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Brown v. Board of Education
A significant Supreme Court case, the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the most important decisions of the civil rights movement; it helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not equal at all. -
White Citizens Council
An associated network of white supremacists, extreme right organizations in the South. The groups opposed the racial integration of public schools and African Americans’ voting rights. They also opposed voter registration efforts in the South. Members used intimidation tactics including economic boycotts, firing people from jobs, propaganda, and threatening and committing violence against civil-rights activists. -
Brown v Board of Education II
The year before this second case the first one was signed into law. The first case made racial segregation in schools illegal. But, many all-white schools had not followed this ruling and had not integrated. This second case ordered all schools to integrate “with deliberate speed”. -
The lynching of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old from Chicago boy visiting his family in Mississippi. He was accused of talking to a white woman disrespectfully at a store. The women’s brother and husband severely beat gouged his eyes and shot him in the head and dumped his body in the water. His family held an open casket funeral to show the severity and causes of his death. He was barely recognizable. This event started the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Dec 1st, 1955
Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat on a public bus. This event was planned by the NAACP. It sparked the Montgomery boycott which lasted over a year(381 days). -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The bus boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated bus seating. The boycott took place for 381 days and was the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks was arrested and charged for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. At the end of the boycott, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system. -
Martin Luther King House Bombing
Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Bombing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
The Ku Klux Klan bombed the home of civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. He was home during the bombing with his family and two members of the church, where he was the pastor. The blast destroyed the home and caused damage to his church next door but no one inside had a serious injury -
Eisenhower sends in Federal Troops
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to take action when nine African-American students were prevented from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The president explains his decision to order federal troops to Little Rock to make sure that the students are allowed access to the school, as enforced by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. -
SCLC Founded
The very beginning of the SCLC started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. One of the most known people in the SCLC was MLK. The group set out to eliminate segregation from American society and to encourage African Americans to register to vote. They led nonviolent mass action and organized large marches. -
SNCC Formed
SNCC was founded in April 1960 by young people dedicated to nonviolent, direct action tactics. It worked side by side with SCLC and MLK. They focussed on leadership within young African Americans and led nonviolent movements. -
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Greensboro sit ins
African American students held a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter and refused to leave after being denied service. The movement spread to other college towns in the south. This event made a lasting impact on segregationist policies. -
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Freedom rides
Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the South, which was segregated at the time, in 1961. They did this to challenge the non- enforcement of the US court decisions Morgan v. Virginia. -
White mob attacks federal marshals in Montgomery
During a freedom ride in Montgomery, Alabama a bus was attacked by a mob of three hundred or more people. The people on the bus were surrounded and brutally attacked with baseball bats, bike chains and anything else the mob could find to attack them with. -
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Albany Georgia “failure”
MLK planned on filling the jails in Albany, Georgia to make his point on nonviolent protests. But, Laurie Pritchett, the Albany police chief who studied MLK's ways and defeated him by arresting a large number of protesters but making sure they didn’t arrest enough so the jails weren’t completely full and refrained from public brutality to minimize negative publicity. -
Bailey v Patterson
Declared that segregation in intrastate and interstate facilities to be unconstitutional, and therefore, prohibited. -
MLK goes to a Birmingham Jail
The letter defends nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting potentially forever for justice to come through the courts. King writes, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". This letter was an important piece during the civil rights movement. -
Kennedy sends in Federal Troops
President Kennedy, in sending military riot-control units to bases near Birmingham, said the Government will do whatever must be done to preserve order, to protect the lives of its citizens, and to uphold the law. He also directed that a proclamation and executive order be drafted so that he could order the Alabama National Guard into immediate federal service if the violence erupts again. -
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is a labor law that amended the Fair Labor Standards Act. It was signed into law on June 10, 1963, by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. The law means that equal pay for equal work by forbidding employers from paying men and women different wages or benefits for doing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities. -
Assassination of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was shot to death in his driveway by a white supremacist Byron De La Beck. He was a member of the NAACP. He traveled through his home state to encourage poor African Americans to register to vote and recruiting them into the civil rights movement. He also was crucial in getting witnesses and evidence for the Emmett Till murder case and brought national attention to the plight of African Americans in the South. -
March on Washington "I have a Dream"
The March on Washington was a huge protest march. 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The march was also known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the event’s purpose was to draw attention to continuous challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. It was also where Martin Luther King, Jr.’ delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. -
Bombing of a church in Birmingham
This event was an act of white supremacist terrorism. It was a turning point during the civil rights movement and helped support the civil rights act of 1964 to be passed by Congress. -
Assasination of John F. Kennedy
Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through dealy plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. He was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald. Kennedy was shot in the head and shoulder and died at 12:30. -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a 1964 voter registration movement to increase the number of registered black voters in Mississippi. More than 700 mostly white volunteers and African Americans in Mississippi to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls. The movement was organized by civil rights organizations like CORE and SNCC. -
XXIV (24th) Amendment
The US Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from poll taxes or other forms of taxes when voting. -
Killing of Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner
Three activists who were abducted and murdered in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement. The victims were from New York City. All three were members of the COFO and CORE. They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign to register African-Americans in Mississippi to vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This act was probably the most important thing passed during the civil rights movement. It was first proposed by President John F. Kennedy. Many southern members of Congress strongly opposed it. It was later signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was repeatedly sent death threats in 1964 before his assassination. He was shot by three black Muslims while delivering a speech in New York City. The week before he was assassinated his family home was firebombed. -
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Selma to Montgomery March
Mar 7, 1965 – Mar 21, 1965
The Selma to Montgomery march was one of many civil rights protests. In March, to register black voters in the South, protesters marched the 54-mile route from Selma to Montgomery. The protesters were confronted with deadly violence from local authorities and white vigilante groups. They were under the protection of federalized National Guard troops—finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery, Alabama. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
August 6th 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed by President Johnson, was aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from being able to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Black Panthers Formed
The Black Panthers were founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Their purpose was to challenge police brutality against the African American community. They dressed in black hats and black leather jackets. The Black Panthers organized armed citizen patrols of Oakland and other U.S. cities. Their downfall occurred because they were involved in a bunch of illegal crimes. -
Loving v Virginia
The supreme court withdrew laws banning interracial marriage as it violated the 14th amendment. The couple was charged with violating the state's antimiscegenation statute, which banned interracial marriages. The Lovings were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail. -
Minneapolis Riots
Racial tension in North Minneapolis erupted along Plymouth Avenue there were multiple acts of violence such as arson, assaults, and vandalism. The violence, which lasted three nights, is often associated with other race-related demonstrations in cities across the nation during 1967’s “long hot summer.” -
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Detroit Riots
The 1967 Detroit Riot, was the bloodiest incident in the "Long, hot summer of 1967". Confrontations between black residents and the Detroit Police Department. It exploded into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in American history; it lasted five days. The Michigan Governor ordered the Michigan Army National Guard to Detroit to help end the disturbance. The result was 43 dead, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr was standing on a balcony on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennesee that he was staying at. He was shot with a sniper bullet by James Earl Ray. He died an hour after he was shot at St. Joseph's hospital. -
Assassination of Robert "Bobby" Kennedy
Kennedy was shot around midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Earlier that night he was declared the winner in the South Dakota and California presidential primaries in the 1968 election. He was shot by Sirhan Sirhan. His death caused the secret service to start protecting presidential candidates.
