We found 61 items that match your search
Reverend Abernathy Recalls the Montgomery Improvement Association's First Meeting
In the following excerpt, Reverend Ralph Abernathy remembers the first mass meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) at a local Baptist church on the first day of the boycott. After this, the MIA held regular weekly meetings until the [...]
An Author Encourages Direct Action Among Young People of Color
During the Black Freedom Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans were consciously changing the meaning of what it meant to be Black in America. Engaging in activism was often dangerous, and required immense sacrifice that took a lot of [...]
An Historian Reevaluates Civil Rights Scholarship
In this forward to Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South 1940-1980, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham sketches an outline of the contributions of African Americans from the Northeast, West Coast and Midwest in shaping the Civil Rights [...]
Expanding the Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott worksheet
This worksheet helps students review what they know about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the civil rights movement before more closely examining the role of women and local activists in brining about change. It is designed to go with the activity [...]
An African-American Woman Describes Segregated Buses in Montgomery, Alabama
During the Montgomery bus boycott, researchers from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee visited Montgomery to learn more about the boycott and document it. Researcher Willie Lee interviewed an African-American woman who worked as a domestic, who [...]
Background Essay on the March on Washington Movement
This essay describes the history of the March on Washington Movement, from its beginnings in 1941 to the famous 1963 March.
African-American Women Threaten a Bus Boycott in Montgomery (with text supports)
In May 1954, the Women's Political Council of Montgomery, Alabama wrote a letter to the Mayor of Montgomery asking for changes that would make the city’s public bus system treat African-American riders with more fairness. The Women’s [...]
Active Viewing: Eyes on the Prize "Awakenings"
In this activity students analyze the reasons why the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted so long and was successful. Students watch a short clip from the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Then students analyze primary [...]
Expanding the Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
In this lesson students will examine three documents about the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956) to determine the importance of local activists, especially women, in the civil rights movement. This lesson might serve as an introduction to a unit [...]
Qualifying to Vote Under Jim Crow
In this activity students learn about literacy tests and other barriers that kept black Southerners from being able to vote. Students also take a 1960s literacy test from Alabama.