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Plessy v. Ferguson
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Congres of Racial Equality (CORE)
It was founded in 1942 in Chicago-Bernice Fisher by a group of interracial students: James R. Robinson, James L. Farmer, Jr., Joe Guinn, George Houser, and Homer Jack. This organization was seeking pacifically to change racist attitudes.
It played an important role in the civil rights movement in America. It worked to with other civil rights organizations an launched some iniciatives such as "The Freedom Rides".
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Jackie Robinson
He broke baseball's color barrier when he started to play for the Brooklyn Doodgers. His courage and grace made him to be a big example for many African Americans who started questioning the doctrine: "separate but equal". So his actions, brabery and courage helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement. Link -
Sweatt v. Painter
LinkHeman Marion Sweatt was an African-American that wanted to transcript to the University of Texas. The president of the University at that time Theophilus Shickel Painter, met him. After meeting him he sent a letter to the Texas Attorney saying to him that he was negro and could be accepted. So he was not following the Equal Protection law.Gregory Vincent: "It is a case that really helped put one of the final nails in the coffin of segregation and to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Brown v. Board of Education
It is known as one of the best supreme court decisions of the 20th century. It held that the racial segregation was vioalating the Equal Protection Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment. Although fully dissegregation did not happen right away in the public schoolar system, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality, making the civil rights movement a revolution. Link -
Picture of the Montgomery bus boycott
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Mongomery bus boycott
It is an event where African American refused to ride the buses in Mongomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. Four days before the boycott there was an issue with Rosa Parkd, an African American woman that refused to yield her seat to a white man in a bus. So after being arrested and fined, the boycott started on the court hearing day. Link -
"The Southern Manifesto"
It is a resolution, signed by 19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives, that condemned the 1954 Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case. The resolution called for an abuse of power in the judicial branch. It also encouraged states to not put in order the desegregation of the public schools. Primary -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC)
The origins of this organization can be traced back at the Mongomery bus boycott. They focus to promote spiritual principles in the community. They also promote to educate responsability, leadership and community service. All to promote economic, social and political equality. They follow the quote of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "one nation, under God, indivisible".
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Little Rock - Central High School
Key event of the Civil Rights Movement. Nine black students enrolled at the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The day the school was supposed to start, September 4th, the Governor of Arkansas called the national guard to bar them from the school. President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to let them in and start their classes. Link -
Picture of Greensboro sit-in
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Greensboro sit-in
Despite the advances towards racial equality, there still was segregation in the south in 1960. So Greensboro sit-in is a non-violent protest by young African American students in Greensboro, North Carolina. The strike spread around the ragion. Many protesters got arrested for disorderly conduct and more, but the important fact was a lasting impact that made change in some locations, the polices of segregation.
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Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
After the Greenboro sit-in and others encouraged by it, two months later this agrupation formend. It was basically formed to give the younger black people a bigger voice in the civil rights movement. It was one of the movements most radical divisions. It was exactly created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh. They coordinated sit-ins, supported their leaders and they made public their activities. Link -
"Freedom Rides"
LinkFreedom Rides is a campain launched by a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists. In a series of different bus trips in the south they protested against segregation in iterstate bus terminals. The Riders were recruted by CORE. They departed from Washington, D.C. and went into the deep south. They used "whites only" restroom and other facilities. They encoutered violence, but drew a big international attention to their cause. Three months later they reach their goal. -
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James H. Meredith
He was an Air Force veteran. He tried to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi. With help of the NAACP he won in court and the University had to desegregate. So Meredith was the first African American that attended the University of Mississippi. He was shoot by as sniper soon after he started a lonely civil rights march - "March Against Fear"- in the south. He was attempting to encaurage voter registration by African Americans in the South.
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"Letter from Birmingham jail"
Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in 1963 Birmingham, Alabama because he was protesting and a court ordered that he could not protest. In Birmingham every aspect of the society was segregated. So while he was in jail, he wrote a letter in the newspaper explaining why he broke the law. Because of injustice, because he didn't want that any more and because he believed change had to no longer wait. It is the most important document written in that era.Primary -
Medgar Evers
He was an African American civil rights activist that was murdered. His murder came to national attention. He served in WWII. He entered the NAACP and became field secretary of it after trying to segregate the Mississippi Law School for deniying his admission.
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March on Washington
PrimaryIn Washington, D.C., more than 200.000 African Americans gathered for a political rally for Jobs & Freedom. The event was organized by different civil rights and religious groups. They wanted to clear all the struggle and social challenges that African Americans were facing. The march was a key point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech grew deep and called for racial justice and equality. Link -
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Bombing of Birmingham church
LinkBefore Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb exploded. This is though to the violent racial relations in the segregated south. Since the church was a predominantly black congregation many times served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many people injured. The fact drew national attention to the hard-fought and dangerous struggle of African Americans fighting for their civil rights. -
Twenty-fourth Amendment
LinkThe Twenty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States had to sections. The first one gives any US citizen to vote for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress without poll tax. The second section states that "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
So it is basically to make sure everybody could vote, no matter what race, color, culture... it came from. -
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Mississippi Freedom Summer
Also known as Freedom Summer it was an organizated voter registration drive. The main goal for this project was to increase the voter registration in Mississippi. The event consisted of the black people in Mississippi and more than a thousand white volunteers from outside the state.They faced violence and herassement from the police and the KKK including the murder of three or more civil rights activists.Link -
Civil Rights Act passed
LinkThis bill ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It was one of the biggest legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. President John F. Kennedy tried to pass a civil rights act but he could not because of strong opposition. It was the successor President Lyndon B. Johnson who passed it. In the next couple years, the act expanded passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, too. -
Malcolm X assassinated
As an African American religious and nationalist leader, he was assasinated in New York City by rival Black Muslims while adressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity. Everything came from the past when Malcolm was one of the members of Nation of Islam. He after several years left, and that seems the cause why later on was shoot by someone from Nation of Islam. Link -
Selma to Montgomery march
LinkMartin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference focused on the small town of Selma, Alabama for their drive to win voting rights for African Americans in the South. So in March, protesters tried to march to Montgomery, the State capital, but met violence and resitance from state and local authorities. They finally reached their goal in three days walking 12h each day, sleeping in fields and under the protection of National Guards groups. Later that year Voting Rights Act passed -
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Voting Rights Act approved
The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson in August of 1965. This act aimed to overcome any barrier for African Americans when it was time to vote. Under the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, it is considered one of the most far reaching pieces of legislations during the civil rights movement. Link -
Black Panthers
The Black Panthers was the largest Black revolutionary organization that has ever existed. The organization was formed in California in 1966. It played an important role in the civil rights movement. They believed that Martin Luther King Jr, did not have succes in the movement. Instead, they believed in violence and war to take the minorities including African Americans from the repression. Link -
King assassinated
U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. The previous day he gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church in Memphis. That morning at 6 o'clock he was shot by a sniper. The biggest leader of the civil rights movement death caused a big impact, eagering many black people and making pass a housing equal bill. Link
