The Civil Rights Movement Timeline

By arifro
  • Double victory Campaign

    Double victory Campaign
    The Double Victory campaign was a slogan created by the Pittsburgh Courier and compared the treatment of African Americans in America to that of the Jewish in Nazi Germany. They launched the campaign on Jan 31st of 1942 and used the story of James G. Thompson, a black factory worker who couldn't work on the factory floor, to call for a double V, freedom from enemies without and within.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    A landmark court case from the Supreme Court that ruled in favor of Oliver Brown after his daughter Linda Brown was denied admission into an all white elementary school in Topeka, Kansas. This case stated that it was unconstitutional to segregate schools based on race. allowing for the desegregation of schools across the US.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    It was a civil rights protest in which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. Spurred by the action of Rosa Parks just 4 days earlier in which she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Later creating integration in public transportation.
  • Little Rock Nine

    Little Rock Nine
    They were a group of nine Black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in Sept. 1957. It was one of the first trial runs after Brown V. Board of Education to prove that desegregation was possible, even receiving an escort from President Eisenhower on their first day
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders
    Groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals. Established by the Congress of Racial Equality they traveled to the Jim-Crow South and only used white-only facilities.
  • Birmingham Campaign

    Birmingham Campaign
    It was a campaign for peaceful demonstrations such as series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall and boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. They were met with violent force and police brutality as well as jail time. Yet in May 1963 they got the desegregation of local restaurants as well as other public spaces.
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    A massive protest march that occurred in August 1963, when some 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was meant to receive national attention on the issues of Black Americans and was the stage for Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    US legislation integrated by President Lyndon B Johnson to end segregation on the basis of race. Allwoed the black community to have voting rights secured, equal access to government support, access to all unions, and desegregation of all areas.
  • Watts Riots

    Watts Riots
    Series of riots that broke out August 11, 1965, in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles. The Watts Riots lasted for six days, resulting in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries and 4,000 arrests. Spurred by the incident against Marquette and Ronald Frye.
  • Selma March and Voting Rights Act

    Selma March and Voting Rights Act
    Political march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery. The march was led by Martin Luther King jr. to get more Black Americans registered to vote. This march led to the creation of the Voting Rights Act which eliminated all voting Jim-crow practices.
  • Black Power Movement & the Black Panther Party

    Black Power Movement & the Black Panther Party
    Black Power was the concept that Black Americans should focus on creating economic, social and political power of their own, rather than seek integration into white-dominated society. They sought to gain this independence by any means necessary. One of the biggest supporters of this ideology was the black panthers, a political and militia group that integrated violence in their attempts to achieve their goals. Another prominent supporter was Malcolm X.
  • Assassination of MLK & Subsequent Riots

    Assassination of MLK & Subsequent Riots
    At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Riots ensued all across the country as the Nation became angered by the events that had unfolded, and the death of one of the most influential civil rights leaders.