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Exectutive Order 9981
President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." -
Brown v. Board of Education
This court case ruled separate but equal facilities. In Topeka Kansas was where this law started. It all started because Oliver Brown denied access to Topeka's white schools. Brown claimed that it violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Protection Clause because the white and black schools were not equal to each other. Plessy doctrine wasn't doing enough so Brown took this to the supreme court which passed the Brown v. Board of Education. This resulted in a lot of violence and arguments. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for flirting with a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, murder the boy and were arrested. They later talk about committing the murder in a magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks Arrested For Giving Up Her Bus Seat
In Montgomery Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James F Blake's order to give up her bus seat to a white person. She was arrested immediately. After Rosa Parks did this several more people started to say no. The leaders of a Black Community also organized a bus boycott that began the day that Parks was convicted of violating the segregation laws. -
SCLC
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them. -
Events at Little Rock, Arkansas
9 African Americans were excepted to attend Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. White citizens formed mobs and attacked the black students, they wouldn't even let them into school. On the first day of school Governor Orval Faubus set up the national guard around the school and told them to not let the black students into the school. Eisenhower was disgusted and arranged a meeting with the Governor and told him to move the national guard and give each of the 9 children a "body guard". -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Einsenhower passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Civil Rights Act gave African Americans the right to vote which was a huge step in history. -
Attack of the Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were African Americans that rode interstate busses into segregated Southern States to challenge the non-enforcement of segregated busses. Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E) , and a U.S civil rights group helped the freedom riders. Freedom Riders were not just African Americans, all racial groups started to join. -
James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss
When James Meredith tried to get into Ole Miss he was rejected several times but one day they finally said yes after Meredith had a lawsuit against the University. As he enters the campus riots broke out. He had protection from the mobs by U.S marshals and federal forces. Still a mob of 2,000 people attacked him. Robert F. Kennedy sent in federal marshals and later National Guardsmen after 2 people were killed. -
Medgar Evers Assassinated
Medgar Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi who worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi and gain voting rights and social justice. He was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith who was a member of White Citizens Council. He was shot to death because he was for segregation in schools. Beckwith was put to trail and was immediately charged guilty. -
The March On Washington
The March on Washington was for jobs and freedom. The march reiterated black's demands for economic equality. The "I Have a Dream" speech was given there by Martin Luther King. Everyone listened in amazement. It became an expression of the highest aspirations of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Lyndon B. Johnson. This outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended inequality. -
March to Selma
The March to Selma was organized to make a movement on voting rights. There were 3 different marches. When they were marching, Alabama's troops came and attacked the protesters.The event became known as Bloody Sunday. The outcome of the marches was successful and African Americans got their voting rights. -
Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice
Before Marshall became a justice he was a lawyer. He argued before the supreme court and for the victory of Brown v. Board of Education. Brown v, Board of Education desegregated schools which whites were all against. It was very hard for him to argue against all the whites especially because he was a black man. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in Memphis for a meeting with SCLC to support a sanitation worker's strike. He was standing at the Lorrain Motel and was shot in the neck. Americans were in shock and distress because Martin Luther King Jr. made such a big impact on people, he was what made African Americans have hope. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed by Lyndon Johnson and provided equal housing opportunities regardless of race, natural origin, or creed. It made it a federal crime to torment someone by any reason because of their race, color, religion, or natural origin. -
Civil Rights Act of 1991
After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991 which strengthens existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
