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African American Civil Rights Movement
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Brown v. Board of Education
A landmark Supreme Court case in which separating black and white public schools was deemed as unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till's Murder
Emmet Till was a 14-year old African American boy from Chicago who was lynched for supposedly wolf-whistling at a white woman in a grocery store while visiting his uncle in Mississippi. The woman's husband and his half-brother beat and mutilated the young boy's body before shooting him in the head and depositing his body in the Tallahatchie River. After the body was found and brought back to Chicago, his mother insisted on an open casket in which thousands saw the results of white racism. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a public bus. She became the symbol for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For 381 days, 50,000 African Americans did not ride the buses. The boycott resulted in a court case being passed that deemed Alabama's bus segregation laws as unconstitutional. -
Desegregating Little Rock Central High School
On September 4th, 1957, the governor of Arkansas called the national guard to prevent entry to nine african-american students. President Eisenhower responded by federalizing the national guard on scene and ordered them to return to their barracks. He then sent in federal marshals to protect the students. -
Sit-Ins
The NAACP Youth Council sponsored sit-ins at the lunch counter of a Dockum Drug Store in Wichita, Kansas. Following this, sit-ins became a national trend in protesting segregation in public places. Many protesters were beat by anti-black supporters and police. This method of protesting exposed the racist acts of police and store owners. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom rides were journeys made by civil rights activist during 1961 to protest bus segregation laws. Activist would ride buses into the south to test the Boynton v. Virginia supreme court case. This protest resulted in an increase in mob violence against civil rights activist. The protest succeeded and President Kennedy had the ICC issue a desegregation order -
Malcolm X Joins The Movement
In March 1964, Malcolm X, national representative of the Nation of Islam, broke with that organization, and made a public offer to collaborate with any civil rights organization that accepted the right to self-defense and the philosophy of Black nationalism. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. The bill authorized the Attorney General to file lawsuits to enforce the new law. The law also nullified state and local laws that required such discrimination. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1968
Banned discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of property.
