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Creation of the NAACP
Interracial American organization created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation; to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitutional rights. -
Scottsboro Boys
They were nine black teenagers accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The case included a frameup, an all-white jury, rushed trials, an attempted lynching, and an angry mob; it is frequently given as an example of an overall miscarriage of justice. -
The Murder of Emmitt Till
An African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
First person to allow both races to play baseball on the same team or against each other. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
The Little Rock 9
A group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
Ruby Bridges desegregate elementary school
She was an American activist known for being the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A seminal event in the U.S. civil rights movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
An open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
An act to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities. and public education -
Assassination of Malcolm X
He was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
A black revolutionary socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
An Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African American justice. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who became known for his advancement of civil rights by using civil disobedience. He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. -
Election of Barak Obama
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.
