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Creation of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States. The NAACP's main objective was to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens. The NAACP helped advance not only integration of the armed forces in 1948 but also passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, and many more. -
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
Before Jackie played professional baseball he was in the army. Branch Rickey asked Robinson to helo integrate baseball and that he did. Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the major leagues in 1947, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. His success in the major leagues opened the door for other African-American players. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education was a court desicion where Brown argued that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and kick started the civil rights movement into a full revolution. Brown successfully ended legal segregation in public schools. -
The Murder of Emmit Till
While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African American civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was the first to not give up her seat which kick started the 381 day boycott of the Montgomery bus. Martin Luther King Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, which began a chain reaction of similar boycotts throughout the South. In 1956, the Supreme Court voted to end segregated busing. -
The Litte Rock 9
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. -
Ruby Bridges Desegregates Elementary School
Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South. The purpose was to integrate the school she attended and she succeeded because she simply did not let others ostracize her. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther wrote letters in response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white religious leaders of the South. He was put in jail for participating in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. It stands as one of the classic documents of the civil-rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. -
Assassination of Malcom X
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims just a week after his house was firebombed. He was accused of preaching racism and violence. Malcolm X was one of the most prominent and controversial black leaders during the civil rights era. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
Marshall was the grandson of a slave. As the U.S. solicitor general Marshall wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government before he was named justice of the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall was instrumental in ending legal segregation and became the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement and was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday, April 4, 1968. He was one of the most important voices of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all and brought hope and healing to America. -
Election of Barack Obama
Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4th, 2008. He was the first Afircan American president which was revolutionary for the equality of all Americans.
