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Desegregation of the Armed Forces
During WW1, in which Truman fought as an artillery officer, more than 350,600 black troops served in segregated army units. Few were allowed to fight. on July 26, Truman followed up by signing executive order 9981, establishing the President's Committee of equality treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services. -
Baton Rouge Bus Boycott
the first black bus boycott in America. the African American community of Baton Rouge set the tone of the modern civil rights movement. in March of 1953, Black leaders in Baton Rouge were successful in having the city council pass ordinance 222, which permitted them to be seated on a first-come-first-serve basis. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
the case was initiated by members of the local NAACP chapter in Topeka, Kansas. Thirteen parents volunteered to participate. In summer of 1950, they took their children to schools in the neighborhoods and attempted to enroll them for the upcoming school year. They all were refused admission. The children were forced to attend one of the four schools in the city for African Americans. The case was filed in 1951. -
Emmett Till
The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, galvanized the emerging Civil Rights Movement. 14-year-old ET was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on August 24, 1955, when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till, beat him and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all white male jury acquitted them. Till's murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks
By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama , city bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. The leaders of the local black community organized a bus boycott that began the day Parks was convicted of violating the segregation laws. Led by young Rev. Dr. MLK Jr., the boycott lasted more than a year, and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock 9 were the nine African American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Their entrance into the school in 1957 sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor, Orval Faubus, in defiance of a federal court order, called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guards and sending units to escort the 9 -
Freedom Riders
A group of 13 African Americans and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. -
Birmingham Campaign
Activist in Birmingham, Alabama launched one of the most influential campaign. It would be the beginning of a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on city and bus boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. Over the next couple months, peaceful demonstrations would be met with violent attacks using high pressure hoses and police dogs on men, women and children alike-- producing done of the most ionic and troubling images of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Written by MLK Jr. from the Birmingham jail where he was imprisoned as a participant in the nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. It was his response to a public statement of concern and caution issued by eight white leaders of the South. -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington D.C, for a political rally known as the march in Washington for jobs and freedom. Organized by the # of civil rights and religious groups designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key movement in the growing struggle for civil rights in the U.S., culminated in MLK Jr.'s " I HAVE A DREAM" speech, a spirited call for racial injustice and equality. -
24th Amendment
Not long ago, Citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the U.S. ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials. -
Civil Rights Act 1964&1968
1964: ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
1968: is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Malcolm X's Assassination
Malcolm X, the man who grew to National Notoriety for his embrace of militant, seperatist approach to addressing the civil rights issues and inequality for U.S blacks in the 1950's and 1960's, was assassinated in NY on February 21, 1965. The American Muslim Minister and Civil Rights Activist was 39 at the time of his death. Malcolm X had been known as an antagonist to the African American civil rights movement led by the nonviolent integrationist leader, the Rev. MLK Jr. -
Executive Order 11246
President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, granting supervision of the federal contract compliance to the Secretary of Labor, and creating the department's first office of Federal Contract Compliance. The EO ordered federal departments and agencies to impose non-discrimination and affirmative action rules in all federal contracts and federally-assisted construction projects. Later, on October 5, 1978 President Jimmy Carter signed into law Executive Order 12086 -
Black Panther Party
A revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the U.S. From 1966 until 1982, with its only international chapter operating in Algeria from 1969 until 1972. The party's original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale -
MLK's assassination
Shortly after 6 pm on April 4th, 1968, Dr. MLK Jr. was shot and mortally wounded as he stood on the second-floor balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 pm at St. Joseph's hospital.