Civil Rights
Information and Web Sites

Civil Rights Leaders:  Study Guide

 

A Civil Rights leader is someone who fights for equal rights. 

 

 

Equal – the same as someone or something else

 

Segregation – the separation of people based on the color of their skin

 

Boycott – a group’s refusal to deal with a business or person, in order to bring about change

 

Strike – a group’s refusal to work, in order to have changes made

 

Migrant farmworker – a person who travels from one farm to another to find work

 

Suffrage – the right to vote

 

 

 

 

Susan B. Anthony

- She wanted woman to be able to vote. She fought for women’s suffrage, or women’s right to vote.

- She was arrested after voting when women were not allowed to vote.

- She led meetings and protests to change the voting laws.

- The laws were not changed until many years after her death.

 

 

 

Jackie Robinson

-He was the first African American to play major league baseball.

 

 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

-He fought for equality for black people.

-He spoke out against laws which kept black people out of many schools and jobs.

-He led peaceful protests and marches demanding fair laws for all people.

-He made his famous “I have a dream” speech where he told everyone that he hoped that someday black people and white people would be treated equal.

 

  

Rosa Parks

-She was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus so that a white man could sit down.

-People of Montgomery, Alabama boycotted city buses.  This caused the bus companies to lose money.  Eventually the government ordered the bus companies to stop segregation on the city buses. 

 

  

Cesar Chavez

-He fought for higher pay and better working conditions for migrant farm workers.

-He led farm workers in strikes. This is when a group of workers agrees to stop working until things change.

-He led boycotts of grapes and lettuce so the farm owners would lose money and agree to better treatment of farm workers.

-He decided to fast (to stop eating) until his followers promised that they would not use violence. Like Martin Luther King he did not believe in violence.

-Thousands of farm workers lead better lives today because of Cesar Chavez.

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/MLK/index.shtml

 

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/martinlutherking.htm

 

 

Rosa Parks’

 

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/aframer/parks/index.shtml

 

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/rosaparks1.htm

 

 

Cesar Chavez

 

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/hispanicamerican/chavez/