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Dred Scott v. Sandford
This ruling decided that African Americans were not civizens of the U.S. and therefore were not protected by the Constitution. -
Emancipation Proclamation
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued this executive order to free all slaves in Union territory. This also changed the goal of the Civil War to abolition. -
13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. -
14th Amendment
The Citizenship Clause overruled Dred Scott v. Sandford decision so that blacks can be citizens of the US, the Due Process Clause prohibits state governments from depriving people of live, liberty, or property unfairly, and the Equal Protection Clause provides equal protection under law to all people in the jurisdiction. -
15th Amendment
Prohibited the rejection of suffrage based on race. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy, a ⅞ white and white skin attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car, after refusing to sit in the black railway car, Plessy was arrested for violating the Jim Crow Laws: “separate by equal facilities.” Plessy was found guilty. -
Executive Order 9981
Issued by President Harry S. Truman, Executive Order 9981 established equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all races, religions or national origins. -
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, Kansas
This decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision (1896) which allowed states to segregate, and desegregated public schools. This was a big step forward towards integration for the civil rights movement. -
Murder of Emmett Till
The death of 14-year-old Emmett Till from Chicago showed the world how badly racism existed in the South when he went to visit his family in Mississippi and said “bye baby” to the white wife of the storeowner and a few days later the storeowner and his brother-in-law shot Emmett in the head and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River because he was black. -
Bus Boycott
Beginning with Rosa Parks refusing her seat to a white man on a Montgomery public bus, African Americans in Montgomery organized and carried out a boycott that lasted for a year and got the attention of Martin Luther King Jr. -
Integration of Little Central Rock High School
After the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, Little Rock High School in Arkansas refused to desegregate; President Dwight Eisenhower enforced this law by having federal troops escort 9 black students to attend Little Rock High where they were bullied and tortured by racist whites. -
Civil Rights Act 1957
The first Civil Rights Act was a voting bill to protect African American’s rights to vote, and in the process, South Carolina’s senator Storm Thurrmond held the longest one an filibuster in history. -
Greensboro, North Carolina Sit-In
Started by the Greensboro Four, sit-ins were series of nonviolent protests where blacks sat at white-only areas in restaurants, refusing to move unless they could be served. -
Freedom Riders
Civil rights activists challenged state laws by riding on interstate buses into the South, protesting racial segregation. -
James Meredith Attends University of Mississippi
James Meredith was the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and graduate in 1964. -
Civil Rights Protests in Birmingham
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organized peaceful protests in “Bombingham”, one of the most racially divided cities in the Spring of 1963. Protesters had boycotts, sit-ins, and marches which led to many arrests and violent responses such as fire hoses and police dogs from the police and “Bull” Connor. -
Letters from a Birmingham Jail
When Martin Luther King was jailed, he wrote an open letter in Birmingham, Alabama about how nonviolent protests were the only way to fully achieve true civil rights. -
Murder of Medgar Evers
Evers was the field secretary for the NAACP living in Mississippi, trying to integrate public facilities, schools and restaurants. He was assassinated by Byron de la Beckwith who was convicted of murdering Evers in 1994, 30 years later. -
"I have a dream"
This 17 minute speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial during a civil rights march called for integration and an end to racial discrimination. -
Bombing at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
Four young girls were killed when the KKK bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church that was a meeting place for civil rights groups in Birmingham, Alabama. -
24th Amendment
Prohibits denial of voting rights because of unpaid poll taxes. -
Murder of Civil Rights Workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi
3 civil rights workers were killed after traveling to Neshoba County to investigate the burning of Mt. Zion, a black church, federal agents claimed the killers were members of the KKK. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
The second Civil Rights Act made many discrimination against women, blacks, and racial segregating illegal. -
Malcolm X is Assassinated
After his house being firebombed in Queens, New York, Malcolm X was assassinated a week later by three Black Muslims at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York City, where he held weekly meetings. -
Bloody Sunday
In the first attempt to march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Mississippi led by SNCC and SCLC, seventeen out of around six hundred people were hospitalized when the marchers were told to go home and beaten by state troopers. -
Voting Rights Act 1965
The Voting Rights Act was a natural follow to the 1964 Civil Rights Act which gave blacks their rights, outlawing literacy tests and poll taxes as a way of allowing everyone to vote. -
Watts Riots
Large scale riot over black discrimination that lasted for 6 days in the Watts neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. After the riots were over, 34 people had been killed, 1,032 injured and 3,438 arrested. -
Executive Order 11246
President Lyndon B. Johnson issued this order for Equal Employment Opportunity and prohibited contractors to discriminate employment decisions based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Order also required contractors to “take affirmative action” to make sure that people are employed and treated disregarding race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. -
Black Panthers founded
The Black Panther party was an armed revolutionary socialist group that promoted self determination for poor black people and abandoned non-violent protesting formed by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. -
Loving v. Virginia
Court case where Mildred Jeter, a black woman, married a white man, Richard Loving and both were prosecuted the state of Virginia because interracial marriages were illegal. The pleaded guilty, spent 1 year in jail, and could not return to the state of Virginia for 25 years then turned to the Supreme Court to uphold the convictions. -
Martin Luther King Jr. is Assassinated
Standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, a leader of the civil rights movement, died after dedicating 13 years of his life. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot by a sniper bullet from James Earl Ray. -
Civil Rights Act 1968
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the third Civil Rights Act (or the Indian Civil Rights Act) which prohibited discriminating in housing based on race, religion, and national origin (gender was later included in 1988).
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