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Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.
A landmark case in civil rights history that overruled the decision made in the Plessy vs Furgeson case, which allowed state sponsored segregation. -
Emmet Till
After allegedly flirting with a white woman at a grocery store, the husband of the woman and his half brother abducted Till. They brought him to a barn where he was beaten and had one of his eyes gouged out until they finally shot him, killing him. They tied a cotton gin around his neck with barbed wire and dumped the body into Tallahatchie River where it was found three days after the matter. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Initialized by Rosa Parks, the bus boycott was a near 13 month mass boycott of buses by blacks in Montgomery, Alabama until the Supreme Court came to the ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. -
Rosa Parks Incident.
Started the bus boycott when she was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white passenger after the white section had been filled. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Lead by Martin Luther King, Jr the conference was made in order to obtain civil rights in a nonviolent manner. Its goals were to get whites on board with the idea of giving blacks the right to vote, to seek justice and reject all injustices and to encourage love and nonviolence. -
Little Rock Nine.
After it was ruled that schools would no longer be segregated, it was established that blacks would slowly be integrated into white schools. In the fall of 1957 nine black students were selected to attend previously all-white Little Rock Central High. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
An organisation that began in order to orchestrate sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience in order to combat white oppression. In its later years it began to focus more on the idea of black power and strayed away from its initial nonviolent ideals. -
Freedom Ride
A group of activists, 7 black and 6 white, took a bus from Washington DC to the south. They were attacked upon their arrival and the indifference of the police and savage behavior of those opposed prompted national attention and many other freedom rides. Their influence soon spread to train stations and airports and in the November of the same year the Interstate Commerce Committee issued laws that no longer allowed segregation on public transit facilities. -
James Meredith attends University of Mississippi
A political activist and writer. He is also the first black to attend the segregated University of Mississippi. -
March on Washington
MLK delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, advocating racial peace and harmony. Largely credited as one of the factors of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act being passed. -
Great Society
A list of programs set up by LBJ that were focused primarily on eliminating racial injustice and poverty. The announcement of these programs was given at Ohio University. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed major forms of racial discrimination and segregation against minorities and women. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches
Three marches that were an attempt to walk from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. -
Kerner Commission
An eleven member commission assembled by LBJ in order to determine the cause of the 1967 race riots. -
CIvil Rights Act of 1968
Gave equal housing opportunities to all races. Signed during the MLK assassination riots.
