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Creation of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. After a race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, "The Call" went out to Northerners to find a way to create social equality. A group of racial activists hald a conference in New York City in response to "The Call" and decided to form the NAACP (orginally called the Natioanl Negro Committee). -
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black teenagers accused of rape in Alabama. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with rascism and the right to a fair trial. The case included a frameup, an al-white jury, rushed trials, an attempted lynching, and an angry mob; it is frequently given as an example of an overall miscarriage of justice. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
The first African-American in the major leagues when he plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He encountered racism from opposing teams and fans, as wel as some of his own teammates. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to publuc education. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement. -
The Murder of Emmett Till
In Money, Mississippi, a 14-year-old African American from Chicago was brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants-the white woman's husband and her brother-made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the back of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to tak eoff his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to deht, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to a cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. -
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Montegomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montegomery, Alabama. An African-American woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person sparked the boycott. -
Little Rock 9
A group of African American students who enrolled in Little Rcok Central High. Their enrollment was followed by the Litttle Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower. -
Ruby Bridges Desegregates Elementary School
First black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. She attended Wiliam Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
An open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. -
Assassination of Malcom X
While preparing to address the Organization of the Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun; two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
A black revoltionary socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. They achieved national and international notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and U.S. politics of the 1960s and 1970s. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
Presdient Johnson nominated Marshall to become the Supreme Court Justice. He was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69-11. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights leader was hit by a sniper's bullet. He was standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King's right cheeck, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Election of Barack Obama
He is the first African-American to hold the office of President of the United States.
