The Civil Rights Movement

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson

    was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
  • The Tuskegee Airmen

    The Tuskegee Airmen

    were a group of primarily African-American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces.
  • The Integration of Major League Baseball

    The Integration of Major League Baseball

    By the 1940s, organized baseball had been racially segregated for many years. ... In 1945, the Jim Crow policies of baseball changed forever when Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson of the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs agreed to a contract that would bring Robinson into the major leagues in 1947.
  • The Integration of the Armed Forces

    The Integration of the Armed Forces

    President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education

    Was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.
  • The death of Emmett Till

    The death of Emmett Till

    Was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store.
  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement in the United States.
  • The Integration of Little Rock High School

    The Integration of Little Rock High School

    The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faustus, the Governor of Arkansas.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1957

    The Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
  • The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In

    The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In

    Were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store.
  • The Freedom Rides by Freedom Riders of 1961

    The Freedom Rides by Freedom Riders of 1961

    Were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court.
  • The Twenty-Fourth Amendment

    The Twenty-Fourth Amendment

    Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.
  • The Integration of the University of Mississippi

    The Integration of the University of Mississippi

    Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.
  • The Integration of the University of Alabama

    The Integration of the University of Alabama

    President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students—Vivian Malone and James A. Hood—successfully enrolled.
  • The March on Washington & "I Have A Dream" Speech by MLK

    The March on Washington & "I Have A Dream" Speech by MLK

    Is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.
  • The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas

    The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas

    Was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson

    The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson

    Prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.
  • The Assassination of Malcolm X

    The Assassination of Malcolm X

    Was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
  • The Selma to Montgomery March "Bloody Sunday"

    The Selma to Montgomery March "Bloody Sunday"

    600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.
  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
  • The Assassination of MLK in Memphis, Tennessee

    The Assassination of MLK in Memphis, Tennessee

    an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel
  • The Voting Rights Act of 1968

    The Voting Rights Act of 1968

    is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots.