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A pivotal, nonviolent civil rights protest that began with four Black students at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter -
1st Chairman: Marion Barry
2nd: John Lewis
3rd: Stokely Carmichael -
Intention of the rides was to have a mobile demonstration through the south. -Most riders were members of C.O.R.E. and trained by NAACP -Knew they would likely be physically threatened and/or harmed...martyrs. -Wanted to antagonize southern racists and force the KKK into criminal action. *Most importantly* wanted to force the Kennedy administration’s hand to enforce the federal law that desegregated interstate travel…..It worked!! -
Bayard Rustin, SCLC leader creates the March on Washington; 250,000 people show up at the Wash Monument to demand racial equality action.
Dr. MLK Jr. gives legendary “I Have A Dream” speech at March on Wash. -
1963 - Dr. MLK Jr. writes “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” (Dr. King was arrested 29 times in his lifetime) -
The University of Alabama's desegregation climaxed on June 11, 1963, with Vivian Malone and James Hood becoming the first Black students to register -
Evers was a World War II veteran who participated in the Normandy invasion
He was the NAACP’s first field secretary in the South.
One of Evers’ first assignments was investigating the murder of Emmett Till.
Evers helped integrate Ole Miss.
1963 - Evers assassinated in his driveway (shot in the back by KKK member Byron De La Beckwith)
It took 31 years to bring Evers’ assassin to justice.
Medgar Evers’ widow has carried on his legacy.
John F. Kennedy -
1963 - Bombingham, AL church bombing (KKK members tossed a bomb through a church window from their moving car) kills 4 girls in the restroom. -
President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, a monumental piece of legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin -
1965 - John C. Lewis launches First Selma March for voting rights. Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest of Black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. Dr. MLK Jr. launches Second Selma March for voting rights. LBJ passes Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 was a landmark U.S. law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson that outlawed discriminatory voting practices, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, used to disenfranchise Black Americans -
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panthers in Oakland, CA. Simultaneous with shootouts with police and violent protests they establish inner city daycare centers, free breakfast and medical programs and homeless assistance to serve the ghetto populations. -
Malcolm X:
Public enemy #1 according to the FBI
Goes to Mecca on a pilgrimage and changes his views based on what he witnessed there. Also changes his name again to Malcolm el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.
House firebombed (by the Nation of Islam)
1965 - Assassinated while giving a speech, in front of parishioners and his family. He was 39 years old -
1966 - James Meredith who had integrated the Univ of MS sets out on a protest walk “March Against Fear” and is shot.
Dr. MLK Jr., Floyd McKissick of C.O.R.E. and Stokely Carmichael of SNCC, lead other protesters to finish Meredith’s walk. Carmichael is arrested along the way and coins the term “Black Power” after being beaten in jail. -
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s,