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Brown v. The Board of Education
A man named Oliver Brown filed a class action lawsuit when his daughter was denied entrance to an all-white school in Kansas. His argument was that schools for Black children were not equal to white schools. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and resulted in a unanimous vote (9-0), establishing that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional. (lasting 1952-1954) -
Emmett Till Murder
Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy from Chicago, who was visiting family in Mississippi. He was with his cousins when they dared him to talk to a white woman in a convenience store. A few days later the woman’s husband and brother went to Till’s uncle's house demanding to see him, a few days later they found Emmett’s body beaten and he was shot in the head. His mother insisted on an open casket funeral because she wanted the world to see what they had done to her son. -
Rosa Parks & The Montgomery Bus Boycott
In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man. Because it was a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The Mont. Bus Boycott took place 4 days after Rosa P. was jailed, Blacks (protesters) refused to ride city buses in Alabama. It lasted for a year. -
Little Rock Nine
A group of nine African American students who enrolled in an all-white Central HS in Little Rock, Arkansas.There attendance was a test for the aftermath of Brown v. The BOE. The governor called in the National Guard to keep everyone safe if anything were to happen. -
Greensboro Woolworth’s Sit-ins
The Greensboro Four were 4 Black, male students who staged the first sit-in. They were influenced by nonviolent protests. The four of them went and sat at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s, which had a policy not to to serve anyone who wasn't white. Police were called but couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t any violence. By 4 days later 300 more students had joined and it had spread to other cities as well. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Rides were bus trips through the American South to protest separated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at stations. They were confronted by arresting police officers and also violence from white protesters. -
March on Washington
The event where the well-known “I Have A Dream” speech was given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Around 250,000 people were gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. The goal of the event was to draw attention to the challenges and inequalities that African Americans faced even a decade after the emancipation. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
A bomb went off before a Sunday morning service in the 16th Street Birmingham Alabama. The church was mostly a Black congregation that was also a meeting place for Civil Rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many others were injured, there were about 300 people already in the church when it went off. The church got calls from KKK sending threats very often so they were the first suspected. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination. No longer could African Americans or other colors be denied service based on the color of their skin. -
Voting Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law, it was aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels so that it prevented Blacks from exercising their right to vote which was guaranteed under the 15th Amendment of the US Const. (Considered one of the most important pieces in civil rights legislation.) -
”Bloody Sunday” / Selma to Montgomery March
A group of protesters planned to march a 54-mile route from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery in an effort to register Black voters in the South. Around 600 people were crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge to begin the March, they were stopped with a violent attack from state troopers and white vigilante groups. National Guard Troops came in and the group achieved their goal. -
Loving v. Virginia
Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, were married in the District of Columbia. They returned to Virginia and were charged with violating the state’s anti miscegenation statute, they were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail. With some help, the Lovings appealed to the Supreme Court, ruling unanimously that the “statutes” were unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.