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The Supreme Court Decision of Plessy v. Ferguson
The Court's “separate but equal” decision in Plessy v. Ferguson on that date upheld state-imposed Jim Crow laws. It became the legal basis for racial segregation in the United States for the next fifty years. There were laws that were at play that made it challenging for things to change. Plessy v. Ferguson was important because it essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation. -
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps. They flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe & North Africa during WW II. They performed very well and it got them to be recognized for their great work. There was a wide spread belief that black people could not learn to operate any type of aircraft. -
The Integration of Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson became the first since 1884 in the big leagues. There were numerous strides and setbacks in between. When Jackie Robinson stepped onto the Ebbets Fields as a Brooklyn Dodger on April 15, 1947 it signaled the end of segregation in Major League Baseball. It also signaled the beginning of the end of Negro League Baseball. Jackie Robinson changed the world for many African American baseball players. -
The Integration of the Armed Forces
Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which declared “that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” -
The Supreme Court Decision of Sweatt v. Painter
He applied for admission to the University of TX School of Law,which was at the time an all-white institution.Hemet all eligibility requirements for admission except for his race.With Sweatt v.Painter State Regents for Higher Education,the Supreme Court began to overturn the separate but equal doctrine in public education by requiring graduate & professional schools to admit black students.The Sweatt v.Painter case is essential as it paved the way for the Brownv.Board of Education case in 1954. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. It helped break down the “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all. -
The Death of Emmitt Till
The newspaper coverage and murder trial galvanized a generation of young African Americans to join the Civil Rights Movement out of fear that such an incident could happen to friends, family, or even themselves. The sight of his brutalized body pushed many who had been content to stay on the sidelines directly into the fight. People being able to see his body one on one helped them realize that they should fight even harder for their own rights. -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks invigorated the struggle for racial equality when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. A Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later. Parks became an instant icon, but her resistance was a natural extension of a lifelong commitment to activism. -
The Integration of Little Rock High School
\The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools.The students' effort to enroll was supported by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education which had declared segregated schooling to be unconstitutional. -
The Civil RIghts Act of 1957
The first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In
February 1, 1960, four friends sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro. That may not sound like a legendary moment, but it was. The four people were African American, and they sat where African Americans weren't allowed to sit. They did this to take a stand against segregation. The Greensboro Sit-In was a critical turning point in Black history and American history, bringing the fight for civil rights to the national stage. Its use of nonviolence inspired the Freedom Riders and others. -
The Freedom Rides by Freedom Riders of 1961
The riders sang songs, made signs, and refused to move even though facing arrest, assault, and possible death. Three years after the first Freedom Ride, the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing segregation in public facilities in all parts of the United States. -
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment led to civil rights laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act forbids racial discrimination in education, employment, and use of public facilities. The Voting Rights Act rendered illegal all state obstacles to black suffrage. -
The Integration of the University of Mississippi
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi where locals, students, & committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.A riot was perhaps a fitting coda to a process that began almost two years earlier when he brought suit against the school,alleging that he was denied admission on the basis of race. He became the first black graduate from the university in August 1963. -
The Integration of the University of Alabama
Known as the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door,” that day changed Alabama and the nation when Malone and Hood walked through the doors of Foster Auditorium to enroll as students at The University of Alabama marking the beginning of school desegregation in the state and moving forward a comprehensive federal civil rights act. -
The March on Washington & "I Have a Dream" Speech by MLK
The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. influenced the Federal government to take more direct actions to more fully realize racial equality. -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas
He called for legislation to end segregation in education, to protect the right to vote for African Americans, and to guarantee equal access to public facilities. He had Civil Rights act into play & it never got fully declared since his death so it had a turning point on the movement which set everything on hold for a minute. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson
The Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs. It also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of schools. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the nation's benchmark civil rights legislation, and it continues to resonate in America. -
The Assassination of Malcolm X
As the nation's most visible proponent of Black Nationalism, Malcolm X's challenge to the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped set the tone for the ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. -
The Selma to Montgomery March: "Bloody Sunday"
The three marches at Selma were a pivotal turning point in the civil rights movement. Because of the powerful impact of the marches in Selma, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was presented to Congress on March 17, 1965. President Johnson signed the bill into law on August 6, 1965. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee
News of King's assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage in over 100 American cities. Black Americans were devastated, pained, and angered. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1968
This barred discrimination in housing sales or rentals. This act was a part of a series of new legislation that encouraged desegregation of blacks in America. The act was a key piece of legislation which ensured blacks more equal rights.