Civil Rights Time line

  • Brown vs. Board of Education

    Brown vs. Board of Education

    This 9–0 decision overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, declaring that separate educational facilities are "inherently unequal".
  • Emmett Till Murder

    Emmett Till Murder

    The murder of a 14 years- old in mississippi was kidnapped and and brutally tortured and shot just for talk to a white woman in a market and the killers were found not guilty.
  • Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott

    She was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a montgomery, Alabama bus.
  • The Little Rock Nine and School Integration

    The Little Rock Nine and School Integration

    Nine African American students became the first to desegregate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, defying intense harassment and a blockade by the National Guard ordered by Governor Orval Faubus.
  • Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins

    Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins

    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.
  • Freedom Rides of 1961

    Freedom Rides of 1961

    A pivotal series of civil rights protests where interracial groups of activists rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States to challenge the non-enforcement of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
  • MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail

    Martin Luther King Jr.’s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is a foundational document of the Civil Rights Movement, defending nonviolent direct action against injustice.
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington

    Was a massive political demonstration in Washington, D.C., that became a defining moment for the Civil Rights Movement. Approximately 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to protest racial discrimination and demand equal rights and economic justice.
  • Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing

    Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing

    Was a white supremacist terrorist attack that occurred in Birmingham, Alabama. It was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) who planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite beneath the church's steps.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson the Civil Rights Act is a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
  • 24th Amendment

    24th Amendment

    Prohibits federal and state governments from requiring a poll tax to vote in federal elections.
  • “Bloody Sunday”/Selma to Montgomery March

    “Bloody Sunday”/Selma to Montgomery March

    The first of three historic Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights in Alabama, after being given two minutes to disperse, the troopers attacked with tear gas, bullwhips, and billy clubs.
  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Signed into law by President Lyndon B , 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.
  • Loving v. Virginia

    Loving v. Virginia

    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.
  • Assassination of MLK Jr.

    Assassination of MLK Jr.

    The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. occurred at 6:01 p.m. in Memphis, Tennessee. King was fatally shot while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

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