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Brown Vs. Board
This was a fight for black and white students to have the same academic chance. Many students had to walk multiple blocks to ride a bus to get to their all black schools when there was a nicer all white school just down the street. In the end the case moved to the Supreme Court and they decided that segregated schools where unconstitutional because of it negative academic effect on black students. This was one of the fist really victories in the fight for equal rights. -
The Death of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old black boy for Chicago visiting family in Money, Mississippi. He was beaten, had one eye gauged out, shot in the head and then thrown in the river. His “crime” was flirting with one of white attackers wives. Emmetts death enraged both black and white citizens. His death gained suport on both sides for a change. -
Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa parks was a black seamstress who was sitting in the fist row in the colored section on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When the bas driver ordered her to move back because the white section was full and one mad still needed a seat she refused. She was arrested which was the tipping point that started over a year long Bus Boycott that ended with the desegregation of public busses. -
Little Rock Nine
After the Brown vs. Board ruling Little Rock, Arkansas decided to ease into integration. 9 African American students where enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. When they tried to enter the school on the first day of school the where meet by a mob preventing their entrance. Arkansas governor Orval Faubus refused to disperse the mobs and let the students enter and President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne to guard the school and protect ALL the students. -
Freedom Riders
Two buses caring Black and White civil rights activists who are testing the Boynton v. Virginia ruling are attacked one bus what fire bombed just out side Anniston. The second bus arrives at the Birmingham bus station and is attack by and angry mob and severely beaten. -
End of Discrimination
This act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in work and schools. This was a major event in the movement because it final made it so that the black citizens had a chance to rise above the poverty line. -
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Foundation awards Martin Luther King Jr. the Nobel Peace Prize. This showed they they where really making a differentce the world was watching. All his work to win with peace and not force was working and this was the proof. -
Selma to Montgomery March
MLK lead protest against laws making it hard for African Americans to vote. The police attacked protesters (even children) with bats, sticks, dogs and fire hoses. Two norther white marchers were murdered . The whole attack was televised and shocked the whole country. Even with all the violence the protesters stuck to thier convictions and stayed peaceful. It showed there the country that the where not instigaters and that the police where unprovoked winning manny Americans to thier side. -
The Right To Vote
This act gave equal voting rights to all citizens. Finally black Americans where given the same say in thier government, and what happens in thier country as everyone else. -
Equal Housing Act
This act gave equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed or national origin to American citizens. This was one of the final major victories for civil rights in this era. Equal rights in schools, work, on busses, and voting had already been won. Now no one can be turned away from renting buying, or living somewhere just because of there skin tone.