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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, was a boycott in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks’ court hearing and lasted 381 days. -
Greensboro, NC Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream"
In his iconic speech at the Lincoln Memorial for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, King urged America to "make real the promises of democracy." King synthesized portions of his earlier speeches to capture both the necessity for change and the potential for hope in American society. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes Congress, prohibiting discrimination in a number of settings: Title I prohibits discrimination in voting; Title II: public accommodations; Title III: Public Facilities; Title IV: Public Education; Title VI: Federally-Assisted Programs; Title VII: Employment. The Act also establishes the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). -
Watts Riots in Los Angeles
Beginning as a community-wide reaction to the arrest of three African-Americans in central Los Angeles, the Watts Riots continue for six days, and are viewed by some as purposeless criminal behavior. Others viewed the riots as a necessary uprising by African-Americans as a reaction to oppression, and consider the Watts Riots a key precursor to the "Black Power" movement of the late 1960's.
