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Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States -
NAACP was founded
On February 12, 1909, the nation's largest and most widely recognized civil rights organization was born -
Brown v. Board of Education
State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional -
"the mother of the civil rights movement"
Rosa Parks invigorated the struggle for racial equality when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama -
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights -
Desegregation of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas
students, now known as the Little Rock Nine, entered Central High School, an academically renowned school with an enrollment of approximately two thousand white students -
Sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter
When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South -
“freedom ride”
student activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the Freedom Rides to challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals -
Dr. King was thrown into Birmingham Jail
a state judge granted city officials an injunction banning all anti-segregation protest activity in the city of Birmingham. Dr. King and the Rev. Abernathy chose to lead a march in defiance of the injunction and were arrested on April 12, 1963 -
March on Washington
a quarter of a million people rallied in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to demand an end to segregation, fair wages and economic justice, voting rights, education, and long overdue civil rights protections -
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Despite Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963, his proposal culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law just a few hours after it was passed by Congress on July 2, 1964. The act outlawed segregation in businesses such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels -
“Bloody Sunday”
a march held in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 for the 600 people attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, It was there that law enforcement officers beat unarmed marchers with billy clubs and sprayed them with tear gas -
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections -
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights movement leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m -
Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers
The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s