Important Personalities
Emmitt Till: (1941-1955)
- Lived in Chicago -> less racist environment than South
- Went to visit his uncle in the summer of 1955 (Money, Mississippi)
- 24th August: whistled at white cashier (Carolyn Bryant)
- 28th August 1955: kidnapped, brutally tortured and murdered at age 14 by husband of white cashier & brother (Roy Bryant & J.W. Milam)
- Homicide was brought to court, but Bryant and Milam acquitted by all-white jury within 60 minutes
- Shocked and enfuriated Black communities all over the U.S., pictures of Till were published
- Young generation could relate to/identify with Till
- sparked first protestes which would influence Montgomerey Bus Boycott and others
Rosa Parks: (1913-2005)
- Born & raised in Tuskegee, Alabama => aware of extreme racism
- Married Raymond Parks; started working for NAACP
- December 1st,1955: refused to give up seat in bus to White man => arrested
- After Till‘s murder, this caused the breakout of the build-up anger of Black population
- Catalyst for Montgomery Bus Boycott
- After arrest, continued work for NAACP
- Became icon of Civil Rights Movement; best remembered female of Movement
- 1997, awarded Congressional Gold Medal
- Died in Detroit, 2005
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
W.E.B. DuBois: (1868-1963)
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Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise":
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Ella Baker: (1903-1986)
- born in Virginia, influenced by grandmother, who was a slave and resisted White repression and brutality
- mostly unknown hero and one of few leading females in the movement
- gratuated 1927 as valedictorian of her class
- 1940: started working as field secretary for NAACP
- fought against Jim Crow by co-founding "In Friendship" organisation
- 1957: helped Martin Luther King Jr. with organising the SCLC (Southern Christian Leaderhip Conference)
- created SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinatin Committee)
- saw young, activist generation as important source for movement
"The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violene..." -Ella Baker
- died in 1986