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The Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This was viewed as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. M.L.K Jr was the leader and E.D.Nixon Pres.of the NAACP intended that her arrest would be a test case. As a result,the SCLC formed. Bus seats were left empty to honor Parks on the 50th anniversary. -
The Little Rock 9
Nine black students enrolled at an all-white high school in Little Rock,Arkansas declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court. The court had mandated that all public schools in the country be integrated in its decision related to the groundbreaking case Brown v. Board of Education. Pres.Eisenhower sent Federal troops to escort them into school. Terrance Roberts continued his education and eventually earned his Ph.D. and became a professor at UCLA. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower sent Congress a proposal for civil rights legislation. The result was the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote.he bill did not create new rights, but it prohibited attempts to intimidate or prevent persons from voting. -
The Sit-In Movement
Four African American college students walked up to a whites-only lunch counter at the local Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, and asked for coffee. When service was refused, the students sat patiently. Despite threats and intimidation, the students sat quietly and waited to be served.No one participated in a sit-in of this sort without seriousness of purpose. In Harlem and many other northern communities, Movement supporters picket Woolworths. The civil rights sit-in was born. -
The Freedom Riders
A group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. The Freedom Riders, who were recruited by the Congress of Racial Equality attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the Deep South.Several hundred Freedom Riders engaged in similar actions. In September 1961, the ICC issued regulations prohibiting segragation. -
James Meredith and the Desegregation of the University of Mississippi
James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Chaos briefly broke out on the Ole Miss campus, with riots ending in two dead, hundreds wounded and many others arrested, after the Kennedy administration called out some 31,000 National Guardsmen and other federal forces to enforce order.The landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education declared that racial segregation in educational and other facilities violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. -
Protests in Birmingham
King and the SCLC joined with Birmingham, Alabama’s existing local movement, the ACM for Human Rights in a massive direct action campaign to attack the city’s segregation system by putting pressure on Birmingham’s merchants during the Easter season, the second biggest shopping season of the year. As ACMHR founder Fred Shuttlesworth stated in the group’s ‘‘Birmingham Manifesto,’’ the campaign was ‘‘a moral witness to give our community a chance to survive’’ -
The March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to focus on the challenges African Americans continued to face.The march, which became a key moment in the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality. Jackie Robinson and Sammy Davis were there. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination.It's considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by Pres. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, L.B.J. Congress expanded the act and also passed additional legislation aimed at legislation aimed at bringing equality to African Americans, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
The Selma March
M.L.K's SCLC made Selma, Alabama, the focus to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to walk from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. The Protesters finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. The Voting Rights Act passed later that year. "Selma" the movie was released on Dec.25,2014 -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson this aimed to overcome legal issues at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S. The act significantly changed things and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. The 14th and 15th Amendments were passed after the Civil War in order to protect the voting rights of newly freed slaves. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Just after 6 p.m King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39. James Earl Jay was Kings assassinator. On April 11, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder and was sentenced to 99 years.
