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Brown v Board of Education - May 17, 1954
Brown v Board of Education was a supreme court case. Oliver Brown and I think his family sued the Board of Education because the prominent segregation violated the 14th Amendment and negatively impacted African American children. The segregation led children brought up in segregated schools to think that white people were automatically genetically predisposed to be smarter, which was an idea made in a doll test. In the end, segregation in schools was considered unconstitutional. -
Emmitt Till murder - 1955
This was the murder of a 14-year-old boy Emmitt Till. He was visiting family in Mississippi when a white woman became threatened by him in her shop, which led to her husband and his friend pulling Emmitt out of his house to brutally murder him and dispose of him in the river. Big impact on the Civil Rights movement because it publicized the graphic violence that people were willing to commit on a young boy and were able to get away with. -
Montgomery Bus Boycotts - December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956
This was one of the first big moments in the Civil Rights movement. It started with Rosa Parks arrest after she refused to give up her seat on a bus. The boycott was meant to only last one day, but ended up being over a year. It was where Black people were banned together to entirely stop using public transit, which they made up over 70% of the users for. It drastically hurt the economy until they decided to desegregate it under a supreme court order - extended brown to busses. -
Little Rock 9 - 1957
9 African American students were being allowed to attend Little Rock high school, which marked massive growth for the Civil Rights movement. Yet, these kids faced lots of discrimination from those who would block the entrance of the school. One girl did not get the memo that everyone was walking together, so she went alone, garnering much more unwanted attention. -
Lunch Counter sit-ins
Lunch counter sit-ins were peaceful protests where black people would sit at the bar in diners where they weren't allowed to be at the time. It occasionally led to them being arrested, but most of the time it was people dumping food on them. Greensboro was the first big example of this, four students sat down at a lunch counter at a diner Greensboro, which was reserved for white people. It lasted several days and more people came to join as it went on. -
Freedom Bus Rides - May 4, 1961
This was a protest against segregation on public transportation, especially targeted towards the South. They challenged the Jim Crow laws and boarded busses or trains not moving despite the brutality they were faced with. -
Birmingham protests - 1963
A series of non-violent protests in a state that was very racially divided. The protests, led by MLK and the SCLC, aimed to help with the racial segregation in Birmingham. This was also the protests that had the Children's Crusade, which was a protest led by children so their parents wouldn't lose out of the opportunity to make money. -
March on Washington - August 28, 1963
250,000 civil rights activists marched through Washington DC. It was the famous location of the "I Have a Dream" speech by MLK. -
Freedom (Mississippi) Summer - June 1964
Freedom Summer was made to bring national attention, then register Black voters in Mississippi. Even with it being unconstitutional to not allow someone to vote due to their race, Mississippi was known for its violent methods of oppressing black voters (maybe this is false, the Voters Rights Act passed a year later). It succeeded and thousands of black people were able to register, but this also led to the abduction and murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. -
Civil Rights Act - July 2, 1964
It was an act passed to help against the racial discrimination. It made it to that you could no longer segregate public spaces, the justice department could enforce this. -
Selma Marches - March 7, 1965
Selma Marches are three protest marches. The first one started as a peaceful protest and turned into a violent attack against protestors by state troopers. They beat them with clubs and dropped tear gas, while also shooting them with water hoses. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act was legislation made to prevent the restriction of African Americans being allowed to vote. It was made to prevent things like the issues in Freedom Summer, and the outcome was a dramatic increase in African American voter registration.