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Montgomery Bus Boycott
On 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, with it's president, Martin Luther King, were national civil rights heroes. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and was an example for other southern campaigns that folled. -
MLK's First Arrest, Montgomery 1955
The boycott lasted for 385 days, and the situation became so tense that King's house was bombed. King was arrested during this campaign, which concluded with a United States District Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that ended racial segregation on all Montgomery public buses. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
Rosa Parks was arrested because she wouldn't giv eup her seat to a white man. -
MLK's House Is Bombed
At 9:15 p.m., while King speaks at a mass meeting, his home is bombed. His wife and daughter are not injured. Later King addresses an angry crowd that gathers outside the house, pleading for nonviolence. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock High. Their entrance into the school in 1957 sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine students from entering. President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the Nine into the school on September 25, 1957. -
"Letter From Birmingham Jail"
King spent eight days in his cell. During that time he composed his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." The letter was apparently conceived in response to a letter that had recently run in a local newspaper, which had claimed that the protests were "unwise and untimely." However, King also wrote his letter for a national audience. -
Summer Of Freedom
Overcoming Senate filibuster, Congress passes law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools.
