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Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine.It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African Americans train passenger Homer Plessy refuse to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy's argument, the court ruled that a state law that "implies merely a legal distinction" between whites and black did not conflict with the 13th and 14th amendments. https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=52 -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier when he became the first black athlete to play Major League Baseball in the 20th century. He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and was named Rookie of the year, National League MVP in 1949 and a World Series champ in 1955 http://baseballhall.org/hof/robinson-jackie -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
An African American organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the Civil Rights movement. Purpose was to bring about equality for all people regardless of race, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or ethnic background. www.core-online.org/History/history.htm -
Sweatt v Painter
Sweatt v Painter is a case about Herman Marion Sweatt, a black man who applied for admission to the University of Texas Law school. Sweatt's application was automatically rejected because of his race. Sweatt's went to the Supreme Court of Texas to order his admission. On June 5, 1950, the university provide separate but equal facilities for black law students. http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/heman-sweatt#s-lg-box-9637245 -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education is one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. The case was about the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment. On May 17, the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for white and black students. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483 -
Montgomery bus boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses to protest segregated seating. Rosa Parks, an African American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man. She was arrested and fined.One of the leaders of the boycott, Marion Luther King Jr., emerged as a leader of the American civil rights movement.
www.ushistory.org/us/54b.asp -
The Southern Manifesto
A document written to opposition to racial integration of public places. The manifesto was signed by 101 politicians from 11 states. www.fjc.gov/history/tu_bush_doc_6.html -
Southern Christian Leadership conference (SCLC)
Is an African American civil rights organization. After the Montgomery bus boycott victory, Marion Luther King Jr. invited 60 black ministers, conceived the idea of initiating such an effort.Their goal was to form an organization to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South.
nationalsclc.org/about-us/history/ -
Little Rocks-Central High School
Public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. 9 Black students, known as the Little Rock 9, were denied entrance to the school in defiance of the ruling ordering integration of public school. On September 23, 1957, the 9 Black high schools students face an angry mob of over 1,000 Whites in front of Central high school who were protesting the integration project.Eisenhower ordered 101st Airborne Division to escort the 9 students into the school.
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/ak1.htm -
Greensboro sit-in
Four African American men were influenced by the non-violent protest techniques practiced by Mohandas Gandhi. The greensboro four took action by the brutal murder in 1955 of a young black boy, Emmett Till. The four students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth's in downtown Greensboro because policy was to refused to give up their seats.The sit in movement allowed dining facilities across the South were being integrated by the summer of 1960.
northcarolinahistory.org -
Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC)
Student Nonviolent coordination committee goal was to increase student participation in the civil rights movement. Ella Baker worked with the student nonviolent coordination committee to support civil rights activism on college campuses.
www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc -
Freedom Rides
13 Freedom Rides, seven African Americans and 6 whites, is a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals and rail stations unconstitutional.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-rides -
James Meredith
Meredith became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. Meredith started the March Against Fear but he was sent to a hospital by a sniper's bullet. Martin Luther King and Stokely Carmichael continue the march on his behalf. Black power was Meredith concept of militant African American nationalism. Meredith was known as a civil rights movement figure, writer, political adviser and Air force veteran.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-meredith-shot -
"Letter from Birmingham jail"
Letter from Birmingham jail is an open letter written by Matin Luther King Jr. The letters was the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. I think the letter is saying to take responsibility to break unjust laws and take direct action rather than waiting for justice to come through the court. The letters became an important text for the American Civil Rights Movement.
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html -
Medgar Evers
Evers was a WW2 veteran and college graduate,he became a field secretary for the NAACP. Evers worked to gain admission for African Americans to the state supported public University of Mississippi. And on voting rights and registration,economic,opportunity,access to public facilities and other changes int the segregated society. Evers was assassinated by a member of the White Citizens'Council. His murder and trails inspired civil right protests.
www.history.com/topics/black-history/medgar-evers -
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March to Washington
On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States. www.infoplease.com/spot/marchonwashington.html -
Bombing of Birmingham church
On September 15, 1963,bomb detonated on the church east side. Causing the death of 4 girls. After the bombing violence broke out across the city;a number of protesters were arrested and two African American men were killed. Chambliss, Blanton, Cherry and Cash was the bombers. Outrage over the death of the 4 girls helped build increased support behind the continuing struggle to end segregation and civil and voting rights act.
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al11.htm -
Twenty Fourth Amendment
The Twenty Fourth Amendment was passed to address numerous citizens from voting the poll tax which was a state fee on voting. The right of citizen to vote any President or Vice President.
http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment24.html -
Mississippi Freedom Summer
Thousands of white college students work with Black community to organized the 1964 Summer Project. Before the project 3 volunteers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered by a group of white police officers and vigilantes. Thousands more were arrested and there was bombing, shooting, and beating before the summer was over.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/freedom-summer -
Civil Rights Act passed
Kennedy was assiassinated, after the new president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Right Act. Segregation on the ground of race, religion or national origin was banned at he places of public accommodation. No longer could blacks and other minorities be denied service simply based on the color of their skin.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act -
Malcolm x assassinated
Malcolm X, an African American nationalist an religious leader was assassinated by Black Muslims. The assassination was one week after his house was firebombed. Malcolm X was shot to death on Washington Heights, New York City.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/malcolm-x-assassinated -
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Voting Rights Act approved
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that only African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th amendment o the constitution of the United State. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=100 -
Selma to Montgomery march
Martin Luther Kind led thousand of nonviolent to the capitol in Montgomery, it was called a demonstration. State troopers met the demonstrators at Edmund Pettus Bridge, became known as Bloody Sunday. The march took 5 days, 54 miles march from Selma.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/selma-montgomery-march -
Black Panthers
The Black Panthers believed that the non violent campaign of Martin Lither King had failed and any promised change of their lifestyle would take too long to be true. The Black Panther Party had 4 desires; equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights. Their purpose was to patrol African American neighborhood to protect residents from acts of police brutality.
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/ -
King assassinated
King was at Lorraine Motel, where he and associated were staying. A sniper's bullet stuck hime in the neck. He was rushed to the hospital. James Earl Ray was suspect as King's murder. Ray's fingerprints was found on the rifle used to kill king. Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination
