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Brown v Board of Education
decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court where it was ruled that laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional. Even if schools that are segregated are equal in quality -
White Citizens Council
This organization came out of the south. It was full of white supremacists. An extreme group of radicals. -
Brown v Board of Education II
A year after the Supreme Court ordered that racial segregation in schools is illegal, they held another court case because the schools were moving far too slow in integrating. -
Lynching of Emmett Till
A fourteen year old African American boy was lynched in Mississippi after being accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store. He became an icon for the civil rights movement because of the brutality of the attack. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested for this, leading to a bus boycott shortly after. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a protest against the segregated bus system in Montgomery. Rosa parks standing up for what she believed in led to others in the community making themselves hear by peacefully protesting. -
Martin Luther King House Bombing
Segregationists were very upset by the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and took their frustrations out on King by bombing his home. -
SCLC Founded
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC's first president was Martin Luther King Jr. SCLC had a large role in the American civil rights movement. -
Eisenhower sends in Federal Troops
President Eisenhower sent federal troops to little rock Alabama to protect students and restore order. After a year of integration in the schools, the governor was finally able to send them away. -
SNCC Formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States. It focused on black power, and draft resistance to the Vietnam War. -
Greensboro sit ins
A civil rights protest where young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to many other colleges in the south. -
Albany Georgia “failure”
This was an attempt to desegregate public spaces. It challenged racial segregation in Albany. MLK and the SCLC joined the movement eventually. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States. They did this to protest segregated bus terminals. -
White mob attacks federal marshals in Montgomery
The police left a bus of freedom riders right before it entered the Montgomery terminal. At the terminal, a white mob attacked the riders. -
Bailey v Patterson
African-Americans in Mississippi brought this to a federal district court for all African-Americans living in Mississippi. They wanted to enforce their constitutional rights to nonsegregated service in interstate transportation. -
MLK goes to a Birmingham jail
King went to Birmingham jail because of the injustice that was happening there, and he was invited. He sent a letter from Birmingham jail which talked about the importance of preaching nonviolence. -
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act states that it is now required by law to pay men and women the same based on their work. -
Assassination of Medgar Evers
In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers was shot by Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist. -
March on Washington “I have a Dream”
The March on Washington was held in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the march was to enforce civil and economic rights for African Americans. During this MLK gave his famous I have a Dream Speech. -
Bombing of a church in Birmingham
This was an act of terrorism from white supremacists. They bombed a church with a predominantly black congregation. This church also served as a place for civil rights leaders. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
The 35th President of the United States was assassinated while driving down Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas Texas. He was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. -
Freedom Summer
This was a volunteer campaign, its purpose was to get as many African American voters to register to vote as possible. -
24th Amendment
Does not allow Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. -
Killing of Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner
These are also known as the freedom summer murders. They Include 3 activists who were abducted and murdered in Mississippi -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights act of 1964 was a very big step in American history as it banned segregation in public places and discrimination in the workplace when hiring pertaining to both race and gender. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X, was a human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He was killed by rival black muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity. -
Selma to Montgomery March
State Legislatures in the South had passed discriminatory laws in the south which lead to a march from Selma to Montgomery. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was made 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. -
Black Panthers Formed
this was originally the Black Panther Party for self-defense founded with the ideology of black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense. -
Bombing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
The Ku Klux Klan bombed Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth's home. He was a civil rights activist leader. He was home at the time of the bombing with two family members. -
Loving v Virginia
Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married and fought to stopped laws banning interracial marriages. -
Minneapolis Riots
These riots were acts of assault, and vandalism. The violence lasted for three nights and is often linked with other race-related demonstrations. -
Detroit Riots
This is also known as the 12th street riot. This was the bloodiest incident of that summer. and was caused by African Americans anger and frustration about unemployment. -
Assassination of MLK
MLK was shot while on the balcony of Lorraine motel, he was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead an hour later. -
Assassination of Robert Kennedy
presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.