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Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a supreme court ruling that banned segregation in public schools. This started in Topeka Kansas when a child would not be admitted into the school based on racial discrimination. The decision was made because segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment. Before this case it was legal to have separate but equal facilities to segregate races from the Plessy v. Ferguson case. -
Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat
Rosa Parks was on her way home from work on a typical evening when she was asked by a bus driver to move further back on the bus to make room for a white passenger. Rosa then refused her seat which violated a law which required racial segregation on public buses. Because of this act she was later prosecuted. -
Civil rights Act of 1957
The President at the time who was Dwight D. Eisenhower signed in the Civil Rights Act. The act created several programs and organizations to protect rights. The act was mostly made to protect voting rights more than anything else but it signaled a growing commitment of the federal government to the Civil Rights Movement. -
Events at Little Rock, Arkansas
Several protests and riots happened in the town of Little Rock, Arkansas when nine African American students were admitted into Central High School. These students were threatened and met with violence almost everyday. In order to ensure their safety the government assigned soldiers to protect the students throughout the school day. -
Students Stage a sit-in at a Whites Only Lunch Counter
Sit-ins were set up as a way to protest segregation in public places without violence. Many African Americans did this but in Greensboro, North Carolina several students decided to take this approach at a "whites only" lunch counter. -
Attack of the Freedom Riders
The freedom riders were mostly African American but sometimes white individuals who rode in the "wrong" seats on buses to protest segregation. This group was started and run by two groups. The first group being the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Secondly, the Student Nonviolent coordinating committee. -
James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss
James Meredith repeatedly applied to go to Ole Miss yet continuously got denied entry. After applying so many times the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples) got involved and filed a law suit. This law suit was then ruled in Meredith's favor. When he first entered the school he was met with a mob of 2,000 people who were protesting his admission, because of this protest President Kennedy had to send in guards to keep the peace. -
William Lewis Moore- One Man March
William Lewis Moore decided to walk along Highway 11 from Attalla, Alabama to Jackson, Mississippi hoping to hand-deliver his letter to Gov. Ross Barnett. Moore wanted Barnett to fundamentally change Mississippi's racial hierarchy. -
Medgar Evers Assassinated
Medgar Evers was a Civil Rights Activist and was the first state field officer of the NAACP. Evers was mostly known in the state of Mississippi but even so had a lot of people against what he was doing (promoting civil rights). His family was met with several threats throughout the years. Because of his high profile Evers was later assassinated in the driveway of his own home in Jackson, Mississippi. He was shot right in the back and died only an hour later in a nearby hospital. -
The March on Washington
The March on Washington was a peaceful protest that had 250,000 Americans of many races supporting jobs and freedom.This was one of the largest political rallies to ever take place. Everyone met at the Washington Monument where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech promoting equal rights for all people. -
Schoolgirls Killed in Bombing of Church
Addie Mae Collins,Denise Mcnair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley were all killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. This church was the oldest African American church in Alabama and organized a lot of protests against segregation which made it a huge target of violence. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by President Lyndon Johnson. This act stated that nobody can be banned from a public place based on their race, religion, gender, ect. It also banned the discrimination in the hiring process based on gender or race. -
March to Selma
The March to Selma was organized to gain better voting rights for African Americans.The marchers decided to pick Selma to Montgomery for their peaceful protest because lots of opposition from law enforcement was anticipated. They wanted this to draw more publicity and government attention. The first month was minimal in violence but the violence increased as time went on. The protesters eventually got what they wanted with the Voting Rights act of 1965 enacted on August 6th 1965. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed in by President Johnson. This act aimed to overcome the barriers in smaller government to help African Americans gain their legal right to vote. -
Civil Rights Leader Killed
The civil rights leader Wharlest Jackson was promoted to a position in the chemical mixing plant after 12 long years of hard work with the Armstrong Tire & Rubber Company in Natchez, Mississippi. This man was later killer because that job was only thought of as a job for a white man. -
Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice
Marshall went to school to be a lawyer and fought for many peoples' Civil Rights before being appointed a Supreme Court Justice. He was a major advocate for the civil rights movement and changed the lives of many. This was a huge event in the movement because it was such a large step. After waiting several years for things to change instead of having more tiny steps African Americans had a giant leap which showed how different their futures could become than before. -
The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The assassination of MLK was not only devastating to blacks but to the entire country. He was not only a hung influence on individuals but on the entire country. He was assassinated early in the evening with a single shot to his head and neck. Martin was standing on a balcony at Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee to lead a peaceful protest to support the strikes of sanitation workers.
