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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
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The Congress of Racial Equality
Nonviolent civil rights organization founded in 1942 and committed to the "Double V" campaign, or victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. After World War II, CORE became a major force in the civil rights movemet -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. Was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional -
Emmitt Till
While visiting his family in Mississippi, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago, was brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. -
Rosa Parks & Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating.
Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system and MLK during this period emerged as a prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with Martin Luther King Jr., had a large role in the American civil rights movement. The SCLC issued a document declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy, that segregation must end, and that all Black people should reject segregation absolutely and nonviolently. -
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was one of the major American Civil Rights Movement organizations of the 1960s. It emerged from the first wave of student sit-ins and formed at a May 1960 meeting organized by Ella Baker at Shaw University. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. -
"I Have A Dream" Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the African American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama when four members of the Ku Klux Klan planted bombs beneath the steps of the church.
Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity" the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured 22 others. -
Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael was a U.S. civil rights activist who in the 1960s originated the black nationalism rallying slogan, “black power.” While attending Howard University, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was jailed for his work with Freedom Riders. He moved away from MLK Jr’s nonviolence approach to self-defense. -
The 24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and U.S. labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Malcolm X Assassination
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. -
Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama
On March 7, 1965, an estimated 525 to 600 civil rights marchers headed southeast out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80, heading to Montgomery. The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Prohibits racial discrimination in voting. -
Executive Order 11246—Affirmative Action
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965, established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors. -
The Black Panthers
The Black Panthers was a political organization founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to challenge police brutality against the African American community. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 defines housing discrimination as the "refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion, or national origin", making it illegal.
