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Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln freed slaves in the Confederacy.
This was an important turning point in the war even though it did not free a single slave because it transformed the fight to preserve the nation into a battle for human freedom. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was created and it abolished slavery.
This is important because it was the first time blacks were starting to be treated like real people and they finally did not have to be slaves anymore. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment granted due process and equal protection under the law to African Americans.
This is important because they finally had the protection that they never had before and they were starting to be seen as equal by the law. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote.
This is important because this was the first time ever that they were allowed to vote. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The US Supreme Court decision upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated but equal railroad cars. The ruling stated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution dealt with political and not social equality. This case gave a broad interpretation of ¨separate but equal¨ accommodations with reference to ¨white and colored people¨ legitimizing Jim Crow practices in the South.
This is important because Jim Crow laws were now legal in the south. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the landmark of Brown vs. Board of Education that public school segregation was unconstitutional and paved the way for desegregation. It was a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who argued the case and later returned to the Supreme Court as the nation´s first African American Supreme Court Justice.
This is important because it helped in the civil rights movement and started the process of desegregation. -
Emmett Till
While visiting family in Mississippi, 14 year old Emmett Till was kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the river for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The 2 white men were arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boasted about committing the murder in an interview. This case became a cause of the Civil Rights Movement.
This is important because this helped with the civil rights movement by making people wonder what he did to deserve to be murdered. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat at the front of the ¨colored section¨ of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest, the Montgomery black community launched a bus boycott that lasted over a year until the buses desegregated on Dec. 21, 1956.
This is important because it started the bus boycott which lead to the SCLC and started the civil rights movement. -
SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, compromised of Martin Luther King Jr., Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth, was established. King was the organization´s first president. The SCLC proved to be a major force in organizing the Civil Rights Movement with a principle base of nonviolence and civil disobedience.
This is important because it started the civil rights movement without using any type of violence. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students who became known as ¨Little Rock Nine¨ were blocked from entering the school on the orders of the Arkansas Governor. President Eisenhower sent federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, but a federal judge granted an injunction against the governor´s use of National Guard troops to prevent integration.
This is important because it was the beginning of desegregated schools and it was the first time black children ever got to go to school. -
Little Rock (continued)
When school resumed, Little Rock policemen surrounded Central High where more than 1,000 people gathered in front of the school. The police escorted the nine black children to a side door where they quietly entered the building to begin classes. When the mob learned that the blacks were inside, they began to challenge the police with shouts and threats. Fearful the police would be unable to control the crowd, the school administration moved the black students out a side door before noon.
