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XXI (21st) Amendment
The 21st Amendment was where alcohol was no longer prohibited to people in the United States. This Amendment was also considered a repeal of the 18th Amendment- where alcohol was prohibited everywhere. -
Brown v Board of Education
Categorized as one of the “cornerstones of the civil rights movement,” the Brown v Board of Education helped to establish and enforce the theory that whites and blacks were equal, but still separate from each other. This meant that students of different colors were learning the same things and getting the same education, however, they were not learning it together in the same environment. -
Brown v Board of Education II
Where this case helped to get blacks integrated into school systems - like the Little Rock Nine in Little Rock Central High School. The Supreme Court sent steps to the schools to show how they were going to integrate blacks into their public schools system. -
White Citizens Council
The White Citizens Council was a white supremacist council in the South. The members of this council practiced the extreme rights of whites and tried to suppress the development of desegregation. -
Lynching of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was taken from his home in Mississippi, where he was visiting family, by two white men to be beaten and brutally murdered. He was killed was because Till was supposedly flirting with a white woman at a store. The men, four days later, forced Till into their car, beaten brutally and killed. He was later found in the Mississippi River but was too disfigured to even tell it was him afterwards. His mother wanted an open casket for the public to see. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks was a 42-year-old lady who sat down in the front of a integrated bus coming home from work. When a white man told her to move, she told him no. She was later arrested for not moving for this man. -
Martin Luther King House Bombing
In Montgomery, Alabama, MLK’s house was bombed while he was speaking at a protest that was to support the bus boycott after the Rosa Parks incident. When he heard about the bomb, he raced home to make sure his wife and child weren’t hurt. He gave a little speech out the front of his porch saying not to engage in violence with the white supremacists and to not get involved like how the enraged blacks were. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott from 1955-1956 was a protest to show that inequality/segregation on public transportation buses is unacceptable and that black people were not here for it. They would walk everywhere instead of taking the bus or any other type of transformation to work, school, home, etc. -
SCLC Founded
The SCLC, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was a nonprofit, African American organization that helped to encourage nonviolent protests against racial segregation. This organization as well made a document claiming that everyone needs their civil rights that they are entitled to. -
Eisenhower sends in Federal Troops
In Little Rock, Arkansas, segregation was getting very out of hand in the schools: so much that Eisenhower had to send in Federal Troops to protect the Little Rock Nine, and to help maintain the crowds around the schools and other public places. -
SNCC Formed
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was a civil rights movement group - one of the more important ones - that was formed in hopes of giving youth blacks more voice in the civil rights movement. The first meeting of the SNCC was actually in and during one of the Greensboro sit ins, formed by Ella Baker. -
Greensboro sit ins
The Greensboro sit ins were many nonviolent protesting sit ins inside of restaurants. This occured due to white employees not serving the African American customers who sat at the countertops while dining. -
Freedom Rides (date is first one)
Freedom Rides occurred for many months in Jackson, MI and they consisted of people who were against segregation and who wanted to “challenge” (nonviolently) the segregation that occurred on public transportation. -
White mob attacks federal marshals in Montgomery
Racial violence broke out in Montgomery, Alabama with the bus riders. 20 African American riders were beaten brutally including federal marshals who were trying to stop the riots. 400 federal marshals were sent with armed weapons to stop any further attacks but were taken over by KKK members and other violent groups. -
Albany Georgia “failure”
The Albany Movement consisted of many people who wanted to desegregate and get voters rights in Albany, Georgia. These peoples who were partaking in this movement wanted to desegregate public places but was unsuccessful, therefore making this movement a “failure.” -
Bailey v Patterson
This court case had the outcome of racial segregation becoming “optional” in a way. No state was formally required to implement segregation laws regarding public and private segregation with restaurants, bathrooms, transportation, etc.. -
MLK goes to a Birmingham jail
While protesting against white supremacy in Birmingham, Alabama, MLK and many others were arrested. While in jail, King wrote a letter. This letter was about why he was protesting against the law. He said “I am here because injustice is here,” meaning he is put in jail exactly to show how injustice was serving him at the time. -
Bombing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
Fred Shuttlesworth was a baptist minister and also a civil rights leader, working alongside Martin Luther King Jr. After organizing and trying to implement bus desegregation, his home was bombed by the KKK on Christmas. He was inside, but able to survive through it. -
Kennedy sends in Federal Troops
President Kennedy sent in military riot-based units to help protect minor citizens who were being attacked by segregationists. He said that “violence breeds more violence” which helped those being attacked to be the bigger people and let the federal troops do the work. -
Equal Pay Act
This Equal Pay Act was a law that got rid of the wage gap between men and women. JFK implemented this and the gender wage gap was taken away and equal pay was established. It was “equal pay for equal work.” -
Assassination of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was a American civil rights activist who was assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi. He was shot by a white supremacist whose name was Byron De La Beckwith. He was in the army during WWII and had joined the NAACP. -
March on Washington “I have a Dream”
On August 28, 1963, there was a huge protest march that occured in Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made a speech titled “I have a Dream.” This empowering speech gave great optimism to many people, in hopes that one day everyone of different race, ethnicity, and gender can all be equal. -
Bombing of a church in Birmingham
16th Street Baptist church was the oldest church in Birmingham, and on September 15, 1963, it was bombed by white supremacist group, KKK. 4 people died after the Klu Klux Klan members called about bomb threats to there and all 4 were young girls who were at church. This bombing was one of many after a court mandated the integration of blacks in white schools. -
Assassination of JFK
John F. Kennedy was riding in the back of a convertible car next to his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, when he was shot in the head and in the neck. He was 46 years old and the man who shot him was Lee Harvey Oswald, a man who was a former U.S. Marine but discharged around 1959 when he tried to become a citizen in the Soviet Union. -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a voter registration drive in which civil rights organizations sponsored to help with increasing the black voter registration in Mississippi. Here, many white supremacist groups, such as the KKK, underwent violent attacks on this organization to try and stop it. -
Killing of Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner
At the Freedom Summer of 1964, a voter registration project to expand black voting in the South, three men were killed. The three men killed were civil rights activists who were participating in the Freedom Summer; their names were James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The man who supposedly led this assassination was Edgar Ray Killen, a KKK organizer. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act was where discrimination based on anything - race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity - was outlawed. This was passed so that segregation would be outlawed in public places: bathrooms, movie theaters, restaurants, etc. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was a minister and human rights activist who was the Islamic spokesman in the 1950s-1960s. He was shot in New York City while he was giving a speech about the Afro-American Unity in a ballroom. Growing up, threats from the KKK caused their family to move from Nebraska to Michigan so that his father could further his preaching. -
Selma to Montgomery March
The Selma to Montgomery marches were a series of three marches in which a 54-mile walk across the highway from Selma to the state capital was held. On these marches, African Americans and other desegregation supporters walked through different communities in hopes of touching other people’s lives. Faced with violent and racist whites, these people went through horrifying measures to finish the job. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act helped to establish and enforce the 15th Amendment, which is what made it possible for African Americans to vote. President Lyndon Johnson wanted to help with these efforts to end racial segregation piece by piece. -
Black Panthers Formed
In Oakland, California, a Black Panther party was founded for self-defense from hate groups who were out to get the minorities in the community. It was very highly-organized and ran a tight operation around Oakland. -
Loving v Virginia:
This was a court case where a black woman and white man fell in love and got married, but their marriage was “deemed illegal” because interracial marriage was looked down upon and had never happened. This court case went against the laws where interracial marriage was not allowed and was overcome. -
Minneapolis Riots
In Minneapolis on Plymouth Ave, a racial riot broke out as harmful weapons were used on African Americans living in the community. The violence lasted for 3 nights because Jewish and African Americans were not allowed to buy houses in Minneapolis. -
Detroit Riots
After many riots all over the United States, in 160 places, the one of the deadliest ones was in Detroit. After 5 days, 43 people died, 342 people were injured, and over 1,000 buildings were burned and wrecked. Army troops and the National Guard was called to help stop these riots against blacks. -
Assassination of MLK
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee on the balcony of his motel room while about to prompt a protest. He was only 39 years old and died around 7pm that night. James Earl Ray was the man who shot King. -
Assassination of Robert "Bobby" Kennedy
Senator Bobby Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after he was announced the winner of the California presidential primary. A Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan shot Kennedy many times and Kennedy died the next day. Kennedy, to the people, seemed to be one of the only/most influential people who was able to unite American people together.
