Civil Rights Movement

  • Creation of Leadership Conference

    Creation of Leadership Conference
    Category: Achievement
    Summary: A conference of over 200 organizations that helps to protect the civil and human rights of people. They still exist to this day.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    Category: Legislation/Supreme Court Case
    Summary: A civil rights case where it was argued that segregating schools violated the fourteenth amendment. It was ruled that it was unfair even if it was equal.
  • Emmett Till's Murder

    Emmett Till's Murder
    Category: Violence by Opposition
    Summary: Emmett Till allegedly had hit on a white married woman running a store, which violated the unwritten code of the time. He was then abducted, tortured, and murdered.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    Category: protest, no violence
    Summary: A boycott in which people boycotted riding Alabama city transportation to stop segregation on buses. This event began because Rosa Parks decided to not give up her seat to a white man.
  • little Rock Nine crisis

    little Rock Nine crisis
    Category: Violence by opposition
    Summary: A small group of nine students were going to be accepted into Little Rock Central High after the Brown v. Board of Education decision when the Governor of Arkansas attempted to stop them from entering the school. President Eisenhower eventually stopped the Governor from doing this.
  • Assassination of Medgar Evers

    Assassination of Medgar Evers
    Category: Violence by Opposition
    Summary: A young colored man, Medgar Evers, was shot in the back while on his doorstep after a NAACP(The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He had given much of himself to the organization, so it caused an uproar.
  • March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

    March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
    Category: no violence, achievement
    Summary: A march in which was successful in pressuring a strong civil rights bill to be passed by Congress. There had been high levels of colored unemployment that people supporting the movement were unhappy with.
  • Mississippi Freedom Summer Project

    Mississippi Freedom Summer Project
    Category: No violence, Violence by Protesters
    Summary: An event in which there were protesters fighting verbally and non-violently for equal colored voting rights, which eventually led to members of the Ku Klux Klan intervening and injuring/killing many of the protesters.
  • James Meredith’s March Against Fear

    Category: Protest
    Summary: A march to help support black rights and voter rights, from Tennessee to Mississippi. James Meredith was shot on the second day, but the march ensued.
  • Fair Housing Act

    Fair Housing Act
    Category: Achievement
    Summary: An act that was passed that does not allow discrimination against people when buying or renting a house, or doing house-related things. This was a big legal move for the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

    Category: Legislation/Supreme Court Case, Achievement
    Summary: A court case that permits the systematic use of buses to bring children of different races across district lines to further school integration. The goal was to stop state-imposed segregation.
  • Shirley Chisolm’s Presidential Campaign

    Category:
    Summary: Shirley Chisolm attempted to become the president of The United States. Her campaign was severely underfunded and was not taken seriously. Nonetheless, she was the first black face of a major party.
  • Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record

    Category: Achievement
    Summary: Hank Aarons, a colored baseball player, beat Babe Ruth's home run record. This was a big step, as he had faced a lot of discrimination and racism in the MLB previously.
  • Barbara Jordan’s Address at the Democratic National Convention

    Category: Achievement
    Summary: Barbara Jordan gave a keynote address at a major party convention. This wouldn't have been possible years earlier, by a colored woman.
  • University of California Regents vs. Bakke

    University of California Regents vs. Bakke
    Category: Legislation/Supreme Court Case
    Summary: A court case where it was ruled unconstitutional to base admission on race. It violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.