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The Supreme Court Decision of Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal -
The Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen reflect the struggle of African Americans to achieve equal rights, not only through legal attacks on the system of segregation but also through the techniques of nonviolent direct action aimed at segregation in the military. -
The integration of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball unofficially banned African-Americans from their ranks. That all changed when Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. -
The Integration of the Armed Forces
President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrate the segregated military. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Sweatt v. Painter
The Supreme Court ruled that in states where public graduate and professional schools existed for white students but not for black students, black students must be admitted to all-white institutions and that the equal protection clause required Sweatt's admission to the University of Texas School of Law. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Brown v. Board of Education
he Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson. -
The Death of Emmitt Till
Emmitt Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. i -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
The Integration of Little Rock High School
The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, gained national attention when Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating into the high school. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In
Four friends sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro. That may not sound like a legendary moment, but it was. The four people were African American, and they sat where African Americans weren't allowed to sit. They did this to take a stand against segregation. -
The Freedom Rides by Freedom Riders of 1961
student activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the Freedom Rides to challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals. -
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment
President Johnson hoped for the ratification of the new amendment to ensure the right for anyone to vote which is the right to them in the Constitution. -
The Integration of the University of Mississippi
Meredith became the first African American student to be enrolled at the University of Mississippi, and attended his first class, in American Colonial History. His admission marked the first integration of a public educational facility in Mississippi. -
The Integration of the University of Alabama
President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students—Vivian Malone and James A. Hood—successfully enrolled. -
The March on Washington &"I Have a Dream "Speech by MLK
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson
prohibited discrimination in public places provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction -
The Assassination of Malcolm X
American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. Malcolm X was gunned down by Thomas Hagan in New York City. -
The Selma to Montgomery March: "Bloody Sunday"
Selma, Alabama, a 600-person civil rights demonstration ends in violence when marchers are attacked and beaten by white state troopers and sheriff's deputies -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis Tennessee
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King's assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage. -
The Voting Rights of 1968
President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. The bill made it illegal to impose restrictions on federal, state and local elections that were designed to deny the vote to Black people.