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Brown vs Board of Education (Legislature/Supreme Court Case)
The Supreme Court heard the argument that "Separate but Equal" schools are unequal. The court's decision legally prohibited segregation in schools declaring it unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till Murder (Violence by Opposition)
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago is killed in Mississippi while visiting relatives. He was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was abducted, tortured, and hanged. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott (Protest)
Four days after Rosa Parks was arrested and fined for not giving up her seat to a white passenger on the bus, African Americans in Montogomery Alabama refused to ride city buses. This was in protest to segregated seating. This lasted for 15 days. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 (Legislation/Supreme Court Case)
Congress passed a bill that created the Civil Rights Commission. It also authorized the justice department to investigate cases in which African Americans were being denied voting rights in the South. -
Little Rock Nine Crisis (No Violence)
Nine African-American students were blocked from entering Little Rock High School. The governor of Arkansas, Orval Feabus, used the National Guard to prevent the none students for entering the school. -
Greensboro Sit-In (Protest)
Four African American college students refused to leave a Woolworths lunch counter until they were served. Hundreds of people joined their cause over the next several days setting the stage for a boycott of segregated lunch counters. The owners finally caved and the original for students were served at the lunch counter where they made their stand. -
Albany Movement (No Violence)
Local African-American leaders and ministers formed a movement to draw attention to the brutal enforcement of social segregation in Southwest GA. Martin Luther King Jr was invited and joined the movement. The movement was deemed unsuccessful. -
Freedom Rides (Violence by Protestors)
Seven African Americans and six white activists, board a grayhound bus in Washington DC. They intended to bring attention to segregated bus terminals. Met with violence from police and white protestors at every stop. In AL a bomb was thrown into the bus, the riders escaped but were beaten by the white protestors. The attention from this, caused the Kennedy administration to put pressure on the Interstate Commission to issue regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate terminals. -
March on Washington (Protest)
Two hundred thousand people of all races gathered in Washington DC for a peaceful march to force civil rights legislation to establish job equality. Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech "I Have a Dream" was first heard here. -
March from Selma to Montgomery (Violence by Opposition)
Six hundred peaceful protestors took part in the march to protest the killing of activist Jimmie Jackson by a white police officer. Governor Wallace, sent local and state police to the Edmond Pettus Bridge to stop the march. All being televised, the peaceful protestors were beaten and teargassed. This became known as "Bloody Sunday" -
Chifton Warton Jr (No Violence)
First African American to head a predominately white university. First black person to be admitted to the School of Advanced International Studies. Got his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago. CEO and former US Deputy Secretary -
Shirley Chisholm Presidential Campaign (No Violence)
First African American person to campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. She was the first black woman in Congress. Her bid was unsuccessful but she ran to bring attention to issues she felt were important. -
Hank Aaron's Home Run Record (No Violence)
Playing for the Atlanta Braves, Aaron hits his 715th home run. This breaks the long-standing record of Babe Ruth. Aaron made his Major League debut just 7 years after baseball's color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. Hank Aarons's record still stands. -
Barbara Jordan's Address at the D.N.C. (No Violence)
First African American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. She was the first black woman elected to the Texas state Senate and the first black Texan in Congress. -
University of California Regents vs Bakke (Legislation/Supreme Court Cases))
The Supreme Court rules that affirmative action can be used as a legal strategy to deal with past racial discrimination. This means that race can be one of several determining factors in college admission policies, but not in the use of racial quotas.