The Civil Rights Movement in Florida


The Civil Rights Movement shaped the 20th century culture and laws of the United States. The former slave states of the South in particular were battlegrounds in the fight to end discrimination against African-Americans. Florida and its citizens were prominent in that struggle.

A key victory came in 1954 when the United States Supreme Court unanimously decided that school segregation was unconstitutional in Brown v. Topeka, Kansas Board of Education. The actual process of school desegregation continued into the early seventies.

At the same time, political protests and a gradual change in laws lead to the integration of buses, stores, theaters, beaches, and other public places.

This unit introduces major themes, events, and individuals in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Florida using primary sources from the collections of the State Library and Archives of Florida.

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