Black Americans have spoken out for fairness. This is part of the story of the United States. Many people had to break rules. They took risks. Let’s take a closer look.
Sitting Against Segregation
In 1882, Ida B. Wells decided to stand against
. She stayed sitting down. Wells was on a train ride in Tennessee. Officials tried to move Wells into an area for Black people. Wells refused. She got kicked off the train.
Later, Wells would write about unfair treatment. She wrote articles in the Memphis Free Speech. Barbara Krauthamer is a historian. She called Wells a “journalist in a time when women are not journalists.”
Other women followed Wells’s example. In 1955, officers arrested both Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama. Both Black women had refused to give up their bus seats to white riders.
A Boycott for Buses
Rosa Parks’s arrest kicked off the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On December 5, 1955, about 40,000 Black bus riders refused to ride city buses. Leaders demanded that Black people be able to keep their seats. They also demanded the city hire Black bus drivers. Until then, Black riders would not be riding the bus or paying for bus fares. This boycott continued for a full year.
Seats, but no Service
Fights against
didn’t just happen in Alabama. On February 1, 1960, four Black students sat at a counter in a store. The store was Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. Woolworth’s only served food to white customers. The students took up the seats until closing time. The next day, they came back. And again. And again. By February 5, about 300 Black students had taken up seats in Woolworth’s.
These were the Greensboro sit-ins. They inspired people around the country. That included John Lewis, who took part in his own sit-in at a Woolworth’s in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 27, 1960. Police arrested Lewis. Lewis later became a U.S. congressman.
The March on Washington
Leaders also used another kind of protest. They marched to demand an end to racist rules. One of the biggest was the 1963 March on Washington. About 250,000 protesters, both Black and white, gathered in Washington, D.C. They demanded fair and equal treatment — no matter the color of their skin. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Rosa Parks all gave speeches at the march.
Athletes Take a Stand
Sports stars showed support for civil rights as well. On October 16, 1968, Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raised a fist in the air during the U.S. national anthem at the Summer Olympics. Black gloves covered their hands. They showed
. Officials banned them from the Olympics and sent them home.
Updated January 31, 2023, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Tyler Burdick
