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The 1954 ruling by the Supreme Court declaring that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It was a set of cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., that had moved up through the court system at the same time. Also, the Brown case a class-action lawsuit filed by people on behalf of themselves and a larger group who might benefit.
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43-year-old Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. For this act, she gets arrested. She later describes her motives as, "This is what I wanted to know: when and how would we ever determine our rights as human beings?"
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A boycott that resulted in the integration of Montgomery, Alabama's bus system. This was decided to be an extension of the one-day boycott that was held on December 5th. The MIA chose 26-year-old minister, Martin Luther King Jr.
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In 1957, a federal judge ordered public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, to begin desegregation. The Little Rock school superintendent, Virgil Blossom, hoped to postpone the change as long as possible. He set up a plan to integrate just one school, Central High School. Two thousand white students attended Central. In September 1957, nine black students were scheduled to join them. They would later become known as the Little Rock Nine.
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Sit-ins were a civil rights protest in which protestors sat down in a public place and refused to move, which caused the business to lose customers. On February 1, 1960, four African American students from North Carolina's Agricultural and Technical College sat down at a lunch counter in the Woolworth's drugstore in Greensboro. They ordered food, but the waitress refused to serve them, saying that only white customers could eat there. The students stayed at the counter until the store closed.
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Civil rights protests in which blacks and whites rode interstate buses together to test whether southern states were complying with the Supreme Court ruling against segregation on interstate transport. On May 4, 1961, seven blacks and six whites boarded two buses in Washington, D.C., and headed South. The civil rights group, CORE was the one that organized these protests.
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The SCLC stepped directly into this violent climate in the spring of 1963. King and SCLC joined forces with local Birmingham activists, led by Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth. Together they carefully planned a series of nonviolent actions against segregation. The protests began on April 3 with lunch-counter sit-ins followed by street demonstrations. Thirty protestors were arrested for marching at Birmingham City Hall without a permit.
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A protest in which more than 250,000 people demonstrated in the nation's capital for "jobs and freedom" and the passage of civil rights legislation. It was the largest political gathering ever held in the United States. The protestors included 60,000 whites, as well as union members, clergy, students, entertainers, and celebrities such as Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson.
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Kennedy was assassinated in November. Prior, Kennedy cautiously supported a civil rights bill that was making its way through Congress. After Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson continued to push for a bill. This bill later became known as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Also known as Freedom Summer, it was a campaign established by CORE and SNCC to register black voters in Mississippi. At the time, Mississippi was one of the most segregated states in the country, and voting rights for blacks were severely restricted. Although they made up nearly half of the state's population only a few African Americans were registered to vote, due in large part to restrictions imposed by state and local officials.
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A landmark act that banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin. It also banned racial discrimination in voter registration, public accommodations, public facilities, public schools, colleges, labor unions, and employment. This was also the most important civil rights law since Reconstruction.
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It was an act of Congress outlawing literacy tests and other tactics that had long been used to deny African Americans the right to vote. The act also called for the federal government to supervise voter registration in areas where less than half of voting-age citizens were registered to vote. Federal intervention would ensure that eligible voters were not turned away.
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The SCLC began to register black voters in Selma, Alabama. Where Selma is located, only 320 of more than 15,000 eligible black voters were registered to vote at the time. For weeks, civil rights protestors held daily marches where they were arrested for and charged with crimes, such as "unlawful assembly." The SCLC called for a march from Selma to the state capital at Montgomery. The marches planned to present a list of grievances to the governor. March 7, 1965, the protestors began their walk.
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King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to support a sanitation workers' strike. Riots erupted in more than 100 cities, including Washington, D.C. For the outcome of these tragedies, the federal government increased its efforts to end racism and discrimination in public life.
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