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Plessy v. Ferguson
A Supreme Court decision which allowed segregation in “separate but equal” facilities. -
Formation of NAACP
An organization of lawyers led by Thurgood Marshall to try to overturn the Supreme Court decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Brown v. BOE of Topeka
They argued that segregation of black children in the public schools was unconstitutional because it violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of “equal protection of the laws.” -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, sparking a massive African American protest in the form of a boycott of the city buses. -
Formation of SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference formed by Martin Luther King Jr. which organized ministers and churches in the South to get behind the civil rights struggle. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
Nine African American students enrolled in all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, testing a landmark that U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional. -
Greensboro Sit-In
College students in Greensboro, North Carolina, started a sit-in movement after being refused service at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. -
Formation of SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which kept the college sit-in movement organized. -
Boynton v. Virginia
A Supreme Court case that overturned a judgment convicting an African American law student for trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal which was for "whites only". -
James Meredith enrolls in Ole Miss
This African American man attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi, causing many riots and wounded people. -
First Freedom Ride
A series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. -
Birmingham Protests
A movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. -
March on Washington
200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. -
24th Amendment Passed
This amendment prohibited any poll tax in elections for federal officials. -
Freedom Summer
A volunteer campaign launched to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed the discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or origin, which was a major landmark in United States history. -
Malcolm X leads the Nation of Islam
The most controversial voice of the Civil Rights Movement who used black violence to counter white violence and advocated self-defense. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement is assassinated by black opponents. -
Selma March
Protest marches along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act, persuaded by MLK Jr. to Congress, ended literacy tests and provided federal registrars in areas where blacks were kept from voting. -
Black Panthers founded
A revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization led by Huey P. Newton. -
MLK Jr. assassinated
African American activist who was a major leader in the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Provided equal housing opportunities to all races and made it a crime to force, threaten, injure, and intimidate anyone, regardless of race, origin, and religion. -
Robert F. Kennedy assassinated
This presidential candidate was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election.
