Civil Rights Timeline

  • plessy v ferguson

    plessy v ferguson
    history.comThis 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law.
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    Jacki Robsinson

    Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues in 1947, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1947, National League MVP in 1949 and a World Series champ in 1955.
  • primary source of malcom X

    primary source of malcom X
    "When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, 'a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home,'" Malcolm later remembered. "Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out." The harassment continued; when Malcolm X was four years old, local Klan members smashed all of the family's windows, causing Earl Little to decide to move the family from Omaha to East Lansing, Michigan.
  • Primary Source of Jackie Robinson

    Primary Source of Jackie Robinson
    "Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead."
  • Primary Source of Martin Luther King Jr. Speech "I Have a Dream"

    Primary Source of Martin Luther King Jr. Speech "I Have a Dream"
    "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down
    in history as the greates•t demonstration for freedom in
    the history of our nation. "
  • primary source of letter of brimington jail

    primary source of letter of brimington jail
    While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling our present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom, if ever, do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would be engaged in little else in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and your criticisms are sincerely set forth.
  • james Meredith

    james Meredith
    Born in Mississippi in 1933, James Meredith was raised on a farm with nine siblings. He joined the military after high school and attended an all-black college before becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962. After he graduated, he earned a law degree and became involved in politics. He continues to be active in civil rights and lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
  • congress of racial equality

    congress of racial equality
    The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is a U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Founded in 1942, CORE was one of the "Big Four" civil rights organizations, along with the SCLC, the SNCC, and the NAACP.
  • sweatt v painter

    sweatt v painter
    Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, was a U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson.
  • brown v board of education

    brown v board of education
    On May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society.
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    Montgomery Bus Boycott

    The Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating, took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by bla
  • the southern manifesto

    the southern manifesto
    In 1956, 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the "Southern Manifesto," a resolution condemning the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The resolution called the decision "a clear abuse of judicial power" and encouraged states to resist implementing its mandates.
  • mongomery bus boycott

    mongomery bus boycott
    Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which began a chain reaction of similar boycotts throughout the South. In 1956, the Supreme Court voted to end segregated busing. In 1955
  • southern christian leadership conference

    southern christian leadership conference
    The very beginnings of the SCLC can be traced back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.SCLC is a now a nation wide organization made up of chapters and affiliates with programs that affect the lives of all Americans: north, south, east and west. Its sphere of influence and interests has become international in scope because the human rights movement transcends national boundaries.
  • little rock central high school

    little rock central high school
    Little Rock Central High School is recognized for the role it played in the desegregation of public schools in the United States. The nine African-American students' persistence in attending the formerly all-white Central High School was the most prominent national example of the implementation of the May 17, 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.
  • Map of Little Rock Central High School

    Map of Little Rock Central High School
    Was a part of the1957 crisis over the desegregation of this school is a significant event in the civil-rights moment. It is located at 1500 S Park St, Little Rock, AR 72202
  • student nonviolent coordinating committee

    student nonviolent coordinating committee
    The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement, became one of the movement’s more radical branches.
  • greensboro sit-in

    greensboro sit-in
    a non-violent protest by young African-American students at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparked a sit-in movement that soon spread to college towns throughout the region. Though many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate and lasting impact, forcing Woolworth’s and other establishments to change their segregationist policies.
  • bombing of birmingham church

    bombing of birmingham church
    On September 15, a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured; outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.
  • freedom rides

    freedom rides
    On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals.
  • twenty-fourth amendment

    twenty-fourth amendment
    Ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment marked the culmination of an endeavor begun in Congress in 1939 to effect elimination of the poll tax as a qualification for voting in federal elections. Property qualifications extend back to colonial days, but the poll tax itself as a qualification was instituted in eleven States of the South following the end of Reconstruction, although at the time of the ratification of this Amendment only five States still retained it.
  • letter from birmingham jail

    letter from birmingham jail
    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter when he was in jail, he said he came across a recent statement saying that their present activities were unwise an untimely.
  • Medger Ever

    Medger Ever
    Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations and boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination.
  • march on washington

    march on washington
    On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Drea
  • Map of March on Washington

    Map of March on Washington
    March on Washington is where Martin Luther King jr. gave his "I Have Dream" speech an more than 200,000 showed up.
  • mississippi freedom summer

    mississippi freedom summer
    The events of Freedom Summer deepened the division between those in the civil rights movement who still believed in integration and nonviolence and others, especially young African Americans, who now doubted whether racial equality was achievable by peaceful means.
  • Civil rights act passed

    Civil rights act passed
    is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
  • Malcolm X assassinated

    Malcolm X assassinated
    In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.
  • Selma to Montgomery March

    Selma to Montgomery March
    Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities.
  • Map of Selma to Montgomery March

    Map of Selma to Montgomery March
    Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities.
  • voting right act approved

    voting right act approved
    The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.
  • black panthers

    black panthers
    n October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs. The party was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation — a party whose agenda was the revolutionary
  • king assassinated

    king assassinated
    His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.
  • Map of Where Martin Luther King Jr. was Killed

    Map of Where Martin Luther King Jr. was Killed
    The map shows where the person who assassinated King and where King was loacted when he was assassinated.
  • jackie robinson

    jackie robinson
    Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues in 1947, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1947, National League MVP in 1949 and a World Series champ in 1955.