Civil Rights Movement

  • Separate but Equal

    Separate but  Equal
    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimous decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools.
  • Murder of Emmett Till

    Murder of Emmett Till
    Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi.
  • Rosa Parks Bus

    Rosa Parks Bus
    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested.
  • Bus Boycott

    Bus Boycott
    The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
  • Prayer Pilgrimage

    Prayer Pilgrimage
    The Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington for Freedom took place when a crowd of over thirty thousand nonviolent demonstrators, from more than thirty states, gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the third anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
  • Little Rock 9

    Little Rock 9
    The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower.
  • Temple Bombing

    Temple Bombing
    In the early hours of October 12, 1958, fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in a recessed entranceway at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, Atlanta's oldest and most prominent synagogue, more commonly known as "the Temple."
  • Sit In

    Sit In
    4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch counter and started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s store.
  • Georgia Tech Integration

    Georgia Tech Integration
    On January 6, 1961, federal district court Judge W. A. Bootle ordered the immediate admission of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to the University of Georgia, ending 160 years of segregation at the school.
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders
    Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation.
  • Ole Miss Integration

    Ole Miss Integration
    On September 30, 1962, riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.
  • Americus Movement

    Americus Movement
    Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) fieldworkers began organizing with black community leaders in Americus soon after their arrival in Sumter County in February 1963
  • MLK Aressted

    MLK Aressted
    Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the “most segregated city in America.”
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    More than 250,000 people, march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill.
  • Birmingham Bombing

    Birmingham Bombing
    The bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the deadliest acts of violence to take place during the Civil Rights movement and evoked criticism and outrage from around the world
  • New York School Boycott

    New York School Boycott
    In one of the largest demonstrations of the Civil Rights movement, hundreds of thousands of parents, students and civil rights advocates took part in a citywide boycott of the New York City public school system to demonstrate their support for the full integration of the city's public schools and an end to de facto segregation.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the premier legislation for Civil Rights into law.
  • Pickrick Trial

    Pickrick Trial
    In 1964, two Atlanta business owners captured national attention when they refused to comply with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  • MLK awarded Nobel Peace Prize

    MLK awarded Nobel Peace Prize
    In 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his dynamic leadership of the Civil Rights movement and steadfast commitment to achieving racial justice through nonviolent action
  • March on Selma

    March on Selma
    A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins.
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests.
  • Black Panther Party

    Black Panther Party
    Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the “Black Power” political group known as the Black Panthers.
  • Memphis Workers Strike

    Memphis Workers Strike
    Longstanding tensions between disgruntled African American sanitation workers and Memphis city officials erupted on February 12, 1968 when nearly one thousand workers refused to report to work demanding higher wages, safer working conditions, and recognition of their union, local 1733 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
  • MLK Assassinated

    MLK Assassinated
    Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.