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Brown vs Board of Education
Linda Brown walks down her integrated school steps after the U.S. Supreme court rules unanomously that segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. -
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Rosa Parks Is Arrested
In Montgomery Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. At that time, busses were segregated. Black people had to ride in the back of the bus, and if the bus was full, the black people had to give up their seats to the whites. -
Dr. King Is Arrested
Dr. King was arrested for leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association which led the 382 day boycott. -
Bus Segregation Is Unconstitutional
In November of 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. This was a huge win for African Americans, and proof that Dr. King's methods of nonviolent protest could effectively push for change. Dr. King rides the bus one day after the boycott ends. -
King Addresses a National Audience
The is Dr. King's first time speaking to a national audience. He is at the Reflecting Pool in Washington and he calls for an Equal Rights Voting Act. -
The Little Rock Nine
On their first day of the September term, nine black high school students tried to go to Central High School, but Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus had called the National Guard to block them from entering. On September 25th, President Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and ordered them and U.S. Army Troops to escort the nine students safely onto campus. -
The Debate Reaches National Television
Dr. King debates segregation with James J. Kilpatrick on NBC. -
Bi-racial Busses Attacked in Alabama
Several groups attack two busses filled with whites and blacks seeking to knock down bus station segregation barriers. The groups board the busses and attack the passengers. At one stop, they throw a fire bomb through the window. -
We Shall Not Be Moved
Nonviolent protests begin happening in many places, including this lunch counter at Woolworths where young people protested segregated lunch counters. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Dr. King is arrested after he leads a line of nonviolent demonstrators through the business district of Birmingham Alabama calling upon the people to boycott the stores during the Easter shopping season in order to oppose segregation. He refused to pay the bond for several days, and this is when he wrote his famous response to the eight, white religious leaders that told him the Birmingham Campaign was "unwise and untimely." -
The Birmingham Campaign Begins
Martin Luther King Jr. and the other leaders saw Birmingham as a pivotal turning point in desegregation. With some of the worst human rights abuses and a firm opposition to desegregation, this was the city that they needed to break. In May, when the leaders of Birmingham agreed to take down segregation signs, have oversight, and improve black opportunity for jobs, but white segregationists responded with ruthless attacks, including the bombing of the church that killed four, young black girls. -
I Have a Dream
Dr. King is back at the Reflecting Pool in Washington to give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech that will forever be celebrated as one of America's most beautiful and important speeches of all time. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1964
Dr. King sits with President Lyndon B. Johnson and other civil rights leaders to discuss the Voting Rights Act of 1964. President Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964 and he signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965. -
Dr. King Is Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Dr. King is celebrated after he is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
