Civil Rights Movement

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    The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Followed by the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, the boycott was a 13 month long protest on the segregation of public transportation. The boycott resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that segragation on public buses is unconstitutional.

  • The Little Rock 9

    Nine black students enrolled at the formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. THis was a key event of the American Civil Rights Movement.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Civil Rights Act of 1957 signed by President Eisenhower. It was primarily a voting rights bill and was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War.

  • The Sit-in Movement

    Four black students from North Carolina A&T sat down at a Woolworth counter in downtown, They asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served. This was the start of similar protests nation wide

  • The Freedom Riders

    CORE(Congress of Racial Equality) staged a "freedom ride". Two buses set out on a trip from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. On the way they disregarded segregation codes by sitting in the front of the bus and using "white" restrooms. After departing Anniston, Alabama one bus was firebombed, and the riders on the other bus were attacked by a white mob after they arrived in Birmingham.

  • James Meredith and the Desegregation of the University of Mississippi

    James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause the President to send in federal troops.

  • Protests in Birmingham

    It was a non-violent protest. It began a series of lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall and boycotts on downtown merchants to protest segregation laws in the city. These peaceful protests were often met with violent attacks. High-pressure fire hoses, and police dogs were used on people.

  • The Selma March

    A march of 600 people 54 miles from Selma to the state capital in Montgomery was planned by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, and John Lewis. Six blocks into the march, at the Edmund Pettus bridge, police officers attacked the non-violent demonstrators with tear gas, billy clubs, bull whips and moved them back into Selma. Two-weeks later the marchers got a court order allowing them to make the march without any issues.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States.

  • Assassination//MLK jr

    Dr. martin Luther King Jr. was shot outside his motel room in Memphis Tennesse. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience.