Civil Rights Timeline By Devin MacRitchie

By Devin MacRitchie

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    1. Plessy v. Ferguson
    2. Linda Brown, an African American was denied admission to her neighborhood school because of her race.
    3. The case was ruled unconstitutional.

  • The death of Emmett Till

    The death of Emmett Till
    1. Money, Mississippi.
    2. Emmett Till was visiting relatives in the area. He went into a store and spoke to a white women. The husband came to his door late at night and took him and brutally killed him. They let his body go in a river.

  • Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat

    Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat
    1. Rosa Parks decided to stand up for her rights by not moving when a white man came to sit down on the bus. The cops gave her an option to move but she refused. She was arrested for her actions.
    2. She was arrested. Her actions started a 381 day bus boycott.

  • Montgomery bus boycott

    Montgomery bus boycott
    1. Montgomery, Alabama.
    2. After Rosa Parks was arrested, African Americans walked instead of riding the bus. It was their way of protesting their rights of equality. Some bus companies had to temporarily shutdown due to the boycott.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Civil Rights Act of 1957
    1. President Eisenhower.
    2. To protect the right of African Americans to vote.

  • Events at Little Rock, Arkansas

    Events at Little Rock, Arkansas
    1. 9 African American students were supposed to attend Central High (an all white school). When the whites heard the news, they started riots and mobs when the African American students got there.
    2. The federal government sent in the U.S army to protect the students. The troops stayed in Little Rock for the rest of the year.

  • Attack of the Freedom Riders

    Attack of the Freedom Riders
    1. They would try and draw attention to the South's refusal to integrate bus terminals by riding a bus down into the South. They put their life on the line.
    2. CORE organization.
    3. Both whites and African Americans were part of the Freedom Riders.

  • James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss

    James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss
    1. He was denied admittance by Governor Barnett. After he wasn't granted permission, Kennedy became frustrated and dispatched 500 federal marshals to escort James Meredith to the campus. He was able to attend the university. 2.

  • Medgar Evers assassinated

    Medgar Evers assassinated
    1. He was an African American civil rights activist. He organized voter registration and civil right demonstrations. He also became the first state secretary of the NAACP.
    2. Byron Beckwith shot Medgar in the back in front of Medgar's home.

  • The March on Washington

    The March on Washington
    1. To gain congress and public support for the civil rights movement.
    2. Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a dream" speech.

  • Freedom Summer

    Freedom Summer
    1. All over Mississippi.
    2. The CORE and SNCC organized a voter registration drive. It consisted of black Mississippians and more than 1000 out of state volunteers. They were harassed and embarrassed. Some were falsly arrested, beaten and 3 civil rights activists were killed. This all happened in the summer of 1964. The starting date was June 20, 1964.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Civil Rights Act of 1964
    1. President Johnson.
    2. It made segregation illegal in most public places and gave citizens of any ethnicity equal access to facilities like parks, restaurants and theaters.

  • March to Selma

    March to Selma
    1. To show the public how the African Americans are treated. The majority of people in the community were black but only made up 3 percent of voters.
    2. Sheriff Jim Clark gave weapons to white citizens to terrorize the demonstrators.
    3. The nation was stunned. 8 days later, President Johnson proposed a new voting rights law.

  • The death of Willie Brewster

    The death of Willie Brewster
    1. Anniston, Alabama.
    2. He was a black worker who lived in Anniston. When he was driving home, he was shot and killed. Damon Strange was convicted and had attachments with the KKK. This was the first time a white man was convicted for killing a African American in Alabama during the civil rights movement.

  • The death of Benjamin Brown

    The death of Benjamin Brown
    1. Jackson, Mississippi.
    2. During a rowdy student demonstration, officers had to take control by shooting into the crowd. Benjamin Brown was shot twice. Those shots led to his death the next day.

  • Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice

    Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice
    1. NAACP's chief counsel and director of the Legal Defense and Education Fund. He was an African American attorney.
    2. Because he was the first black justice in the Supreme Court. That proved that African Americans can hold a high federal position.

  • The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King

    The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
    1. Martin Luther King Jr. was standing on his balcony in Memphis, Tennessee and was shot by a sniper. He was there to support a strike of African American sanitation workers.
    2. He was a man who was trying to unite the races peacefully. The people know there probably wouldn't be another person like him. He created new opportunities where there had been none.