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Brown vs Board of Education
There were three cases brought to the Surpreme Court all about the segregation of schools. The three cases were brought together as one case: Brown vs Board of Education. As a result, schools were ordered to desegregate. -
Rosa Parks: Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was going home from work on December 1st and sat down in the first row of the African American section of the bus. Eventually, as the bus filled up, there was one white man standing. Parks refused to move out of her seat and she was sent to jail. Her arrest spread like wil fire. A group of African American women planned a boycott on buses, some 17,000 African American people found another way to get home. This was the start of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Greensboro Sit-in
Greensboro Lunch Counter sit in were non-violent protests. African Americans would sit in seats reserved for the white constomers. Woolworths lost 1/3 of its business and desegregated all of its restaurants on July 26, 1960. -
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
The morning of September 15th, a bomb exploded at Martin Luther King Jr.'s old headquaters, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Four people were killed. Four members of the KKK were held accounable for the bombing and were not convicted until as early as 1977. -
Washington D.C March
President Kennedy asked Congress to pass a Civil Rights Law. When Congress was delaying on the bill, Civil Rights leaders planned a march for freedom in Washington D.C.. The marchers would demand passage of the law. On August 28, 1963, a quarter million poeple massed near the Lincoln memorial to march. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Three months after the Washington D.C. march, Kennedy was assassinated. New president, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas passed the strongest civil rights law in the nation's history. The Civil Rights Law of 1964 outlawed segregation. -
Assassination of Malcom X
In the 1960s, Malcolm X was the Nation of Islam's most effective leader. He was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. He was a prisoner and when he got out he was determined to save other African Americans from the "white Devils". He urged African Americans to be proud of their roots. In 1964, he left the Nation of Islam. The following year, he was killed by members of the Nation of Islam -
Selma
About 600 people - mostly African American - set off from Brown Chapel AME church. Lead by MArtin Luther King Jr., their goal was to walk to to the state cacpital of Montgomery, which was 54 miles away. They were marching to demand the ability to vote. -
Voting Rights Act
Congress outlawed literacy tests, poll taxes, and other obstacles to African American voter regrestration. President Johnson also sent federal examiners to seven southern states to register African American voters. -
Death of Martin Luther King Jr.
Despite the Civil Right Laws being passes, equal opportunity was not won. African Americans had twice as many unemployed people than white people in America. After 1965, King focused his attention to the economic and social barriers. He launched a new movemnet and the goal was to guarentee all Americans decent housing, education, and jobs. The new champaign was just taking shape when King was shot to death in Memphis, Tenessee. A white man named James Earl was convicted for his murder.
