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"Amistad" Affair
The true story of an uprising in 1839 by newly captured African slaves that took place aboard the ship Amistad off the coast of Cuba, the subsequent voyage to the Northeastern United States, and the legal battle that followed their capture by the United States navy.Video -
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of sympathetic allies. Harriet Tubman was an African-American abolitionist and Union spy during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and made more than 13 missions to rescue more than 70 escaping slaves.Video -
William Hall (VC)
William Hall was the first black person, first Nova Scotian, and third Canadian to receive the Victoria Cross. He received the medal for his actions in the Siege of Lucknow. Naval guns were brought up close to the Shah Nujeff mosque, and the gun crews kept up a steady fire in an attempt to breach and the walls, while a hail of musket balls and grenades from the mutineers inside the mosque caused heavy casualties. Hall and the battery's commander were the only survivors. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War. It was based on the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief but it was not a law passed by Congress. It proclaimed all slaves in Confederate territory to be forever free.The Proclamation lifted the spirits of African Americans and eventually led to the passing of the 13th Amendment making slavery illegal.<a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJVuqYkI2jQ' >Video -
Lincoln Assassination
The assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause.Lincoln was shot while watching the play "Our American Cousin" with his wife at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
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Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow laws were state/local laws in the Southern US that mandated segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy with a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. The separation in practice led to poverty and inferior conditions for African Americans causing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.Video -
#2 Construction Battalion
The No. 2 Construction Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), was the only predominantly black battalion in Canadian military history and also the only Canadian Battalion composed of black soldiers to serve in WW I. All but one of the unit's 19 officers were white, the exception being the unit's Chaplain. Members of the unit wanted to take part in the action of the trenches but only a few eventually did. -
Ghandi's Salt March
The Salt March was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in India. This was the most significant challenge to British colonial authority. Mahatma Ghandi led the 24 day, 390 km march. -
Viola Desmond
Viola Desmond was an African-Nova Scotian who bought her own beauty parlour and beauty college in Halifax. Desmond's story was one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history. Desmond refused to sit in the balcony designated exclusively for blacks in the Roseland Theatre and took her seat on the ground floor where only white people were allowed to sit. After being forcibly removed from the theatre and arrested, Desmond was eventually found guilty tax evasion. -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was the first black Major League Baseball player of the modern era when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball. His courage challenged the traditional basis of segregation and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.Video -
Brown vs Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark US Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned state-sponsored segregation laws. The Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This ruling was a major victory of the civil rights movement.Video -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi after flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago and was visiting his relatives in Mississippi when he spoke to Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother took Till, beat him, gouged out one of his eyes before shooting him in the head and disposing of his body in a river.<a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL1vMFwZEus' >Video< -
Rosa Parks/Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights." In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa refused to obey the order to give up her bus seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement.Video -
"Little Rock Nine"
The Little Rock Nine were a group of African-American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower, is considered to be one of the most important events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. -
Willie O'Ree
Willie Eldon O'Ree,(born October 15, 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, known best for being the first black player in the National Hockey League. O'Ree played as a winger for the Boston Bruins. O'Ree is referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" due to breaking the colour barrier in the sport, -
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested, sentenced to life imprisonment, and served 27 years in prison. Mandela has received many prestigious awards including the Nobel Peace Prize. -
James Meredith (University of Mississippi)
James Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. Motivated by President Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on Kennedy to enforce civil rights for African Americans. -
"I Have a Dream"
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. The speech, delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.Video -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed as an act of racially motivated terrorism. The explosion at the African-American church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the U.S. 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
"Mississippi Burning" Murders
A civil rights movement in 1964, named Freedom Summer, was a campaign launched to get African Americans in the southern United States registered to vote when three civil rights workers were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Public outrage forced President, Lyndon B. Johnson to put pressure on the FBI to get the case solved.Video -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Malcolm X Assassinated
Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, and violence. -
"Bloody Sunday"
Civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Highway 80. The protest went smoothly until the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge and found a wall of state troopers waiting for them on the other side. Televised images of the brutal attack presented people with horrifying images of marchers left bloodied and severely injured, and roused support for the U.S. civil rights movement. -
Watts Riot
The Watts Riots took place in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles from August 11 to 17, 1965. The six-day riot resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage. It was the most severe riot in the city's history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
Martin Luther King was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who became known for his advancement of civil rights by using civil disobedience. He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. -
Rodney King Incident
Rodney King was an African-American worker who became famous after being beaten with excessive force by Los Angeles police officers. George Holliday witnessed the beating and videotaped it. Four of the LAPD officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. Their acquittal triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots.Video -
L.A. Riots
The Los Angeles riots occurred after a jury trial resulted in the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Thousands of people throughout the Los Angeles area rioted following the verdict. Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder occurred and property damages topped one billion dollars. 53 people were killed during the riots and over two thousand were injured.<a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzMNuJx9a9A' >Music Video -
Inauguration of Barack O'bama
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States (first African American) marked the commencement of the first four-year term of Barack Obama as President. Based on the combined attendance numbers, television viewership, and Internet traffic, it was among the most-observed events ever by the global audience.Video
