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Plessy v. Ferguson
the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority one justice did not participate, advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. In 1892, passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court for New Orleans, who upheld the state law. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a watershed event in the history of the US.The class action lawsuit, filed by Brown and nearly twenty others, ended in the U.S. District Court's ruling in favor of the Board of Education. In 1955, the Supreme Court issued an additional edict, which instructed states to begin the process of desegregation "with all deliberate speed." -
Emmett Till Murder
On August 28, 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped and murdered in Money, Mississippi, galvanizing support for racial reform in the South. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott. Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956, and is regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. -
Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) & Martin Luther King
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ... Martin Luther King, Jr., Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others, founded the SCLC in order to have a regional organization that could better coordinate civil rights protest activities across the South. -
Little Rock Nine & Central High School
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine black students who enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957. Their attendance at the school was a test of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students entry into high school. -
Greensboro Sit-In
The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960, when young African-American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. Though many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate and lasting impact. -
Freedom Ride/Freedom Riders
The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961 when seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South. They intended to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. -
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. At least 200,000 to 300,000 people participated in the march. The highlight of the march, which attracted 250,000 people, was Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. To protest racial discrimination and to show support for major civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) & Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the the Mississippi Summer Project, was a 1964 voter registration drive sponsored by civil rights organizations including the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Aimed at increasing black voter registration in Mississippi, the Freedom Summer workers included black Mississippians and more than 1,000 out-of-state, predominately white volunteers. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
On February 21, 1965, in Washington Heights, New York City, NY , Malcolm X was shot before he was about to deliver a speech about his new organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Reporters inspect the scene of the assassination, inside the Audobon Ballroom in New York. His actual full name Malcolm Little. Famous quote, "Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery". -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. King was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel was owned by businessman Walter Bailey and named after his wife. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. CST.
