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Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Lincoln as a war measure during the civil war. This proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that where in rebellion. Applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves at the time. In To Kill a Mockingbird the story is set a hundred years later after the proclamation. But we can still see that blacks are still not treated equally and fairly. Blacks have been freed as slaves but they are still discriminated. -
Powell v. Alabama
The Scottsboro boys, nine colored boys, were accused of raping two Caucasians after a fight between the colored and white broke out on a freight train. All of the defendants were sentenced to death in a series of one-day trials, except for Roy Wright. The defendants were only given access to their lawyers right before the trial, so they were not able to plan a good defense. Later, people started agreeing that the Scottsboro boys were not given fair, and a deliberate trial, they were denied the r -
Emmett Till Trial
Emmett Till was a African American boy who was murdered in Mississippi for apparently flirting with a white women. The women’s husband and half brother kidnapped Till and tortured and killed him. The trial lasted for five days. In the end the jurors decided that the two men would be acquitted of the murder. After a month from the trial the two admitted killing Emmett Hill. But it was no use because they where protected. -
Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, decided to keep his promise of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” and tried to stop two black students from entering the University of Alabama on their first day of school. Wallace refused to budge, so the president sent 100 troops to make him move. He gave a speech about the States’ Rights, but eventually stepped aside. -
Martin Luther King Speech
Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers an American civil rights activist the speech. He called for an end to racism in the United States. It was announced during the march in Washington, and motivated many of people to follow his lead. It was to show the support many people had of the civil rights legislation that President Kennedy proposed. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white person. It inspired many people in the U.S civil rights movement to support the colored people. The Browder v. Gayle then took place, and eventually led to the Supreme Court’s decision that Alabama and Montgomery’s laws of segregated buses were unconstitutional. -
Loving v, Virgina
Richard and Mildred Loving where sentenced a year in prison for marrying each other. In Virginia their marriage violated the state’s law, where people classified as white cannot marry people classified as colored. The Loving couple brought the case up to the Supreme Court. In the end the court agreed unanimously that all laws against interracial marriage would be changed. -
Death of Yusef Hawkins
Yusef Hawkins is an Italian-American who was attacked by a mob of 10-30 whites. One of them shot him twice in the chest. The mob of whites thought Hawkins was dating a neighborhood girl they were overprotecting. Because it was the third black death of a white mob in New York City in the 1980s, Reverend Al Sharpton soon held a protest march of black racial killings. -
Obama Becomes President
This was a major milestone because Barack Obama is the first African American President of the United States of America. One line from his inaugural speech is “We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional — what makes us American — is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago."