-
Overview
The Storied History of the NAACP – BlackPressUSA
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was created on February 12, 1909, in New York City, by an interracial group of activists, reformers, and intellectuals, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, and Oswald Garrison Villard, partly in response to the horrific 1908 Springfield Race Riot, aiming to secure equal rights for African Americans through legal challenges and advocacy -
The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, between May 31 and June 1, 1921. -
The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers unjustly accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931, leading to infamous trials highlighting racial injustice, denial of fair legal representation, all-white juries, and mob influence, becoming a crucial early civil rights case that exposed deep-seated racism in the U.S. legal system and eventually saw the Supreme Court overturn convictions due to prejudiced proceedings. -
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by joining the Dodgers baseball team -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, even if the segregated facilities are equal in quality. -
Emmett Louis Till was an African-American boy who, at 14 years old, was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. -
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States -
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first Black student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, courageously walking past hostile white protesters, escorted by federal marshals, a pivotal moment symbolizing the Civil Rights Movement's fight against segregation and cementing her legacy as a powerful icon for educational equality. -
it was an open letter written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. telling of all of the injustice -
A massive, peaceful protest of about 250,000 people demanding civil and economic rights for African Americans, culminating in Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech, and significantly influenced the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed and signed into law on July 2, 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public places, employment, and federally funded programs, marking a pivotal moment for equality in the U.S. after overcoming a significant Senate filibuster. -
Malcolm X was an African American revolutionary and human rights activist who founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was also a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965. It is considered one of the most significant and effective pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history, designed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans and other minorities from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. -
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was created in Oakland, California, in October 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, born from frustration with systemic racism, poverty, and severe police brutality against Black Americans, even after civil rights laws. Initially the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, their core activity was monitoring police to protect communities, inspired by Malcolm X and Black Power, evolving into a Marxist organization providing community services. -
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. -
Thurgood Marshall was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, becoming the first African American Justice after being confirmed by the Senate, fulfilling a lifelong pursuit of equal justice. Johnson appointed Marshall to fill the vacancy left by retiring Justice Tom C. Clark, recognizing Marshall's extensive legal career as a civil rights lawyer and his prior service as U.S. Solicitor General.