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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, announced its decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas on May 17, 1954. The decision declared that the system of segregated public schools in the United States was unconstitutional. A unanimous Court ruled that "separate" was inherently unequal. The majority opinion cited sociological evidence to argue that the separation itself --- regardless of whether facilities were equal --- cultivated a sense of inferiority i -
The Murder of Emmet Till
In August of 1955, Emmet Till, a fourteen year old from Chicago, was sent to visit relatives near Money, Mississippi in Tallahatchie County. The young man, in part to show off to his relatives, allegedly "flirted" and used sexual language in speaking to a 21 year-old white woman working in a country store owned by her husband Roy Bryant. A few days later (on Saturday, August 27th), Till disappeared. His body was eventually found, wired to an old factory fan, on the bottom of a river. Till h -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Rosa Parks story has become legendary in the annals of civil rights history. On December 1, 1955, she boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. During her ride, she was told to move out of her seat and to the "colored section" in the back. She refused and was arrested. Her arrest triggered a systematic response among the civil rights community in Montgomery --- a boycott of public transportation. Leading the boycott effort was a young Reverend Martin Luther King, pastor of the Dexter Avenue Bapt -
Central High SchoolLittle Rock, Arkansas
To comply with the Brown v. Board decision, plans were made to integrate Central High School in September of 1957. When nine black high school students arrived to attend Central High, they were met by an angry crowd. Despite his pledges of cooperation, the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, in fact, ordered the Arkansas National Guard to keep the black students, known as the "Little Rock Nine," out of the school. Faced with this defiance of a federal court order, President Dwight Eisenhower r -
The "Freedom Riders"
In May of 1961, a group of civil rights activists sought to "test" enforcement of a recent Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in bus terminals. The group consisted of black and white, male and female. They boarded two busses in Washington, D.C. and were bound to New Orleans where they would celebrate the 7th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Their route would take them through South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. At various bus terminals, th -
James Meredith and the University of Mississippi
In September of 1962, James Meredith sought to enroll as the first black student in the history of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). His enrollment triggered substantial resistance from the University, the community of Oxford Mississippi, and the Governor of the state, Ross Barnett. As a result, President John F. Kennedy ordered federal marshals to ensure Meredith's right to enroll and to protect him as he moved to the campus. On the evening of the Meredith's enrollment, President John -
George Wallace Stands in the "School House Door" Desegregating the University of Alabama
In 1963, the governor of Alabama was George Wallace. He had run for and won the office on the slogan of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." In June of 1963, a federal court barred any state government interference with the enrollment of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, at the University of Alabama. Despite this order, Governor George Wallace appointed himself the temporary University registrar and stood in the doorway of the administration building to p -
John F. Kennedy Submits Civil Rights Legislation
On the same evening, President Kennedy addressed the public in a speech broadcast by all television networks. It was clear break with JFK's prior and lukewarm position on civil rights. The bill that he submitted to Congress was ultimately passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
The Assassination of Medgar EversJackson, Mississippi
One day after Kennedy's landmark speech, violence struck again. The place was Jackson, Mississippi. The field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Medgar Evers, was leading a protest against Jackson's system of segregation. That evening, Evers arrived home, stepped out of his car, and was shot in the back. He died on his driveway with his wife and children looking on. -
The March on Washington
To pressure the government and Congress to act more quickly on the civil rights agenda, a massive march on the nation's capital was planned, scheduled, and carried out on August 28th, 1963. According to estimates, over 250,000 participated in the peaceful demonstration which culminated in the speech given by Reverend Martin Luther King. -
Birmingham Bombing
On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young girls who were in the church for Sunday school and injured another 20 people.
