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Brown Vs. Board of Education
"Separate but equal" was declared unconstitutional, It declared that public school segregation is a denial of equal protection of the laws under the fourteenth amendment. This was the most important supreme court decision in the decade following WWII. -
Emmett Till Murder
On August 24 Till, along with several friends, traveled to nearby Money where the youth reportedly whistled and made advances toward a white woman when he entered Bryant?s Grocery and Meat Market. Several days following the alleged incident on August 28, Emmett Till was kidnapped from the home of his uncle.the fourteen year old boy had been severely beaten before being fatally wounded by a gunshot to the head -
Montgomery bus boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Its purpose was to show the federal government's support for racial equality after the US Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Opposition to the Act, including the longest one-person filibuster in US history, limited its immediate impact. The Act, however, paved the way for a series of more effective civil rights bills in the 1960s. -
Freedom Rides
an interracial group of student activists under the auspices of the Congress of Racial Equality departed Washington D.C. by bus to test local compliance throughout the Deep South with two Supreme Court rulings banning segregated accommodations on interstate buses and in bus terminals that served interstate routes. The "Freedom Riders" traveled with limited difficulty through North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina, but encountered violent resistance in Alabama. -
Martin Luther King "I have a dream speech"
Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream speech" was a symbol toward wanting freedom for all. This speech brought even greater attention to the civil rights movement. -
March on Washington
a quarter of a million Americans from across the United States converged on the nation's capitol in what was to become a defining moment in the Civil Rights movement. Plans for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom began in 1962 when A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, put forth the idea of a mass gathering on Washington, D.C. to draw attention to the economic plight of the county's African American population -
Birmingham Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963 -
John F. Kennedy's assassination
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in a presidential motorcade. Shortly after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended and charged with the president's murder. Kennedy's assassination threatened to slow the growing momentum of the Civil Rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson just a few hours after House approval on July 2, 1964. The act outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It banned discriminatory practices in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries, and public schools.
