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The Little Rock Nine were a group of black students who were the first to attend Little Rock Highschool in Arkansas. . The Little Rock Nine faced immense discrimination and backlash from the community. Nonetheless, this event positively influenced the overall movement by starting to normalize desegregated schools. -
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech during the civil rights march at the United States Capital. Speech propelled a huge civil rights movement. “I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, … one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white Girls as sister and brothers” (I Have a Dream speech, Martin Luther King, Jr.) https://youtu.be/vP4iY1TtS3s
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WW2 Vet James Meredith, enrolled in an all white university (Ole Miss). With the help of the NAACP, he won a federal court case that granted him access to the university where he would become the first Black student. His enrollment marks progress for the civil rights movement in education.
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On the sunday while the church was in session 3 members of the KKK bombed the church killing 4 young ladies and injurying others. The church had been the headquarters for the SCLC, a civil rights activist group. The bombing showed the violence and hardship that the civil rights movement faced.
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The 24th amendment got rid of the poll tax as voting requirement. Previously, the poll tax disproportionately targeted minorities such as Black Americans due to the wealth gap caused by discriminatory hiring. The amendment made it easier for Black Americans to vote. -
The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson in 1964 and banned segregation in public locations and discriminatory practices in hiring. "An Act to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to ... provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, ... protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs" (Voting Rights Act, 1965).
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Four Los Angeles police officers, had been caught beating an unarmed African American motorist in an amateur video acquitted of any wrongdoing in the arrest. Four LAPD officers were found not guilty of assaulting King, leading to several days of widespread violence, looting and arson throughout L.A.
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James Meridith was a civil rights activist in the 1960s who was the first Black student at the University of Mississippi. In 2002 he spoke at the 40th anniversary celebration of his enrolment at the university. He discussed how his life and the life of Black Americans
improved since the time of the original civil rights movement. "It was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God". -
Barack Obama became elected Black president of the United States. His presidency proved that a Black person could hold the highest position in the government. "And for more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together" (Inaugural Adress By Barack Obama). -
Photo- Charles White, Field director of the NAACP speaks outside Washington DC in 2013 about Shelby County V Holder, a voting rights case in Alabama that shut down part of the voting rights act of 1965, pushing progress back. -
This chart displays the wealth gap between Black Americans and White Americans. The table shows the persisting wealth gap that exists originating from Jim Crow laws and many years of unequal hiring. -
A gun control protest at little rock central high school which was a pioneer for school integration in the 1960s pioneered change again in the footsteps of the Little Rock Nine. -
The graph shows that over the majority of years there was a higher percentage of white voters voting in elections. 2000 was the first year that a higher % of Black Americans voted than white Americans. The graph shows the progression in voting for Black Americans. -
Kamala Harris positively impacted the civil rights movement by becoming the first Black woman to be vice president in the United States. She shows that it is possible for Black Americans to hold some of the highest government positions in the country. “Even in dark times, we not only dream, we do…In the middle of the civil rights movement, Dr.King fought for racial justice and economic justice”(Kamala Harris Inauguration Speech).