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Period: to
1950-1970
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Brown v. Board of Education
A case where everyone will remember a case, in which a little girl's parents sued to allow her attendance at an all white school. This lawsuit's victory is in great debt to those who had struggled for this freedom. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, he Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Womens’ Political Council (WPC), a group of black professionals founded in 1946 -
Civil Rights Act
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. (Sept. 24). Federal troops and the National Guard are called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." Despite a year of violent threats, several of the "Little Rock Nine" manage to graduat -
Sit-Ins
When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. This created the Sit-In movement. No one participated in a sit-in of this sort without seriousness of purpose. Also this movement was easy to follow; sit there and be quiet. -
Freedom Rides
During this time 100 black Klansmen had ambushed Riders in Anniston AL, attacking the Greyhound bus and setting it a blaze. Without an on board undercover cop the people on the bus wouldve of most likely died as they had barley escaped with their lives. This also made bus drivers refuse to drive the Freedom RIders in fear of the same fate. -
Voter Education Project
The VEP was formed in 1962 as a program of the Southern Regional Council (SRC). It was the brainchild of U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, who wanted to establish a privately funded voter registration. -
Voter Education Project
Although many registration campaigns achieved success, in some areas, notably Mississippi, the VEP concluded that discrimination was so entrenched that only federal intervention could significantly increase the number of black voters. -
Assasination of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was a native of Decatur, Mississippi, attending school there until being inducted into the U.S. Army in 1943. Despite fighting for his country as part of the Battle of Normandy, Evers soon found that his skin color gave him no freedom when he and five friends were forced away at gunpoint from voting in a local election. -
March on Washington
250,000 people fight for their freedom and jobs. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. -
Birmingham Boming
Four young black girls attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths. -
Civil Right Act
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. -
Selma March
Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights. -
Voter Rights Act
By 1965 concerted efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of voting-rights activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, gained national attention, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism. -
Black Panthers
The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. -
Thurgood Marshell
President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennesse. On his balcony as he steps out the door. -
Civil Rights Act
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing (April 11). Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination -
Jesse Jackson forms PUSH
The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.
