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Brown v. Board of Education
On May 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled segregated schools as unconstitutional. Now kids of color would be able to go to school with white kids. -
Murder of Emmett Till
The murder of 14 year old Emmett Till occurred on August 28, 1955. Roy Bryant and brother-in-law J.W. Milam, kidnapped and murdered Emmet, and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River in Drew, Mississippi. -
Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks said no to moving to the back of the bus to the “colored” section. Parks was arrested on December 1st, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott started shortly after from December 5th, 1955 to December 20th, 1956. The boycott was a non-violent protest where African Americans refused to ride the city buses. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African American civil rights organization that was founded January 10, 1957 in Atlantis, Georgia. It focused its efforts on citizenship schools and to desegregate individual cities. It was founded by Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Joseph Lowery. -
Little Rock 9
On September 4th, 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas 9 African American students arrived at Central High School. The students went through a crowd who were insulting and throwing objects at them. Once they got to the front door the National Guard prevented them from entering the school and were forced to go home. -
Greensboro Sit Ins
The Greensboro sit-ins was the desegregation of Woolworth lunch counters on February 1st, 1960 to July 25, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina. This was a non-violent protest where African American students refused to leave after being denied service. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern States on May 4th, 1961 to December 10th, 1961. They protested segregated bus terminals but were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for violating segregation status. Angry mobs assaulted them, burned one of the busses, and beat the activists. -
March on Washington
The March of Washington was the largest gathering for civil rights of its time. An estimated 250,000 people attended for jobs and freedom on August 28th, 1963 in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. -
Civil Rights Act (1964)
On July 2nd, 1964, Congress passes Public Law 8-352. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sec, or national origin. It was signed unto law by President Johnson at the White House. -
Assassination of Malcom X
On February 21, 1965 at Columbia University, New York, New York, minister and civil rights activist Malcom X was shot to death inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches (Bloody Sunday)
On March 7th, 1965, hundreds of people marched from Selma, Alabama to the capital city of Montgomery. They marched to ensure that African American could have their constitutional right to vote. Police, state troopers and citizens violently attacked the marches. More than 15 marches were hospitalized for injuries in an event known as “Bloody Sunday”. -
Voting Rights Act (1965)
The Voting Rights Act occurred on August 6th, 1965 when President Lyndon signed into law the outlaw of discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War. This enabled African Americans the right to register and vote and banned tactics that kept them from the polls. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
At 9:05 P.M. on April 4th, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, MLK was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel. MLK was in Memphis to speak on his growing Poor People’s Campaign and to support an economic protest by black sanitation workers.