Civil Rights

By kerabee81

  • Springfield Race Riot

    The Springfield race riot of 1908 consisted of several events of mass racial violence against African Americans by a mob of 5,000 white Americans and European immigrants. This set of events led to the founding of the NAACP.

  • NAACP

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded on February 12, 1909. It is America's largest and oldest civil rights organization.

  • 1918 Anti-Lynching Bill

    Congressman Leonidas Dyer from Missouri invited the NAACP to support a new federal anti-lynching bill. The House passed the bill in 1922, but was defeated by Southern Democrats by a filibuster.

  • The Scottsboro Boys

    The Scottsboro boys were nine black youths wrongfully accused of raping two white women. The NAACP undertook the defense of the case. The multiple retrials of the case led to two Supreme Court rulings that established important rights for criminal defendants.

  • World War II

    Through intervention by the NAACP, President Roosevelt established black organizations in every branch of the armed services during World War II.

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a Supreme Court case that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for students of different races to be unconstitutional. The NAACP was involved in this case by supporting and recruiting black parents who sued the local school boards.

  • Emmett Till

    Following the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, the NAACP initiated the homicide investigation and secured witnesses. The NAACP then organized mass demonstrations nationwide with Mamie Bradley, Emmett's mother.

  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa parks led the youth division at the Montgomery branch of the NAACP. Her anger over the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till inspired her to refuse to give up her seat on a public bus, which led to her arrest.

  • Medgar Evers Assassination

    Medgar Evers was an African American man who became the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi in 1954. He was shot and killed in front of his home on June 12, 1963.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    The NAACP successfully lobbied for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This piece of legislature prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.