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Plessy v Ferguson
African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments.U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.
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Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was founded on the University of Chicago campus in 1942 as an outgrowth of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, They became one of the leading activist organizations in the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement. Working with other civil rights groups they launched a series of initiatives such as: The historic 1963 March on Washington, the Freedom Rides, and others. CORE still work now a days.
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Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson became the first Black baseball player to play with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Dodgers’ best farm club.In response to Jackie Robinson African-Americans rejected “separate buy equal” status and embraced integration. His success encouraged the integration of professional football, basketball, and tennis while the Negro Leagues, which depended on segregation began to fall down losing ballplayers, spectators and reporters. Link text -
Sweatt v Painter
The Sweatt v Painter case started when Herman Sweatt sought admission to the University of Texas Law School in 1946 but his application was rejected solely because of his race. Sweatt then sued in state court seeking an injunction to require law school officials to admit him to study. After all, the Court held that the University of Texas had to admit him to its law school.
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Brown v Board of Education
In 1954 The United States Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the case of Brown v Board of Education, This unanimous decision ended federal tolerance of racial segregation, in Plessy v Ferguson the Court ruled that separate but equal accommodations were okay but then Chief Justice Earl Warren rejected the Plessy doctrine declaring separate educational facilities were inherently unequal.
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Montgomery bus boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating, it is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the U.S.The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks’ court hearing and lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system.
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The Southern Manifesto
In 1956, 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the Southern Manifesto, a resolution condemning the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. It called the decision a clear abuse of judicial power and encouraged states to resist implementing its mandates. In response to Southern opposition, in 1958 the Court revisited the Brown decision in Cooper v. Aaron.
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Southern Christian Leadership Conference
60 persons from 10 states assembled and announced the founding of the Southern Leadership Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration. They issued a document declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy, that segregation must end, and that all Black people should reject segregation absolutely and nonviolently.The president of this group was Martin Luther KIng Jr. SCLC is still active now a days not as influential as 1960's though.
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Little Rock - Central High School
Nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957, testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.The first day of school governor of Arkansas called National Guard to bar the black students entry into the school.Later President Eisenhower sent in troops to escort the Nine into the school and they started their first day of classes
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Greensboro sit-in
Non-violent protest by young African-American students at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparked a sit-in movement that soon spread to college towns throughout the region. Though many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate and lasting impact, forcing Woolworth’s and other establishments to change their segregationist policies.
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Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comittee
It was formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement, became one of the movement’s more radical branches, Ella Baker, then director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), helped set up the first meeting of what became SNCC. Baker encouraged those who formed SNCC to look beyond integration to broader social change and to view King’s principle of nonviolence more as a political tactic than as a way of life. Link text -
Freedom Rides
Bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals.African-American Freedom Riders tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters, and vice versa. The group encountered tremendous violence from white protestors along the route, but also drew international attention to their cause. In September 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in bus and train stations nationwide.
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James Meredith
James Meredith after a lot of struggles to get accepted became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, then he was shot by a sniper shortly after beginning a lone civil rights march through the South. Known as the “March Against Fear,” Meredith had been walking from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South.
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Letter from Birminghan jail
Martin Luther King was in jail and as a response of an open letter in the Birmingham newspaper Isolated in his cell, King began working on a response Without notes or research materials King drafted an impassioned defense of his use of nonviolent but direct actions Over the course of the letter’s 7,000 words he turned the criticism back upon both the nation’s religious leaders and more moderate-minded white Americans, this letter helped him get out of jail etc Link text -
Medgar Evers
African-American civil rights activist Born in Mississippi, he served in World War II before going to work for (NAACP). After attempting to segregate the University of Mississippi Law School in 1954, he became the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi. Evers was subjected to threats as the most visible civil rights leader in the state, and he was shot to death in June 1963.
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March of Washington
200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.
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Bombing of Birmingham church
A bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders Four young girls were killed and other people injured outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans. Link text -
Civil Rights Act passed
Act of 1964 which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress, then signed by Lyndon Johnson In subsequent years Congress expanded the act and also passed additional legislation aimed at bringing equality to African Americans, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Link text -
Twenty Fourth Amendment
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ratified on January 23, 1964, was passed to address one particular injustice that prevented numerous citizens from voting—the poll tax, that is, a state fee on voting, because even though there were some Amendments that were against discrimination, this was still a problem in the United States it was especially with African Americans.
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Mississippi Freedom Summer
(CORE) and (SNCC) organized a voter registration drive, known as the Mississippi Summer Project, or Freedom Summer, aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi. The Freedom Summer, comprised of black Mississippians and more than 1,000 out-of-state, predominately white volunteers, faced constant abuse and harassment from Mississippi’s white population. there were violent attacks and at least 3 activists death.
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Malcolm X assassination
An African American nationalist and religious leader, who adopted the X instead of his lost name Little, he argued it was his slave name, he was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. He got shot just a week after his house was firebombed.
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Selma to Montgomery march
Protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities As the world watched the protesters finally achieved their goal walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery The historic march, and King’s participation in it, greatly helped raise awareness of the difficulty faced by black voters in the South, and the need for a Voting Rights Act, passed later that year. Link text -
Voting Rights Act passed
This act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the nonwhite population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections, It was signed by Johnson after he took place as president due to the assassination of JFK.
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Black Panthers
The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the ‘traditional’ civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced They preached for a “revolutionary war” They were willing to use violence to get what they wanted.
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Martin Luther King Jr assasination
He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. He had given a speech a day before his assassination saying that he had seen the promised land but might not get there with them.
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