-
Brown vs. Board of Education
The Supreme Court decision declared state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students to be unconstitutional.This ruling overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson and was a crucial step toward desegregation in the U.S. educational system. -
Emmett Till Murder
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American, was lynched in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. His open-casket funeral exposed the brutality of racial violence.Till’s murder and the subsequent trial brought national attention to racial violence and inequality, galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest led to a year-long boycott of the city's bus system.This event marked the beginning of mass resistance against segregation and helped to elevate Martin Luther King Jr. as a leader in the movement.