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Brown v. Board of education
The case began in 1951, when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a lawsuit in Kansas on behalf of Oliver Brown, a parent from Topeka, and nine other parents from different parts of the country, including Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The parents were seeking to end segregation in public schools, which was mandated by the "separate but equal" doctrine established by the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5, 1955, the boycott involved Rosa Parks. After Parks' arrest, local civil rights leaders organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to protest the bus company's discriminatory policies. The African American community refrained from using the buses, opting for carpooling, walking, and other means of transportation for over a year. The boycott lasted 381 days and garnered national attention. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957, primarily by African American ministers and civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., who became its first president. The SCLC was established in Atlanta, Georgia, with the aim of coordinating and supporting nonviolent protests against racial segregation and inequality. -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine refers to a group of nine African American students who enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their enrollment was a significant event during the American civil rights movement, marking a direct challenge to racial segregation in public schools. -
Greensboro Sit Ins
The Greensboro sit-ins began on February 1, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina. This nonviolent protest was initiated by four African American college students—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—who were students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. They sat at the lunch counter of a Woolworth's store, which refused to serve Black customers, and remained seated despite being denied service and facing harassment. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges is a notable figure in American civil rights history. On November 14, 1960, at the age of six, she became the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South when she attended William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were a group of civil rights activists who, in the early 1960s, rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to challenge and test the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions that declared segregated public buses unconstitutional. Their actions were a significant part of the broader Civil Rights Movement. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28, 1963. It was a pivotal event in the American Civil Rights Movement. The march was organized by a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National Urban League, among others. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation that was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964. The act was a major milestone in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and it had a profound impact on the lives of African Americans and other marginalized groups. -
Selma of Montgomery Marched (Bloody Sunday)
"Bloody Sunday" refers to a significant and violent event that occurred on March 7, 1965, during the civil rights movement in the United States. On this day, thousands of civil rights activists organized a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand voting rights for African Americans. The march was led by key figures such as John Lewis, later a congressman, and Hosea Williams. -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was landmark legislation in the United States that aimed to eliminate various barriers that had been used to suppress the voting rights of African Americans, particularly in the South. This act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965, and it followed the significant events of the civil rights movement, including the Selma to Montgomery marches and Bloody Sunday. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, in New York City while he was preparing to address a rally at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He was a prominent civil rights leader and a vocal advocate for the rights of African Americans, known for his militant stance on racial issues and his criticism of both the civil rights establishment and the Nation of Islam, with which he had previously been affiliated. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent leader in the American civil rights movement, was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The event occurred in Memphis, Tennessee, where King had traveled to support a sanitation workers' strike. -
Murder of Emmett Till
The murder of Emmett Till occurred on August 28, 1955, in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi. He was accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in a grocery store, although details of the encounter remain disputed.