-
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality became one of the most leading activist organizations in the early years of the American Civil Rights movement. -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson made history when he broke baseball's color barrier to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson faced a barrage of insults and threats because of his race. The courage and grace with which he handled the abuses inspired a generation of African Americans to question the doctrine of "separate but equal" and helped pave the way for the Civil Rights movement. His dignified courage in the face of virulent racism commanded the admiration of whites as well as blacks -
Sweatt v. Painter
The Court had ruled that officials at the University of Texas has violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in denying admission to the law school to Heman Sweatt, because of his race. Theophilus Painter was the University of Texas president at the time. June 5, 1950 the court ruled unanimously that under the Equal Protection Clause, Sweatt must be admitted to the university. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ll implements the anti-segregation provisions that had been mandated in Brown l, and orders that states comply with "all deliberate speed." Declaring that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” the Brown v. Board decision helped break the back of state-sponsored segregation, and provided a spark to the American civil rights movement. -
Montgomery bus boycott
African American woman Rosa Park's arrest after her refusal to move to the back of the bus (as required under city law in Montgomery, Alabama) triggers as wide boycott of the bus system. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. In Stride Toward Freedom, King’s 1958 memoir of the rights. -
"The Southern Manifesto"
The Southern Manifesto was a document written in 1956 by legislators in the United States Congress opposed to racial integration in public places. 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. The resolution called the decision "a clear abuse of judicial power" and encouraged states to resist implementing its mandates. -
SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) played an important role in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Founded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while reacting to end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.The Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s (SCLC) main aim was to advance the cause of civil rights in America but in a non-violent manner. From its inception in 1957, its president was Martin Luther King – a post he held until his murder in 1968. -
Little Rock
Nine black students are blocked from entering school on the orders of governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students.On September 23, as a mob of 1,000 whites milled around outside Central High School, the nine black students managed to gain access to a side door. However, the mob became unruly when it learned the black students were inside, and the police evacuated them out of fear for their safety. -
Greensboro sit-in
In protest of local restaurants that refuse to serve African-American customers, a series of sit-ins is staged at lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina.They were influenced by the non-violent protest techniques practiced by Mohandas Gandhi. 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. -
SNCC
The (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokley Carmichael. (SNCC), formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement, became one of the movement’s more radical branches. -
Freedom Rides
A group of African American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest Segregation in the interstate bus terminals. September 1, 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting in bus and train stations worldwide.The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, was unconstitutional. -
James Meredith
Born June 25, 1933, American civil rights activist who gained national renown at a key juncture in the civil rights movement in 1962. James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the university of Mississippi.Meredith applied and was accepted to the University of Mississippi in 1962, but his admission was revoked when the registrar learned of his race. Violence and riots surrounding the innocent, caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
24th Amendment
The House passed the 24th amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. 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.Along with literacy tests and durational residency requirements, poll taxes were used to keep low-income primarily African American citizens from participating in elections. -
"Letter from Birmingham jail"
Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and jailed for anti-segregation protests in Birmingham Ala.; he writes seminal "letter from Birmingham jail", arguing individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.King was finally released from jail on April 20, four days after penning the letter. Despite the harsh treatment he and his fellow protestors had received, King’s work in Birmingham continued. Just two weeks later, more than 1,000 schoolchildren took part in the famed “Children’s Crusade,”. -
Medger Evers
(Jackson,Miss) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year old Medgar, Evers is murdered outside his home Bryon De Le Beck is tried twice in 1964, both resulting in hung juries. 30 years later he is convicted for murdering Evers.The bitter conflict over segregation surrounded the two trials that followed. Beckwith received the support of some of Mississippi’s most prominent citizens who appeared at Beckwith’s first trial to shake hands with the defendant in full view of the jury. -
March on Washington
About 200,00 people join the March on Washington Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King Jr. gives his " I have a dream" speech.The first march was proposed in 1941 by A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Blacks had benefited less than other groups from New Deal programs during the Great Depression, and continuing racial discrimination excluded them from defense jobs in the early 1940s. -
Bombing of Birmingham Church
September 15 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 many others injured. KKK members had routinely called in bomb threats intended to disrupt civil rights meetings as well as services at the church.The bombing church was the third bombing in 11 days. -
Mississippi Freedom Summer
After nearly a decade of civil rights demonstrations, more than a thousand people, most of them white northern college students, volunteered to go to Mississippi to help blacks register to vote, and t conduct "freedom schools" The Mississippi Summer Freedom Project was a high point and nearly the end of the integrated, nonviolent civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the top legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. Under the Civil Rights Act, segregation on the grounds of race, religion or national origin was banned at all places of public accommodation. No longer could blacks and other minorities be denied service simply based on the color of their skin. -
Selma to Montgmery March
Blacks begin to march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. 50 marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by media.As the world watched, the protesters (under the protection of federalized National Guard troops) finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery -
Malcom X assasinated
(Harlem N.Y.) Malcom X, Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and later also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist black nationalists and founder of the organization Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim, which Malcom had abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam. Malcolm’s assassins, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson, were convicted of first-degree murder -
Voting Rights Act approved
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict blacks from voting were made illegal. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Black Panthers
The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966. They believed that the nonviolent campaign of Martin Luther King Jr. had failed any promised changes to their lifestyle via the "traditional" civil rights movement would take too long to be implemented or simply not introduced. -
King Assassinated
Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed by James Earl Ray at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.. An ambulance rushed King to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:05 P.M. His death shocked a country rocked by riots, civil discord, and a controversial war.Shock waves reverberated around the world with news that the U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The U.S. Supreme Court "separate but equal' decision in Plessy v. Ferguson approved laws requiring racial segregation, as long as those did not allow for separate accommodations and facilities for blacks that were inferior to those for whites.
