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Court case Plessy vs. Fergusen ruled on separate but equal public facilties, but Brown vs. Board rejected and changed this. This case was started when the Board was sued by inconvenienced parents for practicing racial segregation. The case was started as a collection of 5 cases and it was found unconstitutional to have segregated schools. Integration started.
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Killed for leading voter-registration drive
Belzoni, Mississippi -
Murdered for organizing black voters
Brookhaven,Mississippi -
Murdered for speaking to a white woman
Money, Mississippi -
Slain by nightriders opposed to school improvements
Mayflower, Texas -
Rosa Parks had stepped on a bus after a long day of work in the first row of the "Colored Section". When the bus began to fill up, Rosa and 3 other African Americans were ordered to give up their seats for white passengers. Only Rosa disobeyed. She was then arrested and fined $10. Parks set off a chain reaction of other blacks boycotting the bus. After a lot of protest like this, the Montgomery Court ruled that segregated seating violated the 14th Amendment. The bus segregation ended.
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Montgomery bus boycott begins
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Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses
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Killed by Klansmen
Montgomery, Alabama -
This Act was passed by president Dwight D. Eisenhower in order to give the right to vote to all American citizens. It also was passed to fix the unfair literacy tests given to African Americans. Basically, it sought to give all Americans equal rights.
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Governor Orval Faubus had the National Guard prevent nine African Americans from attending a white school. He disobeyed the law which ruled segregation in school systems to be illegal. The government ordered the removal of the Guard, which Faubus denied. Becuase of this, the government sent units of the US army for the whole school year in order to make sure the nine students were safe at Central High School.
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Taken from jail and lynched
Poplarville, Mississippi -
Black students stage sit-in at "whites only" lunch counter
Greensboro, North Carolina -
Supreme Court outlaws segregation in bus terminals
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Freedom Riders, a group of 13 African American and white Civil Rights activists started "Frredom Rides"- bus rides in the South to protest segregation in bus and train terminals. Blacks tried to use white bathrooms, etc and vice versa to make their point. CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was the organization responsible for the Freedom Rides. The Interstate Commerce declared it illegal to segregate in these places anymore.
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Voter registration worker killed by white legislator
Liberty, Mississippi -
Civil Rights groups join forces to launch voter registration drive
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Taken from a bus and killed by the police
Taylorsville, Mississippi -
French reporter killed duing Ole Miss riot
Oxford, Mississippi -
When James Meredith tried to enroll in the University of Mississipi (Ole Miss), riots and violence broke out on the campus. Two died, and many thers were wounded and/or arrested. The Kennedy Administation sent around 31,000 National Guardsmen to break up the fights and restore peace.
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Slain During one-man march against segregation
Artalla, Alabama -
Birmingham police attack marching children with dogs and fire hoses
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Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in schoolhouse door to stop university integration
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Medgar Evers was a civi rights activist who lived in Jackson, Mississippi. In his life he had volunteered for the US army and joined the NAACP. He also worked to end segregation at the University of Mississippi. He was shot and killed by a white supremacist in his own driveway. The killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was at first set free by the all-white jury. 30 years later his case was revisited and he recieved a life sentence in prison.
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Over 200,000 Americans, most of them black, marched in Washington D.C. They were gathered there to demand equal rights and to spread the knowledge of African American people's struggles- political, social, and financial. It was known as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom". When everyone had gathered, Martin Luther King Jr. had said his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
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Addie Mae Collins, Denise Mcnair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were schoolgirls who were killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Birmingham, Alabama -
Youth killed during a wave of racist violence
Birmingham, Alabama -
Poll tax outlawed in federal elections
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Witness to assassination of civil rights worker
Liberty, Mississippi -
Killed protesting construction of segregated school
Cleveland, Ohio -
Killed by Klansmen
Meadville, Mississippi -
Freedom Summer brings 1,000 young civil rights volunteers to Mississippi
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James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were civil rights workers abducted and slain by Klansmen
Philadelphia, Mississippi -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned public segregation and employment discimination based on religion, race/color, or sex. It is regarded as one of the most important Acts of Civil Rights history. This Act, which was first created by Kennedy, was passed by Lyndon B. Johnson after he died.
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Killed by Klansmen while driving north
Colbert, Georgia -
Civil Rights marcher killed by state trooper
Marion, Alabama -
State Troopers beat back marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge
Selma, Alabama -
March volunteer beaten to death
Selma, Alabama -
Killed by Klansmen while transporting marchers
Selma Highway, Alabama -
Many Southern states still opposed rights for African Americans, which made it extremely difficult to execise their freedoms such as voting. Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization of Southern Christian Leadership Conference made Selma, Alabama the place they'd focus on. They were greeted with violence, but they were protected by the National Guard. They had successfully marched to Montgomery in 3 days and raised awareness for their cause.
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Black deputy killed by nightriders
Varnado, Louisiana -
Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965
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Killed by Nightriders
Anniston, Alabama -
Seminary student killed by deputy
Hayneville, Alabama -
Student Civil Rights activist killed in dispute
Tuskegee, Alabama -
Black community leader killed in Klan bombing
Hattiesburg, Mississippi -
Killed by Klansmen
Natchez, Mississippi -
Slain by nightriders
Bogalusa, Louisiana -
Civil Rights leader killed after promotion to "white job"
Natchez, Mississippi -
Civil Rights worker killed when police fired on protesters
Jackson, Mississippi -
Thurgood Marshall's role of being the first black Supreme Court Justice impacted America greatly. It showed that blacks had come a long way in their pursuit of equal rights, to have an African American in such a high position. Often, in an all-white jury, the African American was discriminated against even if they were right. Then Marshall halted discrimination in his court. Prior to being the first black Supreme Court Justice, Marshall was the leading civil rights lawyer of America.
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Students killed when highway patrolmen fired on protesters
Crangeburg, South Carolina -
In the months leading to his assassination,Martin Luther King Jr. worked towards economic equality for all races in America. He led a worker's protest, which became violent quickly. He gave his last sermon, in which he told his people to keep fighting and that they will have equality someday. He was shot in the jaw.
He gave hope to his own race, and any victims of discrimination. His was the death of a just and brave leader, and America reaized its hatred in his death.
