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The Supreme Court Decision of Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case was important because it held a Louisiana state law that allowed for equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races. The case was challenged because African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. -
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter the Army Air Corps. -
The Integration of Major League Baseball
They brought over from the Negro leagues an aggressive style of play that combined power hitting with daring on the base paths. -
The Integration of the Armed Forces
President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order banning segregation in the Armed Forces. The arrangement of military forces and their actions to create a force that operates by engaging as a whole. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Sweatt v. Painter
The court unanimously ruled that because the law school for colored people was drastically worse in comparison to the UT Law School. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States. -
The Death of Emmitt Till
The sight of his brutalized body pushed many who had been content to stay on the sidelines directly into the fight. -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa's groundbreaking act proves how change can be made through the protest and civil action of everyday people. -
The Integration of Little Rock High School
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools are "inherently unequal." In September 1957, as a result of that ruling, nine African-American students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In
Young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. -
The Freedom Riders by Freedom Riders of 1961
Groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. -
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax. -
The Integration of The University of Mississippi
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
The Integration of the University of Alabama
A federal district court in Alabama ordered the University of Alabama to admit African American students Vivien Malone and James Hood during its summer session. -
The March on Washington & "I Have a Dream" Speech by MLK
I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be plain and the crooked places will be made straight, "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson
Prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. -
The Assassination Of Malcom X
Malcolm X was gunned down as his pregnant wife and four daughters took cover in the front row. -
The Selma to Montgomery March: "Bloody Sunday"
State and local police used billy clubs, whips, and tear gas to attack hundreds of civil rights activists beginning a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis Tennessee
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1968
Expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, sex. Since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children.