Civil Rights Movement

By dude6795

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    A Supreme Court Case that rules segregated school were unequal and therefore unconstitutional according to the 14th amendment.

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    A boycott of the Montgomery public transportation in order to protest racial segregation. It started in 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person and ended over a year later when segregation of public transportation was deemed unconstitutional.

  • Little Rock Crisis

    After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, schools in the south started to desegregate. In Little Rock, Arkansas nine black students where selected to start the gradual integration at Little Rock Central High but where blocked from entering the school by mobs and National Gaurd forces comanded by Gov. Orval Fabous. The situation was eventually escaleted to the point where Eisenhower had the students escorted into the school by an airborne division on the 24th.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    The Act was passed in order to protect the voting rights of African Americans in the South. It is famous because of Stom Thurmond's (an ardent racist) record 24 fillibuster in an attempt to kill the bill.

  • Woolworth's sit-in

    Starting on February 1st in Greensboro North Carolina four black students sat at segregated counter and were refused service ina Woolsworth resteraunt. The protest attracted more and more attention until the movement had spread throughout North Carolina and the Woolsworth chain desegregated in July.

  • Ruby Bridges

    At the age of 6 she was selected by the NAACP to be the first student to be intergrated into the New Orleans School system in 1960. She was met with resistance by the people of the city and refused to be taught by the teachers. She recieved death threats but was protected by U.S Marshall body guards while attending school.

  • Freedom Riders

    The freedom riders were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into segregated states in the south to draw national attention to the diregard for federal integration laws in those areas. The first freedom ride bus left Washington D.C. in May of 1961.

  • James Meredith/ U. Mississippi

    Was the first black student to be enrolled in the previously segregated U. Mississippi. His enrolment resulted in resitance from the Mississippi govener and riots on the Oxford Campus. President Kennedy sent federal troops to control the situtation and James Meredith sucessfully graduated with a degree in political science.

  • Govener Wallace/ U. Alabama

    George Wallace was govener of Alabama in 1963 and tried to stop the desegregation of the University of Alabama by standing in the doorway and refusing to move. He eventually gave way after confronted by federal marshals and Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach.

  • Violence in Birmingham and Assassination of Medger Evers

    Medgar Evans was a NAACP activist during the desgregation of the University of Mississippi and was shot in the back at his home by Byron De La Beckwith. As for violence in Birmingham, Martin Lurther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized widespread protest to bring nation attention to the discrimation in that area. (Date is day of Ever's death, The Birmingham campaign was in spring of 1963)

  • King speaks at March on Washington

    During the March on Wshington Marting Luether King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. This speech is said to have helped place Civil Rights on the top of the political agenda and to have helped facilitate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  • Sunday School bombing in Birmingham

    The 16th Street Baptist church was bombed by members of the United Klans of America who set a box of dynamite under the church steps near the basement where Sunday School was held. When the bomb exploded 4 young African American girls were killed and 22 more children were injured.

  • JFK assassinated

    While traveling in a presidential motorcade with Gov. John Conally in Dallas Texas JFK was fatally shot in the back of the head by Lee Harvey Oswald.

  • Twenty-fourth Amendment ratified

    Prohobits Congress and the states from condition the polls in federal elections through any form of tax.

  • Freedom Summer voting drive and violence

    A campaign launched in the summer of 1964 to attempt to register as many blacks for voting as possible. The movement was met with harsh resistance. Over the ten week campaign in Mississippi alone, 4 civil rights workers died, 3 blacks were murdered, 80 Freedom Summer workers were beaten, over 1000 arrests were made, and 60 churchs, business, and homes were bombed or burned. ( Times spans over the summer months)

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    A landmark piece of legilation signed by President Johnson that outlawed discrimination such as segregation of schools or workplaces and voter discrimination.

  • Stokely Carmicheal /Black Power

    A activist leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Honorary Prime Minister he popularized the term Black Power. (His influence spread throughout the 60s so I chose an arbritraty date)

  • Malcom X assassinated

    Malcom X was an influential leader in the Civil Rights movement however unlike other leaders he preached black surpremecy over intergration and after leaving the radical Nation of Islam group in 1964 he was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam while he was speaking in the Audubon Ballroom in New York.

  • Selma-Montgomery March

    Civil Rights activists organized a march from Selma to Montgomery AL. The march was ended at the Edmund Pettus where protesters were beat back by police and other whites. This violence became know as Bloody Sunday and as a result of the failure to make it to Montgomery two more marches were organized. The last, supported by a court order, was a success.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    This Act outlawed many of the practices that discrimated against blacks and lead to the disenfranchisemant of many African American voters.

  • Watts Riot

    Marquette Frye, a 21 year old was forcibly arrested for driving while intoxicated and as he was being subdued his mother and brother fought with the police. Meanwhile a large crowd built up in Watts neighborhood and broke into a riot that lasted 5 days and resulted in 34 deaths, thousands of injuries and arrests, and $40 million in property damage.

  • Black Panthers

    Formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California the Black Panthers became a socialist and black nationalist group that tranformed into a militant like group and vowed to protect African American rights.

  • MLKJ assassinated

    While standing on the balcony at his hotel room in Memphis Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most influential civil rights leaders, was shot and killed by a sniper bullet.

  • Fair Housing Act

    This Act provided equal housing opportunities to all regardless of race, creed, or country of orign. This Act was signed by President Johnson in 1968.

  • Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education

    (Date decided) This court case decided that the school district had to assist integration in the school systems through bussing to maintain acceptable race ratios.