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Brown -vs.- Board of Education verdict is handed down
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Brown v. Board of Education was not the first Supreme Court case of its kind. In 1952 the NAACP supported a group of legal challenges to segregation in public schools that came before the Supreme Court. It involved Linda Brown, an African American student from Topeka, Kansas. Segregation in Toeka’s schools prevented her from attending an all-white elementary school a short walk from her home. Instead, she had to travel a long distance and cross-dangerous rai -
Rosa Parks is arrested
Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, provided the NAACP with its opportunity. She refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and she was arrested. -
SCLC is formed
After the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Civil Rights leaders met in 1957 in Atlanta to discuss future strategy. They expanded the Montgomery Improvement Association into the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and alliance of church-based African American organizations formed in 1957 and dedicated to ending discrimination. -
Little Rock Nine able to enter Central High School
The Little Rock Nine, members of the Arkansas National Guard prevented the African American studnets, the nine attempted to enter the school on September 23. However, on September 25, 1957, the Little Rock Nine finally enetered Central High School under the protection of the soldiers' fixed bayonets. -
SNCC is formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in April 1960, by young people who had emerged as leaders of the sit-in protest movement. The role of SNCC was to loose association of student activists from throughout the South. -
James Meredith admitted into the University of Mississippi
The University of Mississippi admited James Meredith, an African American applicant, who is the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. He accompanied by two federal officials, and he arrived at the campus in September 1962. -
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is written by Martin Luther King JR.
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was written by Martin Luther King from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham campaign, a planned non-violent protest. Harbey Shapiro, an editor at the New York Times Magazine asked him to write his letter for publication in the magazine. Thus, he wrote this letter on the margins of a newspaper and givve bits and pieces of the letter to his lawyer to take back to movement headquarters. -
I Have a Dream Speech
"I Have a Dream", public speech at the March on Washington rally in 1963 and became the famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. King's.This speech was about the his vision of what the US could and shoud end to racism. Also his dreams of freedom and equality arising from a land of slavery and hatred. -
John F. Kennedy is assassinated
John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United Sates, was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, at the Central Standard Time, in Dallas, Texas. He was shot in the neck and then the head while traveling with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor, John Connally and Connally's wife, Nellie, in a presidential motocrade. -
24th Amendment is passed
The 24th Amendment banned the payment of poll taxes or other types of tax as a condition for voting in federal election, was ratified in January 1964. Thi amendment did not apply to state elections but offered some hope to civil rights activists. -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer is the Moses' plan what SNCC decided to implement. It also known as the Mississippi Summer Project. SNCC recruited volunteers on university campuses in northern states. The volunteers attended training classes in Ohio before heading to Mississippi. -
Three CORE members disappear in Mississippi
Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were disappeared during the American Civil Rights Movement. They were threatened, intimidated, beaten, shot, and buried by members of the ississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Their bodies were found six weeks later, buried in an earthen dam. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The act also outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and gave the Justice Department the authority to bring lawsuits to enforce school desegregation. To allow for equal voting rights, the act also removed some registration restrictions.The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, -
Malcolm X is assassinated
Malcolm X, a 39 charismatic young minister was shot and assassinated by Three Black Muslim as he was about to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. -
March on Selma
It also known as Bloody Sunday and the two marches that followed, were marches and protests held in 1965, that marked the political and emotional peak of the maerican Civil Rights movement. Of Selma's 15,000 eligible African Americans, just 383 were registered voters. The activists invied Martin luther King Jr. to lead them. Civil rights leaders responded by calling for a protest march from Selma to Montgomery Governor George Wallace immediately banned the protest. -
Watts Riots
In August 1965 frustration turned to violence. A routine arrest by Los Angeles police in the African American neighborhood of Watts triggered a riot that raged for six days, August 11 to 17, 1965. When the National Guard finally restored order, 34 people had been killed; hundreds injured, and almost 4,000 had been arrested. -
Black Panthers are formed
Black Panther Party, an African American revolutionary socialist organization active in the United States were founded by Hey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and US politics. The Party platform declared, “Black people will not be free until we are free to determine our own destiny.” -
Detroit Riots
Over the next two years of Watts Riots, more than 100 riots broke out in cities across the country. The worst came in Detroit, where 43 people died. President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to investigate the violence. Its report charged that white racism was largely responsible for the tensions that led to the riots. -
Martin Luther King is Assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr, was a prominent leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. James Earl Ray, shooter, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airpot, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime.
