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Timespan and Context
The Civil Rights Movements that have influenced civil rights. Events include amendments, laws passed, protests, and tragic deaths. It might of been a hard fault, but now there is finally change for the African-American community. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark case in 1954 Supreme Court the result of the case was allowing segregation in public schools. This decision overturned the Plessy case. The case overruled "separate but equal." -
Emmett Till Murder
14 year black old boy was staying with his uncle for while was dared to flirt with a white women. When walking out the gas station he said "Bye baby" to the women. Later the women's husband and brother in law showed up to the boys uncle house and took him. They beated him to death, shot him in the head, and then attached his body to a cotton gym fan and drowned the evidence. They were later taken to court, but was not found guilty. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused the demand of a bus driver to leave a row of four seats in the "colored" section of the bus once the white section had filled up and move to the back of the bus. Her refusal made the white people mad and she was sent to prison, but colored people stopped using the bus along with some white people. There was a boycott that began; everyone refused to ride the buses leading the buses with no business. -
The Little Rock Nine and School Integration
Nine African American students went to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. When they arrived they had to make their way through a crowd shouting and throwing objects. Once the students reached the front door the National Guard prevented them from entering the school and were forced to go home. Each day the nine teens were harassed, yelled at, and threatened by many of the white students as they took small steps into more furious crowds. -
Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins
The Greensboro Sit-In was a non-violent protest in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students refused to leave the bar stools and switched out with other people when they got tired. Both white and African American people participated. Even though during the protest things was poured on their head the protests resulted in Woolworth Department Store chain ending its policy of racial segregation in its stores in the southern United States. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American people who had a planned out a map to drive the bus to protest for civil rights. The bus didn't get to finish their route due to the peoples reactions. The bus got trash thrown at it, got shot at, and was even set to fire with all the people in it. -
MLK's Letter From Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in response to criticism of the nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama. In the letter, King responds specifically to statements that were published in a local newspaper by eight white clergymen. He called the protests “unwise and untimely”. -
March on Washington
On August 28 1963, 1/4 of a million people rallied in Washington, D.C. to demand an end to segregation, same wages and economic justice, voting rights, education, and civil rights protections. Civil rights leaders took the podium to talk about the issue that were urgent calls to action. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
On a Sunday morning around 10:24 a bomb exploded in the church exploding the side of the building. The even killed 4 African-American girls and injured more than 20 people in the church. This church was the victim because it was the large and prominent church located downtown. The church also served as headquarters for civil rights mass meetings and rallies in the early 1960s. -
24th Amendment
On January 23, 1964, the United States changed the 24th Amendment to the Constitution. At first there was poll tax at the voting polls so broke white men and black men could not vote. This change prohibited any poll tax in elections for federal officials. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Revisions of this civil rights act forbid businesses or owners to discriminate on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Voting Right Acts
This act was brought into law by President Lyndon Johnson. The act prohibited discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War. When this act came about this meant stopping poll taxes and literacy tests as a way to see if you could vote. Getting rid of the test and poll taxes allowed more black men and poor white men to vote. -
Loving v. Virginia
The Court struck down state laws and banned marriage between individuals of different races, holding this case violated both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment because this had already been brought up in court before. -
Olympics Protest
Two athletes,Tommie Smith and John Carlos, raised their fists on the Olympic podium. This act turned African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos from track-and-field stars into the center of controversy over their raised-fist salute, a symbol of Black power and the human rights movement at large. Both boys had no shoes on with black socks and black gloves on, and John Carlos had also unzipped his jacket. Both boys were stripped of their medals and were threatened by the public. -
Selma to Montgomery March
The first Selma to Montgomery march was led by SNCC chairman John Lewis and the Reverend Hosea Williams of SCLC. The march started and kept going smoothly without any interruptions until the protesters arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they were met with violence by Alabama law enforcement officials. The march lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.