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Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown, was a NAACP lawyer who worked on cases in Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia, ultimately helping to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson with a 9-0 decision. -
Two Mississippians bludgeoned and killed 14-year-old Emmett Till for allegedly whistling at a white woman in 1955. Despite their crime, they were acquitted by an all-white jury. Later, they openly boasted about the murder. The brutal killing and the injustice sparked outrage and became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. This led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for over 13 months and ended with a Supreme Court ruling that bus segregation was unconstitutional. -
The SCLC, formed by 60 black ministers and led by Martin Luther King Jr., focused on nonviolent activism for citizenship, education, and desegregation. It played key roles in the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Campaign, including the March to Montgomery. -
Minnijean Brown, Terrance Roberts, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas -
On February 1, 1960, four African American students sat at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparking nationwide sit-ins and advancing the Civil Rights Movement. -
Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl from New Orleans, was one of four black children to pass a test to attend a white school. On November 14, 1960, she was escorted by federal marshals to William Frantz Elementary, where she was the only student in her class, taught by one teacher, as many white families protested. -
In 1961, 43 individuals from groups like CORE, SNCC, NAACP, and the Nashville Student Movement participated in the Freedom Rides across southern states. They traveled on 60 separate buses to challenge segregation laws. Upon arriving in Jackson, Mississippi, they were arrested at the bus depot for violating segregation statutes and taken to jail. -
On August 28, 1963, 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and A. Philip Randolph led the peaceful protest for racial equality and economic justice. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which became the highlight of the event. -
Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson played key roles in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Washington, D.C. The law empowered the federal government to prevent racial discrimination and segregation in private businesses and public facilities, ensuring equal treatment regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin. -
at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Malcolm X, a prominent civil rights leader and former spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NOI), was shot multiple times while preparing to address an audience of about 400 people -
Bloody Sunday refers to the events of March 7, 1965, when about 600 civil rights activists attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand voting rights for African Americans. The marchers, led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams, were brutally attacked by Alabama state troopers and sheriff’s deputies as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. -
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King's assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property -
is a landmark U.S. federal law that was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965. It aimed to eliminate racial discrimination in voting, particularly in the Southern states, where Black Americans faced significant barriers to voting.