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Brown vs. Board of Education
Summary- In 1951, an African American man named Oliver Brown called the NAACP for legal assistance after the city of Topeka, Kansas would not allow his daughter to go to an all-white school. The chief council of the NAACP, Thurgood Marshall appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for the case. The Supreme Court later ruled that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
Evaluation- This was important because it would open the door for African American children to go to better schools. -
Emmett Till Murder
Summary- In a heavily segregated town in the Mississippi, a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till had allegedly whistled at a white woman. Several days after, the boy was kidnapped from his uncle's home and his severely beaten and shot body was later found floating in the Tallahatchie River. Rallies and demonstrations for racial justice were prompted after the event.
Evaluation- This event was important because it sparked conversation. Change needed to happen or more black youth would be killed. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Summary- In Montgomery, AL a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested after she refused to move from her seat in the white section of a city bus. To protest her arrest and the segregation, members of the black community created a community wide boycott to urge the system to integrate. The U.S. Supreme Court deemed that the segregation was unconstitutional.
Evaluation- This was a push in the right direction toward desegregating America. Public transportation in the city would be changed forever. -
Little Rock High School Integration
Summary- In the effort to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, AR, nine African American students were integrated into the school. Initially met with resistance, 1,000 troops from the U.S. Army were sent to oversee the integration. Now known as the Little Rock Nine, the students were enrolled with approximately 2,000 white students.
Evaluation- This was a big step toward integrating schools, especially those in the South. It meant that blacks and whites would become more equal. -
Temple Bombing in Atlanta, GA
Summary- Fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in a recessed entrance way at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, Atlanta's oldest and most prominent synagogue. Atlanta's business, media, and political elites denounced the bombing in no uncertain terms and launched an ambitious campaign to raise funds for the synagogue's repair.
Evaluation- This event showed that anti-Semitism was still present in the U.S. and members of the Jewish community would not forget all of the horrible events from the past. -
Freedom Rides
Summary- An interracial group of student activists under the auspices of the Congress of Racial Equality departed Washington D.C. by bus to test local compliance throughout the Deep South with two Supreme Court rulings banning segregated accommodations on interstate buses and in bus terminals. They met a great amount of resistance, but they would later have many facilities desegregated.
Evaluation- They were very brave and they would influence movements to take place for integration of buses. -
March on Washington
Summary- A quarter of a million Americans across the US gathered at the nation's capitol. A. Philip Randolph came up with the march idea. It was intended to draw attention to the economic plight of the county's African American population. Randolph, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis and others delivered speeches before MLK delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.
Evaluation- Going to D.C. was a bold and clever move because it brought attention to the inequality blacks had faced. -
Selma-Montgomery March
Summary- To protest local resistance to black voter registration in Dallas County, AL the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized a mass march from Selma to Montgomery. A column of 500-600 demonstrators marched through the streets of Selma until reaching the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were brutally attacked by state troopers and mounted patrolmen. It became known as "Bloody Sunday,"
Evaluation- It sprung nationwide support for the passage of voting rights legislation for blacks. -
Loving vs. Virginia
Summary- Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in D.C. and returned to Virginia. The couple was then charged with violating the state's anti-miscegenation statute that banned interracial marriages and sent to jail. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the VA law violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment for freedom of marriage.
Evaluation- The winning case would give interracial couples the opportunity to get married in other states, in the future. -
Dr. King Assassination
Summary- Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot by a sniper, James Earl Ray, while standing on the 2nd-floor balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. Violent riots broke out in African American neighborhoods in over 100 cities across the United States. At the time, King had returned to Memphis to lead a nonviolent march in support of the city's striking sanitation workers.
Evaluation- Though his death was unfortunate, he would never be forgotten for his vigorous political activism.
