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Events of the Civil Rights Movement 1850-2010
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Ida B. Wells
Born on July 16th, 1862, IDa B. Wells was an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, origional member of the NAACP and an early leader in the civil rights movement. She was a headstrong and eccentric woman who always spoke out and never held her tongue. She was one of the most important yet underrated civil rights activist. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by Abraham Lincoln as the U.S. entered the third year of the American Civil War. This presidenial proclamation declared that all people held as slaves shall be freed. -
1st Civil Rights Act Passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first U.S. federal law to define U.S. citizenship. It declared that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly passed to protect the Civil Rights of African Americans right after the Civil War. -
First African American Major League Baseball Player
Contrary to popular belief, Jackie Robinson was NOT the first African American baseball player. That credit goes to William Edward White.William was born to a Georgia businessman and one of his slaves who, herself, was mixed race. This makes White legally black. (:D) William always claimed he was white and people believed he was (because his skin was light enough to pull it off). This claim, however, was proved false according to an 1870 Census uncovered by SABR. -
Plessy Versus Ferguson
Homer Plessy was a man who was seven eigths white and one eighth black. He was jailed for sitting in a whites only train car and refusing to move. After Judge John Howard Ferguson ruled against Plessy's argument, Plessy took his case to the Supreme court. Because of this case, separate but squal laws were allowed. -
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized Civil Right organization. It was founded in 1909 to make whites aware of the need for racial equality. It was founded by Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrisson Villiard, and William English Walling. -
Brown Versus Board of Eduction
Brown versus Board of Education was a landmark case that labelled segragation in schoolsas unconstitutional. This case overturned the Plessy versus Ferguson case. The main plaintiff was an African American man named Oliver L. Brown who thought it to be unfair that his daughter, Linda, had to walk six blocks to her bus stop to attend a segregated black school that is a mile away, when there was a school (for whites) only seven blocks away. -
Murder of Emmitt Till
Emmitt Till was a 14 year old black boy who was murdered in Money Mississippi. It was said that when Till went to a grocery store with a couple other teenagers, he flirted with, whistled at, and/or touched the hand of a white clerk (wife of the owner), Carolyn Bryant. Four days later, two white men named Roy Bryant (Carolyn's husband), and his half brother J.W. Milam kidnapped, beat, shot Till, gouged an eye out, tied a big fan to his body with barbed wire, and pushed his body in a river. -
I Have A Dream
The legendary "I Have A Dream" Speech was a speech delivered by civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. It was a speech about calling an end to racism in the United States. It was delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. -
Bombing of Birmingham Churcn
A bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Babtist Church killed four African American girls (as shown in the picture) in 1963. The bomb killed (from left to right) 11 year old Denise Mcnair, and 14 year olds Carole Robertston, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley. The blast also cost Sarah Collins (12 year old sister of Addie Mae Collins) one of her eyes. The bomb was planted by three members of the white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court justice. Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer. He's most famous for his victory in the case that decided school segregation to be unconstitutional; Brown versus Board of Education. -
Colin Luther Powell
Colin Luther Powell was the first black U.S. Secretary of State. He was also a proffesional soldier for 35 years.
