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Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case that rules "Separate but Equal". This law did not violate the 14th amendment, which guaranteed all Americans equal treatment under the law. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was established in 1909 and founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1949. It was formed in New York City by white and black activists, partially in response to the ongoing violence against African Americans around the country. Thurgood Marshal was the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. -
Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka
Supreme Court case that ruled "separate but equal" education for black and white students was unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rose parks got arrested for not giving up her seat on the buss for a white man, Africans Americans filed a lawsuit and for 381 days they refused to ride the buses. Finally, in 1956 the Supreme Court case outlawed bus segregation. -
Emmett Till
A 14-year-old African American was brutally beaten to death in Mississippi after a white woman said he made her feel uncomfortable. -
Little Rock School Integration
Governor Orval Faubus ordered the national guard to turn away the "Little Rock Nine"- nine African American students who has vol entered to integrate Little Rock Central High School as the first step in Blossoms plan. A federal judge ordered Faubus to let the kids in the school. -
The Sit-Ins
African Americans protest against discrimination. They sit in segregated businesses and refuse to leave until they bare served. -
Malcom X
Malcolm X was a Black leader who epitomized the "Black Power" philosophy. He was sentenced to prison for burglary and there encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, popularly known as the Black Muslims. Muhammad's thesis that the white man is the devil with whom blacks cannot live had a strong impact on Malcolm. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom rides were people who would provoke a violent reaction that would convince the Kennedy administration to enforce banned seating segregation. -
March on Washington
The Civil rights bill that President Kennedy sent to congress guaranteed equal access to all public accommodations and gave the U.S attorney general the power to file school desegregation suits. To persuade Congress to pass the bill, two veteran organizers- labor leader A. Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin of the SCLC- summoned Americans to march on Washington, DC. -
March on Birmingham, Alabama
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, the head of Alabama Christian Movement for Human right, invited Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC to help desegregate the city. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil rights act prohibited discrimination because of race, religion,national origin, and gender. It gave all citizens the right to enter libraries,parks,washrooms,restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations. -
Race Riot
In the 1960s, clashes between whites authority and black civilians spread like wild fire. In New York, an encounter between white police and African American teens ended in a death of a 15-year-old student. -
24th Amendment
The 25th Amendment abolished the poll tax for all federal elections. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. It was aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from voting. The act eliminated the literacy tests that had disqualified any voters. -
March from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights
More than 2000 African Americans had been arrested in SCLC demonstrations. After a demonstrator, Jimmy Lee Jackson, was shot and killed , King responded by announcing a march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. 600 protesters set out to Montgomery. -
De Jure vs. De Facto segregation
Racial segregation that happens “by fact” rather than by legal requirement. The concentration of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods produces neighborhood schools that are predominantly black, or segregated in fact ( de facto ), although not by law ( de jure ). -
Black Panther Party
A political orginization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. They practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism.