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Creation of the NAACP
The NAACP, founded in February 1909, emerged as a response to the 1908 Springfield race riot and the ongoing struggle for civil rights, with an interracial group of activists, including W.E.B. Du Bois, joining forces to fight for equal rights and the advancement of African Americans -
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine Black teenagers accused of raping two white women in 1931. The case became a landmark legal case in the United States, raising issues of racism and fair trial rights. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
When Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he became the first Black player in the history of Major League Baseball. The sport had been segregated since the late 1800s, and the team President, Branch Rickey, chose Robinson to break the color barrier. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
In the landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, effectively overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson. -
The Murder of Emmitt Till
In August 1955 two Mississippians bludgeon and kill Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, for whistling at a white woman; their acquittal and boasting of the atrocity spur the civil rights cause -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement, where African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to ride city buses to protest segregated seating, lasting for 381 days and culminating in the desegregation of buses after a Supreme Court ruling -
The Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who, in 1957, bravely integrated Little Rock Central High School, facing immense opposition and racial abuse, and became symbols of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Ruby Bridges desegregate elementary school in New Orleans
On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges became the first Black student to desegregate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, facing a mob of protestors and undergoing a year of intense isolation and racism -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
In his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King Jr addressed clergymen's criticisms of his civil rights campaign, arguing for the necessity of nonviolent direct action against segregation and discrimination, and expressing disappointment in white moderates who failed to ac -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law on July 2, 1964, outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, ending segregation in public places and federally funded programs, and establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an African American revolutionary, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965 -
Creation of the Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
In 1965, President Johnson called upon Marshall to be the country's next Solicitor General. Marshall was sworn into office, but only spent two years in the position. In 1967, the President appointed him as the first African-American to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 -
Election of Barack Obama
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.