Books in Civil Rights Movement series

In 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus to a white passenger, her decision sparked the beginning of a new era in the civil rights movement. Her arrest inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and other African American leaders to organize a bus boycott that ended only when a U.S. Supreme Court decision ended segregation on public buses. Readers will learn how events in her life brought Parks to the point where she decided to stand up for her rights and how her courage helped to change America.

"In August 1955, Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old African American teenager on vacation. He had traveled to visit relatives in rural Mississippi. He would return home to Chicago to be buried. Emmett Till was murdered by two white men, making him a victim of racial violence that galvanized the unfolding civil rights movement. This account details the circumstances of his abduction, murder, and funeral, plus the subsequent trial. Readers will learn how his legacy still resonates today and how emerging information sheds a different light on what really happened to him"--

The landmark Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case of 1954 was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Striking down the toxic separate but equal doctrine that had long been upheld in the United States and calling for the desegregation of schools, the decision was a major step towards racial equality in the country. Readers will learn about this historic case, from its prelude to its aftermath and its ongoing significance in the present day. They will also be introduced to the individual actors courageous enough to stand up to racial injustice in the school system.

In fall of 1957, nine black students approached the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine, were testing a 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation illegal. Their actions led to a standoff, with the state National Guard ordered to bar the students' entry. Weeks later, federal troops sent by President Eisenhower arrived to escort them inside. Readers will find themselves experiencing the desegregation crisis and a time of clashing attitudes that would affect all Little Rock's students, black and white, and the rest of the country's as well.

On June 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the most sweeping civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction era, after the Civil War. This act made discrimination in public places and workplaces illegal, and required public schools and other public facilities to be integrated. Learn how the act created controversy in Congress and resulted in a dramatic fifty-four-day filibuster, and how it passed through President Johnson's determination to see it succeed. Readers will also see how the Civil Rights Act was not only a huge step forward for civil rights, but also a legacy of President John F. Kennedy.

Since the 1960s, the United States government has issued executive orders and passed legislation aimed at achieving fair workplace hiring practices. Critics maintain that, in an attempt to ameliorate past injustices, the government has gone too far by practicing affirmative action--what opponents call "reverse discrimination." Students can use this book as a guide to the history of affirmative action, crucial moments in the timeline of this cause, and a better understanding of what affirmative actions practices may mean for the future.

Of all the events of the civil rights movement, the March on Washington is the most iconic. Millions of Americans can remember where they were when the television news announced that two hundred thousand people had converged on the nation's capital. Most of those Americans can still experience the thrill of hearing Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech. Even today, photographs of the event have the capacity to stir the imagination. This volume allows twenty-first century readers to discover the flavor, energy, and impact of that exciting event in the nation's history.