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American Civil Rights Movement
The early 1950's marked the beginning of African- American Civil Rights Movement which lasted till 1968 nearly around 18 years. However, the official movement only began after the Rosa Parks incident in December 1955. -
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The End
The year 1968 marked the end of major campaigns done for the African-American Civil Rights. The movement lasted for 18 years. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court’s unanimous decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for “separate but equal” segregation of the races in the United States. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. -
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped by two white men named J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant and was brutally beaten, shot and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The two men were arrested for the murder of Emmett Till but was declared not guilty by an all-white jury. -
Rose Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The whole incident spurred a city-wide boycott on public buses by the black community people in Montgomery, Alabama. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Martin Luther King, Jr. with the consultation of Bayard Rustin and Ella Baker establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which Martin Luther King, Jr. is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement -
Little Rock Nine
Little Rock, Ark Central High School, formerly an all-white Central High School had Nine black students blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus because of people in the town who did not want intergrated schools .The students were picked because of their excellent grades. The President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to protect and escort the students everyday to school, whom later become known as the "Little Rock Nine." -
Greensboro Four
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in movement at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. This event triggerd many similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southeern states of America. Six months later the original four protesters were served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter as Woolworths changed their store policy -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University by young people who emerged as leaders by doing the sit-in protest movement initiated on February 1 of that year, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael -
Freedom Riders
Over the spring and summer of 1961, student volunteers begin taking bus trips on segregated interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia. Several groups of Freedom Riders, were attacked by angry mobs who didn't like the movement along the way. The volunteers were from black and white background. -
James Meredith
James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops to the University of Mississippi and also ordered federal troops to escort James Meredith everyday to his classes. -
March On Washington
An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial to join the March on Washington. This was when Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The whole march was on Jobs, Freedom and Equal rights for both White and Black people -
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings.The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism. Riots erupt in Birmingham, which led to the deaths of two more black youths. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime. Riots broke out in black neighborhoods in more than 110 cities across the United States in the days that followed after the of assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. A explanation of his achievement is give as a hard copy.
