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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
When Linda Brown was denied access to a local school in Topeka, Kansas, the case went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided that segregation in public schools violated the principle of equal protection stated in the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling applied mostly to southern schools, but slowly started to spread across the south, and eventually the country. The Brown case sparked the African-American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s. -
Emmett Till murder trial
Emmett Till, a 14 year-old Chicago native was visiting family down south in Mississippi. One day he and some friends walked into a store owned by a white couple. Till reportedly whistled at the white woman behind the counter. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and his friend tracked down Till and brutally beat him before lynching him and dumping his body in a river. Despite all this, the two men were found not guilty. This situation brought awareness to the way blacks were treated unfairly. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger while on a public bus. She was arrested, but it was still considered a successful protest. This movement led the the emergence of Martin Luther King as well as the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted almost a year. -
Establishment of the SCLC
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Leadership Christian Conference, and King is made president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement. -
Little Rock Nine
Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas bans nine black students from entering the school under rule from Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops to escort the students into the school -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College stage a sit-in at a white only diner. They are refused service, but are allowed to stay at the counter. This event triggers many other nonviolent protests in the south. Six months later, the same four students are served lunch at the same counter. -
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Events of 1963
Martin Luther King is arrested during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, AL.
Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images gain sympathy towards the civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination of any kind. The law also provides the government the power to enforce desegregation. -
Bloody Sunday
Blacks march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty people are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. -
Executive Order 11246
Realizing civil rights laws alone are not enough to get rid of discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces government action for the first time. It requires the government to take action toward minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment.
