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Plessy v. Ferguson
A supreme court case that upheld the rights of states to pass laws allowing or even requiring racial segregation in public and private institutions. -
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WWI
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WWII
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Brown v. Board of education
United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
Emmit Till
An African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her seat to a white person on the bus. -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, but then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. -
James Meredith
An American civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the first African American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. -
Assassination of JFK
Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, in a presidential motorcade. -
24th Ammendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and also women. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
The former Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X was shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches
Also known as Bloody Sunday and the two marches that followed, were marches and protests held in 1965, that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. -
Assassination of MLK
He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead that evening. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. -
Civil Rights act of 1968
Provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. -
Assassination of RFK
After winning the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later.
