern states required citizens to pay a tax to vote. Poll taxes were one way to keep Blacks and many poor whites from voting. Though some states repealed their poll tax laws by 1950, five still clung to them. The passage of the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1964 and subsequent court rulings abolished the discriminatory practice.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at this peaceful march to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. Television viewers nationwide watched African Americans and whites march together, united behind a common cause. Songs and speeches at this march included Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates -- both African American and white -- showed up at this peaceful march on August 28, 1963, to support unity, jobs, and a new Civil Rights bill being proposed by President Kennedy. This LP record includes speeches by ten Civil Rights leaders heard at the Lincoln Memorial that day.

Allies of desegregation could support the civil rights movement by boycotting southern companies and products. In 1965, the Albany (New York) Chapter of the NAACP promoted a boycott of Mississippi goods. This manual listed the companies and products its members should avoid. It was hoped that the loss of customer dollars would help put an end to that state's segregationist policies.

The Committee for Cooperation with the New South sought to change the discriminatory and segregationist policies in the post-World War II South. With this brochure, the committee targeted Northerners to back their cause. Supporters were urged to donate a dollar or more to aid progressive Southerners who promoted voter registration, "Negro liberation" and the interests of sharecroppers.

In 1960, four African-American students sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and were refused service. This poster, produced by the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), urged Americans to boycott the national five-and-dime chain. It was hoped that the loss of customer dollars would spur company officials to end the segregationist policies found in its southern stores.

Released in 1962, this album gave voice to local civil rights leaders and demonstrators in their struggle to desegregate Albany, Georgia. African-Americans in Albany had begun to challenge segregation policies in 1961. Though momentum waned when large numbers of marchers and demonstrators were jailed, Albany's African-American community continued to challenge -- and eventually change -- local segregation laws.