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Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case in 1896 that declared businesses must provide "seperate but equal" accomodations for whites and blacks. -
Brown v. Board of Education
1954 Supreme Court case that overturned the Plessy v. Fergusson decision -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a black teen lynched while visiting Money, Mississippi and was the first lynching telegraphed all over the world. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public bus system. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War. -
Little Rock Nine
The first attempt to integrate public schools. -
Freedom Rides
Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court. -
Assassination of JFK
Kennedy was shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, in a presidential motorcade. A ten-month investigation in 1963–64 by the Warren Commission concluded that Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and that Jack Ruby also acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial. -
24th Amendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and also women. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches
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 American civil rights movement. All three marches were attempts to march from Selma to Montgomery where the Alabama capitol is located. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread displacement of African Americans in the U.S. -
James Meredith
Meredith started a solitary March Against Fear from Memphis to Jackson, to protest against racism. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
A landmark piece of legislation in the United States that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot. -
Assassination of RFK
Senator Robert F Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on 5 June 1968.
