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Brown vs. Board of Education
Supreme Court found that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional under the "equal protection clause" in the 14th Amendment. -
Emmett Till Murder
While visiting family in Mississippi, he was brutally murdered for allegedly talking "fresh" to a white woman. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
While taking the bus home, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. This caused her to be arrested, and started the year-long boycott of the Montgomery Bus System. -
The Little Rock Nine and Integration
With the Brown vs. Board of Education being ruled in 1954, 9 black students wanted to test if the court's ruling had gone into affect. They enrolled in Little Rock High School, and were immediately not allowed to enter the high school because of the National Guard ordered by the state governor to not allow them to enter. Some 20 days later, the president ordered the National Guard to escort the black students into the school. -
Greensboro Woolworth Sit-Ins
A series of non-violent protests that involved African American students to sit-in at the segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. They refused to get up after not being served, and many were arrested. -
Freedom Riders
Civil Rights Activists that would ride buses all over the South and get out and break Jim-Crow laws they thought were unjust and unfair. -
24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment outlaws taxes on polls as a voting requirement in federal elections. -
MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail
While is jail for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, MLK wrote what most people see as the greatest texts of the Civil Rights Movement. His letter was to his fellow clergyman, saying what he did was right and should happen, or African Americans will never enjoy such freedom's as white people. -
March on Washington
Massive protest where some 250,000 people march in front of the Lincoln memorial. People marched to draw attention to continuing inequalities that African Americans faced. Also the place where MLK gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
White supremacist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed 4 children and injured 17 others. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark Civil Rights and Labor Law in the US that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
"Bloody Sunday"/Selma to Montgomery March
Around 600 Civil Rights marchers headed out of Selma towards Montgomery. They had only gotten 6 blocks away when they were attacked by local and state lawmen with Billy Clubs and Tear Gas and drove the marchers back to Selma. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This Act aimed to overcome the barriers that were in place to make it more difficult for African Americans to vote in federal elections like literacy tests. -
Loving vs. Virginia
Two resident of Virginia, one being black and one being white, were sentenced to 1 year in prison after being found guilty of violating the anti-miscegenation statute. The case later went to the Supreme Court, where they unanimously sided with the couple, saying they were protected under the Equal Protection Clause.
