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Plessy v. Ferguson
In many states, there were different train carts for whites and blacks. A man named Homer Plessy challenged this law with nonviolent civil disobedience by sitting in the white section. He was arrested and taken to court as he had hoped to get the law desegregated, but the Supreme Court ruling was, instead, that this "separate but equal" law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Sit-ins
In 1942 in Chicago, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had staged the first sit-in. The sit-ins were where African American protesters sat down at segregated lunch counters and refused to leave until they were served. The protesters had to keep self control as they were faced with intimidation and humiliation from the white segregationists. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Topeka, Kansas' school system operated with separate schools for blacks and whites. Reverend Oliver Brown protested that it was unfair to his young daughter to have to travel a long way to go to her "black" school, instead of going to the school closer to her that was for "whites". The Court then ruled that segregated public schools were unequal and therefore unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat in the front row of the "colored" section of a Montgomery bus. As the bus filled, the driver ordered her, as well as three other African Americans to give up their seats so that a white man could sit down without having to be seated next to an African American. When she refused, the driver told her, "If you don't stand up, I'm going to call the police and have you arrested." Rosa then replied, "You may do that." It started the famous boycott. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Many things were trying to be resolved and accomplished during this time. This Civil Rights Act did three things which was that it established federal commission on civil rights, established a civil rights division in the Justice Department to enforce civil rights laws. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Two months after the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson had pledged to carry on Kennedy's work and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, and gender. It gave all citizens the right to enter libraries, parks, washrooms, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Congress finally passes Johnson's Voting Rights Acts in 1965. This act eliminated the so-called literacy tests that had disqualified many voters. It also stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials. -
Black Panthers
In Oakland, California, in October 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded a political party known as the Black Panthers to fight police brutality in the ghetto. The party advocated self-sufficiency for African American communities, as well as full employment and decent housing. They also maintained that African Americans should be exempt form military services. -
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech and had said, "I may not get there with you but...we as a people will get to the Promised Land." The next day as he was standing out on his hotel balcony, James Earl Ray assassinated King with a rifle. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The civil rights movement was bringing about legal protection for the civil rights of all Americans. Congress passed the most important civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, including the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which basically ended discrimination in housing, strengthened anti-lynching laws, and made it crime to harm civil rights workers.
