Timeline background (temporary)

Civil Rights Movement

  • 14th Amendment

    14th Amendment

    This amendment ensured that everyone born in the U.S. was a citizen with the exception of Indians and were equal.
  • 15th Amendment

    15th Amendment

    The 15th Amendment allowed African American men to vote.
  • Jackie Robinson Integrates MLB

    Jackie Robinson Integrates MLB

    Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play major league baseball. He broke the color barrier that was around baseball.
  • Executive Order 9981

    Executive Order 9981

    Executive Order 9981 desegregated the United States military. This order was issued by President Harry S. Truman.
  • Brown vs. Board of Education

    Brown vs. Board of Education

    The Supreme Court decided that separating the children in public schools by race was unconstitutional.
  • Murder of Emmett Till

    Murder of Emmett Till

    Till was kidnapped and killed by two white men. This was because he was accused of flirting with a white cashier at a store. Till was only 14 years old.
  • SCLC Founded

    SCLC Founded

    The Southern Christian Leader Conference's purpose was to enforce civil rights in America non-violently.Martin Luther King Jr. was in charge/president of the SCLC.
  • Little Rock Nine

    Little Rock Nine

    The Little Rock Nine was the start of desegregating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
  • Greensboro Sit-In

    Greensboro Sit-In

    Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond were four A&T students that organized the first Greensboro sit-in. They walked from their school (A&T) to Woolworths where the sit-in took place. They were later known as the Greensboro Four.
  • Ruby Bridges

    Ruby Bridges

    Ruby Bridges was the first African American child to go to an all white public school. She was one of only six African Americans that passed the test to get into an all white school.
  • Freedom Rides

    The Freedom Riders' goal was to desegregate buses, trains, etc.
  • Letter from a Birmingham Jail

    Letter from a Birmingham Jail

    Martin Luther King wrote this letter from jail to several clergymen addressing their concerns.
  • The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

    The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

    200,000 people of all races gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Dr. King delivered his now famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
  • Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church

    Bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church

    Four youg girls were killed in this bombing in Birmingham. It has been said that the bomber was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
  • 24th Amendment

    24th Amendment

    The 24th Amendment gave United States citizens the right to vote in any primary election or other election.
  • Malcolm X Assassinated

    Malcolm X Assassinated

    Malcolm X was shot several times and died at the hospital. He was killed at The Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm was supposed to be delivering a speech to a crowd of at least 400 people.
  • Bloody Sunday

    Bloody Sunday

    Dr. King led a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. At the bridge that leads out of Selma, over 200 troopers and people beat the protestors. They were brutally attacked.
  • Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike

    Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike

    Memphis, Tennessee workers began to protest unfair wages and unsafe working conditions.
  • Tommie Smith and John Carlos

    Tommie Smith and John Carlos

    Tommie and John were stripped of their gold and bronze olympic medals. This was because they held up their fists at the medal ceremony symbolizing/representing Black Power.