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Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas
Rules separate inherently unequal and instructs states to integrate -
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Civil Rights Timeline
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Chuck Berry
Produced the hit Maybellene that hit record highs for black people singing rock and roll music. -
Emmett Till
14-year-old who was lynched and murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. his death led to the American Civil Rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rosa Parks is arrested, MLK rallies the black community to do this. This seriously hurt the bus companies. This lasted more than a year, and ended in '56 when the SC declared segregated buses unconstitutional. -
Alvin Ailey
Created the first Black/African American dance company. -
Motown Records
Put black people to work in the music industry by recording their songs and putting them on the payroll. -
Woolworth Sit-Ins
In February 1960 when black college students in Greensboro, NC, staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter; and in the following months, such demonstrations spread. -
Baker v. Carr
A landmark United States Supreme Court case that retreated from the Court's political question doctrine, deciding that reapportionment (attempts to change the way voting districts are delineated) issues present justiciable questions, thus enabling federal courts to intervene in and to decide reapportionment cases. The defendants unsuccessfully argued that reapportionment of legislative districts is a "political question," and hence not a question that may be resolved by federal courts. -
Freedom Rides
Black and white volunteers started in Washington DC, and were determined to ride through the South to see if cities have complied with Supreme Court Legislation and integrated effectively. -
Interstate Commerce and Commission desegreated busses and trains
The first independent regulatory agency created by the federal government, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regulated interstate surface transportation between 1887 and 1995. Over its 108-year history, the agency regulated and certified trains, trucks, buses, water carriers, freight forwarders, pipelines, and many other elements of interstate transportation. -
Gideon v. Wainwright
In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution requires the states to provide defense attorneys to criminal defendants charged with serious offenses who cannot afford lawyers themselves. The case began with the 1961 arrest of Clarence Earl Gideon. Gideon was charged with breaking and entering into a Panama City, Florida, pool hall and stealing money from the hall's vending machines. At trial, Gideon, who could not afford a lawyer himself, requested that an attorney -
Sidney Poiter
First African American/Black person to win an Oscar. -
Medgar Evans Assassinated
Director of the NAACP in Mississippi and a lawyer who defended accused Blacks, he was murdered in his driveway by a member of the Ku Klux Klan. -
March on Washington
In August 1963, civil rights leaders organized a massive rally in Washington to urge passage of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. The high point came when MLK Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 marchers in front of the Lincoln Memorial. -
Church Bombing in Birmingham Alabama
The Sept. 15, 1963, bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the most abhorrent crimes of the civil rights movement. Four young girls attending Sunday school—Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, aged 11 to 14—were killed when a bomb exploded at the church. Twenty others were injured. The church was a center for civil rights meetings, and just a few days earlier, courts had ordered the desegregation of Birmingham's school -
Escobedo v. Illinois
Police must honor a person's request to have an attorney present during interrogation -
Civil Rights Act
Passed by Lyndon B Johnson outlawed public segregration and discrimination, forbade racial discrimination in the workplace. -
Malcom X Killed
The most celebrated of black muslims. He died in 1965 when black gunmen, presumebly under orders from rivals within the Nation of Islam, assassinated him. He was originially for segregation, but after his trip to Mecca he wanted integration and spoke of the brotherhood of mankind. -
Voting Registration March - Selma to Montgomery
A major demonstration organized by King in March 1965. It was to press for the right of blacks to register to vote. -
Voting Rights Act
This provided federal protection to African Americans attemtpting to excercise their right to vote. -
Watts Race Riot
In the midst of a traffic arrest, a white police officer struck a protesting black bystander with his club. This incident triggered a storm of anger and a week of violence. 34 people died during the uprising, which eventually quelled by the national guard. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize (1964) -
Kwanzaa
A holiday targeted towards blacks, celebrated gifts of the Earth. -
Miranda v. Arizona
Determines the rights of an arrested person -
Black Panthers rise to prominence
A group formed in 1966, inspired by the idea of Black Power, that provided aid to black neighborhoods; often thought of as radical or violent. -
Aretha Franklin
Recorded, "Respect" a song about showing respect to all people. -
Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court
American civil rights lawyer, first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall was a tireless advocate for the rights of minorities and the poor. -
Shirley Chisholm
First black congress woman and a life long social activist. -
Robert Kennedy Assassination
younger brother of JFK who entered public life as U.S. Attorney General during the Kennedy Administration. Later elected senator from New York, he became an anti-war, pro-civil rights presidental canidate in 1968, launching a popular challange to incumbent President Johnson. Amid that campaign, he was assasinated in California on June 6, 1968 -
Olympics Black Power Salute
during medal ceremony (as a protest against racism in the US)- removed from games -
Bakke v. University of California
Bans racial quotas
