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NAACP is Created
Arguably the most well known Civil Rights program called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was created on February 12 1909 concerning events in Illinois -
Brown v Board of Education
Plessy v Ferguson allowed separate but equal facilities. The event that started this case was denied admission to a school for an African American girl in Topeka. The result of this case ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional -
Rosa Parks Refusal Event
Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus. When a white man asked her to get up and sit in the back so he may use that seat, she said no. The result of this event basically started the Montgomery Boycott -
Pastor Martin Luther King Jr Introduces Nonviolent Methods of Protest
On the evening of December 5, 1955, a meeting was held at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr King was the pastor, and he encouraged a mass of black folk to keep protesting. This event is important because it shows the leadership and intelligence of MLK Jr before he was involved in the mass of Civil Rights programs -
SCLC is Created
With the goal of redeeming ‘‘the soul of America’’ through nonviolent resistance, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established in 1957, to coordinate the action of local protest groups throughout the South. Its first organized protest was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The first president of this program was MLK Jr -
Little Rock Events
9 African Americans tried to enroll in a high school located in Little Rock, Arkansas. President ordered the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army to escort them -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law on September 9, 1957. This gave the blacks the right to vote -
CORE Organizes Sit-ins
On February 1, 1960, a new tactic was added to the peaceful activists' strategy. Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local WOOLWORTH'S store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served -
The Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists (mostly blacks, a but there were a few whites) who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years while people often firebombed the buses. Organizations like CORE helped organize the freedom rides -
James Meredith Enrolls at Ole Miss
James Meredith, a black pilot, became the first black person to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962. The government said denial of his enrollment was unconstitutional, so the governor couldn't intervene -
Violence in Birmingham
MLK Jr decided to hold demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, knowing it would spark tension (including getting the police involved) that would grab the attention of the president and draw everyone's focus on Civil Rights. The plan worked out, and President Kennedy was determined to release a civil rights bill -
Medgar Evers Assassinated
Medgars was a black civil rights activist. He was shot in his back walking up to his house, and his two children witnessed it -
The March on Washington
The march demanded civil and economic rights to African Americans, led by Martin Luther King jr. He later delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech in which he described a world were there exists no prejudice against blacks -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Congress passed this law into effect. The law eliminated discrimination based on race, color, religion, etc. -
March to Selma
The march was organized to mainly focus on African Americans being able to vote. The participants faced violence from state and local authorities. The result of this march greatly rose awareness to the difficulty that blacks faced in the south when trying to vote -
First Black Supreme Court Justice
Before becoming the first African American Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education, a decision that desegregated public schools. He served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being appointed by President John F. Kennedy. This was a monumental event because it showed progress for blacks not to be prejudiced -
Martin Luther King Jr Assassination
A little after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The death of Martin Luther King Jr had such a great impact on the US, and not just for blacks. His speeches and marches were so influential, whites and blacks alike mourned in unison.
