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The U.S. Supreme Court had maintained the lawfulness of the segregation laws. The schools were not the same despite the “separate but equal” principle. -
An African-American fighter crew in the Air Corps, their primary function was to protection pilots on bombing operations. -
He became the first African-American baseball player to cross the “color line” and come to the major leagues as a player for the Brooklyn Dodgers in New York. -
President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 for the integration of the armed forces. These executive orders set precedents for later civil rights legislation. -
The NAACP won a case involving the right of Herman Sweatt to attend the Law School at the University of Texas at Austin. The establishments were not equal. -
A Topeka, Kansas case claimed that segregated schools denied black children the “equal protection” of the law due to them under the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American who was murdered and whose killers were acquitted which drew attention from all across the globe. -
Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger. Afterwards, African-Americans made a bus boycott that had shown unity against segregation. -
Nine African-American students were stopped by the Governor of Arkansas from entering an all-white school in which the president sent troops to let them in. -
The act increased African American voting in the South, made the Civil Rights Commission and started a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Justice Department. -
Four African-American students sat at a “Whites Only” counter at the Woolworth Retail Store that others in the South copied which led to desegregation. -
Inner-racial groups rode buses in Freedom Rides in the South. They created confrontations so that the federal government would be forced to intervene. -
This eliminated poll taxes in federal elections. -
James Meredith was an American civil rights movement figure and the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi. -
Vivian Malone was one of the first two black students enrolled at the University of Alabama who was blocked by Governor Wallace from entering the university. -
Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders organized a March on Washington. It was the largest demonstration for human rights in American history. -
President JFK was assassinated in Texas on Nov. 1963 which led to a new willingness in Congress to pass legislation he had proposed before his death. -
The act prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, or ethnic origin in all places of employment doing business with the federal government. -
Malcolm X urged African Americans to obtain control of their own businesses and communities. He was assassinated by rival Muslims during a speech in Harlem. -
The nation watched in horror as police beat the Montgomery protesters. Ten days later, President Johnson introduced a voting rights bill and asked for its passage. -
This act ended poll taxes and suspended literacy tests which led to an increase in the number of African-American voters. -
MLK was assassinated by a white supremacist at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee and led to an outpouring of anger and race riots across the nation.