-
Period: to
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidency
-
Brown vs. Board of Education (court case)
The father of a black girl by the name of Linda Brown brought a case against the school board. She was denied the right to go to an all white elementry school that was closer to her house then the all black school. The Supreme Court held that school segregation violates the 14th amendment. Some states were slow to comply with the decision and Georgia refused. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott (boycott)
Rosa Parks, a NAACP officer sat in the front row of the colored section of a bus. When the bus began to fill up, the bus driver asked her to give up her seat to a white man. She refused and was arrested. Jo Ann Robinson and E. D. Nixon planned a bus boycott in defense of Rosa Park's arrest and elected Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the boycott group. The blacks began walking instead of taking busses and organized carpools. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (organized event)
Martin Luther King Jr. joined with minster and civil rights leaders to found the SCLC. Their mission was to "carry on a non-violent crusades against second class citizenship." The SCLC planned demonstrations and protests in the South. Ella Baker was the first director and traveld throughout the South to setup branches of the SCLC. -
Little Rock Arkansas (orginized event)
Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to stop nine African American students from attending Central High School. A federal judge ordered the governor to let the students attend. President Eisenhower put the Arkansas National Guard under federal control to protect the students. However, the students were bullied and at the end of the year, the governor shut down the school to prevent integration. This was one of the events that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 (law)
This act was the first civil rights law since reconstruction. Lyndon B. Johnson, the Senator of Texas created this law which gave the attorney general more power over school desegregation. The federal government also gined juristiction over violations of African American voting rights. -
Congress of Racial Equality- sit ins of the 1960s (orginized event)
Protesters would sit down at segregated lunch counters and demand service. African American Students from North Carolina's Agricultural and technical college organized a sit in at Woolworth's store in Greensboro. The event was televised and people could see how the whites beat and poured food over the students. Store managers tried to avoid sit ins by raising the price of food, removing counter seats and calling in police. However, the sit ins continued. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (protest group)
Ella Baker, the first director of the SCLC assisted students of Shaw University in Norht Carolina to organize a national protest group, the SNCC. Most students were dissapointed with the rate of change and wanted to accelerate it. Students who protested risked losing college scholarships, being expelled from college, and being physically harmed. However, they were determined to try to initiate change. -
Freedom Riders
Black activists took a bus trip across the South to test the Supreme Court’s decision to ban segregated seating on buses. Despite beatings, a bombing, and killings, the freedom riders persisted. Attorney General Robert Kennedy called the bus company when a driver refused to proceed. Alabama officials promised to protect the riders but did not do so. President Kennedy sent 400 US Marshalls to protect the riders. Segregation was banned in interstate travel facilities, restrooms and lunch counters. -
Period: to
John F. Kennedy's Presidency
-
Period: to
Lyndon B. Johnson's Predidency
