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Brown v. Board of Education 📅 May 17, 1954
Supreme Court decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Emmett Till Murder
14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi after being accused of whistling at a white woman. His death shocked the nation and energized the Civil Rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat sparked a year-long boycott of Montgomery buses, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -
The Little Rock Nine and Integration
Nine Black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, under federal protection after facing violent resistance. -
Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins
Four Black college students sat at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, starting a wave of nonviolent sit-ins across the South. -
Freedom Rides
Interracial activists rode buses through the South to challenge segregation in interstate travel facilities; they were met with violence but drew national attention. -
MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this letter defending nonviolent protest while jailed for demonstrating against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. -
March on Washington
Over 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand civil and economic rights; MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
Four young Black girls were killed in a KKK bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, prompting national outrage. -
24th Amendment
Banned poll taxes in federal elections, which had been used to prevent many Black Americans from voting. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public places, schools, and employment. -
“Bloody Sunday” / Selma to Montgomery March
Peaceful protesters marching for voting rights were brutally attacked by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Prohibited racial discrimination in voting and gave the federal government authority to oversee voter registration in states with histories of discrimination. -
Loving v. Virginia
Supreme Court decision that struck down laws banning interracial marriage, declaring them unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment.