Civil Rights Timeline

  • Plessy V. Ferguson

    Plessy V. Ferguson
    Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crowe car on a train, and argued that it was unconstitutional for him to be unable to sit in the same railroad car as whites. The case was taken to the supreme court, but it was found that separate but equal did not go against the 13th ammendment.
  • NAACP

    NAACP
    In 1909, the NAACP was formed in response to lynching and the 1908 Springfield race riot. This group's motive is to help ensure equality and eliminate racial predjudices.
  • Brown V. Board

    Brown V. Board
    Supreme Court declared state laws that said having separate schools for blacks and whites is unconstitutional.
  • Murder of Emmett Till

    Murder of Emmett Till
    At the age of only 14, Emmett Till was murdered by two white men for allegedly flirting with a white woman.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride busses in order to protest the segregated seating.
  • Little Rock Crisis

    Little Rock Crisis
    The Little Rock Crisis occured when nine black students began attending an all white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Students, parents, and other citizens threatened the nine black students when trying to attend their first day of school.
  • Sit In's

    Sit In's
    The first sit in was staged by four black ccollege students in greenville, North Carolina. The students were denied to be served, so they sat and wait patiently until they were served, despite the threats being made around them.
  • Freedom Rides

    Freedom Rides
    13 African American and white civil rights activists started the freedom rides, a series of bus trips through the south to see if blacks were being treated fairly when traveling and stopping at bus stations.
  • The Integration of Ole Miss

    The Integration of Ole Miss
    James Meredith's atempt to enroll in the University of Mississippi caused campus wide riots that ended in two people dead and hundreds injured.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed the discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.