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Brown vs The Board of Education
On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional. Defending the NAACP, Oliver Brown did not think it was right for children to feel unworthy, or unequal. So he called for a lawsuit to change that law. He won the case and justice prevailed. At least for the schooling system. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
From Dec. 5, 1955 to Dec. 20, 1956 the city of Montgomery boycotted riding the bus. This was just a few days after a black seamstress, Rosa Parks, was told to move her seat on the bus for a white man. When she refused, she was arrested. Rosa Parks wanted a lawsuit for the case, won the case, and got a law passed that there would be no more segregation on the city buses. Just one day after the bus law was passed, the buses went back to almost normal. Except black people sat amongst white people. -
Civil Right Act of 1957
On Sep. 9, 1957 the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed by president Eisenhower. After Reconstruction (the rebuilding of the US after the Civil War), this was the first time the government took their own action to protect the Civil Rights. This impacted the future for the Civil Rights because it caused the federal government to have a commitment to the cause of the Civil Rights Movements. -
Bethel Baptist Church
On June 29, 1958 the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) bombed the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was said that the person that bombed the church was J.B. Stoner, but every time he was accused he denied having anything to do with it. He was arrested and then questioned, but after continuing to deny, he was released with a bail of $10,000. -
Lunch Sit-Ins
In March of 1960, a group of Atlanta School representative students that were part of the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR) went to different lunch locations and protested the segregation laws by sitting at the sit in lunch counters. -
March on Washington
On Aug. 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington. So many blacks followed behind and protested. They stopped at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and several senators and congressmen gave speeches before Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the most famous speeches in American history, his "I Have A Dream" speech. -
Birmingham Bombing
On Sep. 15, 1963 the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. was bombed by a KKK member. Robert Chambliss was arrested for the murder of 4 black girls, 22 non fatal injuries, and for the possession of dynamite without permittance. -
Selma-Montgomery March
On March 7, 1965 a Christian group SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) organized a marching protest for blacks to be able to vote. The march started in Selma, Ala. to Montgomery, Ala. This was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but the leaders of the SCLC were brutally attacked by some state troopers. This was caught on film, however and helped push voting rights. A few weeks after the incident, Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 3000 people under the same bridge. -
Nobel Prize
On Dec. 10, 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. He was awarded the Peace Prize for using non- violent acts of racial justice. He became the second black man to get a Peace Prize and the youngest at the age of 35. -
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination
On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray. He was shot by a sniper bullet. The death of King caused and uprising in his people since he was the main man for the civil rights acts. His wife and children led a silent march in his honor, and to protest that whoever murdered him should be jailed. A while later, Ray pleaded guilty to murder, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. This event brought black people together and would soon end the Civil Rights Movements.