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Brown vs The Board of Education of Topeka
A combination of 5 cases, including Plessy vs Ferguson, the Supreme Court overturned the "separate but equal" ruling, ending segregation in schools. Although the Brown ruling applied only to schools, it implied that segregation in other public facilities was unconstitutional as well. The NAACP and Thurgood Marshall took up Brown's case along with similar cases in South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware as Brown v. Board of Education. -
The Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old from Chicago who was brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His murderers were acquitted, and the case brought about international attention to the civil rights movement after Jet magazine published a photo of Till’s beaten body at his open-casket funeral. -
Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus and was arrested because of it, launching a Montgomery bus boycott. The protest began on December 5th, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The protests lasted for over a year and during that time. The Supreme Court then upheld a lower court’s ruling that segregated seating was unconstitutional. The federal decision went into effect on December 20, 1956. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) supported the boycott. -
The Little Rock School Crisis
Nine African American students attempted to attend their first day at a previously all-white school but were met with mobs and violence. The students were then escorted to school by US soldiers. Eight of the nine students completed the school year. The NAACP supported the efforts of the Little Rock Nine. -
The Greensboro Four and The Sit In Movement
Four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four were inspired by the nonviolent protest of Gandhi. The Greensboro Sit-In sparked similar “sit-ins” throughout the city and in other states. The SNCC, SCLC, NAACP, and the CORE, under the umbrella of the Council of Federated Organizations, supported the Greensboro Four Sit-In. -
Ruby Bridges and the New Orleans School Integration
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans and was met by angry mobs. She was escorted by armed federal marshals every day. Barbara Henry was the only teacher that agreed to teach Ruby. Her actions inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With (1964). -
Freedom Rides
Throughout 1961, seven Black and six white activists, known as freedom riders, took bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides were marked by horrific violence from white protestors. On May 29 U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce bans on segregation more strictly. The CORE and SNCC sponsored most of the bus trips. -
Birmingham Demonstrations
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC launched a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, with local Pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) to undermine the city’s system of racial segregation. Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor’s men turn high power fire hoses and police dogs on demonstrators. The images provoke nationwide condemnation. -
The March on Washington
The march on Washington was for jobs, freedom and to protest civil rights abuses and employment discrimination. A crowd of about 250,000 individuals gathered peacefully on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to listen to speeches by civil rights leaders. Dr. MartinLuther King Jr delivered his, “I Have a Dream” speech. The March on Washington brought together many different civil rights groups, labor unions, and religious organizations, including the NAACP, SNCC, AFL-CIO, and the SCLC. -
Civil Rights Act
Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act into law, a stronger version of what his predecessor, President Kennedy, had proposed the previous summer before his assassination in November 1963. The act authorized the federal government to prevent racial discrimination in employment, voting, and the use of public facilities. Although controversial, the legislation was a victory for the civil rights movement. The NAACP lobbied for the Civil Rights Act. -
The Assassination of Malcolm X
The prominent African American leader Malcolm X was assassinated while lecturing at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. An eloquent orator, Malcolm X spoke out on the civil rights movement, demanding it move beyond civil rights to human rights, and argued that the solution to racial problems was in orthodox Islam. His speeches and ideas contributed to the development of black nationalist ideology and the Black Power movement. -
Selma-Montgomery March
In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walked from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery in protest of Black voter suppression. Local police blocked and brutally attacked them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reached Montgomery on March 25. Local African Americans, the SNCC, SCLC were in support of the Selma-Montgomery March. -
Voting Rights Act
President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
Black Power Slogan
New chair of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) Stokely Carmichael popularises the “black power” slogan in a march across Mississippi. The organization rejects non-violence in favor of armed self-defense and embraces black nationalism and separatism over inter-racialism. -
Black Panther Party was Founded
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, to protect African American neighborhoods from police brutality. The Black Panthers launched numerous community programs that offered such services as tuberculosis testing, legal aid, transportation assistance, and free shoes to poor people. The Black Panthers’ socialist viewpoint, however, made them a target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterintelligence program. -
Loving v Virginia
Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a woman of mixed African American and Native American ancestry, had pleaded guilty to having violated Virginia state law prohibiting a white person and a “colored” person from leaving the state to be married and returning to live as man and wife. The two were imprisoned for a year. They then sued Virginia in which Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that it was a civil right to freely marry. The ACLU helped the Lovings. -
The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder in 1969. King's death set off hundreds of riots across the country. -
Fair Housing Act
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion, or national origin.