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Plessey vs. Ferguson
Plessley who was 7/8ths white, attempted to sit in a "whites only car" on the rain, refusing to move back to the "black car" he was arrested. This event is significant not only because this kind of thing was so unheard of in the 1890's, but the effect it had down the road in the Brown vs. Board of Education case. -
"Seperate but Equal" approved
May 18, 1896 the Supreme Court passes the "Seperate but Equal" law. -
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan is revived in 1915 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and by the beginning of 1919 operates in 27 states. Eighty-three African Americans are lynched during the year, among them a number of returning soldiers still in uniform. -
Sweatt vs. Painter
This case was created because Sweatt, was refused admission to the University of Texas. At the time to Law School would accept any black or Mexican students. -
First year without a Lynching
The first year since 1881 that there had been no lynchings or hangings of slaves. -
Brown V. Board of Education
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled out the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas that public school segregation was unconstitutional and paved the way for desegregation. The decision overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that said "separate educational facilities were inherently unequal." -
White council resists desegregation
White citizens council formed to resist desegregation. -
Emmitt Till murdered
Emmett Till, a black fouteen year old, is murdered and dumped in a river by two white men for illegally whistling at a white woman. -
Rosa Parks is arrested
Rosa Parks, NAACP member, refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, and was arrested for it. Which evolved into the Mongomery Bus Boycott. -
segregated seating in Mongomery is Banned.
Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses. -
Enforcing School Desegregation
Eisenhower, the president at the time, orders federal troops to enforce school desegregation, in Little Rock, Ark. -
Sit-in
Black students have a sit-in at a whites only lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. -
SNCC is founded
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (sncc) founded to promote youth involvement. -
Freedom Riders attack.
Freedom Riders attacked in Alabama while testing obedience with bus merging laws. -
James Meredith attends a university
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. -
MLJ is arrested
He was arrested during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. -
Medgar Evers murdered
Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, was murdered outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later, he was convicted of murdering Evers. -
March on Washington
More than 250,000 people join in the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listened as Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Bombing at Sixteenth Street Babtist Church
Four young girls, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, attending Sunday school were killed when a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupted in Birmingham, Ala., leading to the deaths of two more black youth. -
Nobel Peace Prize
Martin Luther King Jr. earns the Nobel Peace Prize. -
Civil Rights act of 1964
President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 -
Malcolm X, assassinated
Shortly after denying the Nation of Islam, he was assasinated by three of its members. -
Bloody Sunday
Blacks began marching to Montgomery to support equal voting rights, but were stopped by police officers at Edmund Pettus Bridge. They attacked with billy clubs, tear gas, bull whips, pushing them back to Selma. -
Martin Luther King Jr. shot
Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on the overlook of a balcony, about to give a speech, by James Earl Ray. -
Lee Patrick Brown
in 1997 Lee Patrick Brown was made the first African-American mayor. He was relected twice giving him the maximum 3 terms, he served 1998 to 2004. The significance of the event shows how now colored people are able to recieve more "high-ranked" jobs that weren't availible to them in the 50s and 60s. -
Lillian Fishbourne
Lillian Fishbourne was oficially promoted to Rear Admiral February 1, 1998. Becoming the first black female Admiral. This event also shows that colored people can recieve higher ranks than before.
