-
Brown v. Board of Education
The Plessy v. Ferguson case allowed separate but equal facilities. A black kid was denied permission to go to a local school. The case resulted in stating that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
Rosa Parks was an African American women on her way home from work on a bus. She was sitting and refused to give up her seat to a white person. She was arrested and taken to jail, but her decision started the bus boycott that changed the nation. -
Montgomery bus boycott begins
Rosa Parks was sent to jail for standing up for her rights on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The Montgomery bus boycott happened. They refused to ride the buses until they were equal to all races to sit where they pleased. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
It was intended to protect the right of African Americans to vote. It created a civil rights division within the Department of Justice. It also created the United States Commission of Civil Rights. President Eisenhower passed this law with Congress and some troubles did occur with the conservative Southern Democrats. -
Little Rock High School
Little Rocks Central High School admitted 9 African American kids to their school, showing integration, which most people in the south still didn't like. Their first day of school they were greeted with an angry mob so they decided to all go together as a pack. The governer of Arkansas ordered Arkansas National Guard to stop the kids from entering the school. Eisenhower could not let that happen so he sent the U.S Army troops to Little Rock to help the kids be safe. -
Sit-in at Woolworths store
The beginning of the sit-in movement, 29 African American students had started and over 300 had finished. At a a store called Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina, they decided to sit and refuse to leave the counter until they were served. -
The Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were groups of people riding on public transportaion, taking advantage of their rights, to down south. People there didn't treat them with the respect they deserved and they were beaten and violated. They were helped and supported by the CORE and the ICC. They were blacks, whites, old young, anybody who wanted to stand up for racial equality would join them. -
Murder of Paul Guihard
He was a French reporter and journalist. The day of the riots at Ole Miss he decided to go get some dirt on the situation when he was shot in the back by a rioter. He died that day as many were injured and hospitalized. -
James Meredith at Ole Miss
James Meredith was an African American student applying to Ole Miss. He was rejected at first by the school because of his race by the governor. When he applied again, with the help of 500 federal marshals protecting him, mobs broke out all over campus and a full scale riot broke out. Meredith attended Ole Miss with federal guard and graduated the following August. -
Demonstrations in Birmingham
When MLK noticed that JFK wouldn't help unless there was something to be helped he decided to protest in Birmingham, only to get the attention of the president. But, knowing that there would be a violent response, they went in anyway. Dr. King was put in jail for his demonstrations and wrote a famous letter "Letter from Birmingham Jail" there. He knew it would get Kennedy to actively support the civil rights movement. -
Medgar Evers Assassinated
Medgar Evers was a civil rights leader who was shot in the back going up the stairs to his house in Jackson, Mississippi. -
The March on Washington
Over 200,000 demonstrators of all races gathered by the Lincoln Memorial to march on Washington and build more public support for the civil rights movement. There, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the famous, "I Have a Dream" speech, showing the peacefulness and dignity of the March on Washington. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made segregation illigal completely in public places, it gave citizens of all races and nationalities equal rights to public facilities. Its gave the attorney general more power to bring lawsuits to force school desegregation, and forces desegregation in the workplace. The law was passed by President Lyndon Johnson and the Congress. -
March to Selma
The SCLC and MKL selected Alabama as a focal pointer their campaign to help African Americans register to vote. Sheriff Jim Clark was trying to prevent African Americans from registering to vote by arming dozens of white citizens who terrorized African Americans demonstrating. As demonstrators approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Sheriff Clark ordered them to disperse but many just sat and prayed. 200 State troopers came to rush them, beating many. Johnson proposed, voting rights law. -
The Watts Riot
After Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act a race riot broke out in Watts, Los Angeles. Lasting for six days and requiring over 14,000 members of the national guard. Start of the dozens of neighborhood race riots in the nation. -
Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice
He was the first African American supreme court justice. Before becoming a justice, he was a legal council for the NAACP then the first African American supreme court justice. This was so monumental because it showed how the U.S was integrating races and peoples nationalities. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
While in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. King was leading a new "Poor Peoples Campaign" to promote all impoverished Americans. He was on his hotel balcony when he was shot by a sniper. The assassination sent grief and mourning all across the nation.
