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Brown v. Board of Education
The separate but equal principle established by Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned in the Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that state laws creating separate public schools for Black and White children were unconstitutional. The desegregation of schools and other public spaces across the country was made possible by this ruling. -
Emmett Till Murder
After he was accused of flirting with a white lady, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American was brutally killed in Mississippi. His passing sparked the Civil Rights Movement, increasing action and drawing attention to the racism and violence Black Americans in the South had to deal with. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
A key event in the Civil Rights Movement was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was started by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Over a year of boycotts by African American citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, resulted in the integration of the city's segregated bus system and proved the effectiveness of peaceful protest. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine African American students faced violent resistance and the intervention of the Arkansas National Guard when they attempted to integrate Little Rock Central High School. Despite the hostility they encountered, the bravery of the Little Rock Nine highlighted the ongoing struggle for racial equality in education and led to federal intervention to enforce desegregation. -
Lunch Counter Sit-ins
Four Black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, started a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in February 1960, which set off a wave of protests across the South. These sit-ins questioned the practice of racial segregation in public places and motivated a new wave of activists to take up direct action against it. -
Freedom Rides
Black and white civil rights campaigners traveled the South on buses to protest segregated interstate transportation. White nationalists violently opposed the Freedom Rides, but in the end, federal intervention and the implementation of desegregation legislation in interstate travel were the results. -
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Birmingham Protests
With peaceful demonstrations and marches organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, became as a focal point of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. Civil rights laws and desegregation initiatives were eventually prompted by the Birmingham movement, which raised awareness of police brutality and racial discrimination. -
March on Washington
More than two hundred fifty thousand people gathered in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963, to demand economic and civic rights for African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which demanded an end to racism and stressed the need for equality and justice for all people, was the event's high point. -
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Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a voter registration drive in Mississippi organized by civil rights organizations to increase Black voter registration. The summer of 1964 saw hundreds of college students from across the country volunteering to help African Americans in the South exercise their constitutional rights. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace, and by facilities that served the general public. -
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Selma to Montgomery Marches
A series of peaceful demonstrations in Alabama known as the Selma to Montgomery Marches called for equal voting rights for African Americans. The first march, dubbed "Bloody Sunday," saw state troopers viciously strike nonviolent protestors, garnering national attention and resulting in the Voting Rights Act of 1965's enactment. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
African Americans were unable to exercise their right to vote because of state and local legal restrictions, which were intended to be removed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It outlawed racial discrimination in elections and played a significant role in raising African American political engagement and voter registration.