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Plessy v Ferguson
The Plessy v Ferguson case came from Louisiana which adopted a law in 1890, providing for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" on railroads. In 1892 Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He was taken to the Criminal Court and to Judge John H. Ferguson for New Orleans, who upheld the state law. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th amendments. (http://bit.ly/1uuLcJp) -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Founded in 1942, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) became a leading activist organization in the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement. In the early 1960s, CORE was working with other civil rights groups and launched a series of initiatives: the Freedom Rides aimed at desegregating public facilities, the Freedom Summer voter registration project and the historic 1963 March on Washington.(http://bit.ly/2nCak4H) -
Sweatt v Painter
In 1946 with the support of the NAACP Herman Marion Sweatt applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. They rejected him because he was an African American and the UT was a segregated institution. Sweatt with the NAACP counsel, sued. Sweatt lost in state court but the US Supreme Court in 1950 ordered the integration toe the University of Texas School of Law and the University's Graduate School.(http://bit.ly/2nY9VdG) -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robison made history in 1947 when he broke the color barrier to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson won the National League Rookie of the Year award his first season and helped the Dodgers go to the National League championship. In 1949 he won the league MVP award and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. He faced a barrage of insults and threats because of his race. He handled the abuses with courage and grace. (http://bit.ly/1n14iFE) -
Brown v Board of Education
The US Supreme Court handed down its ruling in the landmark case of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The court's decision overturned provisions of the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision, which allowed for "separate but equal" public facilities, including public schools. Declaring that "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." the Brown v Board decision helped break the back of state-sponsored segregation. (http://bit.ly/1nzUME6) -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating and is regarded as the first large-scale demonstration against segregation in the US. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days. (http://bit.ly/1ymBgQq) -
The Southern Manifesto
19 senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the "Southern Manifesto" a resolution condemning the 1954 supreme court decision in Brown v Board of Education. The resolution called the decision "a clear abuse of judicial power" and encouraged states to resist implementing its mandates. In response to southern opposition, the court revisited the brown decision in Cooper v Aaron. (http://to.pbs.org/1hc6YZt) -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
At its first convention in Montgomery, the SCLC adopted its name. Basic decisions made by the founders at these early meetings included the adoption of nonviolent mass action as the cornerstone of strategy, the affiliation of local community organizations with SCLC across the South and determination to make the SCLC movement open to all, regardless of race, religion, or background. (http://bit.ly/2mNufPb) -
Little Rock- Central High School
A key event of the American Civil Rights Movement, nine black students enrolled in the formally all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1954, the US Supreme court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The court declared that all public schools in the country be integrated "with all deliberate speed", its decision related to the Brown v Board of Education case. (http://bit.ly/1ufa8Cs) -
Greensboro Sit-In
Despite advances in the fight for racial equality, segregation was still the norm across the southern united states in 1960. Early that year, a nonviolent protest by young African American students at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina sparked a sit-in movement that soon spread to college towns throughout the region. (http://bit.ly/1MP3Fql) -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The SNCC formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement, it became one of the movement's more radical branches. Ella Baker, the director of SCLC helped set up the first meeting of what became SNCC. She was concerned that SCLC, led by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was out of touch with younger blacks who wanted the movement to make faster progress. (http://bit.ly/2g8KEXt) -
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Freedom Rides
A group of 13 African American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals. They were recruited by CORE, they departed from Washington D.C. and attempted to integrate facilities at bus terminals along the way into the Deep South. The African American Freedom Riders tried to use "whites only" restrooms, lunch counters, etc. (http://bit.ly/1vgaxE1) -
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Twenty-Fourth Amendment
Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the constitution of the US that prohibited the federal and state from imposing poll taxes before a citizen can participate in an election. It was proposed by the US congress and later ratified. (http://bit.ly/2nmUqHS) -
James Meredith
He became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi is shot by a sniper shortly after beginning a lone civil rights march through the South. Known as the "March Against Fear" Meredith had been walking from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South. (http://bit.ly/1oA25xm) -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail delivered important statements on Civil Rights and civil disobedience. The racial crisis in Birmingham, Alabama was a turning point in the struggle for civil rights for blacks. Although his letter wasn't published until after the Birmingham crisis was resolved, it is widely regarded as the most important document of the modern civil rights movement and a classic on civil disobedience. (http://bit.ly/2nLLqzU) -
Medger Evers
(1925-1963) He was an African American civil rights activist whose murder drew national attention. Born in Mississippi, he served in WWII before going to work for NAACP. After attempting to segregate the University of Mississippi Law School in 1954, he became the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi. He was subjected to threats as the most visible leader in the state, and he was shot to death in June 1963. (http://bit.ly/2iQuaXC) -
March on Washington
More than two hundred thousand Americans marched to Washington D.C. for a political rally, for jobs and freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges blacks faced across the country. The march became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the US, MLK Jr's "I have a Dream" speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality. ( http://bit.ly/1i6tu7Z) -
Bombing of Birmingham Church
Even as the inspiring speech "I Have a Dream" from MLK Jr. rang out from Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, racial relations in the segregated South were marked by violence and inequality. A bomb exploded before Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama- a black church that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and others injured. The incident caused outrage and violence. (http://bit.ly/1CwahtD) -
Civil Rights Act Passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned discrimination for employment on basis of race, color, religion, sex, or origin, is one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. It was first proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived opposition from southern members of congress and was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. (http://bit.ly/1udSFsU) -
Mississippi Freedom Summer
Civil Rights organizations including CORE and SNCC organized a voter registration drive known as the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi. It consisted of black Mississippians and more than 1,000 out of state white volunteers, they faced constant abuse and harassment. The Ku Klux Klan, police and even authorities carried out violent attacks, including arson, beating, false arrest, and murder. (http://bit.ly/1jCdm18) -
Malcom X Assassination
In New York Malcom X was an African American nationalist and religious leader. He was assassination by Black Muslims while addressing his organization of Afro-American Unity in Washington Heights. In 1946 Malcom was sent prison on a burglary conviction. He encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. (http://bit.ly/1lATEnS) -
Selma to Montgomery March
MLK Jr's SCLC made Selma, Alabama the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempted to march from Selma to the capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, protesters (protected by federalized National Guard troops) finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days. The historic march and MLK participation in it, helped raise awareness. (http://bit.ly/1nGD5oz) -
Voting Rights Act Approved
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, it aimed to overcome legal barriers at different levels that prevented blacks from exercising their right to vote. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in US history. (http://bit.ly/1x2nE2e) -
Black Panthers
Its an African American revolutionary party in Oakland, California, created by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It's original purpose was to patrol black neighborhoods to protect residents from police brutality. They eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all blacks, exempting of blacks from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America, etc. (http://bit.ly/2keqUUA) -
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot while standing on a balcony at Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way to dinner when he was shot in the jaw and severed his spinal cord. King was pronounced dead after his arrival at Memphis hospital. He died when he was 39 years old. (http://bit.ly/1C5v04g)
