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Brown v. BOE ruling
Lawsuit filed against Board of Education of the City of Topeka, Kansas. Oliver Brown's daughter Linda, had to walk six blocks to school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, her segregated black school one mile away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was seven blocks from her house. Despite her father's attempt to enroll her at Sumner Elementary she was refused because she was black. -
Brown v. BOE 2
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "in the field of public education the doctrine of 'Separate but equal' has no place." In declaring that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," it overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown II, issued in 1955, decreed that the dismantling of separate school systems for blacks and whites could proceed with "all deliberate speed," Unintentionally the ambiguous phrase encouraged various strategies of resistance to the decision. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosa Parks is convicted and fined $14 in Montgomery city court. A one-day boycott of city buses results in about 90 percent of normal black passengers staying off buses. -
Little Rock 9
On their first day of school, troops from the Arkansas National Guard would not let the Little Rock 9: Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Jefferson Thomas, Terrence Roberts, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Minnijean Brown, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Thelma Mothershed and Melba Pattillo Beals enter the school. They were followed by mobs making threats to lynch. Arkansaw governor Orval Faubus disobeyed federal law and ordered troops to deny the 9 entry to the school to gain white supremacist votes. -
Greensboro Sit Ins
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, many more. -
Freedom Riders
On 29 May 1961, the Kennedy administration announced that it had directed the ICC to ban segregation in all facilities under its jurisdiction, but the rides continued. Students from all over the country purchased bus tickets to the South and crowded into jails in Jackson, Mississippi. With the participation of northern students came even more press coverage.Blacks and whites take buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many are greeted with riots and beatings. -
James Meredith
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. Governor of Mississippi would not let him enter the University of Mississippi. Mr. Meredith was the first African American to graduate there. -
Martin Luther King Jr. I Have A Dream Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech by American activist Martin Luther King, Jr.. It was delivered by King on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. -
Civil Rights Act
Legislation which outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. Ended racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public e.g restaurants and toilets. Some sources were from Wikipedia. -
Malcolm X Assassination
On February 21, 1965 Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom. As Malcolm X and his bodyguards attempted to quiet the disturbance, a man seated in the front row rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.Part of Wikipedia. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination
He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM 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. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Part of Wikipedia.
