The Civil Rights Movement

Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 1954

The issue of this case was a young African American girl was denied admission to her neighborhood school in Topeka and Kansas because of her race, She had to travel across town just to attend an all black school. The outcome of this case was with the help of the NAACP, her parents sued the Topeka school board.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dec 5, 1955

During this boycott, there was a leader and that leader was Martin Luther King Jr. This boycott accomplished the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of a special three-judge panel declaring Alabama's laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional. This boycott also proved something. They proved
Rosa Parks´s refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white man showed that even small acts of defiance could empower people to create change.

The Little Rock 9

Sep 4, 1957

In September 1957, the school board in Little Rock, Arkansas, won a court order requiring that nine African American students be admitted to Central High, a school with 2,000 white students. Eisenhower responded in a way where he ordered the army to send troops to Little Rock and he fertilized the National guard.

Sit-in Movement

Feb 1, 1960

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee led the Sit-in Movement. The people within this Committee are named Joseph McNeil, Ezel Blair Jr, David Richmond, and Franklin McCain. They were trying to sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter until they have gotten the same services as the whites

Freedom Riders

May 4, 1961

The Freedom Riders were asked to travel into travel into the South to draw attention to refusal to integrate bus terminals. The Freedom Riders were beaten up by a gang of young men who were armed with bats, pipes, and chains.

James Meredith and the Desegregation of Universities

Oct 1, 1962

James Meredith was an African American air-force veteran. President Kennedy responded by dispatching 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to the campus.

March on Washington

Aug 28, 1963

The cause of advocates marching on Washington was because Dr. King realized that Kennedy would have a very difficult time pushing his civil rights bill through Congress. Therefore he searched for a way to lobby. Dr. King also gave his I Have A Dream speech. There was also a bill passed after the march and it was called
Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Malcom X and the Civil Rights Movement

Feb 21, 1965

Malcolm X had lost patience with the show progress of civil rights and felt that African Americans needed to act more militantly and demand equality, not wait for it to be given. After Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, he continued to criticize the organization. Because of this, organization members shot and killed him in February 1965.

Voting Rights Among Minorities.

Mar 7, 1965

Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, voting rights were far from secure. The act had focused on segregation and job discrimination, and it did little to address voting issues. There was a march for this to protect against voting rights. During that Selma march, many demonstrators were beaten by police force when ignoring their commands.

Urban Problems and the Black Panthers

Oct 15, 1966

African Americans lived in poor neighborhoods in the nation's major cities were overcrowded and dirty leading to higher rates of illness and infant mortality. Many of them were trapped in poverty and they found themselves channeled into low-paying jobs with little chance of advancements. The Black Panthers were a Black Power organization founded by college students.