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Emmett Till Murdered
Two white men kidnapped Emmett Till and brutally tortured and killed him in Money, Mississippi for speaking to a white women. This was the start of something bad in which even whites in the south couldn't escape from, because of TV, news anywhere was news everywhere. -
Emmett Till Trial
The two men were brought to court, confessed to murdering Emmett Till, and were then released with a “not guilty” verdict because “the state failed to prove the identity of the body." In this trial, a black man actually accused a white man of the act he commited, which is the first of his kind to stand up to a white man in court. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat up to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Because of Rosa Parks history, King used her arrest as fuel to the bus boycott to push for integration in busses. -
Bus Boycott Began
The newly elected president of Montgomery Improvement Association, Martin Luther King Jr, and his associates created a taxi service and other means of transportation for blacks to fight for bus desegregation in Montgomery. -
Bus Boycott Ends
Blacks are officially allowed to sit where they want on busses in Montgomery, Alabama due to the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on busses was unconstitutional. -
Little Rock Nine 'Accepted'
The Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, an all white school, is forced by the 101st Airborne Division to allow the Little Rock Nine, nine black kids, to enroll and take classes at the school. This forced the government to finally take a stand on civil rights, which worked out miraculasly for the blacks. -
Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
Four Students sat at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. who refused to give them food. This protest gradually gained power and spead across the South gaining thousands in support. The blacks had a code of conduct, very calm and respectful. This event showed everyone that it's not the blacks that you have to worry about, the whites, the ones who are beating the blacks for doing nothing but sitting peacefully are requesting food. -
Birmingham Protests
Children from the ages 6 to 18 gathered in the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, Alabama and sang “We Shall Overcome.” On the first day, almost 1000 children were arrested and jailed. The next day, Bull Connor, the Commissioner of Public Safety, ordered the firemen to spray down any protesters as well as letting loose K-9 forces on the crowds. All this was recorded and broadcasted across the nation. Because of TV, someone in Maine was able to see the heinous attitude of the south. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
Four black girls were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. City leaders had only recently reached an agreement to begin integrating public places, this was the southerners way of disagreeing. Even whites in the south saw this as a truely wrong act, even for white southerners. It made the southerners re-evaluate why they are stopping the blacks, or at least the violence they are creating. -
Bloody Sunday
A Civil Rights march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama on March 7, March 9, and March 16 and finally reaching their destination, the capital of Alabama, on the 25th to register to vote. The first two marches were unsuccessful due to the fact that the police for who stood in their way wielded tear gas and billy clubs. On the third march, the US army and National Guard were sent in as escort. Because of this event, over 60% of the blacks registered to vote, where only 5% were before.