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Plessy v Ferguson
This was an event where an African American refused to sit in a Jim Crow car on a train, which was a Louisiana law. Homer Plessy explained how his constitutional rights were violated, but the Court ruled otherwise. The Court said that the distinction between African Americans and whites did not interfere with either the 13th amendment or the 14th.(http://bit.ly/1uuLcJp) -
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Medgar Evers
After Medgar Evers graduated college from Alcorn State University he became an insurance salesman and became involved in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership. He organized boycotts against discrimination. He also worked for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), due to his high profile with the NAACP he was a target. On June 12, 1963 he was assassinated outside of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
One of the leading activist organizations in 1942 worked with other organizations like it to desegregate areas in public for African Americans. They wanted to enforce black nationalism and separatism.( http://bit.ly/2nCak4H) -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball when he started to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson won many awards for himself and the team altogether. Because he was African American, he was insulted, and threatened a countless number of times. That did not stop him from winning MVP award in 1949. (http://bit.ly/1n14iFE) -
Sweatt v Painter
In 1946 Heman Marion Sweatt, who was African American, wanted to attend the University of Texas Law School. So he applied and was declined his position, just because he was a Negro. He was offered another admission to a law school just for Negros but he declined. Sweatt asked the court to force his admission upon the school so the university accepted him, but still kept whites and blacks separated. (http://bit.ly/2nqJY3w) -
Brown v Board of Education
The Supreme Court decided, unanimously, that racial segregation would not be federally tolerated from that point forward. (http://bit.ly/1nzUME6) -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, was a period of time when African Americans refused to ride city buses to protest against the segregation on the buses. This started 4 days after an African American women, named Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was then arrested and fined. The United States Supreme Court finally decided to order the Montgomery Bus System to integrate its city buses. (http://bit.ly/1ymBgQq) -
The Southern Manifesto
The Southern Manifesto was a resolution that condemned the decision in the Brown V Board of Education case. The resolution was signed by 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives. (http://to.pbs.org/1hc6YZt) -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
The SCLC was created on January 10-11, 1957 when 60 African American Ministers met up in Atlanta to discuss the effects of the Montgomery Bus boycott. Martin Luther King Jr., was of course involved in this organization he was chosen to be their president. Their ultimate goal was to abolish segregation against all African Americans. (http://bit.ly/1I8sxN8) -
Little Rock (Central High School)
Nine African American students were enrolled in a all-white school called Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. They enrolled because the Supreme Court ruled segregation in public school unconstitutional.So on the first day of school the "Little Rock Nine" tried to get into the school but the Governor of Alabama, called upon the states National Guard to block them from getting in. On September 25, President Dwight Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort them in.
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Greensboro Sit-In
4 African American college students in North Carolina went to a lunch counter to eat and asked for their service, but the workers there refused to serve them and asked them to leave. The 4 students refused to leave and that started to encourage young African Americans to fight for equality for all. (http://s.si.edu/1jLno02) -
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
The SNCC was an organization formed in February of 1960 to give younger African Americans a chance to have a voice in the Civil Rights Movement. It was formed in North Carolina in the same city where the 4 college students were refused service at the lunch counter, Greensboro. The director of the SCLC helped in setting up the first meeting for the SNCC. The new group helped push equal rights for all, including the desegregation of the city buses and marches. -
Freedom Rides
The Freedom Rides were a series of trips that 13 people (Africa Americans and white civil rights activists) took throughout south America on a bus. The purpose of their trip was to protest segregation in the terminals. They encountered a lot of violence from white protesters but kept on their journey. Their trip was successful in September the Interstate Commerce Commission prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations all over the country. (http://bit.ly/1vgaxE1) -
James Meredith
James Meredith was a Civil Rights Activist who lives in Mississippi currently. He became an activist after he graduated college from the University of Mississippi. Before he went to the University he attended an all black college but applied in 1961 where he was accepted at the time. When the registrar found out he was African American they revoked his acceptance. Meredith then filed a suit which made its way to the Supreme Court, and they ruled in his favor. (http://bit.ly/1kM5U5i ) -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was a letter that was a response to Christian and Jewish leaders who criticized Martin Luther King Jrs demonstrations against discrimination. King wrote the response while he was still in jail due to these demonstrations. (http://bit.ly/1YSpCQ8) -
March On Washington
More than 200,000 Americans joined together in Washington D.C for a March for Jobs and Freedom. The purpose of this march was to open up peoples eyes to political and social challenges that African Americans face across the country. (http://bit.ly/1i6tu7Z) -
Bombing of Birmingham Church
Before morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama a bomb went off. 4 young girls were killed but others were injured.Many people were outraged, and became violent to fight for equality and no more discrimination and segregation. (http://bit.ly/1CwahtD) -
24th Amendment
This amendment prevents states from proposing taxes in order to vote, poll tax. This amendment was ratified from its original order. States instilled the poll tax because they were still discriminating against African Americans, and they didn't want them to have equal rights like everyone else did. (http://bit.ly/1cZULDF) -
March from Selma to Montgomery
Martin Luther King Jr and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) organized a march from Selma to Montgomery, in response to a state trooper shooting Jimmie Lee Jackson, an African American demonstrator. There were many attempts to march to but Alabama troopers stopped them until a U.S court judge said them to let them go on. President Johnson agreed, so on March 21 they set out on their march protected by Army Troops and the National Guard. On the 25th they reached Montgomery. -
Mississippi Freedom Summer
In 1964 CORE and the SNCC wanted to encourage the people of Mississippi to go out and register to vote so they organized something called the Mississippi Summer Project. The Freedom Summer included African Americans and somewhere around 1,000 white volunteers. That group was constantly harassed by white Mississippi residents. June 15 is when the first 300 people arrived for Freedom Summer. (http://bit.ly/1jCdm18) -
Civil Rights Act Passed
When the Civil Rights Act passed, public segregation and employment discrimination based on race, skin color,
religion or nationality was from there on banned.
The Act itself was first proposed by John F. Kennedy but was put into place by Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act was opposed by the southerners, of course but survived and on July 2,
1964 it was signed into the law. (http://bit.ly/1udSFsU) -
Malcolm X assassination
Malcolm X was born in Nebraska to a African American preacher as a father. His father was harassed and violently attacked, the KKK even forced them to move because of threats. After his father was killed Malcolm became a nationalist and leader for other African Americans. Malcolm was speaking to the Organization of Afro-American Unity when the Black Muslims shot him on the spot. The Black Muslims was a group who he had interacted with when he was in prison for burglary. (http://bit.ly/1lATEnS) -
Voting Rights Act Approved
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in order to encourage more African Americans to vote, which they had the right to under the 15th Amendment. After the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama Johnson decided to create equal voting rights for everybody. The Act was debated over for almost a month until the House of Representatives passed it on August 6th of 1965. (http://bit.ly/1x2nE2e) -
Black Panthers
The Black was a group of African Americans who formed to enforce civil rights and equality. The group believed that violence was the only way to get the message across because Kings non violent way was not working, they thought. The group was not as successful as you would like to think. African Americans didn't approve the group because of their violent ways. The FBI was always watching their every move making sure they didn't do anything and get away with it. (http://bit.ly/1SM5axc) -
Kings Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr had been a minister, and civil rights leader, a leader for all African Americans. The African American population believed in him and trusted he would get them where they wanted to go. He led protesting marches, sit ins, King was one to do things the non violent way. King created groups for others for them to have a say in the movement. The nation was shocked and angered when they heard a leader was assassinated in Tennessee. (http://bit.ly/1v0B75e)
