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The Scottsboro Boys refers to nine Black teenagers wrongly accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931, a case that became a pivotal civil rights battleground highlighting racial injustice, biased juries, and the right to fair legal representation, featuring rushed trials and lynch mob threats, ultimately leading to major Supreme Court decisions affirming rights to counsel and impartial juries. -
In August 1955 two Mississippians bludgeon and kill Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, for whistling at a white woman; their acquittal and boasting of the atrocity spur the civil rights cause. -
The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who became famous in 1957 for integrating Little Rock Central High School, a pivotal event in the American Civil Rights Movement, facing mobs and state obstruction before President Eisenhower sent federal troops to ensure their entry, demonstrating federal commitment to desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. -
Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960, becoming the first African American child to attend the all-white school, a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, where she was escorted by U.S. Marshals amidst violent white protests, showing immense courage as she walked into a hostile environment for her education.