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Linda Brown
Linda Brown was an 8-year-old African-American living in Topeka, Kansas. She lived within walking distance of a whites-only school. Due to "separate but equal" laws, Linda was unable to attend and was forced to travel by bus to a more distant school for blacks. Her father sued the school board of Topeka, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. -
Highlander Folk School
The Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, which runs workshops on organizing protests for indivuduals such as union organizers, issues invitations to civil rights workers. -
Brown v. Board of Education
After months on trial, a decision is reached in the Brown v. Board of education case. On May 17, the Supreme Court decided that "separate but equal" schools are unequal. The decision declared school segregation unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till
Emmitt Till was a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago, Illinois. On August 28, 1955, he was killed by white men for supposedly whistling at a white woman. -
Rosa Parks
On December 1, 1955, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man. She was arrested there in Montogomery, Alabama. She is said to be the inspiration for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott Bombings
In January and February, whites bomb four African-American churches and the homes of civil rights leaders Martin Luther Kind Jr and E.D. Nixon due to anger caused by the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Montogomery Bus Boycott Ruling
On Novemner 13, 1955, the Supreme Court upholds an Alabama district court ruling in favor of the bus Boycotters. The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially ends in December. It successfully integrated Montgomery's buses. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which sparks the creation of the Civil Rights Commission and authorizes the Justice Department to investiagate cases of blacks being denied consitutional rights in the South. -
Cooper v. Aaron
The Supreme Court decision Cooper v. Aaron rules that a threat of mob violence is not reason enough to delay school desgreagation. -
MLK Goes to India
MLK and his wife visit India. Here, in the homeland of Mahatma Gandh, he studies Gandhi's winning of indepence through nonviolent acts and discusses the philosphy of nonviolence with Gandhi's followers.
