Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Born: January 15, 1929• Encouraged African American people to take a

non-violent approach to gaining freedom• Led a famous march at Washington• Assassinated: April 4, 1968

The March at Washington

• Led by Dr. MLK, JR.• August 28, 1963• About 250,000 gathered for this march• It was here that Dr. MLK, Jr. gave his

famous “I Have a Dream” speech

Malcolm X

• Born: May 19, 1925• Insisted that violence was necessary for a

“real revolution”• Rallied African Americans to use force to

gain their rights• Assassinated: February 21, 1965

Rosa Parks

• Born: February 4, 1913• Refused to give up her seat in a bus• As a result, she was arrested, but also

sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott• Died: October 24, 2005

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Started in December, 1955• All black people refused to ride the buses• The government finally gave in and halted

all segregation on buses

Frederick Douglass

• He was a former slave• Became an abolitionist• Fought others about cruelties of slavery

Harriet Tubman

• Former slave• Freed slaves with the use of the famous

Underground Railroad• Became a spy for the Union• Also active in women’s suffrage movement

Sojourner Truth• Like Fredrick Douglas, Sojourner was a

former slave• She preached about ending slavery• She also fought for equal treatment• Women’s rights activist as well

“I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right”

John Brown

• Led slave rebellion at Harper’s Ferry• This raid was unsuccessful• He led slaves to the federal armory so that

they could be armed against the whites

Attack on Harper’s Ferry

John F. Kennedy

• He was the President during the Civil Rights Movement

• Passed many laws to make sure that all blacks could vote and get good education

• Ended segregation for the most part

• “We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?”

• “Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise.”

Civil Rights Address