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Brown vs. Board
Court case Plessy vs. Fergusen ruled on separate but equal public facilties, but Brown vs. Board rejected and changed this. This case was started when the Board was sued by inconvenienced parents for practicing racial segregation. The case was started as a collection of 5 cases and it was found unconstitutional to have segregated schools. Integration started. -
Rev. George Lee Killed
Killed for leading voter-registration drive
Belzoni, Mississippi -
Lamar Smith Murdered
Murdered for organizing black voters
Brookhaven,Mississippi -
Emmett Louis Till Murdered
Murdered for speaking to a white woman
Money, Mississippi -
John Earle Reese Killed
Slain by nightriders opposed to school improvements
Mayflower, Texas -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks had stepped on a bus after a long day of work in the first row of the "Colored Section". When the bus began to fill up, Rosa and 3 other African Americans were ordered to give up their seats for white passengers. Only Rosa disobeyed. She was then arrested and fined $10. Parks set off a chain reaction of other blacks boycotting the bus. After a lot of protest like this, the Montgomery Court ruled that segregated seating violated the 14th Amendment. The bus segregation ended. -
Bus Boycott
Montgomery bus boycott begins -
Segregated Seating Banned
Supreme Court bans segregated seating on Montgomery buses -
Willie Edwards Jr. Killed
Killed by Klansmen
Montgomery, Alabama -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This Act was passed by president Dwight D. Eisenhower in order to give the right to vote to all American citizens. It also was passed to fix the unfair literacy tests given to African Americans. Basically, it sought to give all Americans equal rights. -
Events at Little Rock, Arkansas
Governor Orval Faubus had the National Guard prevent nine African Americans from attending a white school. He disobeyed the law which ruled segregation in school systems to be illegal. The government ordered the removal of the Guard, which Faubus denied. Becuase of this, the government sent units of the US army for the whole school year in order to make sure the nine students were safe at Central High School. -
Mack Charles Parker
Taken from jail and lynched
Poplarville, Mississippi -
Black Students stage sit-in
Black students stage sit-in at "whites only" lunch counter
Greensboro, North Carolina -
Supreme Court
Supreme Court outlaws segregation in bus terminals -
Freedom Riders Attack
Freedom Riders, a group of 13 African American and white Civil Rights activists started "Frredom Rides"- bus rides in the South to protest segregation in bus and train terminals. Blacks tried to use white bathrooms, etc and vice versa to make their point. CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was the organization responsible for the Freedom Rides. The Interstate Commerce declared it illegal to segregate in these places anymore. -
Herbert Lee
Voter registration worker killed by white legislator
Liberty, Mississippi -
Civil Rights Group
Civil Rights groups join forces to launch voter registration drive -
CPL Roman Ducksworth Jr.
Taken from a bus and killed by the police
Taylorsville, Mississippi -
Paul Guihard
French reporter killed duing Ole Miss riot
Oxford, Mississippi -
James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss
When James Meredith tried to enroll in the University of Mississipi (Ole Miss), riots and violence broke out on the campus. Two died, and many thers were wounded and/or arrested. The Kennedy Administation sent around 31,000 National Guardsmen to break up the fights and restore peace. -
William Lewis Moore
Slain During one-man march against segregation
Artalla, Alabama -
Birmingham Police
Birmingham police attack marching children with dogs and fire hoses -
George Wallace
Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in schoolhouse door to stop university integration -
Medgar Evers Assassinated
Medgar Evers was a civi rights activist who lived in Jackson, Mississippi. In his life he had volunteered for the US army and joined the NAACP. He also worked to end segregation at the University of Mississippi. He was shot and killed by a white supremacist in his own driveway. The killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was at first set free by the all-white jury. 30 years later his case was revisited and he recieved a life sentence in prison. -
March on Washington
Over 200,000 Americans, most of them black, marched in Washington D.C. They were gathered there to demand equal rights and to spread the knowledge of African American people's struggles- political, social, and financial. It was known as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom". When everyone had gathered, Martin Luther King Jr. had said his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
5 Schoolgirls Killed
Addie Mae Collins, Denise Mcnair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley were schoolgirls who were killed in the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Birmingham, Alabama -
Virgil Lamar Ware
Youth killed during a wave of racist violence
Birmingham, Alabama -
Poll Tax Outlawed
Poll tax outlawed in federal elections -
Louis Allen
Witness to assassination of civil rights worker
Liberty, Mississippi -
Rev. Bruce Klunder
Killed protesting construction of segregated school
Cleveland, Ohio -
Henry Hezekah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore
Killed by Klansmen
Meadville, Mississippi -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer brings 1,000 young civil rights volunteers to Mississippi -
James Chaney...
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were civil rights workers abducted and slain by Klansmen
Philadelphia, Mississippi -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by Johnson
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned public segregation and employment discimination based on religion, race/color, or sex. It is regarded as one of the most important Acts of Civil Rights history. This Act, which was first created by Kennedy, was passed by Lyndon B. Johnson after he died. -
LT. Col. Lemuel Penn
Killed by Klansmen while driving north
Colbert, Georgia -
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Civil Rights marcher killed by state trooper
Marion, Alabama -
State Troopers
State Troopers beat back marchers at Edmund Pettus Bridge
Selma, Alabama -
Rev. James Reeb
March volunteer beaten to death
Selma, Alabama -
Viola Gregg Liuzzo
Killed by Klansmen while transporting marchers
Selma Highway, Alabama -
Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery
Many Southern states still opposed rights for African Americans, which made it extremely difficult to execise their freedoms such as voting. Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization of Southern Christian Leadership Conference made Selma, Alabama the place they'd focus on. They were greeted with violence, but they were protected by the National Guard. They had successfully marched to Montgomery in 3 days and raised awareness for their cause. -
Oneal Moore
Black deputy killed by nightriders
Varnado, Louisiana -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965 -
Willie Brewster
Killed by Nightriders
Anniston, Alabama -
Jonathan Daniels
Seminary student killed by deputy
Hayneville, Alabama -
Samuel Younge Jr.
Student Civil Rights activist killed in dispute
Tuskegee, Alabama -
Vernon Dahmer
Black community leader killed in Klan bombing
Hattiesburg, Mississippi -
Ben Chester White
Killed by Klansmen
Natchez, Mississippi -
Clarence Triggs
Slain by nightriders
Bogalusa, Louisiana -
Wharlest Jackson
Civil Rights leader killed after promotion to "white job"
Natchez, Mississippi -
Benjamin Brown
Civil Rights worker killed when police fired on protesters
Jackson, Mississippi -
Thurgood Marshall Becomes first Black Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall's role of being the first black Supreme Court Justice impacted America greatly. It showed that blacks had come a long way in their pursuit of equal rights, to have an African American in such a high position. Often, in an all-white jury, the African American was discriminated against even if they were right. Then Marshall halted discrimination in his court. Prior to being the first black Supreme Court Justice, Marshall was the leading civil rights lawyer of America. -
Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, Henry Smith
Students killed when highway patrolmen fired on protesters
Crangeburg, South Carolina -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
In the months leading to his assassination,Martin Luther King Jr. worked towards economic equality for all races in America. He led a worker's protest, which became violent quickly. He gave his last sermon, in which he told his people to keep fighting and that they will have equality someday. He was shot in the jaw.
He gave hope to his own race, and any victims of discrimination. His was the death of a just and brave leader, and America reaized its hatred in his death.
