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Plessy V. Ferguson
Homer Plessy, an African American man refused to sit in the "black" area of the train ride because he believed his rights allowed him to sit wherever he pleaded. This situation went to trial in which the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy because although the white and black were being separated, they were equal. This ruling then allowed for many laws to be passed for segregation including the Jim Crow Laws made constitutional. -
Greensboro Sit In
Four African American males staged a peaceful sit in at a diner in Greensboro and refused to be served by anyone who wasn't white. The group stayed until closing and came back the next day with even more students from their school but police couldn't do anything about it due to their non-violence.Around march the movement of sit ins had spread and many diners became interracial because of this. -
Brown V. Board of Education
An African American man named Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit when his daughter was not allowed to attend the same schools where white children received their more efficient education. It was founded that the segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Due to this case the Plessy V. Ferguson case was overturned and schools were interracial. -
Murder of Emmett Till
A 14 year old African American boy was brutally murdered by white men after being accused of "flirting" with an older white woman. His mother allowed for an open casket to prevail society to fight for what was right but the ruling was found non guilty against the defendants who were clearly pointed out in a segregated court room. This murder contributed to societies views on how the two races were very different and were not treated equally in the justice system. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was an African American woman who sat in the seat reserved for white people on the bus ride home when she was asked to move she didn't comply, leading to her arrest. Martin Luther King Jr. arranged a bus boycott after hearing about it in order to prove a point that buses needed to be served on a first come first serve basis. Due to the attention widespread, the Supreme Court ruled the segregation buses unconstitutional in November 1956. -
Rock Nine and Central High School
As a result from Brown , B.O.E. the Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students who enrolled in an all white school. The governor Faubus disapproved of it so he called Arkansas' national guard in order to prevent the nine students from entering the building while the president ordered troops to let the students in school. Due to the resistance of this and many other schools, a new law called Brown 2 was issued and desegregated all schools which had immediate effectiveness. -
Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Martin Luther King
The SCLC was initiated because of the Rosa Parks incident and Bus boycotting event, their leader being Martin Luther King Jr. The group was created to allow African American community started non-violent ways to put across that they wanted civil rights. Although the group initially created for African Americans and their rights today the organization if for people of all race and religion. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom rides is another form of civil rights protest in which CORE or the Congress of Racial Equality organized racial groups to travel by bus through the south in order to ban racial segregation on transportation, bus stations, hotels and restaurant. These activist were often attacked in southern cities by white supremacists and members of the KKK. The rides continued for several months until finally regulations were issued which prohibited segregation in interstate transit. -
March on Washington
The march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a big protest which took place in Aug. 1963 where people gathered in order to highlight the challenges African Americans faced a century after emancipation. In this march, Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech was delivered. About 250,00 people gathered at the march which demonstrated the immense power of this civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act
The civil rights act ended segregation in public places as well as banned any discriminations of employment based on race, color, religion, or sex. The act was proposed because of violent and strict segregations and discriminatory conditions minorities faced. This act is a huge achievement of the civil rights movement due because legal segregation had finally been brought down. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The SNCC was a group that gave younger, black, civil right advocates a voice in the movement. It was originally a student branch pf the Southern Christian Leadership Conference but eventually broke off due to MLK’s insistence on non-violence. The group shifted from a philosophy on non-violence to an advocate of the “black power” movement and for the first time, young people were able to be a huge part of the civil rights movement. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcom X, African American nationalist, was assassinated while he addressed his Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City on Feb. 21, 1965. Malcolm’s influential movement of civil rights and advocating nationalism, self-defence, and racial separation gained him many followers. His assassination largely influenced members of SNCC which advocated power for black people. -
Voting Right Act
The voting right act was signed in by Johnson on August 6, 1965 in order to eliminate any barriers that prevented African Americans from voting. Because although the 15th amendment guaranteed everyone voting rights, election officials would either tell black voters that they had incorrect timing, location, date, application or even forced them to take literacy tests. Afterwards, voter turnout improved vastly and features like the protection of non-English speaking voting rights were added. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr, a strong African American leader of the civil rights movement was assassinated by white man, James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis. The assassination of MLK sparked riots and mourning across the nation. His killing radicalized black activists which led to the growth of Black Power Movement and eventually growth of the Black Panther Party.
