-
Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1896, Louisiana had passed a law that blacks had their own separate railway. This man called Homer Plessy was only 1/8th black, went on the white’s railway, and got arrested. The court of law ruled that it was okay to segregate as long as it was equal. That is where the phrase “separate but equal” initiated. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/landmark_plessy.html -
Brown v. Board of Education
This case was a merge of four other cases going on in different states in which were concerning the concept of segregation of public schools because of the race. African Americans that were denied to enter white school sued and used their 14th amendment as a weapon to reach their goal. The Supreme Court was in favor for the African Americans to be accepted to the white school due to their facilities. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483 -
Murder of Emmett Till:
Till and 2 of his cousins went to the store and apparently Till, a black 14 year old, was accused of whistling at a white women. The women’s husband and her brother in law kidnapped Till and murdered him. Joyce Ladner, Emmett sisters, wondered why the 2 man didn't get punished so she created the“Emmett Till Generation"which motivated African Americans to unite and have a burgeoning movement. https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/murder-of-emmett-till/ -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Parks was fed up with giving up her own seats for the whites so she peacefully started a revolution when she refused to move out of her seat. Although she got arrested and fined, that caused for the Montgomery bus boycott. All blacks stopped taking the bus in which caused for the buses to go out of business (since it was mostly them always riding it). Therefore, the bus system removed the segregated busing. http://www.ushistory.org/us/54b.asp -
Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & Martin Luther King
The SCLC began after the us boycotting and chose M.L.K as the leader of the group. Their goal was to end segregation for good in a non violent way. They basically did campaigns, marches, and more protest towards ending segregation. Although they failed at some of their planning campaigns, they still continued to protest, even after Kings death. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/southern-christian-leadership-conference-1957 -
Little Rock Nine & Central High School
This event is over a group of students that were trying to attend a white white but were denied because of the race even though by that time they ended school segregation, but not all schools had fully accomplished it. They sued and won their case and were able to attend Central High School. Only 1 out of the 9 students graduated and in honor the "Little Rock Nine" got the Spingarn Medal. http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_little_rock_school_desegregation_1957/ -
Greensboro Sit-In
This sit-in involved 4 college African Americans that went to go have lunch, but sat in the white only section. They politely asked to be served but instead they rudely got told to move yet the 4 students remained sitting down and kept asking to be served politely. The students ended up getting beat up and arrested, but among society they didn't fight back yet instead they peacefully led a movement.
source: knowledge from notes we took in class -
Freedom Ride/Freedom Riders
The freedom Ride was like a test to see of the ruling of Boyton v. Virginia of segregating bus and rail station was unconstitutional. it turned out that the riders got severely beaten, had their bus burned, and got attacked by whites. this got brought to Kennedy's attention into stopping violence in which lead to prohibiting to segregate transportation facilities. http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm -
March on Washington
The march on Washington was a peaceful protest for the equal rights or African Americans. This march showed unity among different types of civil right organizations. In addition, Martin Luther King Jr. led this march in which is when and where he gave his famous and well-known “I Have a Dream” speech.
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=96 -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) & Freedom Summer
The freedom summer was a nonviolent work to combine the segregation system that was going on in Mississippi. The SNCC were college students who wanted the right to vote as an African American. Sadly, and outrage occurred but that helped to pass the Voting Right Act. http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=N:4294963828-4294963805&dsRecordDetails=R:CS3707 -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
This civil rights act prohibited any segregation in any public place and businesses. This act was in fact signed shortly after Kennedy’s assassination and hours after it was approved. It was not easy to get this at through with the senate opposing and house supporters trying to send the bill without full approval. https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97 -
Assassination of Malcolm X
During prison, Malcolm x adopted the nation of Islam as his religion, but a few weeks before he got assassinated Malcolm x departed from that religion. Therefore, 3 members of the nation of Islam were responsible for the death of Malcolm x. They claimed that they didnt want to kill him but that they needed to kill him due to the fact that he departed from the religion and the message Malcolm was spreading was insane. http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/142725 -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Voting rights were approved 95 years before it was actually signed. during those years a lot of chaos and violence was occurring and very few African Americans were voters. Therefore they didn't have much say into anything that was going on politically or in the government. But because of the march on Washington it caused for the president to pass and sign the voting rights act. https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=100 -
Assassination of MLK
Kin was assassinated shortly after coming back from marching in support of sanitation workers. The man responsible for M.L.K death is James Earl Ray and he plead guilty at first but after trials he ended up having 99 years in prison. The House Select Committee on Assassinations suspect that the government was involved in the assassination of M.L.K, but there isn't any clear evidence of it. https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Martin_Luther_King_Assassination.html
