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Emancipation Proclamation Issued
Lincoln Issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free all slaves in confederate states. This was the first step forward in the freedom of slaves. Picture: 6th president Abraham Lincoln issuded the Emancipation Proclamation. -
13th Amendment Ratified
This abloished slavery. -
14th Amendment Ratified
This created equal protection under the law. With this in mind, it would seem that blacks and whites were equal. -
15th Amendment Ratified
This allowed all citizen to vote. The importance of this amendment was the fact that African Americans could now vote. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy bought a first class ticket and sat at the whites only car. He was arrested and charged a $25 fine. His commitee took his case to the Supreme Court and the court ruled that the arrest was in no was an infringment on his 14th amendment rights. This set the standard for many other cases. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Parents were unhappy with the conditions of "Black Only," schools and decided to take it up with the Supreme Court. The court ruled that segregation in schools was an injustice due to the 14th amendment. Picture: A "Black only" school. It is short on supplies, run down, and extremely worse off than the White schools. -
Murder of Emmet Till
Emmet Till was murdered in Mississippi because he whistled at a white woman. Two white men brutaly beat and killed him. His mother displayed his beaten body and it became highly publicized. The white men were found not guilty, even after confessing after the trial. This gained suport and is seen as the starting point for the equal rights movment. Picture: Emmet Till about 8 months before his death. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On Dec. 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks started the boycott by refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. She was arrested and the Black community went on a bus boycott. They carpooled, walked, took taxis, anything to avoid buses. On Dec. 20th, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. -
Greensboro Sit-ins
Blacks would sit in at lunch counters or any place that Whites did not want them to be. On Feb. 1st, 1960, a group of 4 students sat in at a lunch counter and gained much supported. Sit-ins like these were highly publicized and achieved desegregated lunch counters in many towns. -
Freedom Rides
The freedom rides consisted of Blacks who rode down to the Southern US on buses to challenge local laws of segregation. The first bus was bombed. Southern police were also found to be working with thye KKK. The SCLC, SNCC, and CORE, all helped bring about the rides. Eventualy segregation on buses was outlawed, but only after several casualties. Picture: While the Rides were successful in their goal, it brought many casualties. -
March on Washington
A Civil Rights rally in D.C. planned by A. Philip Randolph, with around 300,000 people in attendance. Here, MLK Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. The march began at the Washington Manument and ended at the Lincoln Mermorial. Picture: MLK Jr. giving his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Mermorial. -
Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
This outlawed major forms of discrimination against Blacks and women. This includes discrimination in schools, lunch counters, and even in voting. This was the first real step the government took to give fully equal rights to Blacks. -
Passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
The governement could oversee counties that were giving tests for voting or counties that had less than a 50% voting turnout. It banned discriminatory literacy tests and expanded voting rights for non-English speakers. Due to this, the number of African Americans that were voting was greatly raised.
