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XXI (21st) Amendment
The 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment, which was enacted in 1919. The 18th amendment was the prohibition on alcohol. -
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Brown v Board of Education
The Supreme courts declared that schools separated by black and white students were unconstitutional. This case was a landmark winning with a unanimous vote. -
White Citizens Council
The White Citizens Council was founded by Robert B. Patterson. This organization was made up of white supremacists and extreme right people. The goal of the group was to maintain segregation between races. -
Brown v Board of Education II
The year before this case, Brown v. Board of Education was a case that declared racial segregation in schools unconstitutional. This case, Brown II, ordered schools to start integrating their schools rapidly. -
Lynching of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a young black 14-year-old visiting his family in Mississippi. The young boy cat called a middle-aged white woman. That night two men came and grabbed the teenager and brutally beat and hung him. This caused an uproar, for white supremicits mutalated a young boy just for whistling at a white woman. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to give up her front row seat on the bus to a white male. She was then arrested for civil disobedience. Her refusal to give up her seat sparked the bus boycott. Then led to the supreme court decision of prohibiting segregation of transportation. -
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Montgomery bus boycott
Montgomery bus boycott was a peaceful civil rights protest. The boycott was sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks. This was a protest against the segregated transportation systems. It lasted over 365 days, and the protest was made up of African Americans and some whites, and they all refused to ride the buses. This decreased a huge amount of the transportations income. This long protest was worth it, for it resulted in the Supreme court ruling that segregated transportation was unconstitutional. -
Martin Luther King House Bombing
The recent success of the Montgomery bus boycott resulted in segregationalists bombing MLK´s home. The bomb was planted and went off while MLK was giving a speech that was in support of the boycott. No one was injured, but his home was charred. To this day, no one has been prosecuted for the bombing of his home. -
Bombing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
The Ku Klux Klan bombed civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth home in Birmingham, Alabama. Shuttlesworth indeed survived the explosion but members of the KKK attempted to execute him 4 more times. The assassination attempts did not stop Reverend Shuttlesworth, and he went on protesting for his rights, and MLK describes Shuttlesworth as “the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.” -
SCLC Founded
SCLC stands for The Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This confrence was an African-American oriented organization, with its first president being MLK. It was a huge component throughout the American civil rights movement. -
Eisenhower sends in Federal Troops
President Eisenhower sent federal troop to Little Rock, Arkansas on September 24, 1957. He did this in efforts to make way for the 9 black students to attend the Central High School. It was to prevent the mobs and their hatred that would accumulate when the kids attempted to attend the school. -
SNCC Formed
SNCC stands for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was an interracial organization that fought for nonviolence. This group helped give a voice to younger blacks that were fighting for their rights. -
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Greensboro sit ins
In Greensboro, North Carolina, a couple African American boys sat at a segregated counter at Woolworths. The boys refused to leave when they were not served. This sparked a series of nonviolent protests all over. People went and sat at segregated counters and refused to leave. This made Woolworths and many other establishments change tehir segregation laws. -
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Albany Georgia “failure”
In November 1962 a coalition called the Albany Movement was created. It was a desegregation and voters rights group. It resulted with the arrest of over 1,000
african Americans. MLK was a part of the group but when he left Albany, the city failed to uphold its agreement. The movement failed, and the city was at the same place as it started. -
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Freedom Rides
Freedom rides were launched by the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE. Freedom riders were civil right activists that took bus trips through the South. These freedom rides were in nonviolent protest against segregated bus terminals. This resulted in the supreme court case Morgan v. Virginia and the case ruled that segregated bus seating was unconstitutional. -
White mob attacks federal marshals in Montgomery
On may 20th, 1961 a mob of 400 white segregationists attacked a group of freedom riders. The freedom riders were peacefully protesting at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama when they were stuck with pipes and baseball bats. Some officials were beaten too when trying to help some of the freedom riders. Kennedy then sent in federal marshalls to Montgomery to restore peace. -
Bailey v Patterson
Bailey v Patterson was a court case brought to the supreme court by Patterson. He was fighting to enforce their (black) constitutional rights to nonsegregated service. The court ruling was that there could be no interaction segregation in transportation. -
MLK goes to a Birmingham jail
MLK and a couple others were arrested for protesting in Birmingham. The court held a case and ruled that Martin Luther King Junior could not hold protests in Birmingham. From this event, MLK wrote his famous letter "Letter From Birmingham Jail," written to 8 white christian ministers. -
Equal Pay Act
President Kennedy signed the labor law that declared gender-based wage discrimination unconstitutional. The law states equal pay for equal work. It prohibited companies from paying men and women different amounts for the same work. -
Kennedy sends in Federal Troops
At this time Alabama was the only state to not have integrated race into the school system. President Kennedy told Governor George Wallace that he must comply with the law and allow 2 African American students to register to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. On June 11th, the Governor stood outside the doors with the National Guard not allowing the students to register. Kennedy then sent in troops that forced teh Governor to let in the children. -
Assassination of Medgar Evers
White Supremacist De La Beckwith assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers. He was shot right in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Evers was also part of the NAACP, national association for the Advancement of Colored People. -
March on Washington “I have a Dream”
The March on Washington took place by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The civil rights leaders were there in protest of racial segregation. This event drew in more than 250,000 people. And with this giant crowd, the main component was Martin Luther King Juniors famous “I have a Dream” speech. This was a landmark event in the civil rights movement. And the “I have a Dream” speech seemed to become the phrase of a majority of all civil rights activists. -
Bombing of a church in Birmingham
A bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church. The bomb killed 4 young girls and multiple more were injured. This was an act of white supremacists. This awful act brought attention to the struggles that civil right activists endured. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
The 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas while taking part in the presidential motorcade in Dealey Plaza. Lee Harvey Oslwald was the perpetrator, shooting JFK with an Italian Carcano M91. -
Freedom Summer
Robert Moses suggested the idea of Freedom Summer to SNCC and COFO, and he was given permission to lead the project in June. This was a volunteer program that wanted to get as many African Americans living in Mississippi registered to vote. It was important because it was the start of the enaction of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. -
Killing of Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner
During the civil rights movement, three civil rights activists were abducted and murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi. Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Mikey Schwerner were the three victims, and they were all associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This civil rights act was a landmark in the fight for equal rights. It put an end to segregation in public places and employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin was unconstitutional. A turning point in the civil rights movement. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was in Washington Heights, New York City getting ready to give about the Organization of Afro-American Unity, his new organization. He was shot by the rival Black Muslims while speaking about his new organization. -
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Selma to Montgomery March
This march took place on the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama all the way to Montgomery, Alabama. This march was a fight for black voters right to register in the South. Along the march, the protesters experienced severe acts of brutality. Luckily, the National Guard came and protected the peaceful marchers, and helped them reach Montgomery. This intense march showed the need for a national Voting Rights Act. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was enacted to overcome obstacles that prevented blacks from their right to vote. The 15th amendment gave the right for all races to vote under the constitution. -
Black Panthers Formed
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the BPP, the Black Panthers Party. This party was a political organization that fought against police brutality towards the African American community. The members would wear black leather jackets and black berets. At the height of its reign around 2,000 members had joined. -
Loving v Virginia
Loving V. Virginia was a case in the supreme court about interracial marriages. The ruling was interracial marriages could not be prohibited. -
Minneapolis Riots
A sequence of vandalism and assaults sparked in North Minneapolis, on July 19, 1967. Plymouth Avenue is where African Americans erupted with violent protesting against discrimination and racial segregation. The violence lasted 3 days and in that time there were 36 arrests and 24 injuries and severe damages raking up a bill of 4.2 million in repairs. -
Detroit Riots
The spark of the riots was a police raid at a drinking club. The riot was mainly between blacks and the police. It lasted from July 23rd - July 27th. The results were 43 people dead, many injured, and more than 7,000 people were arrested. The Detroit Riots are considered one of the most destructive and gruesome riots in US history. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Junior was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was the man that pulled the trigger. At St. Joseph's Hospital, MLK was declared dead at 7:05 p.m -
Assassination of Robert “Bobby” Kennedy
American Politician and lawyer, Robert Kennedy, was shot on June 6th, in Los Angeles, CA. After winning the California presidential primary Bobby was shot by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died at Good Samaritan Hospital the next day.
