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Truman integrates troops
"It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." - Executive Order 9981 -
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Civil Rights Movement
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Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Segregation in public school was ruled unconstitutional by unanimous vote. This will pave the way for large-scale desegregation. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white. Her bravery sparks a year long bus riot and gives hope to a young black pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Rosa Parks
"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people." -
Martin Luther King Jr.
Forms the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to utilize the power of black churches. "Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them."- From a speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Aug. 16, 1967 -
Little Rock Integration
Nine black students were admitted to an all-white high school with the help of Eisenhower's sending of federal troop. The students admitted were nicknamed the "Little Rock Nine." -
Woolworth's Sit-in
Four black students sit-in at a whites-only diner. They refused to give up their seats and eventually gained a thousand students to join the sit-in. This event would spark many other similar non-violent protest across the South. Also created SNCC. -
SNCC
Formed to give more focus and force to integration. Gave opportunities to blacks to have a part in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Freedom Riders Riots
Students volunteer to test the new prohibiton of segregation in the interstate travel system. Many are met with violent opposition. Kennedy was forced to send troops to protect the Riders. This finally makes the Kennedy administration meet the Civil Rights Movement head-on. Whites and blacks work together. -
James Meredith
Meredith becomes the first black man to be enrolled in the Univeristy of Mississippi. Kennedy is forced to send in troops to enroll Meredith. -
24th Ammendment
Abolishes the poll tax. This allows for poor blacks to finally vote after being left out because of expenses. -
March on Birmingham
Blacks decided upon a peaceful march in Birmingham, AL but were met with violent opposition, including fire hoses, attack dogs, and electric cattle prods. Because this march was televisied nationally, if created sympathy for the Civil Rights Movement and Kennedy finally states the movement as a "moral issue." -
March on Washington
King preached to thousands at the Lincoln Memorial. The support of the Civil Rights Movement is now seen here as King gives his famous "I have a dream speech."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57lotnKGF8 -
President Lyndon B. Johnson
Kennedy is assasinated and Vice President Johnson is sworn in. He fought openly for civil rights and issued affirmative action against discrimination. Major key figure in the Civil Rights Movement. "At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem." -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
March on Selma, Alabama
King leads a peaceful march that is met with tear gas and whips from local state troopers. The nation and the president react with horror, leading Johnson to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
"And we shall overcome." - Johnson -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Outlaws literacy tests and other obstacles for Southern black voters. It sends many African American voters back into the South as whites began to court black votes. -
Executive Order 11246
Enforces affirmative action:requires government contractors toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. -
"Black Power"
Advocated by Stokely Carmichael, it depends on black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." Leads many blacks to promote their heritage in dress, hairstyles, and names. -
Black Panther Party
Wanted economic and political rights for African American more than social equality. Advocated violent actions as a way to fight back. This in turn leads to even more black riots with whites retaliating in return. -
Loving vs. Virginia
Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional -
King assasination
King is shot in Tennessee. The Civil Rights Movement is deprived of a leader and advocater of peaceful actions. An increase in violent race riots is triggered acrosss the nation. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Prohibits the discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing
