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Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks on a train. U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” mindset. This set back civil rights several decades. -
Brown v. Board of Education
In this court case, the supreme court ruled that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional. This ruling gave blacks equal opportunity at an education as the whites. This event marked the beginning of equality for Blacks in America -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was 14 year old black boy who was brutality murdered/lynched, for being accused of whistling at a white women. He was pulled out of his grandparents home in Mississippi at night by the lady's brother and her husband and was beaten and shot and thrown in the river. This was the event that made the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks/ Bus Boycott
Rosa parks was an African American who wouldn't give up her seat to a white woman on the bus, and upon her refusal she was arrested. Her arrest made people refused to take the bus for a period of time. This showed the 1st large U.S. demonstration against segregation. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
The Southern christian Leadership Conference which included M.L.K. as their 1st president, was founded to fight for civil and political rights of blacks in America. The organization came about just after the bus boycott ended. Their main aim was to disrupt segregation through non-violent acts. -
Little Rock Nine
9 African American students enrolled into Little Rock Nine Central High School in order to test the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. At first Arkansas National Guard stood at the door to keep them out, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort them into the school. This was the second step into black getting an equal education. -
Greensboro Sit-In
Young African American students sat in at Woolworth's lunch counter and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-ins spread all across the south as a protest to segregation. This made public diners change their segregation rule. -
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee/Freedom Summer
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was a civil-rights group formed to give young blacks a voice in the civil rights movement. Freedom Summer was a project developed by the SNCC to increase black voting in the south. The SNCC played a central role in the civil rights movement. -
Freedom Riders
A group of white and black activists ride buses through the south together to protest segregated bus terminals. The groups were confronted by cops and white protesters while on their routes. All this was only testing the new passed bus law. -
March on Washington
This was a massive protest march led by Martin Luther King to spread awareness on how blacks were being treated. This also was where Martin Luther King gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. This march was the march that forced John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong civil rights bill. -
Civil Rights Act
This act ended segregation and banned employment discrimination. Even though there was a act blacks were still treated unfairly. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was delivering his speech about his new organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He got shot to death by Nation of Islam members one week after his house was firebombed. One of the most influential activist of the movement was killed which set people off. -
Voting Rights Act
Signed into law by London B. Johnson, this act exercised African Americans right to vote. Having your right to vote being protected by the 15th Amendment was very influential to the civil rights movement. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King
MLK was shot in Memphis, Tennessee the day after one of his speeches. He was standing on the balcony outside his hotel room, when he got hit by a sniper bullet in the neck, and he was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital. King lead the Civil Rights Movement since the mid-1950's up until his death which set the African American community ablaze.
