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Montgomery Bus Boycott (pic-https://blackmainstreet.net/how-the-montgomery-bus-boycott-of-1955-can-be-used-as-a-blueprint-today/)
In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest sparked a yearlong black boycott of the city buses (Montgomery bus boycott) and served notice throughout the South that blacks would no longer submit to segregation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to prominence during the bus boycott. It was regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation.
(This last for a whole year, Dec. 5, 1955-Dec. 20, 1956) -
Little Rock Nine (Due to The Brown v. Board of Education Case) (pic-https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration)
The Little Rock Nine were a group of 9 black students who enrolled at an all-white High School in Little Rock, AR. Their attendance there was THE test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. First day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students’ entry into the school. Later that month, Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort them into the school. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-In (pic-https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/courage-at-the-greensboro-lunch-counter-4507661/)
4 black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina demanded service at a whites-only lunch counter. Within a week, the sit-in reached 1,000 students, spreading a wave of wade-ins, lie-ins, and pray-ins across the South demanding equal rights. In April 1960, southern black students formed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to give more focus to their efforts. This led to a national movement of young people that made the want for equal rights and treatment even more aware. -
March on Washington (pic-http://www.blackenterprise.com/a-closer-look-at-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-s-march-on-washington/)
MLK launched a campaign against discrimination in Birmingham, AL. Civil rights marchers were repelled by police with attack dogs & high-pressure water hoses, in public and on live TV. Then, led 200,000 black & white demonstrators on a peaceful march in support of the proposed new civil rights legislation, making his iconic "I have a Dream" speech to the nation. The march was successful in pressuring the administration of John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill in Congress -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 (pic-https://www.thedailybeast.com/lyndon-johnsons-last-miracle-the-civil-rights-act-turns-50)
President Johnson convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning racial discrimination in most private facilities open to the public. It strengthened the federal government's power to end segregation in schools and other public places. It also created the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to eliminate discrimination in hiring (race, national origin, gender). -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (pic-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965#/media/File:Lyndon_Johnson_and_Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._-_Voting_Rights_Act.jpg)
The 24th Amendment, passed in 1964, abolished the poll tax in federal elections. In response to racial violence across the South, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which sought to prohibit minorities from being disenfranchised (through poll taxes, literacy tests, etc). It was the landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (pic-http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/04/time-looks-back-martin-luther-kings-assassination/)
King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil-rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans and massive turmoil, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.
