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Rosa Parks Staying Seated
When Rosa Parks was riding the Montgomery, Alabama bus in December of 1955 a white man came on to the bus, so by law she was forced to give up her seat. Instead, she stayed seated and wouldn't move, this lead to her being arrested. Her arrest record talks about how she wouldn't move out of the white section of the bus. Outraged by this event many African American people participated in a year long bus boycott, which caused the city to lose lots of money and eventually unsegregated the busses. -
Little Rock Nine
The "Little Rock Nine" where nine African American who enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because the Supreme Court recently decided that segregating public schools was unconstitutional. Their first day of classes was on September 4, 1957 and the governor of Arkansas sent the Arkansas national guard to block the students entrance to the school. Later that month President Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort them to classes. -
Ruby Bridges Attending William Frantz School
She was one of the first African American students to desegregate southern schools when she started attending William Frantz School. On November 14, 1960 Ruby attended her first day of kindergarten at her new school. She had to be escorted into the school by 4 federal marshals because their were crowds of people protesting her entrance to the school. When she was in the class she was the only student there because other parents would not let their children attend class with her. -
Freedom Riders
The freedom rides happened all through 1961, but the first one took place on May 4, 1961. The freedom riders were trying to protest segregation in the southern bussing system. They would ride a bus down from the north and when the reached bus stations white activists would use the "colored" rest stop areas and African American activists would use the "white" rest stop areas. This would often lead to violence towards the activists and they would even be arrested. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an act that ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or place of origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was first proposed by John F. Kennedy and was signed into law by his successor in Lyndon B. Johnson. It helped African Americans get and keep more jobs. The graph shows the amount of African Americans and all other Americans below the poverty lines before and after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was a civl rights protest in which over 200,00 people marched through Washington D.C. to the Lincoln Memorial to protest against civil inequalities in the United States. Once the march reached the Lincoln Memorial Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream Speech". The speech talked about his dream to have equality in the U.S. and is one of the most famous and important events in the civil rights movement. The picture is a map of the route protestors took. -
Birmingham Church Bombing
On September 15, 1963 a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. The bomb went off before the Sunday services and it winded up killing 4 little girls and injuring many others. The church had a mostly African American congregation and a was also a meeting place for cilvil rights leaders. The bombing brought national attention and started gaining even more support for the civil rights movements. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was put into law so that it would be harder to discriminate against African American voters. It prevented the use of a literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also mad it so federal officers could observe polling places and review voter qualifications. The amount of African American voter rose highly after act was put into law. The table shows the increase of African Americans voters in the south. -
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination
The assassination of Dr. King took place on April 4, 1968. The assassination of Dr. King shocked everyone because of the way he nonviolently protested and fought for civil rights. He played such an important role in the civil rights that the impact of his death was felt by everyone. Many African Americans felt that his assassination was a slap in the face to their nonviolent protesting so it caused the Black Panther Party to grow. -
Fair Housing Act of 1968
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 was put into place so that people trying to buy, sell, rent, or finance homes could not be discriminated against based on sex, race, religion, or place of origin. The Fair Housing Act was a follow up of the Civil Rights Act. It was passed a couple of days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
