Women in the Civil Rights Movement (Finding a Voice: Women's Fight for Equal)

By: Judy Hasday

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Synopsis: African-American women played a major role in bringing about social change during the civil rights movement. They participated in sit-ins and marches. They helped plan demonstrations and boycotts. And they were arrested for civil disobedience. Many women worked behind the scene, helping to organize protest efforts. Some women took on leadership roles. One was NAACP activist Rosa Parks, who is best known for inspiring the Montgomery bus boycott. She worked alongside Ella Baker, who later helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC founding member Diane Nash directed sit-ins and Freedom Rides. Fannie Lou Hamer took on the political machine of Mississippi in a demand for black voter representation. These women and many others of the civil rights movement helped ensure that the United States government guaranteed equal rights for all Americans, black and white.