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Plessy v. Ferguson
Landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution -
Tuskegee Airmen
A group of primarily African American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. -
MLB Integration
Despite the successes of Robinson, Doby, and Paige, full integration of the major leagues came about slowly and was not completed until 1959 -
Armed Forces Integration
Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which 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.” -
Sweatt v. Painter
Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which 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.” -
Brown v. Board of Education
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
Death of Emmitt Till
Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Little Rock High School Integration
A group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. -
Greensboro Lunch Sit-In
A series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store -
Freedom Riders of 1961
Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court -
24th Amendment
Prohibited poll tax requirement for voting. -
Univ. of Mississippi Integration
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
Univ. of Alabama Integration
President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. -
March on Washington
A massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. -
JFK Assassination
Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. -
Malcolm X Assassination
On stage at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was gunned down as his pregnant wife and four daughters took cover in the front row. -
Bloody Sunday
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting -
MLK Assassination
an African American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m -
Voting Rights Act of 1968
Prohibits discrimination concerning the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex.