Civil Rights

School Segregation outlawed by Supreme Court

May 17, 1954

Surpreme Court outlaws school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education:

The court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, allowed separate but equal facilities. The Equal Protection Clause, the 14th Amendment, was violated in Topeka, Kansas and started the Brown v. Board case. In this case, the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.

The Rev. George Lee

May 7, 1955

Killed for leading voter-registration drive

Lamar Smith

Aug 13, 1955

Murdered for organizing black voters

Emmett Louis Till

Aug 28, 1955

Murdered for speaking to a white woman

John Earl Reese

Oct 22, 1955

Slain by nightriders opposed to school improvements

Rosa Parks Arrested on Bus

Dec 1, 1955

Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man:

Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the front of the bus and refusing to give up her seat to a white man. She was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dec 5, 1955

Montgomer bus boycott begins

Segregated Bus Seating Banned in Montgomery

Nov 13, 1956

Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses

Willie Edwards Jr.

Jan 23, 1957

Killed by Klansmen

First Civil Rights Act Since Reconstruction

Aug 29, 1957

Congress passes first civil rights act since reconstruction:

President Eisenhower passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The new act estatblished the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote.

School Desegregation Enforced by Federal Troops

Sep 24, 1957

President Eisenhower orders federal troops to enforce school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas:

9 black students tried to enter Little Rock Central High School and the whites would not accept them. President Eisenhower sent Federal Troops with the black students to make sure they got inside safely.

Mack Charles Parker

Apr 25, 1959

Taken from jail and lynched

Black Students Stage Sit-In

Feb 1, 1960

Black students stage sit-in at "whites only" lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina

Segregation in Bus Terminals Outlawed

Dec 5, 1960

Supreme Court outlaws segregation in bus terminals

Freedom Riders Attacked - Bus Segregation Laws

May 14, 1961

Freedom Riders attacked in Alabama while testing compliance with bus desegregation laws:

The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States. The American Civil Liberties Union in Miami helped to organize them. Freedom Riders were both African American and white.

Herbert Lee

Sep 25, 1961

Voter registration worker killed by white legislator

Civil Rights groups join forces to launch voter registration drive

Apr 1, 1962

Civil Rights groups join forces to launch voter registration drive

Cpl. Roman Ducksworth Jr.

Apr 9, 1962

Taken from bus and killed by police

Riots Erupt at Ole Miss

Sep 30, 1962

Riots erupt when James Meredith, a black student, enrolls at Ole Miss:

Chaos briefly broke out on the Ole Miss campus, with riots ending in two dead, hundreds wounded and many others arrested, after the Kennedy administration called out some 31,000 National Guardsmen and other federal forces to enforce order.

Paul Guihard

Sep 30, 1962

French reporters killed during Ole Miss riot

William Lewis Moore

Apr 23, 1963

Slain during one-man march against segregation

Birmingham police attack marching children with dogs and fire hoses

May 3, 1963

Birmingham police attack marching children with dogs and fire hoses

Governor George Wallace Attempted to Stop University Integration

Jun 11, 1963

Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in schoolhouse door to stop university integration:

Medgar Evers

Jun 12, 1963

Civil rights leader assassinated:
Medgar Evers was a Civil Rights Leader. He was killed for trying to get blacks registered to vote.

Civil Rights March in Washington

Aug 28, 1963

250,000 Americans march on Washington for civil rights:
Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the Civil Rights March in Washington was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered.

Addie mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley

Sep 15, 1963

Schoolgirls killed in bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

Virgil Lamar Ware

Sep 15, 1963

Youth killed during wave of racist violence

Poll tax outlawed in federal elections

Jan 23, 1964

Poll tax outlawed in federal elections

Louis Allen

Jan 31, 1964

Witness to murder of civil rights worker assassinated

The Rev. Bruce Klunder

Apr 7, 1964

Killed protesting construction of segragated school.

Henry Hezekah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore

May 2, 1964

Killed by Klansrron.

Volunteers in Mississippi

Jun 20, 1964

Freedom Summer brings 1,000 young civil rights volunteers to Mississippi.

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner

Jun 21, 1964

Civil rights workers abducted and slain by Klansmen.

Civil rights Act signed

Jul 2, 1964

President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964:
President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act was a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

LT. Col. Lemuel Penn

Jul 11, 1964

Killed by Klansmen while driving north

Jimmie Lee Jackson

Feb 26, 1965

Civil rights mercher killed by state trooper.

Trooper beats back marchers

Mar 7, 1965

State trooper beats back marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The Rev. James Reeb

Mar 11, 1965

March volunteer beaton to death:

Viola Gregg Liuzzo

Mar 25, 1965

Killed by Klansmen while transporting marchers

Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights

Mar 25, 1965

Thousands complete the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights:

This focus of this March was to register black voters in the South. The marchers met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. The March helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South.

Oneal Moore

Jun 2, 1965

Black deputy killed by nightriders

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Jul 9, 1965

Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965

Willie Brewster

Jul 18, 1965

Killed by nightriders

Jonathan Daniels

Aug 20, 1965

Seminary student killed by deputy

Samuel Younge Jr.

Jan 3, 1966

Student civil rights activist killed in dispute

Vernon Dahmer

Jan 10, 1966

Black community leader killed in Klan bombing

Ben Chester White

Jun 10, 1966

Killed by Klansmen

Clarence Triggs

Jul 30, 1966

Slain by nightriders

Wharlest Jackson

Feb 27, 1967

Civil rights leader killed after promotion to "white" job

Benjamin Brown

May 12, 1967

Civil rights worker killed when police fired on protesters

First Black Supreme Court Justice

Oct 2, 1967

Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first black Supreme Court Justice: Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer who was best known fpr the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. Being appointed the first African American Supreme Court Justice was a monumental event.

Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, Henry Smith

Feb 8, 1968

Students killed when highway patrolmen fire on protesters

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Apr 4, 1968

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated:

The civil rights leader was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers’ strike and was on his way to dinner when a bullet struck him in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader who promoted non-violence and impacted both whites and African Americans.