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Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a fourteen-year old African American, who in 1955, while visiting relatives, flirted with a white girl. Shortly after, he was brutally murdered and shot in the head. The men in charge of the murder were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, was a protest against segregation in buses in Montgomery, Alabama. African-Americans refused to ride city buses in response for Rosa Parks arrest for refusing to yield her seat to a white man. -
Little Rock 9
Three years after segregated schools had been deemed unconstitutional, nine black students enrolled in a formerly all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The governor of the state then sent the national guard to prohibit their entry. The president quickly responded and sent federal troops to escort the students into school. -
Youth Movement: SNCC and Sit-Ins
In the early 1960s many sit-ins were being organized in towns where restaurants refused service to blacks. During these sit-ins a small group of people would go into a restaurant ask to be served. They would inevitably be denied, but the group of people refused to leave until they were served, drawing support for desegregation. The student non-violent coordinating committee (SNCC) formed in the wake of these sit ins to give younger black more a voice in the civil rights movement. -
Freedom Riders
A group of 13 black and white civil rights activists who went on a series of bus trips through the American south to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. They attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the deep south. There was tremendous violence from white protesters along the way, but that helped to draw attention to their cause. Soon, hundreds of freedom riders engaged in similar actions. -
James Meredith and Ole Miss
James Meredith was a black man who attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi, also known as the Ole Miss campus. Chaos broke out, with the resulting riots ending in two dead and hundreds wounded. -
The Philosophy of Non-Violence: Letter From a Birmingham Jail
During a nonviolent campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested. While in jail he wrote an open letter defending the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and that people have a responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than potentially waiting forever for justice to come through courts. -
Project C and Children's March
After the governor of Alabama declared "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched Project C, which stood for confrontation. Inspired the Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail, the activists began to recruit children to march. As thousands of children began to fill the jails, Birmingham business owners were quick to make a deal with the protesters. -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington D.C. for a political rally meant to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Civil Rights Act
This act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin and is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Freedom Summer
Many civil rights organizations organized a voter registration drive, aimed at drastically increasing voter registration in Mississippi. This drive was met with constant abuse and harassment including the Ku Klux Klan, police, and state and local authorities carrying out a systematic series of violent events. -
Malcolm X
While giving a speech, three gunmen rushed Malcom X, and shot him 15 times at close range. This happened after many death threats and multiple attempted assassinations. However, Malcolm's legacy as an American Muslim minister and a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, has made him one of the most influential African Americans in history. -
Selma to Montgomery March
This historic march, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s participation in it greatly helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the south. This march was met with violent resistance from state and local authorities and it also gained nationwide attention. -
Voting Rights Act
This act aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
