-
Creation of the NAACP
The NAACP, founded in February 1909, emerged as a response to the 1908 Springfield race riot and the ongoing struggle for civil rights, with an interracial group of activists, including W.E.B. Du Bois, joining forces to fight for equal rights and the advancement of African Americans. -
Scottsboro Boys
The "Scottsboro Boys" refers to nine African American teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931, a case that became a landmark legal battle highlighting racial injustice and the struggle for fair trials. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
In the landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson. -
The Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who, in 1957, bravely integrated Little Rock Central High School, facing immense opposition and racial abuse, and became symbols of the Civil Rights Movement. -
Ruby Bridges desegregate elementary school in New Orleans
Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 14, 1960, becoming the first African American child to attend the previously all-white school. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail while he was imprisoned for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations in Alabama in 1963. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, ending segregation in public places and workplaces, and establishing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an African American revolutionary, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as the first Black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was no stranger to the Senate or the Supreme Court at the time. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of King's assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property -
The Murder of Emmitt Till
two Mississippians bludgeon and kill Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, for whistling at a white woman; their acquittal and boasting of the atrocity spur the civil rights cause. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement, was a 13-month protest in Montgomery, Alabama against racial segregation on public buses, sparked by Rosa Parks's arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, and led by Martin Luther King Jr. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later -
Election of Barack Obama
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.