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Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till Murder
The Emmett Till murder occurred in 1955 when Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago, was brutally beaten and killed in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. His murderers, two white men, were acquitted by an all-white jury but later admitted to the crime in a magazine interview. The open-casket funeral held by his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, exposed the brutality of racism to the world and became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
In 1955, Rosa Parks, a Black woman in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her actions started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a year-long Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott ended when the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was illegal, becoming a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement. -
The Little Rock Nine and Integration
In 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, enrolled at an all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, to challenge school segregation. They faced violent protests and were initially blocked by the state’s governor -
Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins
In 1960, four Black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter and asked to be served. When they were refused, they stayed seated in peaceful protest. Their actions sparked the Greensboro sit-ins, which grew into a larger movement across the South challenging segregation in public places. It was a key moment in the nonviolent civil rights movement. -
Freedom Rides
In 1961, civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders rode interstate buses into the segregated South to challenge laws that kept buses and stations segregated, despite Supreme Court rulings banning it. The riders, both Black and white, faced violence and arrests, but their courage drew national attention and pressured the federal government to enforce desegregation laws. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
The Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing refers to a tragic act of white supremacist terrorism where a bomb was planted inside a church that occurred on September 15, 1963, at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. -
MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail
In 1963, while jailed for leading a nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In it, he defended civil disobedience against unjust laws and criticized white moderates for not supporting the fight for justice. The letter became a powerful statement of the moral reasons behind the Civil Rights Movement. -
March on Washington
In 1963, over 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a peaceful protest calling for civil rights, economic equality, and an end to segregation. During the event, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement. -
24th Amendment
It abolished and forbids the federal and state governments from imposing taxes on voters during federal elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
it prohibited states from imposing qualifications or practices to deny the right to vote on account of race -
“Bloody Sunday”/Selma to Montgomery March
"Bloody Sunday" refers to the brutal attack on peaceful civil rights marchers by Alabama state troopers and a posse on March 7, 1965, as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the denial of voting rights. -
Loving v. Virginia
The Supreme Court declared all state laws banning interracial marriage unconstitutional.