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Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court issued the unanimous ruling that the practice of providing separate but equal facilities for blacks and whites is unconstitutional and that public schools should be desegregated. -
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civil rights protests
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. -
Woolworth's Sit-in
Four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South. -
[the first] Freedom Ride
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia (of 1960). The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. -
Birmingham Children's March
Over 1000 African-American children marched in the Children's Crusade. Singing "We Shall Overcome,"the children were sprayed with water from high-power hoses that could blast off clothing. They were also attacked by vicious German shepherds. By the end of the day, police (under the order of Eugene "Bull" Connor) had arrested 959 boys and girls. -
March on Washington
After Birmingham, President Kennedy proposed a new civil rights bill. To show that the bill had widespread support, civil rights groups united to organize a March on Washington. Organizers hoped to draw a crowd of 100,000, but instead over 250,000 people from around the nation, arriving in more than thirty special trains and 2,000 chartered buses, descended on Washington, DC on August 28, 1963. -
Selma to Montgomery March
On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.