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14th Amendment
he 14th Amendment granted due process and equal protection under the law to African Americans -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibited such cases of racial discrimination and guaranteed equal access to public accommodations regardless of race or color. -
Plessy V. Ferguson
The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites. -
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded by a multi-racial group of activists in New York, N.Y. Founders Ida Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. DuBois, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villiard and William English Walling led the call to renew the struggle for civil and political liberty. -
Desegregation in Armed Forces
President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimous decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools. -
Emmett Till Death
Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower. -
Woolworth Lunch Sit-in
4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch counter and started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s store. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation. -
Ole Miss
James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy sent 5,000 federal troops to contain the violence and riots surrounding the incident. -
MLK Arrested
Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the “most segregated city in America.” -
Megdar Evers Murdered
Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, was murdered outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later, he was convicted of murdering Evers. -
March on Washington
More than 250,000 people, march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill. -
Alabama Church Bombing
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests -
Poll Tax Abolished
The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, which had originally been instituted in 11 southern states. The poll tax made it difficult for blacks to vote. -
LBJ Signs Civil Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the premier legislation for Civil Rights into law -
Malcolm X Assassination
Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam. -
Selma to Montgomery March
A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins. -
Voting Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests. -
Black Panthers Created
Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the “Black Power” political group known as the Black Panthers. -
Detroit Riot
A series of violent confrontations between residents of predominantly African American neighborhoods and city police in Detroit began on July 23, 1967, after a raid at an illegal drinking club where police arrested everyone inside, including 82 African Americans. -
Thurgood Marshall
Senate confirmed President Lyndon Johnson's appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first African American Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after he served for two years as a Solicitor General of the United States. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.
