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Plessy v. Ferguson was important because it essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation. As a controlling legal precedent, it prevented constitutional challenges to racial segregation for more than half a century until it was finally overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v.
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The Tuskegee Airmen fought a two front war—one against the Axis powers and one against racial discrimination. By proving black men could fly and serve courageously in combat, the Tuskegee Airmen set the stage for the integration of the US military in 1948 and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.
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Events then embody much larger social relations and forces, and express, even test new resolutions. The integration of Organized Baseball was the proving ground for most US citizens for the prospect of black and white 'races' integrating into one nation.
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The path to official integration began with the signing of Executive Order 8802 by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1941. It signaled the end of racial discrimination in the U.S. defense industry, but the armed forces generally hewed to a policy of segregation throughout the duration of World War II.
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The Court's decision in Brown partially overruled Plessy v. Ferguson by declaring that the "separate but equal" notion was unconstitutional for American public schools and educational facilities.
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Board of Education mandated the end of racial segregation in public schools, Till's death provided an important catalyst for the American civil rights movement. In 2007, over 50 years after the murder, the woman who claimed Till harassed her recanted parts of her account.
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Rosa Parks was a civil rights leader whose refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her bravery led to nationwide efforts to end racial segregation. Parks was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr.
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These nine students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957 and were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faustus. ... The crisis in Little Rock is considered to be one of the most important events in the African American Civil Rights Movement.
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The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote.
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The Greensboro Four's efforts inspired a sit-in movement that eventually spread to 55 cities in 13 states. Not only were lunch counters across the country integrated one by one, a student movement was galvanized.
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The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boston v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well.
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The Twenty-fourth Amendment led to civil rights laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act forbids racial discrimination in education, employment, and use of public facilities. The Voting Rights Act rendered illegal all state obstacles to black suffrage.
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Background: On September 30, 1962, riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.
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On May 16, 1963, a federal district court in Alabama ordered the University of Alabama to admit African American students Vivien Malone and James Hood during its summer session. The court's decision virtually ensured a showdown between federal authorities and Alabama Governor George Wallace who had made a campaign promise a year earlier to prevent the school's integration even if it required that he stand in the schoolhouse door.
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I Have a Dream, speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., that was delivered on August 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. A call for equality and freedom, it became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic speeches in American history.
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This, we have been reminded, was the dream Kennedy nourished, and much of it died with him, when the sharp cracks of rifle fire broke out as his motorcade rolled through the sun struck streets of Dallas. With this horrific, irrational deed, a curse was laid upon the land, and the people fell from grace.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.
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Malcolm X was an African American leader in the civil rights movement, minister and supporter of Black nationalism. He urged his fellow Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The marches were organized by nonviolent activists to demonstrate the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression; they were part of a broader voting rights movement underway in Selma and throughout the American South.
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It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. worked hard to bring greater equality to America and ensure civil rights for all people, regardless of race. Notably, he brought publicity to major civil rights activities, emphasizing the importance of nonviolent protest.
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It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This “act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution” was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified.
