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Plessy v Ferguson
This case came from Louisiana, and adopted a law providing for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races". It started when Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking the Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy's argument, the court ruled that that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and14th Amendments. http://bit.ly/1uuLcJp -
Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality worked with other civil rights groups, launched a series of initiatives: the Freedom Rides, aimed at desegregating public facilities, the Freedom Summer voter registration project and the historic 1963 March on Washington. CORE initially embraced a pacifist, non-violent approach to fighting racial segregation, by the late 1960s the group’s leadership had shifted its focus towards the political ideology of black nationalism and separatism. http://bit.ly/2nCak4H -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson made history when he broke baseballs color barrier to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He won the National League Rookie of the Year award his first season, and helped the Dodgers to the National League championship. He faced a barrage of insults and threats because of his race. The way he handled the abuses inspired a generation of African Americans to question the doctrine of “separate but equal” and helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement. http://bit.ly/1n14iFE -
Sweatt v Painter
In 1946, Heman Sweatt, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School. State law restricted access to the university to whites, and his application was rejected because of his race. When Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission, the university attempted to provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. The Court argued that the separate school would be inferior in a number of areas. http://bit.ly/2nqJY3w -
Brown v Board of Education
The Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The Court’s unanimous decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had allowed for “separate but equal” public facilities, including public schools in the United States. The decision helped break the back of state-sponsored segregation. http://bit.ly/1nzUME6 -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery to protest segregated seating. It's regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. On December 1, 1955, four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a bus. She was arrested and fined. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. emerged. http://bit.ly/1ymBgQq -
"The Southern Manifesto"
Known as The Declaration of Constitutional Principles, a resolution that was written by the U.S. Congress in 1956. The resolution condemned the decision reached by the Supreme Court in the Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954, stating that the decision was an abuse of the Supreme Court's judicial powers. It was decided that the states were bound by the previous ruling based on the court's interpretation. http://bit.ly/2oe3YXl -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
SCLC is traced back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott was carried out by the newly established Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Martin Luther King, Jr. served as President and Ralph David Abernathy served as Program Director. MIA and other protest groups met in Atlanta on January 10 – 11, 1957, to form a regional organization and coordinate protest activities across the South. The organization shortened its name to Southern Leadership Conference. http://bit.ly/2mNufPb -
Little Rock - Central High School
Nine black students enrolled at all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The first day of classes, the governor of Arkansas called in the state National Guard to bar the black students entry into the school. Later in the month, President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the “Little Rock Nine” into the school. http://bit.ly/1ufa8Cs -
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Greensboro sit-in
Segregation was still the norm across the southern United States.a non-violent protest by students at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparked a sit-in movement that soon spread to towns in region. Though many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate and lasting impact, forcing Woolworth’s and other establishments to change their segregationist policies. http://bit.ly/1MP3Fql -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Stokely Carmichael was elected head of SNCC. He popularized the term "black power" to give younger blacks a bigger voice in the civil rights movement. Ella Baker, the director of SCLC, helped set up the first meeting of SNCC. She was concerned that SCLC was out of touch with younger blacks. H. Rap Brown said "Violence is as American As Cherry Pie", but was later arrested for the riots he caused. SNCC was shortly disbanded after the civil rights movement splintered. http://bit.ly/2g8KEXt -
"Freedom Rides"
A group of 13 African-Americans made a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in bus terminals. They were recruited by CORE. They tried to use "whites-only" restrooms and lunch counters. They was a lot of violence between them and the white protesters, but they gained international attention. The protesters caused the ICC to issue regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals. http://bit.ly/1vgaxE1 -
James Meredith
Meredith was a civil rights activist, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. Although he was initially accepted, he was later denied when his race was revealed. He filed a suit of discrimination. Although the state courts ruled against him, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor. His peers at the school didn't accept him and blocked the entrance. Police were called to patrol the school. http://bit.ly/1kM5U5i -
Letter from Birmingham jail
The letter from Birmingham jail was written by Martin Luther King Jr. when he and around 50 others were arrested for basically protesting in a public place. This was Kings 13th arrest for fighting for civil rights. The letter defends the strategy of a non violent resistance to racism.
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Medger Evers
He was an African American civil rights activists. He attempted to segregate the University of Mississippi Law School in 1954, and became the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi. He recruited members and organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of white-owned companies that practiced discrimination. He was shot to death in June 1963 and his accused killer escaped conviction. http://bit.ly/2iQuaXC -
Bombing of Birmingham church
The bombing of Birmingham church was an act of white supremacist terrorism. 4 young African Americans girls were killed and many more were injured in this bombing. Outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans.
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Twenty-Fourth Amendment
The twenty-fourth amendment outlawed the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. At the time, five states maintained poll taxes which disproportionately affected African-American voters. The poll tax exemplified “Jim Crow” laws, developed in the post-Reconstruction South, which aimed to disenfranchise black voters and institute segregation.
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Mississippi Freedom Summer
The Mississippi Freedom Summer was created by organizations like SNCC and CORE. They aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi. The Freedom Summer, comprised of black Mississippians and more than 1,000 out-of-state, predominately white volunteers, faced constant abuse and harassment from Mississippi’s white population. The Ku Klux Klan, police and even state and local authorities carried out a systematic series of violent attacks.
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Civil Rights Act passed
The civil rights act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson.
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Malcom X assasinated
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.
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Selma to Montgomery march
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery.
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Voting Rights Act approved
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.
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Black Panthers
The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the ‘traditional’ civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced.
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King Assassinated
A Baptist minister and founder of the SCLC, King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using powerful words and non-violent tactics like sit-ins, boycotts and protest marches to fight segregation and achieve significant civil and voting rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans.
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March on Washington
The March on Washington was organized by many civil right and religious groups and was made to shed light on the the political and social challenges that African Americans faced across the country. This became a key movement in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, resulting in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, becoming a spirited call for racial justice and equality.
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