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Brown v. Board of Education
In 1952, Linda Carol Brown, a young black girl, wanted to go to an all-white school in Kansas. She was denied admission and her father, Oliver Brown, took the school to court in the case Brown v. Board of Education. “To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” -Chief Justice Earl Warren -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
African American woman Rosa Parks boarded a bus to get home. When the bus driver asked her and 3 other African American passengers to give up their seats for white people, the others gave up their seats but she refused to. She was arrested by two police officers on the stopped bus. “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” -
The Greensboro Four start a sit-in movement
The Greensboro Four were four young black students, Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil who protested segregation by sitting in the white section of a Woolworths in North Carolina. Their actions encouraged sit-ins all throughout the south. It eventually led to the companies changing their policies on segregation in their establishments. -
Ruby Bridges desegregates an all white school
Ruby Bridges, is one of six black children to pass a test to attend a formerly segregated school in New Orleans. She was the only black child to attend William Frantz Elementary School. Many people threatened her as she and her mother were escorted by 4 U.S. Marshals. She was taught alone by the only teacher that would teach her, Barbara Henry, for an entire year. -
March on Washington
250k protesters gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to protest the stalling of the Civil Rights Act in Congress and the attacks on black protesters. This protest inspired the passage of a lot of important civil rights legislation. Many influential people spoke, including MLK Jr. who delivered “I Have a Dream”, “I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” - MLK -
a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, served as a headquarters for the civil rights movement. An unknown group set off a bomb on the lower floor on of the church on September 15, 1963 during the service. The bomb killed four young black girls, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, and wounded countless others. This event sparked a nationwide rage and helped desegregate America. -
Brown v. Board of Education is reopened
Brown v. Board of Education is reopened by Linda Carol Brown due to the unequal materials offered to majorly minority schools, with her own kids in Topka Schools. The appeals court ruled in her favor in 1993. -
Rosa Parks receives the NAACP Spingarn Award
In 1979, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Rosa Parks the Spingarn Medal, the highest honor. She additionally earned the MLK jr. award the following year. She was commemorated for her brave efforts as a civil rights activist, especially her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Voting Rights Act was extended
The 1965 Voting Right Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson that outlawed discriminatory voting right practices like the literary test. President Regan extended the Voting Rights Act by 25 years on June 29th. Many people lobbied to have the law eased but the President said “As I've said before, the right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties, and we will not see its luster diminished.” -
Jo Ann Robinson publishes her memoir
Jo Ann Robinson publishes her memoir, "Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Woman that Started it”. After Parks was arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white man, Jo-Ann Robinson stepped in to help support the boycott. She later rights a memoir in 1987 to point out the work of the women who made the boycott possible. -
Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act
Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act expanding nondiscrimination laws to private institutions receiving federal funds.
This was important because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 hastened the end of legal Jim Crow. It secured African Americans equal access to restaurants, transportation, and other public facilities. -
Ruby is reunited with her past teacher
On the Oprah Winfrey show in 1996, Ruby Bridges was reunited with her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry. Bridges were Henry’s only student, and she recalls only the joy that occurred from having young Ruby in her class. -
first black man elected to the presidential office
Barack Obama is the first black man elected to the presidential office and is reflected for a total presidency of 8 years. -
Emmett Till Antilynching Act is passed
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is a United States federal law that makes lynching a federal hate crime. The bill was named after 14-year-old Emmet Till, who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. The new law would cement the meaning of lynching into the federal code. Lynching is defined as “the public killing of an individual who hasn’t received due process” but the act also bans interpretations of it to fit the modern-day.