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Brown v. Board of Education
This event was a national landmark for the U.S. supreme court case in which the court decided to desegregate schools and mark separate schools as unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till Murder
On August 24th, 1955, 14 year old Emmett Till was caught flirting with a white cashier. 4 days later he was tortured and murdered by 2 white males. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The actions of Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat to a white man, sparked the 13 month bus boycott that was lead by Martin Luther King Jr. Under his leadership, black commuters and a small number of white sympathizers suffered official harassment, numerous threats, and personal inconvenience for more than a year. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision, and ruled the segregated system unconstitutional. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver , James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine African-American high school students were recruited to be enrolled to challenge racial segregation in American public schools by enrolling at the all-white Central High School. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This act was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. -
Freedom Riders
An interracial group of student activists departed from Washington D.C. by bus to test local compliance throughout the Deep South with two Supreme Court rulings banning segregated accommodations on interstate buses and in bus terminals that served interstate routes. -
Birmingham Campaign
Organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was an interracial march by 250,000 blacks and whites on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C., protesting against segregation and job discrimination against blacks in the nation. It was also called the March for Freedom and Jobs. -
24th amendment
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America abolished the poll tax for all federal elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The act outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries, and public schools. -
Executive Order
This executive order established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors. -
Selma-Montgomery March
Under the leadership of John Lewis and the SCLC's Hosea Williams, five to six hundred people marched without incident through the streets of Selma until reaching the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were brutally attacked by state troopers and mounted patrolmen. Television cameramen captured the incident on film, which helped marshal nationwide support for the passage of voting rights legislation. -
Black Panthers
Originally aimed at armed self-defense against the local police, the black panther party grew to support violent revolution as the only means of achieving black liberation. -
MLK's Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper bullet while standing on the veranda of his second floor room of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
