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White Citizens Council
The White Citizens Council (WCC) was formed in a retaliatory response to the Supreme Courts abolishment of school segregation laws. WCC's were made up of white segregationists and white supremacists who were radically opposed to the Supreme Court's decision. They expanded rapidly across the Southern states, effectively thwarting and derailing Civil Rights activities. -
Brown v. Board of Education
This was a landmark Supreme Court decision that stated that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. Originating in 1951 in Topeka, Kansas. Oliver Brown was trying to enroll his daughter in the school close to their house but was refused because she was black and said she had to ride the bus to the all black school far away. The Brown family, backed by the NAACP, appealed to the Supreme Court who agreed to hear their case. -
Brown v. Board of Education 2
Many schools did not follow the original desegregation rule, so the Supreme Court had another meeting declaring all schools must integrate with "deliberate speed." They also set out rules on what the schools needed to do to desegregate. It also laid out how the US Government would make sure the schools are obeying -
Lynching of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old black boy from Chicago visiting family in Mississippi, one day he skipped church with some friends and they went to go get candy, during this transaction he whistled at the white woman behind the counter. As word got around town the story was embellished and the white woman's husband found out, so he and another man took Till from his house and proceeded to beat, torture and kill him -
Rosa Parks Arrested
On December 1st Rosa Parks was arrested for civil disobedience. Ms. Parks sat in a forward seat on a bus and refused to give up her seat to a white man. Alabama has a law that states if the bus a is full, a black man or woman has to give up their seat. This event was a pivotal moment and made Rosa Parks a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycotts
A civil rights protest where African Americans refused to ride city busses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. It was regarded as the first large scale US demonstration against segregation. Eventually the Supreme Court ordered the city of Montgomery to integrate the bus system. This event also gave us the prominent leader Martin Luther King Jr. -
Bombing of Fred Shuttlesworth
The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama bombed the homed of civil rights activist Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. The blast destroyed the home and damaged Bethel Baptist Church where he was pastor. -
Martin Luther King Jr. House Bombing
MLK was preaching at the church next-door, with his wife and newborn daughter at home. His house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Luckily his wife and daughter were uninjured. As crowds of angry African Americans with weapons gathered in the street, MLK preached nonviolence: "If I am stopped, this movement will not!" -
SCLC Founded
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957. It was created in response to the many injustices of segregation and to achieve peaceful progress toward all US citizens having equal rights and social equity. -
Eisenhower send in Federal Troops
President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Federal Troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to protect black students, known as "The Little Rock Nine", entry into their high school. The Governor of Arkansas did not agree with the United States desegregation laws, so the safety of the students ensured by the Federal Troop escort. -
SNCC Formed
Called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, it sought to coordinate and assist direct-action challenges to the civic segregation and political exclusion of African Americans, they committed to the registration and mobilization of black voters in the deep South. -
Greensboro Sit-Ins
The Greensboro Sit-Ins began when 4 African American men staged a sit-in Woolworth's Lunch Counter. With enormous press coverage, this became one of the biggest non-violent resistance's of the Civil Rights Movement. This sit-in sparked other sit-ins across the nation and ended up creating early integration at dining facilities. -
Albany, Georgia "Failure"
In November, the "Albany Movement" was formed by several activist groups. The Movement was a desegregation campaign to challenge all forms of racial discrimination in the city. Eventually, it was deemed a "failure" because in the end, almost all of Albany's public facilities remained segregated. -
Freedom Rides
The Freedom Riders were groups of people who outright disobeyed the segregation laws. These groups often sat in white only areas and used white only bathrooms, this led them to be met with arresting officers and horrific violence from white protestors. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was the group that organized this. -
White Mob Attacks Federal Marshals in Montgomery
After a white racist mob firebombed the Freedom Riders' bus, and subsequently brutally beat the Riders, the Federal Marshal's were sent in to stop the white supremacist attacks. As the mob grew larger and more violent, they attacked the Federal Marshal's, pelting them with bricks and bottles, and the Marshal's responded with tear gas. -
Bailey v. Patterson
On this date an important case was brought before the Supreme Court by a group of African Americans. This group contended that they were continually subjected to institutional segregation based on the color of their skin. The Court ruled in their favor by prohibiting racial segregation in any transportation facility, which included trains and busses. (Amendment 14) -
Martin Luther King Jr. goes to Birmingham Jail
MLK was arrested for holding a protest in Birmingham, Alabama, for the treatment of black people in that state. A court ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. -
Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act was signed by President Kennedy. The Act is a U.S. Labor Law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Act prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of gender. Therefore it became illegal for employers to pay a woman and a man different wages for equal amount/type of work on jobs requiring the same skills, effort, and responsibility. -
Assassination of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was a former US Soldier shot in his own driveway by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. His murderer was not convicted until 1994 because both times the murder trials went to court, it was an all white jury who would either not come to a decision or declare him innocent -
March on Washington
The march's purpose was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. During the march, MLK, standing in front of Lincoln Memorial, gave his famous and history changing "I Have a Dream" speech, calling for racism to end. The march was organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin -
Birmingham Church Bombing
On this date, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed in an act of white supremacist terrorism. Many were injured and four young African American girls were killed. This bombing served to reinforce the messaging and continued support for the Civil Rights Movement. -
Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
President Kennedy, his wife, Governor Connally and his wife were all riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza, when former marine Lee Harvey Oswald fired in ambush from a nearby building, hitting both JFK and Connally critically, they were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, TX immediately where President Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, and Governor Connally made a full recovery. -
Freedom Summer
Also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, its goal was to increase the number of registered black voters in Mississippi, over 700 mainly white volunteers joined African Americans to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination at the polls -
XXIV/24th Amendment
On this date, the Capital House passed the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This Amendment outlawed poll taxes as a voting requirement in federal elections. The result gave all citizens, regardless of race or economic inequality, the absolute right to freely cast votes in any US elections -
The Murders of Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner
Also known as the Freedom Summer murders, these 3 men were stopped by police for speeding, the police held them in jail for a few hours, then when released they went to leave town but were being followed by law enforcement and others, before they got out of Neshoba County they were pulled over again and abducted, then driven to another location and shot close range, then the killers moved the bodies again to an earthen dam where they were buried -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark civil rights and labor law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It also prohibited unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in school, employment and public accommodations -
Selma to Montgomery March
In an attempt to register black voters in the South, protestors marched 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Along the way they experienced deadly violence from authorities and white vigilante groups. Luckily the protestors were protected by federalized National Guard Troops. They walked nonstop for 3 day, with MLK at the lead -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was shot on stage right before he was going to address his organization of Afro-African Unity. Someone in the audience yelled out a racial slur, and while his crew was trying to quiet down the situation somebody rushed the stage with a sawed off shotgun and shot him in the chest, after that 2 more men rushed the stage with semi-auto pistols and shot him more. 2 days before his death he told an interviewer that the Nation of Islam was trying to kill him. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
On this date the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Act outlawed discriminatory voting practices adopted after the Civil War, especially throughout the Southern States. This important act guaranteed African Americans full voting rights under the 15th Amendment of the US Constitution -
Black Panthers Formed
Originally called the Black Panther party for Self Defense, founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. It was active in the USA from 1966 until 1982. It's core practice was it's open carry armed citizen patrols (cop watchers) to monitor the behaviors of officers of the Oakland PD and challenge police brutality -
Loving v. Virginia
In 1963 an interracial married couple moved from D.C. to the state of Virginia. They were subsequently indicted for violating the state law making interracial marriage a felony. The case was taken to the Supreme Court in April of 1967. In June (in a unanimous decision) the capital Court found that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. -
Minneapolis Riots
On Plymouth Ave in North Minneapolis, a group of young blacks rebelled against a system they saw as racist. They set fire to storefronts, threw rocks and bricks through windows and destroyed stuff. Hundreds of National guard troops were deployed. Most people refer to it as 3 nights of arson, assault and vandalism. -
Detroit Riots
Also known as the 12th Street riot. What started these 5 days of hell was a police raid on an unlicensed after-hours bar named The Blind Pig, the police ended up arresting all 80 people on the scene. This ordeal exploded into a 5 day deadly riot, requiring the president to send in troops and the governor sending in Michigan National Guard. In the end there were 43 deaths, 1,189 injured, over 7,200 arrests and more than 2,00 buildings destroyed -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
James Earl Ray, a fugitive from Missouri State Penitentiary shot and killed MLK Jr. he wasn't arrested until June 8 of that year, the King family and many others believe it was a conspiracy involving the US Government, the mafia and the police, with Ray to be the scapegoat. -
Assassination of Robert "Bobby" Kennedy
Bobby was just declared winner in the South Dakota and California presidential primaries, after he left the podium he was walking through a kitchen hallway, where he stopped to shake hands with Juan Romero, while they were shaking hands Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed him.
