Civil Rights Movement

By Amyl8019

  • Brown v. Board of Education (HIGH POINT)

    Decided by the Supreme Court to effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated.

  • Rosa Parks (LOW POINT)

    Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott.

  • Nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation (LOW POINT)

    Sixty black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation.

  • Little Rock Nine (LOW POINT)

    Nine black students known as the “Little Rock Nine,” are blocked from integrating into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students, however, they continue to be harassed.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1957 (HIGH POINT)

    Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote.

  • Greensboro sit-in (LOW POINT)

    Four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. Their nonviolent demonstration sparks similar “sit-ins” throughout the city and in other states.

  • The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (HIGH POINT)

    Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial and states, “I have a dream" speech.

  • University of Alabama (LOW POINT)

    Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965 (HIGH POINT)

    President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated (HIGH POINT)

    Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.