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Brown v. Board of Education
This ruling states that separate schools that are segregated are not equal. Desegregation is required but there isn't a timeline given. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Emmett Till Is Murdered
Emmett Till was a 14-year old black boy visiting relatives in Mississippi. He was accused of whistling at a white woman. The woman's husband and brother-in-law murdered the teenager but were not found guilty. This violent murder shocked the nation. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white person, the Montgomery Bus Boycott happened. The result of the boycott ended up with Montgomery desegregating their buses. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Central High School (Little Rock 9)
The Little Rock Nine were the first African-American students to integrate into an all-white school. President Eisenhower orders troops to Central High to keep the peace during the integration. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Freedom Rides
The Freedom Riders rode buses through the south to see if desegregation was happening. They were met with violence once they got to Alabama. President Kennedy sent troops to keep the peace. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
The Children’s Crusade
The Children's Crusade end in an exchange for desegregation at lunch counters and hiring black lunch workers Martin Luther King, Jr. agrees to stop protests and demonstrations. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
March on Washington
200,000+ people of all races March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The goals were to pass the Civil Rights Act, jobs for blacks, school integration, and legislation to prohibit racial discrimination in hiring. This included Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Baptist Church Bombing
Four black girls are killed in an explosion at their church as they got ready for Sunday services in Birmingham, Alabama. 20+ others are injured. The church was known for hosting civil rights meetings. After the bombing, no one is arrested or charged. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Freedom Summer
The Freedom Summer efforts met a lot of resistance from white supremacists and on June 21, 1964, three CORE volunteers disappear. More than a month later, a tip leads FBI agents to the bodies that had been beaten, shot and buried under a dam. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Bloody Sunday (Selma)
600 blacks begin a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery to gain support for the right to vote. The state does not allow the march and as they reach the end the marchers are told to disperse. When they don't, police use nightclubs and tear gas on the marchers. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The act bans racial discrimination in voting practices by local, state and federal governments and doesn't allow for literacy tests to deny blacks the right to vote in the South after the Civil War. https://newseumed.org/tools/timeline/civil-rights-timeline
