GCSE USA Conflict At Home & Abroad - Opposition to the Civil Rights Movement

Klu Klux Klan -  A group who persecuted Jews, Catholics, communists and anyone who was not white, especially Black people. They placed burning crosses in front of houses, blew up homes and murdered people. Many policemen and judges in the South were members of the Klu Klux Klan.

White Citizens' Council - An organisation set up in 1954 in response to the Brown vs. Topeka decision ending school segregation. Its members campaigned for racial segregation, particularly in schools.

The Murder of Emmet Till:

In 1955, racial tensions were higher than usual in the South due to the success of the Brown vs Topenka case. The Supreme Court had ruled that segregation was unconstitutional and abolished segregated schools, a decision which most Southern states disagreed with. 

Emmet Till, a Black 14-year-old from Chicago, visited Mississippi that year and wolf-whistled at a white women inside a shop. The woman claimed that he had made sexual advances towards her…