On Gaining Civil Rights: Voices From the 60s

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This article was originally published in Scholastic Search.

"Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever."

— George Wallace, Governor of Alabama

"We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

— Martin Luther King, Jr., at a bus boycott rally

"We'll take hitting, we'll take beating. We're willing to accept death. But we're going to keep going till we can ride from anywhere in the South to anywhere else in the South."

— Jim Zwerg, Freedom Rider, after being beaten by a Montgomery mob

"Love is the central motif of nonviolence. Such love goes to the extreme; it remains loving and forgiving even in the midst of hostility."

— Reverend James Lawson, to student activists in North Carolina

"Understand why the Negro must have sit-ins and freedom rides. If his repressed emotions do not come out in nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history."

— Martin Luther King Jr., in "Letter from Birmingham City Jail"

"Why don't you live for the people? Why don't you struggle for the people? Why don't you die for the people? Power to the people."

— Fred Hampton, Black Panther leader

A Conflict in Black and White
Brief history of the civil rights movement in America from 1955 to 1968.

“I Have a Dream”
Martin Luther King Jr. proved his leadership during the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, the start of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Equal Rights: Are We There Yet?
African-Americans were freed from slavery in 1865. But they were still not treated fairly in many parts of our country.

LESSON PLAN	Matthew Henson: Heroic Explorer Who Conquered Racism Explore the concept of "courage" with your class by reading a biography about Matthew Hensonck, an African-American explorer who overcame hardships...
UNIT PLAN	Liberty and Justice for All Use this unit plan to promote discussion about tolerance through research and study of the Civil Rights Movement.
ONLINE ACTIVITY	The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery Student Activity Follow a runaway slave to freedom along the Underground Railroad in 1860. The RR is a secret network of hiding places and brave people. For...