Civil Rights Events

By Madison Cruver

  • 1941- Executive Order 8802 and The Tuskegee Airmen

    Executive Order 8802 prohibited racial segregation in defense industries. Issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to a threat of an African-American march on Washington in protest of job discrimination. It marked the first federal government response to segregation and discrimination.

  • 1942- Double V Campaign

    Began when a black newspaper, created a national campaign that encouraged African-Americans to support World War II at home and abroad while also campaigning for their civil rights. Double V means “Victory at Home, Victory Abroad.”

  • 1946- Morgan v. Virginia

    Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. She was arrested and charged with violating the state segregation statute. She took her case to Virginia, but the courts ruled against her, she to took her case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on interstate bus travel was unconstitutional.

  • 1947- Jackie Robinson Enters Major League Baseball

    Jackie Robinson broke the color line in professional sports by becoming the first African-American to play in the MLB. Robinson's achievement started the end of segregation in professional baseball, which had been that way since the 1880s

  • 1948- Executive Order 9981 and Perez v. Sharp

    Executive Order 9981 desegregated the armed forces. Issued by President Harry Truman, it declared "that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race color, religion or national origin."

  • 1951- The Moton School Strike

    Students of at Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, Virginia, walked out of class in protest of the conditions of their education. They claimed the school, was a drastic difference from Farmville High, an all-white school, and said they would not return to class until their demands were met.The student’s efforts resulted in Virginia's first direct legal challenge to school segregation the case is regarded by many to be the start of the desegregation movement in America.

  • Brown vs Board of Education, 1954

    In 1950, Linda Brown was denied an education in a white school in Topeka, Kansas. The Brown family gained representation by NAACP attorneys and took the case to the Supreme Court. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court decided segregated schools were unequal and unfair. African American students could now attend white schools.

  • 1955- The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    This boycott took place after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white male. The next day Martin Luther King Jr. proposed a citywide boycott against racial segregation on the public transportation system. The Montgomery bus boycott was one of the first major movements that started social change during the civil rights movement.