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Brown v. Board of Education
The Brown v. Board of Education started in Topeka, Kansas. A public school refused to let Oliver Brown's daughter attend that school, and it was the nearest one to them. The Board of Education was found Separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. The Board of Education created a school system where everyone could attend no matter the race. -
Emmett Till
This event took place in Money, Mississippi, the murder of Emmett Till. Emmett walked inside a store to buy candy and when he and his cousins were walking out he whistled at the white lady, the owner’s wife. After that, the white lady named Carolyn said that he grabbed her by the waist. Carolyn’s husband Roy and brother-in-law J.W went to Kidnap Emmett. They tortured him, killed him, and threw him in a River. They confessed but nothing happened to them because the members of jury were all white. -
Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott
It happened on December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks was so tired of unfair treatment and she wanted to do something. There were four of them on the “colored” seat, the other three moved but she refused to give up her seat. She was seated but she was supposed to go behind where African Americans were placed. Then she got arrested. With her arrest The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a 13 month mass protest that ended segregation on public buses. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
January 10, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King Jr was involved in this conference as well as 60 black ministers and Civil Right Leaders. The SCLC was an organization linked to the black churches. Regarded churches as pivotal organizing spaces for civil rights activism. The ministers of SCLC chose Martin Luther King as president of the organization. This organization led the group and organized The Civil Rights Movement. It focused on desegregating indictable cities. -
Little Rock 9
This event was on September 4, 1957, in Little Rock, Arkansas. 9 teens that were known for being the first African American Students to enter Little Rock’s Central High School. The Arkansas governor Orval Faunus ordered the state's National Guard to block their entrance into the school about two times. Then after, they were each assigned a police officer to keep them safe. The police officers didn’t tag along all the time so there were times where they were basically bullied. -
Greensboro Sit ins
This event happened in Greensboro, North Carolina on January 1, 1960. This involved 4 college students. One day all the 4 students were talking for a while in their dorm. These students wanted to protest but in a peaceful way. They walked in a store, sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. These boys made an impact because a wave of similar action across the region and other places spread and people started to protest peacefully too. -
Ruby Bridges
This history started in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 14, 1960. 6 years old Ruby Bridges was involved and her teacher Barbara Henry. Ruby Bridges was one of the four students that passed the academic test from the NAACP. She was only 6 years old when she attended the Louisiana Schools. When she started school she was escorted by 4 U.S. marshals to and from school. White parents pulled their children out of the school and Ruby was the only kid in school. The next year she had a normal class. -
Freedom Riders
This event took place in the south on May 4, 1961- December 10, 1961. 436 individuals in 60 separate Rides participated. The Freedom Riders are groups of whites and African Americans, they were civil rights activists. They left Washington D.C. and headed to New Olreans, but they faced resistance and arrests in Virginia. In South Carolina they encountered Violence. They did this to protest segregated bus terminals. -
March on Washington
This event took place on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. This event was to demand an end to segregation, fair wages and economic justice, voting rights, education, and long overdue civil rights. This involved about 250,000 people marching. It was a peaceful and respectful protest for jobs and freedom. During this time Martin Luther King gave his famous speech called, “I have a dream” to all the people that were there protesting. That speech was the last speech of the day. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
This event took place in Washington D.C. on July 2, 1964. London B. Johnson signed the civil rights bill into law. On July 2, 1964, it prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. So no one could get discriminated against and have equal rights for everyone. This event also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of multiple schools. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
This event took place on February 21, 1965 in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom Manhattan, New York. Malcolm X is an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. 39 year old Malcolm was addressing his organization of Afro-American Unity. During his speech Malcolm X was shot multiple times and died from all the shots he had received. After his assassination three men were identified as members of the Nation Islam, who assassinated Malcolm X. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches (Bloody Sunday)
This event took place on March 7, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama. This was a protest or march that was held about the blocking of African Americans rights and to exercise their constitutional right to vote. About 600 people were attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. During that time the law enforcement officers beat the protesters with items like Billy clubs, sprayed them with tear gas. This resulted in what’s called now the “Bloody Sunday.” -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
This event occurred on August 6, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. This day was called, “a triumph for freedom as a huge as any victory that has ever been won on any battlefield” by Lyndon B. Johnson. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law. This law was to ban racial discrimination practices in voting. About 4 months the congress passed the bill. The Voting Rights Act abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to let African American voters have the right. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King
Martin Luther king Jr Assassinated, in Memphis, Tennessee. The day before he was preparing for the march on behalf of the striking Memphis Sanitation workers. April 4 MLK was getting ready for dinner with Ralph Abernathy. They were supposed to go to a local minister, Reverend Billy Kyles. He was shot at around 6:00 to 6:05 while standing on his balcony outside his second-floor room. He was taken in an ambulance to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where the doctors pronounced him dead around 7:05pm.