Screenshot 2022 05 15 6.59.09 pm

10 Most Significant Events of the American Civil Rights Movement

  • Brown vs. Board of Education

    Brown vs. Board of Education
    In Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating.
  • Desegregation at Little Rock

    Desegregation at Little Rock
    The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957.
  • Sit-in Campaign

    Sit-in Campaign
    Greensboro sit-in, act of nonviolent protest against a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, that began on February 1, 1960.
  • Freedom Rides

    Freedom Rides
    Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals.
  • Mississippi Riot

    Mississippi Riot
    Southern segregationists rioted and fought state and federal forces on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi to prevent the enrollment of the first African American student to attend the university,
  • Birmingham

    Birmingham
    The Birmingham Campaign was a movement led in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which sought to bring national attention of the efforts of local black leaders to desegregate public facilities in Birmingham, Alabama
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    Political demonstration held in Washington, D.C., in 1963 by civil rights leaders to protest racial discrimination and to show support for major civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress
  • Freedom Summer

    Freedom Summer
    It was a 1964 voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered Black voters in Mississippi
  • Selma

    Selma
    Selma was the starting point for three marches in support of African-Americans' right to vote. These marches were crucial to the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965