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Creation of the NAACP
Created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others concerned with the challenges facing African Americans, especially in the wake of the 1908 Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot. -
Scottsboro Boys
9 black guys were arrested for beng accused of raping 2 white women. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American in the major leagues when he plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born into a family of sharecroppers on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional -
The Murder of Emmitt Till
an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days. -
The Little Rock 9
nine African American students—Minnijean Brown, Terrance Roberts, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta Walls—attempted to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. -
Ruby Bridges Desegrates Elementary Schools
Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South. -
Letter From A Birmingham Jail
In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail because he and others were protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. A court had ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
One week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
It was a Black political organization; originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The BPP originated in Oakland, California, by founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
He became the first African-American Supreme Court justice -
Assassination of Martin Lutther King Jr
Assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray -
The Election of Barack Obama
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was elected president of the United States over Senator John McCain of Arizona. Obama became the 44th president, and the first African American to be elected to that office. He was subsequently elected to a second term over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
