Civil Rights Movement Andrea Rosenau

Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 1954

i. Plessy v. Ferguson
ii. A class action suit was filed because 20 African American students would not be admitted to the local elementary schools.
iii. Segregation was ruled unconstitutional and ordered schools to desegregate.

(Extra Event 1)

May 7, 1955

i. The Reverend George Lee's Death
ii. Located in Belzoni, Mississippi
iii. Rev. Lee was vice president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership. He was also head of the local NAACP branch. He led an African American voting drive and was assassinated as a result.

Rosa Parks

Dec 1, 1955

i. Rosa Parks was sitting on bus on her way home from a long day of work. At a stop a white man got on and requested her to move. She was tired and said no. She was later arrested.
ii. She was arrested and it sparked a bus boycott.

(Extra Event 2)

Jan 23, 1957

i. Willie Edwards Jr. Murdered by Klansmen
ii. Located in Montgomery, Alabama
iii. Edwards was called into work and taken by members of the KKK who thought he had slept with a white woman. They drove him around town beating him the whole way then stopped on a bridge 125 ft high and forced him to jump to his death.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Aug 29, 1957

i. Congress
ii. It protected the right of African Americans to vote.

Events at Little Rock, Arkansas

Sep 4, 1957

i. 9 African American high school students were admitted to Little Rock's Central High. The governor got angry and sent the national guard to prevent the students from getting into the school.
ii. President Kennedy sent in U.S. army troops to push the students in.

Attack of the Freedom Riders

May 14, 1961

i. The Freedom Riders would get on buses to the South and if a white person told them to move they wouldn't. It was a protest against public transportation segregation.
ii. The NAACP helped organize Freedom Rides as well as CORE and SNCC.
iii. Whites did participate in Freedom Rides also, but in smaller numbers.

(Extra Event 3)

Sep 25, 1961

i. Herbert Lee Killed by White Legislature
ii. Located in Liberty, Mississippi.
iii. Lee was active in trying to get African Americans in his county to vote, but it was one of the most Klan-ridden places. As Lee arrived to the Westbrook cotton gin with his truck full of cotton, he was approached by E. H. Hurst. They began to argue and Lee was shot in front of more than a dozen witnesses by Hurst.

(Extra Event 4)

Apr 9, 1962

i. Corporal Roman Ducksworth Jr. Murdered by Police
ii. Located in Taylorsville, Mississippi
iii. Ducksworth was a military police officer on his way to see his wife when on the bus he was riding, a white police officer got on and requested he moved. Ducksworth would not and as a result, he was shot and killed.

James Meredith Enrolls at Ole Miss

Sep 30, 1962

i. When Meredith got to the administration building on the campus of Ole Miss, he was denied access by mobs of students and other protesters. 2 civilians were killed.
ii. Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, John Doar of the Justice Department, escorted James Meredith to class at Ole Miss.

Medgar Evers Assassinated

Jun 12, 1963

i. Medgar Evers was an NAACP field secretary who took part in ending racial segregation.
ii. Evers was a leader who took part in the Emmet Till case and other crimes against African Americans. He also led economic boycotts against white-owned companies that led discrimination. As a result, his family was often yelled at and attacked by white people. But on June 12, 1963, he was shot in the back while standing in his driveway and died at a nearby hospital.

The March on Washington

Aug 28, 1963

i. The purpose of the March on Washington was for Jobs and Freedom in the nation's capital.
ii. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Jul 2, 1964

i. President Johnson passed this act.
ii. It ended segregation in public places.

March to Selma

Mar 7, 1965

i. The march to Selma was organized to register African Americans to vote.
ii. The police force hosed them down with fire hoses, battered them with baseball bats, tear gassed them, and arrested many.
iii. The outcome was the disenfranchisement of poll taxes and literacy tests for blacks to be able to vote.

(Extra Event 5)

Jul 9, 1965

i. Congress Passes Voting Rights Act of 1965
ii. Located in Washington D.C.
iii. Congress passed this act to end racial discrimination with voting.

Thurgood Marshall First Black Supreme Court Justice

Oct 2, 1967

i. He was a lawyer who won the victory in Brown v. Board of Education.
ii. This showed that African Americans can be as good at making decisions and holding jobs with a lot of responsibility.

The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Apr 4, 1968

i. Leading up to his assassination, King had traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to support a sanitation worker's strike. He was just leaving to go to dinner when he stood on the balcony and was shot in the neck by James Earl Ray. About an hour later at a Memphis hospital he was pronounced dead.
ii. Many people looked up to King because of his ways with leadership and his power to make things happen. King supported equality among all.