Changing Mississippi Chapter 8

The Struggle for Civil Rights  Jim Crow Laws made it a crime for blacks and whites to use the same public places. African Americans were their freedoms and opportunities by these laws.  Civil rights are the rights of all people to be treated equally under the law. These rights include the right to vote and freedom of speech. Separate but Not Equal  Many white southerners supported Jim Crow laws.  Discrimination is unfair difference in the treatment of people.  Jim Crow laws called for separate schools for black and white children.  Schools for black children were smaller and in poor condition. Most schools were only one room, and had rarely had a library.  Black teachers were paid much less than white teachers. School Segregation Stopped  In 1954 the Supreme Court of the United States ordered that all United States schoolsmust allow both black and white students to attend.  Unconstitutional means something is not allowed by the United States Constitution  Many white Mississippians tried to pass laws to keep schools integrated.  In 1969 all of Mississippi’s public schools were integrated.  Integrated means made available to all people. Struggle for Change  African Americans believed integration would open new doors for people looking for jobs and the opportunity to vote.  Many white people organized the Ku Klux Klan to support segregation.  In 1961 a 28-year-old-black Mississippian named James Merideth want to attend Ole Miss, but he was denied entrance into the school because no African American had ever attended a public school or college for whites in Mississippi.  The United States Supreme Court ordered Ole Miss to enroll James Meredith.  When Meredith arrived at Ole Miss, the crowd began throwing bricks, bottles, and fire bombs. 28 people were shot, and 2 people were killed. 23,000 Army soldiers had to go to Ole Miss to restore order.  In the 1950s there were no African Americans signed up to vote in many parts of Mississippi.  To keep blacks from voting, many white Mississippians made it difficult for blacks to register.  Fannie Lou Hammer lost her job when she first tried to register to vote in Ruleville. She finally registered to vote in 1962. After attending a local political meeting, her husband was fired from his job.  Medgar and Charles Evers were brothers who worked to get African Americans registered to vote.  Medgar led demonstrations, or public gatherings to express opinions about a particular issue or person.  In 1963 Medgar Evers was shot and killed. The Civil Rights Movement  In the 1960s the civil rights movement grew in the United States.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was a national leader in the movement.  Freedom Riders, civil rights workers, traveled on buses across the South to integrate public places.  Sit-ins were another way to protest segregation. This is happened when people sat down and refused to move from segregated areas.  One of the first sit-ins took place in the Jackson Public Library. African Americans were not allowed to use the public library. 9 African American students from Tougaloo College refused to leave the library, and they were arrested. Freedom Summer  Freedom Summer was a project led by Robert Moses to help African Americans fight for their civil rights.  There was some violence during Freedom Summer.  Three civil rights workers disappeared near Philadelphia. They were later found dead.  Sixty-five homes and churches were burned or bombed.  Civil Rights Act is the law that made it illegal for businesses to treat people differently because of their race, sex, or religion.  Voting Rights Act made it against the law to create special rules to keep African Americans from voting.  The US government created programs to help black Mississippians get jobs and get into college.  Robert Clark became Mississippi’s first African American elected to the state legislature since Reconstruction.  Unita Blackwell was the first female African American mayor in our state.

Toward A new Century  People are moving into Mississippi because it is in the Sun Belt.  The Sun Belt gets its name because of the warm climate and sunshine.  Suburbs are communities just outside a large city.  Census is a count of people who live in a place.  Industry is all the businesses that make up one kind of good or provide one kind of service.  High-tech industries use science and math to produce goods, such as electronics and computers.  Technology is the use of skills, ideas, and tools to meet people’s needs.  People from the north, Mexico, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Korea have migrated to Mississippi because of jobs.