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    The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement: A Perspectives Flip Book
    The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement: A Perspectives Flip Book
    The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement: A Perspectives Flip Book
    Ebook81 pages33 minutes

    The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement: A Perspectives Flip Book

    By Nadia Higgins

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    In the 1950s, a black man in the South was expected to lower his eyes when he passed a white man on the street. African-American and white citizens attended separate schools, restaurants, and parks. They were even buried in separate graveyards. That was how traditional Southern society had been for more than 300 years but times were changing. Civil rights workers were demanding equal rights for blacks. The nonviolent activists boycotted buses, flouted Jim Crow laws, staged marches, and filled up jails by the dozen. Meanwhile, the Klu Klux Klan and other white segregationists retaliated with their own protests, harsher laws, and increasingly violent attacks. The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement brings alive both sides of the civil rights movement. Learn about key figures and the strategies of the movement. Then flip the book for the lesser-known story of the segregationists and the motives that spurred their actions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCapstone Young Readers
    Release dateMay 1, 2014
    ISBN9780756549718
    The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement: A Perspectives Flip Book
    Author

    Nadia Higgins

    Nadia Higgins is the author of 50-plus books for the school library market. She also worked as an editor in the industry for almost ten years. Many of her books have a science bent, though she's also written about pop stars, car art, and zombies. Nadia lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two young daughters.

    Read more from Nadia Higgins

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      Book preview

      The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement - Nadia Higgins

      The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement Activists' Perspective

      CHAPTER 1

      FREEDOM IS POSSIBLE

      Old ways were changing in the South, but it took the murder of a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, Illinois, to bring it to light. Emmett Till was visiting family in the small town of Money, Mississippi. One August evening in 1955 Emmett flirted with a white cashier on a dare. Bye, baby, he said to Carolyn Bryant.

      Three days later Bryant’s husband, Roy, and his half-brother J.W. Milam showed up where Emmett was staying. Emmett’s great-uncle, Moses Wright, saw the men grab Emmett and shove him in their truck. That night, August 28, they savagely beat the teen before shooting him and dumping his body in a river.

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      Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Bradley

      Lynchings of black men were common in Mississippi, and officials nearly always looked the other way. But Mamie Till Bradley would not let the murder of her son be ignored. She insisted on an open coffin at his funeral. After Jet magazine ran photos of his mangled face, Emmett Till became a rallying cry for outraged African-Americans.

      An all-white jury found Bryant and Milam not guilty of murder. Their trial is still remembered, however, for the testimony of Moses Wright. Thar he, said the old man, pointing at the attackers. For perhaps the first time ever, a black man in Mississippi had stood up to white men in a court of law.

      THE NEW NEGRO

      For years many black southerners didn’t question why they were treated as second-class citizens. After all, whites had the best houses and schools. They ran government and businesses. Wasn’t that proof of their superiority?

      In truth, southern society oppressed blacks on several fronts—by law, custom, and by violence and intimidation. Jim Crow laws kept them from attending the best schools, going to libraries, or even trying on clothes at department stores. African-Americans used separate colored toilets, drinking fountains, bus stations, and more, instead of the same facilities white people did.

      Few blacks were able to follow through on their constitutional right to vote. Special taxes and tests kept them from registering. If those tactics didn’t work, the threat of a lynching did. Blacks who insisted on improving their lives were often punished by being fired from their jobs or getting evicted from their homes.

      With World War II (1939–1945), however, blacks began to see their situation in a new light. African-American soldiers witnessed a larger world where races freely mixed. After defeating injustice abroad, the new negro returned ready to fight injustice at home.

      THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

      Many black workers in Montgomery, Alabama, relied on city buses to take them to their jobs. A black passenger entered the front of a bus to pay the fare. Then he or she would step off the bus and enter again from the back, where the colored seats were. Seats in the front were reserved for whites. However, if the front was full,

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