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Brown vs. Board
In the Brown vs, Board of education in Topeka, Kansas Trial there was a consideration of the legal segregation of a Kansas public school system at hand. This case involved an African American girl who walked mile to a black school when she could have just gone next door to a white school. On May 17, 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren presented the final verdict to court saying seperate but equal had no place in education. This verdict rejected the Plessy vs, Ferguson decision. -
Rosa Parks
In Alabama, Deceember 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up a seat in the front where the white people sat, for a white man. Parks was arrested for refusal to give up her seat, This outraged black leaders whoever, was a good chance to begin desegrate public transportation. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rosa Parks was arrested, the Montgomery bus boycott began. African Americans withdrew business as a protest by commuting to work or simply walking. This boycott decreased business and put economic pressure on the bus company. This movement was effective because in 1956 the Supreme Court ruled segragation in public transportation illegal. -
Southern Manifesto
The Southern Manifesto was a document signed by 101 of the South's 128 congressional members. The Southern Manifesto, formally titled a Declaration of Constitutional Principles, denounced the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, calling it an “unwarranted exercise of power.The declaration of the Southern Manifesto was not the first act in the South's massive resistance campaign against school desegregation. -
Supreme Court rules segregation in transportation unconstitoutional
Browder v. Gayle challenged the constitutionality of a state statute, the case was brought before a three-judge U.S. District Court panel. On 5 June 1956, the panel ruled two-to-one that segregation on Alabama’s intrastate buses was unconstitutional -
Little Rock
Federal courts ordered the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry white mob tried to prevent the desegregating of the school by blocking entrances to the school. The governor Orval Faubus refused to do anything to stop the obstruction. Eisenhower sent out national guards to restore and ensure courts order. Little Rock was an example of direct state defiance of federal authority. -
First Sit-in
Four African- American students of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at a white-only lunch counter inside a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s store. This sit in was planned by four male freshmen and was part of the non-violent protests against private-sector segregation in the United States. -
First Freedom Rides
Thousands of civil right workers, black and white, northern and southern, spread out through out the south to work on bhelf of black voter registration and participation. This was known as freedom summer. -
James Meredith attends the University of Mississippi
After being rejected from the University of Mississippi twice, James Meredith filed a compalint with a disctrict court saying he was rejected for being black. His complaint was rejected however, the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court supported him and ruled against the district court stating that the University of Mississippi was indeed maintaining a policy of segregation. -
Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech
This speech was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was a defining moment of the civil rights movement. -
Birmingham Church Bombing
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy and Fred Shutterworth. A white man was seen getting out of a white and turquoise Chevrolet car and placing a box under the steps of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Soon afterwards, at 10.22 a.m., the bomb exploded killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14). The four girls had been atten -
JFK assassination
President Kennedy traveled to Texas with his wife and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson for a series of political appearances. While the president was in a motor car riding slowly through the streets of Dallas he was shot once in his neck and once in his head by Lee Harvey Oswald who was murdered two days later. -
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act
The 1964 Civil Rights Act made racial discrimination in public places, such as theaters, restaurants and hotels, illegal. It also required employers to provide equal employment opportunities. Projects involving federal funds could now be cut off if there was evidence of discriminated based on colour, race or national origin. -
Medgar Evers is killed
Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist and field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He was shot in the back while walking to his house. The gun was found with fingerprints with the suspect of Byron De La Beckwith, who was arrested. -
Malcolm X assassination
Malcolm X was on stage about to speak at a rally at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem Newyork when three members of the nation of Islam shot him. -
March from Selma to Montgomery
600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. -
Voting Rights Act is signed
This act was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson and outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Watts' Riots
Riots that spurred from the event of an African American man arrested by a white patrol officer. In result of this blacks in Los Angeles armed themselves killing many police officers. There was a reported 32 deaths, 800 wounded, and 3000 arrests. -
Thurgood Marshall is named to the Supreme Court
Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was instrumental in numerous civil rights cases. -
Riots in Newark
The Newark Riot of 1967 began with the arrest of a cab driver named John Smith, who allegedly drove around a double-parked police car. He was stopped, interrogated, arrested, and eventually beaten by police officers. Civil rights leaders and supporters began to crowd police station and then spread out throughout the city. At the conclusion of six days of rioting 23 people lay dead, 725 people were injured and close to 1500 people had been arrested. -
Detroit Riot
The Detroit Riot of 1967 began when police vice squad officers executed a raid on an after hours drinking club in a predominantly black neighborhood. Looting and fires spread through the Northwest side of Detroit. At the conclusion of 5 days of rioting, 43 people lay dead, 1189 injured and over 7000 people had been arrested. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
King was shot standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. Accused shooter was James Earl Ray -
Robert Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy was shot by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan in a kitchen pantry. He was shot multiple times and five others were wounded by gunfire.
