Civil Rights Timeline

  • Supreme Court Outlaws School Segregation ( Brown vs. Board of Education)

    Supreme Court Outlaws School Segregation ( Brown vs. Board of Education)
    In the Brown vs. Board of Education, Brown fought for equal rights in public schools particuarly in the south. Later on in the case the Supreme Court decides to end all segregation in public schools.
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    Civil Rights Timeline

  • Rev. George Lee Killed For Leading Voter Registration Drive, Belzoni Mississippi

    Rev. George Lee Killed For Leading Voter Registration Drive, Belzoni Mississippi
    Lee was a very successful black man in this time period which was not very common. Lee was a black preacher who stood up for what he believed in which was civil rights. Lee spoke at a Council anual meeting and uplifted around 7,000 black americans. In just a month after his speech, Lee was shot in the face with a shotgun and pronounced dead as he could not make it to the hospital in time.
  • Lamar Smith Murdered for Organizing Black Voters. Brookhaven Mississippi

    Lamar Smith Murdered for Organizing Black Voters. Brookhaven Mississippi
    Lamar Smith, a World War 2 veteran, was gunned down outside of a Lincoln Coiunty courthouse in Brookhaven Mississippi for organizing and collecting black voters
  • Emmett Lewis Till murdered for speaking to a white woman

    Emmett Lewis Till murdered for speaking to a white woman
    Emmett Louis Till was brutaly murdered for speaking to a white woman as a black man at the age of only 14.
  • John Earl Reese Murdered by Nightriders

    John Earl Reese Murdered by Nightriders
    A man by the name of John Earl Lewis was murdered by nightriders who were unhappy by the changes in the schools.
  • Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus.

    Rosa Parks arrested for not giving up seat on bus.
    Rosa Parks, a black woman, was sitting in the front seat of a commuter bus. When told to give up her seat to a white man, she refused and got arrested.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    After the Rosa Parks bus incident, African Americans began to rebell. The boycott lasted 13 months and later ended up in the law being ruled unconstitutional
  • Supreme Court Bans Segregated Seating

    Supreme Court Bans Segregated Seating
    Aproximately one year after the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Supreme Court rules bus segregation as unconstitutional.
  • Willie Edwards Jr. Killed by Klansman in Montgomery

    Willie Edwards Jr. Killed by Klansman in Montgomery
    In Montgomery, Alabama a man by the name of Willie Edwards Jr. was shot and killed by klansman who thought he had been sleeping with a white woman while on his way to work
  • Congress Passes First Civil Rights Act Since Reconstruction

    Congress Passes First Civil Rights Act Since Reconstruction
    Congress passes the law to ban segregation from public schools across the U.S.
  • Eisenhower Orders Federal Troops to Enforce School Desegregation

    Eisenhower Orders Federal Troops to Enforce School Desegregation
    President Eisenhower pushes African American students to segregate a highschool in Little Rock, Arkansas
  • Mack Charles Parker Taken From Jail And Lynched

    Mack Charles Parker Taken From Jail And Lynched
    Mack Charles Parker was a black man falsly accused of raping a white pregnant woman. He was sent to jail but later taken out only to get lynched.
  • Black Students Stage Sit in at a Whites Only Lunch Counter

    Black Students Stage Sit in at a Whites Only Lunch Counter
    Four African American college students planned a sit in at a local whites only lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. When refused service the four students continued to sit peacefully. This empowered many African Americans at the time.
  • Supreme Court Outlaws Segregation in Bus Terminals

    Supreme Court Outlaws Segregation in Bus Terminals
    A couple years after the Rosa Parks incident the segregation in bus terminals was outlawed
  • Freedom Riders Attacked in Alabama

    Freedom Riders Attacked in Alabama
    A group of riders protesting for equal rights in Alabama were attacked for desegregating the community
  • Herbert Lee Killed in Liberty, Mississippi

    Herbert Lee, a voter registration worker, was killed by a racist white legislator
  • Civil Rights Groups Launch Voter Registration

    A group of civil rights groups join forces to launch a voter registration drive
  • Cpl. Roman Ducksworth JR Killed

    Roman Ducksworth Jr. was taken from a bus and killed by police in Taylorsville, Mississippi.
  • Riots Erupt at Ole Miss

    Riots erupt when James Meredith, an african american student, decides to enroll at the all white school Ole Miss
  • French Reporters Killed at Ole Miss

    After a black student enrolls at Ole Miss University, a group of reporters at the scene of riots are killed
  • William Lewis Moore Slain

    During a one man march against segregation, A white man by the name of William Lewis Moore was killed by fellow white men for enforcing his beliefs of segregation
  • Birmingham Police Attack

    To stop the rioting in the streets of Birmingham, police now take action by arming themselves with dogs and firehoses
  • Alabama Governer Stands in Schoolhouse

    Alabama Governer George Wallace stands in the doorway of the University of Alabama to stop black americans from desegregating the school
  • Medgar Evers Assasinated

    Medgar Evers, a Civil Rights leader was assasinated in the town of Jackson, Mississippi
  • Americans March in Washington

    250,000 Americans marched through the streets of Washington D.C protesting for Civil Rights
  • Schoolgirls Killed in Church Bombing

    Addie Mae Collins, Denise Mcnair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were all innocent schoolgirls killed in the bombing of a babtist church on 16th street in Birmingham, Alabama. The bombings were done by the infamous KKK hate group.
  • Youth Killed During Racist Attacks

    Virgil Lamar Ware, a youth african american boy, was killed in the crossfire of racist violent attacks in Birmingham, Alabama
  • Poll Tax Outlawed

    The Poll Tax was outlawed in federal elections
  • Louis Allen Witness to Murder

    Louis Allen Witnessed a murder of a civil rights worker in Liberty, Mississippi
  • Rev. Bruce Klunder Killed

    Rev Bruce Klunder is killed while protesting the construction of a segregated school in the town of Cleveland, Ohio
  • 2 Men Killed by Group of Klansman

    Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore were both killed by a group of klansman in Meadville, Mississippi
  • Freedom Summer Brings Civil Rights Volunteers to Mississippi

    Freedom summer successfully brings 1,000 young civil rights volunteers to Mississippi
  • Civil Rights Workers Slain by Klansman

    On June, 21 1964, a few civil rights workers by the names of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerener were abducted and slain by a group of KKK klansman
  • Johnson Signs Civil Rights Act of 1964

    President Lyndon Johnson signs off on the the civil rights act of 1964
  • Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn Killed

    Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn was killed by a group of klansman while driving to georgia
  • Civil Rights Marcher Killed

    Civil Rights marcher Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed while protesting by an Alabama state trooper
  • State Troopers Beat Marchers

    State troopers beat on black marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama
  • Rev. James Reeb Beaten

    Rev. James Reeb was brutally beaten to death by an officer in the town of Selma, Alabama
  • Woman Killed by Klansman While Transporting Marchers

    Viola Gregg Liuzzo was killed by klansman while directing marchers on Selma Highway in Alabama
  • Many Complete Selma March to Montgomery

    Thousands of people on this day completed the march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama successfuly
  • Black Deputy Killed

    Black Deputy Oneil Moore was killed by a group of evil night riders
  • Congress Passes Voting Rights Act of 1965

    The Congress passes the voting rights act of 1965 which granted african americans the rights to vote
  • Willie Brewster Killed by Nightriders

    Willie Brewster was an african american who was out at night and assasinated by the nightriders aka the KKK
  • Seminary Student Killed by Deputy

    Jonathan Daniels, a seminary student from Hayneville Alabama was killed by an Alabama state deputy on August 20, 1965.
  • Student Civil Rights Activist Killed in Dispute

    Samuel Young Jr. was a student civil rights activist who was killed in a conflict is Tuskegee, Alabama
  • Black Community Leader Killed

    Vernon Dahmer was a black community leader killed in a knlan bombing in Hattiesburg, Mississippi
  • Man Killed by Klansman in Mississippi

    Ben Chester White Killed by a group of klansman in Natchez, Mississippi.
  • Clarence Triggs Slain

    Clarence Triggs was a black man slain by a group of nightriders in Bogalusa, Louisiana. Triggs had just recently joined the civil rights movement after seeing the town was still running on Jim Crow laws
  • Civil Rights Leader Killed in Mississippi

    Civil Rights leader Wharlest Jackson was killed after he was promoted to a sterotypical "white" job.
  • Civil Rights Worker Killed

    Benjamin Brown who was a civil rights worker, was killed when police fired on civil rights protesters in Jackson, Mississippi.
  • Thurgood Marshall First Black Supreme Court Justice

    Thurgood Marshall was sworn into office as first black in supreme court office. Marshall was originally a lawyer
  • Students Killed in Higway Open Fire

    Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith were three students killed in an open fire on a highway in Orangeburg, South Carolina
  • MLK Jr. Assasinated

    Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated outside of a motel in Memphis Tennessee on April 4, 1968