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Brown v. The Board of Education was a United States Supreme Court case that lasted from December 9, 1952 until May 17, 1954. In this case, the main issue was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools. After two long years of contradicting opinions, the Supreme Court ruled that it was indeed unconstitutional to segregate schools and moved to desegregate immediately.
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While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, Emmett Till flirted with a white woman. Four days later, the woman's husband and brother forced Till to carry a cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River. The two men then beat Till, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, tied him to the cotton gin fan, and threw his body into the river. The results of the trial proved the two men "not guilty" due to an inability to determine the identity of Till's body.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956. After the arrest Rosa Parks, a black woman, due to her refusal to give her seat to a white man, the African American citizens of Montgomery, Alabama started the Montgomery Bus Boycott where they refused to ride the buses in the city. Instead, they carpooled or walked. The Boycott was an attempt to protest segregated seating on buses, and the Supreme Court ordered to integrate the bus system in Montgomery.
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This marked the first occasion since the reconstruction of the federal government to take legislative action to protect civil rights. It included important provisions for the protection of voting rights and empowered federal officials to prosecute individuals that attempted to deny another citizen's right to vote.
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In September of 1957, in an effort to desegregate schools, nine students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus called in the National Guard in an attempt to block the African American students' entry into the school. In response, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort the "Little Rock Nine" into the school.
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In the summer of 1960, the New Orleans School Board were faced with the order to desegregate schools. With the support of angry white parents, the Board attempted to defy the Supreme Court order in every way possible. Despite numerous attempts to keep the segregation of schools, four young African American girls attended formerly all-white schools in the fall of 1960, beginning a long journey towards the integration of New Orleans' public schools.
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The Albany Movement was the first mass movement for modern civil rights to desegregate the community of Albany, Georgia. In one week, hundreds of black protesters- including Martin Luther King, Jr., were arrested. While the protest was a failure, King learned lessons that would lead to Birmingham.
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Around a quarter of a million people, African American and Caucasian alike, joined Martin Luther King, Jr. in his march on the United States' capital. They marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial in an effort to receive equal rights and jobs. After reaching the Lincoln Memorial, King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
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At the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, four young African American girls were killed in a bombing carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan. As a result of the bombing, riots soon broke out while Alabama Governor George Wallace sent state troopers and National Guardsmen to tame the African American population.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of color, race, religion, sex, or national origin.
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The Selma to Montgomery March lasted from March 7, 1965 to March 21, 1965. Commonly known as "Bloody Sunday," John Lewis and Hosea Williams lead around 600 people to march from Selma to Montgomery. However, Alabama state troopers met the marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. After the marchers refused to disperse, they were driven back with clubs and tear gas. The event received national coverage, prompting President Johnson to take action against inequality.
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In April 1968, it was a shock to many to hear that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination angered many African Americans throughout the United States. King was in Tennessee to support a sanitation workers' strike while preparing for a planned march to Washington. A sniper's bullet struck King through the neck and he later died at the age of 39.
