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Keys v. Carolina Coach
On August 1, 1952, a young woman named Sarah Keys refused to give up her seat on a state-to-state charter bus. This led to a court case in which the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed the segregation of black passengers in buses traveling across state lines. -
Emmett Till's Murder
Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American youth who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This was a political and social protest campaign against the racial segregation policy on Montgomery, Alabama's public transit system. Rosa Parks' arrest sparked this and was also a foundational event in the civil rights movement. -
Little Rock Nine Crisis
On September 4, 1957, nine African-American students arrived at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They made their way through a crowd by shouting obscenities and by throwing objects. Once they reached the front door, the National Guard prevented them from entering the school, and were forced to go home. -
Cooper v. Aaron
The Supreme Court ruled that the state of Arkansas could not pass legislation to undermine the Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. -
Freedom Rides
This was a series of political protests against segregation by blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was killed in 1965 when three armed men shot him 21 times as he was preparing to speak in New York. -
March from Selma to Montgomery
These marches were three protest marches held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama to the state capital of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Civil Rights Act of 1967
This legislation established a Commission on Civil Rights to investigate civil rights violations and also established a Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Shortly after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and mortally wounded as he stood on the second-floor balcony outside his room at the Lorrain Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously upheld busing programs that aimed to speed up the racial integration of public schools in the United States. -
Shirley Chisholm's Presidential Campaign
She was the first African American woman to campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in1972 -
Hank Aaron's Home Run Record
On April 8, 1974, history was made in Atlanta as Hank Aaron knocked his 715th ball out of the park, topping the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth. -
University of California Regents vs. Bakke
The Supreme Court of the United States involved a dispute over whether preferential treatment for minorities could reduce educational opportunities for whites without violating the Constitution.