The civil rights movement

By Meme47

  • 1954: Brown v Board of Education

    The US Supreme Court rules an end to segregation in schools. It overturns the earlier Plessy v Ferguson (1896) decision that permitted “separate 
but equal” facilities for blacks and whites. In reality, of course, “separate” facilities were hardly ever “equal”.

  • 1955–6: The Montgomery bus boycott

    Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, boycott buses 
for 13 months after the arrest of Rosa Parks for breaking segregation laws. The US Supreme 
Court eventually rules a complete end to segregation on city buses in Montgomery.

  • 1955: The Emmett Till murder

    Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till from Chicago is brutally murdered by whites while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His alleged crime is saying “Bye, baby” to a white woman in a store for a dare. The case causes outrage among America’s black population.

  • 1957: The Little Rock school crisis

    Arkansas Governor Orval E Faubus prevents the desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School by calling out National Guard troops. President Dwight D Eisenhower sends in federal soldiers to allow nine black students to attend the school.

  • 1960: Sit-ins

    Four black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, hold the first sit-in. They refuse to move from a segregated lunch counter when denied service. Sit-ins are employed by a growing number of civil rights activists in the South.

  • 1961: Freedom rides

    Activists run integrated freedom rides on coaches across the South to test a US Supreme Court ruling forbidding segregated facilities in interstate transport. Passengers are beaten in transit, forcing President John F Kennedy’s administration to intervene.