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Plessy v. Ferguson
U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. -
De Jure vs. De Facto Segregation
When the Civil War ended in 1865, so did slavery; but segregation, the practice of separating the races in America through a variety of means, was born. Though legal segregation ended in 1964, the practice of segregation in daily American life known as de facto segregation is still with us today. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The Court’s unanimous decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, including public schools in the United States. -
Rosa Parks
A seamstress and an NAACP officer, took a seat in the front row of the "colored" Section of a montgomery bus. -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating, took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956. -
Little Rock School Integration
In 1948, Arkansas had became the first sothern state to admite African Americans state universities without being required by a court order. By the 1950s some scout troops and labor unions in Arkansas had quietly ended their Jim Crow practices. -
The Sit-ins
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 -
Freedom Rides
a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. -
March On Birmingham
activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched one of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement: Project C, better known as The Birmingham Campaign. -
March On Washington
more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. During this event, Martin Luther King delivered his memorable ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
24th amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
24th amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad. Expressing many regrets about his time with them, which he had come to regard as largely wasted he embraced Sunni Islam -
Race Riots
The New York Race Riots of 1964 were the first in a series of devastating race-related riots that ripped through American cities between 1964 and 1965. -
March From Selma To Montgomery
In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshell was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.
During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December, 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced.
