Includes bibliographical references and index.

The roots of the civil rights movement -- A system separate and unequal: Jim Crow -- Color lines on the front lines: desegregation after World War II -- First class citizen in the major leagues: Jackie Robinson -- The civil rights movement begins -- Faced with hate on the first day of school: the Little Rock Nine -- Resistance in the south -- Claudette Colvin: a teenager ready to fight -- Trained and tired of giving in: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott -- The life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Sitting in to stand up: the Greensboro Four -- Ruby Bridges: a first grader makes history -- On board for justice: the freedom riders -- Focus on Birmingham -- Black and white: visual artists of the movement -- Moving toward a dream: the March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom -- The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing -- Murder and mayhem in Mississippi: the Summer Project of 1964 -- Legislating civil rights -- Crossing the bridge to justice: the Selma to Montgomery marches -- Singing truth to power: music of the movement -- Addressing "the American problem": Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- Say it loud: the Black Power Movement -- No future without unity: pan-Africanism -- No peace without freedom: Malcolm X -- Disinformation and destruction -- A dream deferred: literary figures of the movement -- Young, gifted, and black: entertainers in the civil rights movement -- Not just black and white -- How far have we come? civil rights today.