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Six-year-old Ruby Bridges Integrates New Orleans Elementary School
African American parents of students in New Orleans, Louisiana, public schools sued the Orleans Parish School Board to challenge its failure to desegregate local schools. On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges started first grade at the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School. Within a week, nearly all of the white students to the newly-integrated elementary schools had withdrawn. Despite threats Ruby remained at Frantz Elementary and, in 1961, went to the second grade. -
Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Assaulted at South Carolina Greyhound Bus Terminal
John Lewis civil rights activist was savagely assaulted by a mob at the Rock Hill, South Carolina. Earlier Lewis and twelve Freedom Riders, left Washington D.C. on a Greyhound bus headed to New Orleans.The Freedom Riders experienced violence when they stopped at the bus station in Rock Hill, South Carolina and tried to enter the white waiting room together. Mr. Lewis and two other Riders were brutally attacked before a white police officer who was present the whole time stopped it. -
Four Black Girls Killed in Bombing of Birmingham, Alabama, Church
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the largest black church in Birmingham, Alabama. On the morning of September 15, 1963, a white man was seen placing a box under the steps of the church. Shortly afterward the box detonated and the resulting explosion rocked the building, with 400 congregants inside.It was discovered that four young girls had been killed in the blast. After the bombing, violence surged throughout the city as police clashed with enraged members of the black community. -
Mississippi Voting Rights Activist Vernon Dahmer Dies After Bombing
In the early morning of January 10, 1966, two carloads of armed Ku Klux Klan members drove onto the property of Vernon Dahmer. As a successful black businessman active in the voting rights movement, Mr. Dahmer and his family were the targets of local whites' hostility and terrorism.On this night, klansmen set fire to the Dahmer's grocery store and house and blasted the buildings with gunfire. The family escaped but Mr. Dahmer was murdered while holding off attackers as his family fled. -
Dozens Participate in NAACP’s Birmingham March Against U.S. Steel Employment Discrimination
Despite the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination in employment based on race, sex, religion, and national origin, African Americans were continuously relegated to low-paying, unskilled jobs.Many industries refused to train or promote African Americans, only permitting white employees to compete for supervisory positions. -
Ferguson Shooting
Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed on Aug. 9, 2014, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in Ferguson, Mo. The announcement set off waves of protests. In March, the Justice Department called on Ferguson to overhaul its criminal justice system, declaring that the city had engaged in constitutional violations.
