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Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 was issued by President Harry S. Truman to abolish racial discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces which eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The outcome of the Brown v. Board of Education case was that the court declared the state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
The Murder of Emmett Till
The murder of Emmett Till was a pivotal event which motivated the African-American Civil Rights Movement because of the brutality and unjusticeness of his murder. -
Rosa Parks on the bus
Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and to international awareness of the plight of African Americans and their civil rights struggle. -
SCLC Formation
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference helped advance the cause of civil rights in America in a non-violent manner and assisted in Birmingham's move toward desegregation. -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were the first African Americans to attend an all white public school which helped support desegregation in other schools. -
SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was one of the organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It played a major role in the sit-ins and freedom rides, and a leading role in the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. -
Freedom Rides - The University of Southern Mississippi
Many student volunteers began taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. Several of the groups of freedom riders were attacked by angry mobs along the way. -
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions, which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. -
James Meredith
James Meredith's lawsuit that he filed against the University of Mississippi after rejection into the school showed how even after desegregation laws were applied, the discrimination against African Americans still did not stop. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
This widespread publication became a key text for the American civil rights movement because it defended the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. -
"Bull" Connor uses fire hoses on Black demonstrators
"Bull" Connor's aggressive tactics on the innocent black demonstrators backfired when people heard of his brutality, leading to social and legal change in the southern United States. -
Murder of Medgar Evers
Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, was murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thhirty years later and he was finally convicted for murdering Evers. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was attended by about 250,000 people and was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital. The March was in protest of unjust laws against the African Americans. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing killed four innocent girls, marking a turning point in the United States 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
24th Amendment
The 24th amendment was important to the Civil Rights Movement as it ended mandatory poll taxes that prevented most African Americans from voting. -
Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner
These three civil rights workers were all beaten and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, and it was later proven in court that a conspiracy existed between members of Neshoba County's law enforcement (by whom they were arrested) and the Ku Klux Klan to kill them. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
This act was a major turning point for the civil rights movements. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. -
Malcolm X Assassinated
Malcolm X was a controversial yet effective civil rights leader, that advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans "by any means necessary." He was assassinated by rival Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally, and is remembered to this day as one of the most influential African Americans in history. -
Bloody Sunday
The Selma to Montgomery marches, also known as Bloody Sunday, were marches and protests held in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act 1965
This Act prohibits discrimination in voting, and allowed for a large amount of racial minorities throughout the country, especially in the South, to vote. It is widely considered one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the United States. -
Los Angeles Race Riots 1965
The Los Angeles Race Riots of 1965 was a six-day riot in response to the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr. that resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage. It was the most severe riot in the city's history until the Los Angeles riots of 1992. -
Executive Order 11246
Executive Order 11246, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 24, 1965, established requirements for non-discriminatory practices in hiring and employment on the part of U.S. government contractors. It "prohibits federal contractors and federally assisted construction contractors and subcontractors, who do over $10,000 in Government business in one year from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." -
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Partywas a black revolutionary socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and U.S. politics of the 1960s and 1970s -
Loving vs. Virgina
An interracial couple was charged with unlawful cohabitation and jailed, leading to the "Loving v. Virgina" case. After several years, the Court ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional, which turned out to be a significant stride for civil rights movements. -
Martin Luther King Assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. was a prominent leader of the African-American civil rights movement who was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. This led to hostile reactions and riots throughout the country. -
Civil Rights Act 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, was signed into law on April 11, 1968 and made it a federal crime to “by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone … by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin.” The Act was signed into law due to the King assassination riots. -
Voting Rights Act 1991
This Act was passed in response to a series of Supreme Court decisions which limited the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. It represented the first effort since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to modify some of the basic rights provided by federal law, in employment discrimination cases. -
1992 Los Angeles Race Riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Race Riots were a series of riots, lootings, arsons and civil disturbance that occurred in response to the beating of an African-American man, named Rodney King, by mostly White officers. These were the largest riots seen in the United States since the 1960s and the worst, in terms of death toll, after the New York City draft riots in 1863.
