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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans.
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. The court unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that allowed separate but equal segregation of the races, ruling that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Suupreme Court as the nation's first black justice. -
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot. Till was dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a magazine interview. The case becomes a cause a something that a lot of people become interested in of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger. This was an act of defiance of a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year. The buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott. -
Arrest of MLK
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed. It was during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala. He wrote his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail". He argued that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. -
"I Have A Dream"
About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. He wanted to call for an end to racism in the United States. He referenced to the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed millions of slaves in 1863. -
Birmingham Church Bombing
Four young girls, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes. It took place at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. This was a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Eventually, he will be shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith. Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam. He was an inspiration of the Black Panthers. -
Selma March
Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights. They are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. that evening. He was a prominent leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement and Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime. Ray plead of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
