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Jackie Robinson entered the Major league baseball
Jackie Robinson joined the MLB in 1947 which made him the first black baseball player and ended up breaking the color barrier in major league baseball. -
President Truman's 9981 executive order
President Harry S. Truman signed the 9981 executive order which mandated the desegregation of the US army forces, this was to ensure equal treatment and opportunity for all people in the armed services regardless of their race, relgion, origin, ect. -
Emmett Till is murdered
Emmett Till, a 14 year old African America who was murdered for allegedly "flirting with a white woman" four days earlier. The woman's husband and his brother made Emmett carry a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the bank of Tallahatchie River, where they then ordered him to remove his clothes and continued to beat him nearly to death. They then shot him in the head, tied his body to the cotton gin fan with barbed wire that they made him carry, and throw his body into the river. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was started by the WPC the day Parks was tred in municipal court. The boycott lasted 13 months and was a success. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed
Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the act into law with the goal of protecting black citizens from disenfranchisement. -
George Wallace’s “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”
George Wallace, the democratic governor of Alabama, blocked the way of two African American students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, who were attempting to enter the University of Alabama which had been recently desegregated. His goal was to attempt a symbolic inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" and to stop the desegregation of schools. -
Medgar Evers shooting
Medgar Evers was an American civil rights activist, the state's field secretary for the NAACP, and a World War II veteran who had served in the United States Army. Medgar fought against cruel Jim Crow laws, protested segregation in education, and was the one who launched an investigation into the Emmett Till lynching. He was targeted by a white supremacist because of his activism and for registering African American voters. His death inspired people to consider how to stand up for justice. -
March on Washington / I Have a Dream Speech
The march and speech were delivered by the American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. The purpose of his speech and the march was to demand an end to segregation, economic justice, fair wages, voting rights, education, and civil rights protections. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
16th Street Baptist Church was bombed by members of the KKK and killed four young girls, Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley and injuring many others. The bombing galvanized the federal government to take action on civil rights legislation and the church is now a rallying place for civil rights activist. -
Malcolm X is murdered
While Malcolm X was preparing his speech in New York, he was shot 21 times by three armed men. The factor that ultimately led to his death was the growing hostility between him and the nation since many people who followed him did not like he was becoming more of a peaceful protester compared to how loud and open about the protest he had been before. -
The Selma Marches / Bloody Sunday
An attempted peaceful march led by Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama. The demonstrators attempted to march twice but were stopped by violent local police. Over 600 people were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, this was when the officers beat unarmed marchers with Billy clubs and sprayed them with tear gas. -
Black Panther Party is formed
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was formed in hope to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect the residents from the horrid acts of police brutality and to also promote social change. -
Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme court ruled any laws that ban interracial marriage violate the equal protection and due process clauses of the fourteenth amendment to the US constitution. -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated
Today marks the 56th anniversary of the assassination of my Godfather, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who was shot to death on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Moments before the fatal shot rang out at 6:01 PM on that tragic day, April 4, 1968; Rev.