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Desegregation
President Truman ordered the desegregation of the Armed Forces -
Brown v. Board of Ed.
The Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional after the hearing of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. case. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that public facilities can be “separate but equal” ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." -
Emmett Till murdered
Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi when he was murdered for saying something to a white woman; no one was convicted for the murder. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in the colored section of the bus to a white passenger, going against the Jim Crow laws. After Rosa Parks arrest the Montgomery black community decides to launch a bus boycott, which went on for over a year. In response to the bus boycott the buses were desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. -
Integrate Central High School
After the decision of Brown vs. Board of Education plans were made to integrate Central High School, when nine black students arrived to the school an angry croud was waiting, President Eisenhower responded by sending people from the National Guard to protect the “Little Rock Nine” -
Outlaw Segregation at Bus Terminals
A group of black and white male and females wanted to outlaw segregation at bus terminals. At various terminals the white would go to the spots reserved for blacks and the blacks would go to the dining areas for whites. Over the course of the journey they were beaten at an Alabama terminal and one of the buses were firebombed. -
Frst Back Sudent
James Meredith becomes the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots to this decision cause President Kennedy, the president at the time, to send 5,000 federal troops to protect James Meredith. -
Martin Luther King Arrested
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed because during an anti-segregation protest it was said he was “out of control” and “needed to be tamed.” The protest was in Birmingham, Alabama. During Dr. King’s time in jail he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail." In this letter he claims that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. He basically means that if it is right, one must break the law for the civil rights of human beings. -
"I Have a Dream"
In Washington, D.C. about 200,000 people join the March on Washington. This was a protest for civil rights where all these people actually marched throughout Washington D.C. so that African-Americans would be treated fairly and given the same rights as whites. It was at this march that Martin Luther King jr. delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. This inspired Americans everywhere and added more people in the fight for his cause for equal rights. -
Fire Bomb
A bomb exploded in a Baptist church in Birmingham Alabama. It killed four young African American girls. The case was closed in 1968 when the FBI investigated and said the civil rights activist bombed the church themselves to gain publicity. The case was reopened 40 years later and three white men were convicted and charged.