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Plessy v Ferguson
This case dealt with the arrest of Plessy after he sat in a white’s only train cart and refused to move into the black section. He argued that it violated his rights but it was later ruled that it did not break any rules as long as it was separate but equal. This case dealt with Civil rights most importantly those of African Americans, bringing a huge impact to their social lifestyle since this ruling of separate but equal started to spread to other areas as well not just trains carts. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown sued the district claiming that the black and white schools were separate but were not in any form equal. The first ruling of this case concluded that the schools were equal enough to not violate the constitution, but Brown appealed this verdict. The Supreme court went back and issued a new verdict which ordered integration to happen immediately in school. This case went against the Plessy V Ferguson ruling because they now knew that school segregation could not be separate and equal. -
Murder of Emmett Till
During his trip to visit his relatives in Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed by two white men. He had allegedly flirted with the white clerk woman in the store and she had told her husband to which then they kidnapped and murdered the young boy. This event sparked the civil rights movement because it urged African Americans to join the cause in fear that if they did not stand up for themselves something like that could happen to them. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott after was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person. Her incarcerating lead to African Americans boycotting the bus as a way of protest because they were tired of being segregated. This boycott turned out to be very successful and showed African Americans that if they fought for what the believed in they could make change happen. -
Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & Martin Luther King
The SCLC was a peaceful protests organization lead by Martin Luther King Jr. that represented African Americans as a whole fighting for their rights. They wanted to end segregation not with violence but in peaceful manner thorough protest, boycotts and marches. The founding of SCLC marked a great milestone because it showed that African Americans were now willing to fight together to achieve what they wanted through any means necessary. -
Little Rock Nine & Central High School
Nine African American students were sent to integrate Central High School after the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The Governor of Arkansas sent the National Guard to stop the nine students from entering the school and President Eisenhower hearing this decided to send the U.S Army to protect and escort the students. This event was viewed as a major victory for the Civil Rights movement because it showed them they had the support of the President. -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four African American college students planned a peaceful protest sit in after they were refused service when they sat in the white’s only section counter and refused to move. Seeing this white men started to go to these protest to harass the students into leaving. While sit-ins were not an uncommon thing, the Greensboro Sit in was the first one that grabbed the attention of the media, created an impact showing peaceful protest and encourage others to participate in sit-ins. -
March on Washington
A massive amount of protesters from different organizations banded together to March for desegregation in public schools, the termination of segregation as a whole, as well as fair employment to name a few. This was also were MLK gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech”, were he urges the termination of racism in the U.S. This event was impactful because it granted the Civil Rights Leaders to meet with the president to urge him to support their Civil rights movement. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) & Freedom Summer
The freedom summer was intended to help African Americans get the opportunity to vote and be able to hold public office without being stopped by the white man. The SNCC was an organization lead by college students who hoped to reach out to the future generation so they would get involved in the Civil rights movement. They had a huge impact because while they might been inspired by the SCLC they had different ideologies and projects for tackling Civil Rights. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
This act proposed by JKF and signed by President Johnson, protected people from being discriminated in their workplace based on their race, ethnicity, and sex, and created the EEOC to regulate and enforce Civil Rights Laws. This made segregation in business, public spaces and school illegal and allowed integration to happen. This was a big impact because it finally offered an equal opportunity to everyone regardless of their differences, which had not been really seen until now. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Thomas Hagen killed Malcolm X with multiple gunshots to the chest at a rally he was attending for his followers. It is speculated that The Nation of Islam was behind the attack considering Thomas Hagen was a member of the organization and was outraged since Malcolm x had left to follow orthodox Islam ideologies instead. This was impactful because he was known to prefer violence as a solution for retaliating against the white man and at the end, he was killed with violence. -
Freedom Ride/Freedom Riders
It was group of African Americans who sought out to test the effectiveness of the Supreme Court ruling saying that segregation in buses and trains were unconstitutional by riding buses that took them down south. Their original predictions on bus segregation turned out to be true after a mob of white people harassed, beat them and burned their bus. This event showed that while it might be unconstitutional for segregation on buses it does not stop the white people from harming African Americans. -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
This act was set in place because it was seen as another way to furthermore strengthen the fifteenth amendment, which gave African Americans the right to vote. This law took off requirements that southern states had put in place such as literacy test and poll taxes that inhibited African Americans from voting. With this now in place, it posed a great impact because now more and more African American’s were registering to vote. -
Assassination of MLK
MLK was shot by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the hotel he was staying at preparing for his next march fighting for proper rights for sanitation workers. He died doing what he was most passionate about, helping people get what they rightfully deserve. The death of MLK created an outbreak of violence throughout the U.S mourning the death of a leader who fought for the rights of the people.
