Leaders and Legislation of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements Part I Fred Shuttlesworth 1956 - Former

chairman of the NAACP in Alabama, until it was outlawed by that state's government in 1956. Shortly thereafter Shuttlesworth founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Civil Rights to continue the NAACP's work, demanding civil rights through litigation. Mary McLeod Bethune 1904, 1935 - Founded a precedent setting African American only school, the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls in 1904, and was appointed as President Roosevelt's special ad visor on minority affairs. Thurgood Marshall 1954 - Was the victorious attorney in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. which determined that segregation in schools was illegal. Later became the first African American Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Stokely Carmichael 1966 - Coined the phrase 'black power' and, as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, ejected moderate members to transition the group into a radical, separatist organization. Marcus Garvey 1914 - Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, with the mission of improving black prospects and power by going 'Back to Africa'. Executive Order 11246 1965 - The order, issued by President Johnson, mandated affirmative action policies to equalize opportunities and treatment in employment. Voting Rights Act 1965 - Struck down 'Jim Crow' laws such as required fees and other restrictions formerly used to discourage African Americans from voting Huey Newton 1966 - Co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, originally a militant group which encouraged violent means in order to overcome discrimination and oppression as an alternative to the primarily nonviolent civil rights movement. John Rock 1865 - Became the first African American to be admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, was a life long abolitionist, and also one of the first licensed African American doctors. Also invented the saying 'Black is beautiful'. LeRoi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka) 1965 - Wrote the poem, 'Black Art' which became a manifesto for the politically oriented BAM, and was considered the official founder of the movement which drew in many brilliant Black writers and artists such as Maya Angelou, Al Haynes, and Ron Karenga (originator of Kwanzaa).

Part II

Civil disobedience was absolutely essential and integral to the success of the civil rights movement. Several instances stand out including the famous refusal of Rosa Parks to switch seats on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This action actually echoed a similar stance taken by Homer Plessy who in 1892 refused to vacate a 'whites only' car on a train in Louisiana. This technique was likely one of the most successful of the entire rights movement as it incited police and others to violence while demonstrating the pacifist, yet passionately committed, stance of oppressed blacks with an extremely hard to ignore example of the discrimination they suffered on a daily basis.