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Key
Achievement: 🏆
Protest: 🪧
Legislation: 📄
Violence by Protestors: ⭕
Violence by Opposition: 💢
No Violence: 🚫 -
Emmett Till’s Murder 1955 💢
Emmit Till was a 14-year-old black teenager who was abducted by two white men, beaten, shot, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a large metal fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. The men claimed to do it because a white woman who owned a store Emmti had previously shopped in, told her husband that Emmit whistled at her. -
Keys v. Carolina Coach 📄
An African American woman, Sarah Keys, was ordered to move from her bus seat for a white Marine while she was traveling to her hometown, Washington, North Carolina. When Keys refused, she was arrested and the case was brought to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott 🪧
This boycott in Montgomery, Alabama was a foundation event in the United States that sparked many more people to stand up for their beliefs. This boycott was a social and political protest campaign that fought against the policy of racial segregation on the bus systems in Alabama. -
Little Rock Nine Crisis 💢
The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, prevented a group of nine African American students from entering their high school, Little Rock Central High School. The students had to push their way through the crowds protesting until federal troops escorted them everywhere they went. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 📄 🏆
Since the Civil Rights Act of 1875, this was the first federal civil rights legislation that has been passed. This bill authorized the prosecution of any United States citizen who violated the right to vote. -
Freedom Rides 🪧 💢
Freedom Rides consisted of Blacks and whites who rode buses through the South. They did this in a series of political protests against segregation. -
Birmingham Movement 🪧 💢
In a direct-action campaign, Martin Luther King, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined together to attack Birmingham’s segregation system. Mass meetings, lunch counter sit-ins, direct actions, marches, boycotts, and more nonviolent forms of protest took place. -
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 🪧
Around 250,000 people attended this march, making it the largest gathering for civil rights at its time. These people arrived in Washington, D.C. from all over the country by train, car, bus, or plane. -
Mississippi Freedom Summer 🪧 💢
In Mississippi, aimed to increase the number of registered Black voters, Freedom Summer was a voter registration drive. African Americans and over 700 mostly white volunteers joined together in Mississippi to fight against discrimination at the polls and voter intimidation. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 💢 ⭕ 🪧
While standing on his balcony, Martin Luther King was shot dead at 6:05 P.M. He was on the second floor at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. The assassination of M.L.K. caused outbreaks of racial violence and caused extensive property damage and more than 40 deaths nationwide. -
Shirley Chisolm’s Presidential Campaign 🏆 🚫
Being the first Black woman to be elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm opened her historic campaign in Brooklyn, New York for U.S. President. Chisholm spoke out about civil rights and women’s rights and she was led to political activism. -
Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 📄 🏆
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld busing programs whose aim was to speed up the racial integration of public schools in the United States. This case established that, regarding state desegregation, the federal courts had the authority to intervene. -
Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record 🏆 🚫
Aaron faced racial prejudice from the beginning of his life to the start of his career. With his athletic ability, he changed many perceptions of residents who lived in a predominantly white community. He also helped people see someone for who they were instead of what they looked like. -
Barbara Jordan’s Address at the Democratic National Convention 🏆
This speech was significant as it marked Barbara Jordan as the first African American woman to deliver a keynote speech at the National Democratic Convention, accelerating the civil rights movement. She later delivered the keynote address again in 1992. -
University of California Regents vs. Bakke 📄 🏆
In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. This case held that if a university’s admissions criteria used race as an exclusive and definite basis for admission decisions, it violated the Equal Protection Clause