Civil rights movement

Civil Rights

By shelby.bickerstaff

  • Boycott in Montgomery

    Boycott in Montgomery
    Blacks would never sit in the same row with whites. That changed when Rosa Parks (a 43-year-old African American) refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger.

  • Nine Teenagers Integrate Central High School

    Nine Teenagers Integrate Central High School
    A federal judge ordered public schools in Little Rock, AR, to commence desegregation. The president sent in federal troops to maintain order. Despite this protection, the black students were subjected to violence.

  • Four African American Students sat down at a Lunch Counter

    Four African American Students sat down at a Lunch Counter
    They sat down at a lunch counter in Woolworth's drugstore in Greensboro, NC.They ordered food, but the waitress refused to serve them. The four students stayed until the store closed.

  • Tennessee Begins Integrating Public Facilities

    Tennessee Begins Integrating Public Facilities
    Black students mounted a large sit-in in Nashville, TN. Local business owners gave in. Nashville became the first city in the South to integrate its public facilities.

  • Freedom Riders Face Violence

    Freedom Riders Face Violence
    Seven blacks and six whites boarded two buses in DC and headed south. When they arrived in AL, a white mob attacked the Freedom Riders.

  • James Meredith Enrolls at the University of Mississippi

    James Meredith Enrolls at the University of Mississippi
    James Meredith applied as a transfer student to the University. When he was rejected, Meredith turned to the NAACP to get help. On Sunday, James Meredith arrived on campus. A riot had erupted. President JFK sent armed marshals to protect Meredith so he could attend classes. Meredith graduated in the summer of 1963.

  • Protests Began

    Protests Began
    The protests started with sit-ins followed by street demonstrations. Thirty protesters were arrested for marching at Birmingham City Hall without a permit.

  • Birmingham Protest

    Birmingham Protest
    More than a thousand people marched. Hundreds were arrested that day for marching without a permit. As they fled, officers would chase them down with clubs and dogs.

  • Birmingham Protest [Pt 2]

    Birmingham Protest [Pt 2]
    Hundreds of young people marched through Birmingham, Alabama, to protest against segregation. They were instructed to stop but they persisted. They unleashed water from high pressured hoses to stop the protestors.

  • Justice in the Deep South

    Justice in the Deep South
    The protests and the national attention they attracted marked a turning point. Their agreement with the city called for desegregation of public facilities

  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    A protest where more than 250,000 people demonstrated in the nation's capital for "jobs and freedom" and the passage of civil rights. It was the largest political gathering ever held in the US.

  • "I Have A Dream" Speech

    "I Have A Dream" Speech
    The most notable event of the day was Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I have a dream” speech. He delivered it from the Lincoln Memorial. King spoke of his dream for a better America.

  • Bombing on Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

    Bombing on Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
    During Sunday services, a bomb exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. It killed four African American girls.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Civil Rights Act of 1964
    It banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin. It was the most important civil rights law passed since Reconstruction.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Voting Rights Act of 1965
    Congress outlawed literacy tests and other tactics that used to deny African Americans the right to vote. African American voters in the South increased from 1 million to 3.1 million between 1964 and 1968.