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Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a Supreme Court case that stopped racial segregation in public schools. The Court decided that separating students by race was unequal and violated the Constitution. This ruling helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. -
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy killed in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman. The men who killed him were not found guilty. His death became an important part of the Civil Rights Movement. -
In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where Black people stopped using the buses to protest segregation. It lasted more than a year and helped begin the Civil Rights Movement. -
In 1957, nine Black students called the Little Rock Nine tried to go to an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. People protested, but U.S. soldiers were sent to keep them safe. This helped move school integration forward. -
In 1960, four Black college students sat at a "whites only" lunch counter at a Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were denied service but stayed seated as a protest. This sparked a series of sit-ins nationwide to challenge segregation. -
In 1961, Black and white activists known as the Freedom Riders took buses through the South to protest segregation in bus stations. They faced violence and arrests but continued their fight, bringing national attention to the struggle against segregation. -
In 1963, while in prison for protesting segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In it, he answered critics who said his actions were too extreme, explaining that people couldn’t wait for their rights and had to take action to fight injustice. -
The March on Washington happened in 1963, with over 250,000 people gathering in D.C. to demand jobs and equal rights for Black Americans. It’s best known for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, which called for an end to racism and injustice. -
In 1963, four young girls were killed in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, carried out by white supremacists. The attack shocked the country and became a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement. -
The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, banned poll taxes in federal elections, helping to eliminate a barrier that stopped many poor and Black Americans from voting. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal to discriminate in public places, jobs, and schools based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It was a key law in ending segregation and promoting equality. -
"Bloody Sunday" took place in 1965 when police attacked peaceful protesters marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand voting rights. The violent response gained national attention and contributed to the passing of the Voting Rights Act. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made racial discrimination in voting illegal, particularly in the South. It banned practices like literacy tests and poll taxes that prevented Black Americans from voting. -
Loving v. Virginia was a 1967 Supreme Court case where the court decided that laws against interracial marriage were unconstitutional. This ruling made it legal for people of different races to marry anywhere in the U.S.