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14th Amendment
Defines national citizenship; forbids any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges. "To all persons born or naturalized in the U.S." which included formers slaves recently freed. -
Creation of The NAACP
NAACP was established in 1909 and is America’s oldest & largest civil rights organization. It was formed in NYC by white and black activists, in response to the ongoing violence against AA's around the country & in response to the 1908 Springfield race riot in Illinois where two black men being held in a Springfield jail for alleged crimes against whites were transferred to a jail in another city, spurring a white mob to burn 40 homes in Springfield’s black residential district & murder 2 AA's. -
Brown vs. Board of education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. 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. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. -
Little rock integration
The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, gained national attention on September 3, 1957, when Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating the high school. After several failed attempts to negotiate with Faubus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took action against the defiant governor by removing the Guard from Faubus' control and ordering one thousand troops -
Freedom Ride
The first Freedom Ride takes off from Washington D.C. In December 1960 the Supreme Court rules that all bus stations and terminals serving interstate travelers be integrated. Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) workers take Freedom Rides to ensure segregation. Despite sentencing and violence, volunteers continue the rides until the attorney general petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue a ruling against segregation of interstate facilities -
Albany Movement
Civil rights activists take part in a series of protests in November, meetings and marches in Albany, Georgia. The Albany Movement challenged all forms of racial segregation and discrimination in the city. MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference joined the movement in December 1961. Local activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, NAACP, the Ministerial Alliance, the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, and the Negro Voters League joined together to create the movement. -
March On Washington
The March On Washington was a massive protest during 1963, over 250,00 people gathered in front of Lincoln Memorial. Was known as the March for jobs and freedom, aimed to draw attention to cont. challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr gave his iconic speech "I Have A Dream". (both blacks and whites attended this march) -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
Black Panther
In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs. Many riots and violent acts were commited by these extremist. -
Martin Luther King Jrs assassination
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN, on April 4, 1968, one of thhe darkest days for civil rights movement. King had previously led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.