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The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in August 1955 in Money, Mississippi, was a brutal lynching that became a catalyst for the American civil rights movement. After allegedly flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, Till was kidnapped, tortured, and shot by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, who were acquitted by an all-white jury despite strong evidence. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, even if the segregated facilities are equal in quality. -
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking a 381-day boycott of the city's segregated bus system -
The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who, in 1957, became the first to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas -
The 1960 Greensboro sit-ins began on February 1 at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in North Carolina where four Black NC AT students—Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and David Richmond—peacefully protested segregation. This action sparked a massive, months-long movement, resulting in the lunch counter’s desegregation on July 25, 1960 -
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement -
Written on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a foundational document of the Civil Rights Movement, defending nonviolent direct action against injustice. Composed while imprisoned in Alabama, it argues that individuals have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws, famously stating that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". -
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans -
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. The bombing was committed by the white supremacist terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan. -
The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on January 23, 1964, prohibits federal and state governments from requiring a poll tax to vote in federal elections. It aimed to eliminate financial barriers that disproportionately prevented low-income citizens and African Americans from exercising their right to vote. -
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act is a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended segregation in public places, banned employment discrimination, and desegregated schools, acting as the most significant civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. -
Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act (VRA) is a landmark federal statute designed to enforce the 15th Amendment, outlawing discriminatory voting practices—such as literacy tests and poll taxes—that disenfranchised racial minorities. It dramatically increased voter registration and representation for Black Americans, particularly in the South, through federal oversight. -
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, is a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which held that laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at age 39
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