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The 1950's marked the start of the civil rights movement where African Americans fought for justice and equality in all aspects of their lives. In the 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ordered the integration of public schools which was a big advancement in the Civil Rights movement.
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Achievement, Supreme Court Case, & No Violence In 1946, Heman Sweatt, an African American male, applied to the University of Texas Law School, but he was automatically rejected because of his race. When Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities to black students. In a unanimous decision, the court held that the Equal Protection Clause required that Heman Sweatt be admitted to the University. -
Achievement & No Violence On August 1, 1952, Sarah Keys refused to give up her seat on a state-to-state charter bus, when the bus driver asked her to move to the back and give up her seat for a white marine. The Interstate Commerce Commission favored Sarah Keys and ruled that the Interstate Commerce Act forbids the segregation of Black passengers in buses traveling across state lines. -
Violence By Opposition Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black male, went to the Bryant Store where he was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white female. Later, Bryant's husband and brother-in-law kidnapped and brutally murdered Till, dumping his body in the river. -
Achievement & No Violence The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed on December 5, 1955, by African American ministers and community leaders in Montgomery, Alabama. This movement was formed to fight for the Civil Rights of African Americans, specifically for the desegregation of buses in Alabama. -
Achievement, Protest, & Violence By Opposition The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an 11-month mass protest against the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. In this protest, African Americans refused to ride city buses to protest segregated seating. -
Achievement, Protest, & No Violence Martin Luther King Jr., along with a few others, formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to have regional organization that could better coordinate Civil Rights protest activities across the South. This conference is most known for mobilizing large, nonviolent protests in places like Selma and Birmingham. -
Achievement, Violence By Opposition, & Protest The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students that were enrolled in Little Rock Highschool in 1957. While the students were trying to enter the high school, a crowd was shouting and throwing objects at them and the national guard met them at the front door preventing them from entering the building and forcing them to go home. -
Achievement & Legislation The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first civil rights legislation passed since construction and it established the Civil Rights section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. This act also established a federal Civil Rights Commission with the authority to investigate discriminatory conditions and recommend corrective actions. -
Supreme Court Case & Achievement In this case, members of the Little Rock school board filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, seeking to suspend their plan for desegregation. The Supreme Court ruled that the state of Arkansas could not pass legislation undermining the Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. -
The 1960s consisted of many key events of the Civil Rights Movement. In this era, there was a lot of very important legislation passed that pushed African Americans closer to being treated equally in America. These pieces of legislation include the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Protest & No Violence The Greensboro Sit-in began in 1960 when African American students staged a sit-in and refused to leave after being denied service at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro NC. This movement later spread to many other college towns in the South. -
Achievement, No Violence, & Supreme Court Case Freedom Rides were a series of political protests against the segregation of blacks and whites who rode buses together throughout the South. In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel, so these individuals wanted to see if these laws were being carried out, when they discovered these laws weren't preventing this segregation, they began to fight back. -
Achievement, No Violence, & Protest The Albany Campaign was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany Georgia in 1961. The movement initially focused on desegregating travel facilities but eventually progressed to ending all forms of racial segregation in the city. -
Protest & Violence By Protesters James Meredith was the first African American to be enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1962. On September 30, 1962, riots erupted on the University campus where locals, students, and committed segregationists gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, an air force veteran who was attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
Achievement, Protest, & Violence By Protesters The Birmingham Movement began in April of 1963 and consisted of mass meetings, direct actions, lunch counter sit-ins, marches on city hall, and the boycott of downtown merchants to bring attention to segregation. King told those trying to bring attention to the segregation African Americans were experiencing to do so peacefully. -
Violence By Opposition Medgar Evers was a prominent African American Civil Rights Leader in the South. He was shot to death on June 12, 1963, in his driveway by a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith. -
Achievement, Protest, Legislation, & No Violence This March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was formed to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. This march was successful in pressuring John F. Kennedy's administration into initiating a strong federal Civil Rights bill in Congress. -
Achievement & No Violence The Freedom Summer project was created to draw the nation's attention to the violent oppression experienced by African American Mississippians when attempting to exercise their constitutional rights. This volunteer campaign attempted to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi. -
Achievement & Legislation The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the most significant and impactful Civil Rights legislation passed since Reconstruction. This act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Supreme Court Case & Achievement In this case, The Heart of Atlanta Motel in Atlanta, Georgia, refused to accommodate black Americans. The U.S. government sought to enjoin the motel for discriminating on the basis of race under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a unanimous decision, the court decided that the government could enjoin the motel for discrimination on the basis of race under the Commerce Clause. -
Violence by Oppisititon Malcolm X was a religious and civil rights leader who played a significant role in the Civil Rights movement. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965, during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan by Thomas Hagan. -
Protest, Achievement, & No Violence In March of 1965, hundreds of people gathered in Selma to march to Montgomery Alabama. They marched in hopes to ensure that African Americans would have the ability to exercise their constitutional right to vote. -
Legislation, Achievement, & No Violence The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark in history for prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. This law outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests that prevented many from voting. -
Achievement, Protest, & Violence By Opposition Being the first African American to attend Mississippi University, Meredith began a solitary walk on June 6, 1966, intending to walk from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to call attention to racism and discrimination occurring in the South. He was shot shortly after the beginning of the march and as a result, several major civil rights activists and organizations continued the march in his honor. -
Violence by Opposition Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist who played a key role in the American Civil Rights movement and is still known today for many of his speeches. At 6:05 p.m. on Thursday, April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at his hotel in Memphis Tennessee. James Earl was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. -
Achievement, Legislation, and No Violence The Fair Housing Act expanded on previous acts and helped prevent discrimination regarding housing. This act prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, and family status. -
The 1970's marked the end of the Civil Rights Movement. At this point in time, there were still some individuals fighting for the rights of African Americans, but segregation in schools and buses was unlawful and Black Americans were given the right to vote under U.S. law. These advancements and new legislation gave many Black Americans the justice and equality they were fighting for.
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Achievement & Supreme Court Case In Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte was charged with maintaining segregated public schools and defying the Supreme Court's decision to desegregate public schools with "all deliberate speed". The Supreme Court unanimously upheld busing programs that aimed to speed up the racial integration of public schools in the U.S. -
Achievement & No Violence Shirley Chisolm was the first African American Woman elected to Congress where she served 7 terms. Shirley would later go on to be the first African American woman to run for the Presidential party nomination when she ran for the Democratic Party Nomination in 1972 with the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed". -
Protest & Violence By Opposition There was a lot of violence that occurred in the North over School Integration. One of the most well-known is the Boston desegregation busing crisis. In this crisis, bused children were jeered, menaced, and periodically attacked because there were black students using the bus for transport. -
Achievement & No Violence On April 8, 1974, African American, Hank Aaron hit the 715th home run of his career in the 4th against the Los Angeles Dodgers. This homerun record broke the previous record held by Babe Ruth on baseball's all-time list. -
Achievement & No Violence African American Congresswomen, Barbara Jordan became the first African American woman in history to deliver a keynote address at a major party convention. In this address, she called Americans to commit themselves to a "national community" and the "common good" and reminded her audience that she was making history through her speech. -
Supreme Court Case & No Violence In the University of California Regents vs. Bakke case, Bakke was a white male who applied to medical school and his application was rejected because the school reserved 16 spots for racial minorities. Bakke sued the University of California claiming that this quota violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Supreme Court held that this quota violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.