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Ku-Klux-Klan
The KKK is an American Protestant led-Christian, white supremacist. Americans first terrorist group for any person who decided to go against white Americans and their beliefs. They targeted more Black Americans than any other race. -
Plessy v Ferguson
The “Separate, but equal” decision that was made following the Jim Crow laws and becoming the legal basis for racial segregation. This decision stated that segregation was to continue preforming the same way but Black Americans and white Americans would be able to receive the same treatment anywhere, including public recreation centers and places like school and work to receive the same pay. -
Brown v Board of Education
The NAACP legal defense and the educational fund spent decades fighting racial segregation in education and in schools. They gathered 5 cases to say that schools are treating the children unequal and the education they are receiving is unequal. They were fighting for equal education and the same amount of funds being sent to the schools to receive equal amount of educational support, especially in poverty stricken areas. They were also wanting the schools to be unsegregated. Brown won the case. -
Emmett Till Murder
Mamie Till sent her then 14 year old son, Emmett to Mississippi to visit family. He was then allegedly accused of making advances at a white woman. He was kidnapped, beaten brutally, and fatally shot. His kidnappers then took his body and threw it into the Tallahatchie River. He was found 4 days later. His mother later organized an open casket funeral to show to the public what had been done to her son and later advocated heavily for civil rights. -
Rosa Parks Arrested; Sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to white man on a Montgomery bus. This sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She was arrested after a few stops. Black Americans refused to ride any busses and either walked to and from work, or hitched rides with anyone they could. The busses eventually began to lose any profits from the Black Americans and Alabama had to desegregate their busses to allow for profit in the bus companies. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine Black Students arrived at Central High School to be classes. They were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard, the mayor of the town, and a screaming mob of white protesters who were refusing and yelling at them to leave. They did not want to desegregate the schools which eventually led to the Brown V Board court case. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower sent a proposal for a new Civil Rights legislation in 1957. This would be the first civil rights legislation since the writing and publishing of the US Constitution. This act granted the federal prosecutors power to pursue anyone interfering with the right to vote. The act also created the US Civil Rights Commission to to investigate any allegations of voter discrimination. -
First Sit-In Protests
A group of Black American students launch protests against segregation at a whites only lunch counter of the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The protesters came in and sat at the lunch counter they weren’t supposed to sit at and asked very gently and calmly to be served. They were refused service and eventually were humiliated, attacked, and arrested. -
Alabama State College Sit-In
This sit-in was an Anti Segregation one. This was a Sit-In at a segregated at a lunch counter in Montgomery, Alabama. This was an ‘advancement’ for white Americans to make a statement that Black peoples desegregation efforts were not functioning. -
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Founded
In Raleigh, North Carolina, African and Black American college students create the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee to give young Black students roles in being able to protest. It also gave them information on how to protest and how to do it peacefully. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was one of the first Black girls to attend a predominantly white school. She had to be escorted by four federal Marshalls to her first day of first grade while she was met a resentful mob that was not happy with her presence in the school that they would also be attending. -
Freedom Riders Leave Washington DC
An interracial group of protesters board busses in the north, specifically in Washington DC and travel south into states like Mississippi and Alabama to test president Kennedys commitment to Civil Rights and to test the “desegregation” of interstate travel through busses. These freedoms riders arrived into the south and are met with the KKK who fire bomb and force the riders off the bus. They escape into the night as the police arrive. -
Desegregation of Interstate Travel
Irene Morgan was arrested for not giving up her seat. The NAACP took her case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in her favor of being arrested unjustly and the court ruled to outlaw segregation in several states in the south. The desegregation was to make it so white and Black people were allowed to eat the same lunch counter and relax at the same lounges while waiting for the busses at the bus stations. -
James Meredith Registers at ‘Ole Miss’ University
On September 20th, James Meredith arrives at the university of Mississippi in Oxford, intended as the schools first black student. Meredith had just retuned from a 3 year Japanese Air duty tour and he applied for admission to the school in January of 1961. The state did what they could to allow his admission to be denied. He filed suit with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund and on September 10th, Meredith was to be allowed Admission. -
Children’s Crusade
Thousands of Black Children ages 7 to 18 years old conducted the largest protest that was lead by children. The children’s crusade was held in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. It was used to draw attention to the civil rights movement. It was aired on national television which showed the violence that Black Americans had to face like police brutality, being sprayed with fire hoses, and being attacked with police dogs. The children were eventually arrested but they didn’t stop singing for freedom -
Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was a leader and pastor of a church and also was a soldier in the south who after seeing all the violence, chose to support the Civil Rights movement. He was eventually killed because of his support both socially and financially. -
March On Washington
Hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters arrived in Washington DC for the largest peaceful protest the nation had seen. The march was a fight for equal jobs, treatment, and freedom. This is the march where Martin Luther King Jr had his I had a dream speech. This march was a main reason for the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 to be passed from the Kennedy administration, before he was assassinated. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Another piece of legislation that outlawed any discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, and national origin. This granted a lot of rights for everyone person who wasn’t a white American. -
Malcom X Assassinated
Malcolm X: The Nation of Islam leader is killed while giving a speech in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom. His speech was called “Rebellion against oppression and colonialism” which addressed the racism and oppression all Black Americans were facing. The speech also addressed certain social issues like the police brutality in the southern parts of the United States. -
Bloody Sunday
Martin Luther King Jr, the SCLC, and the SNCC organized a march in Selma Alabama to protest the segregation that was one of the most extreme. Police, state troopers, and civilians violently attacked the civil rights activists on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. 11 Black Americans were killed as they were the ones towards the front of the march. Dozens were injured and taken to hospitals. Many reporters captured this and sent this to national television. -
Lyndon B Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” Speech
Lyndon B Johnson and his administration gave a speech reflecting on the horrible events in the south that had been happening, (eg; Bloody Sunday, Emmett Till, Children’s Crusade). He gave this speech to officially sign into effect the Civil RIghts Act of 1964 and to mitigate the acts of segregation. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This was a petition to remove any obstacles that were present and given to people of color trying to register to vote, whether legally or illegally. This petition gave permission to vote in any state and local elections. This removed Poll Taxes and literacy tests and also removed any questions that were not part of registering for voting. -
Georgia Changes Flag to Incorporate Confederate Flag
The state of Georgia changed its flag because it wanted to uphold what they stood for during the time of confederacy. One of these was to keep racial segregation prominent and in effect. -
MLK’s “I Have A Dream” Speech
At the end of the March On Washington, Martin Luther King Jr delivers his most memorable speeches where he sets aside his notes to describe his vision. A vision of a nation that will rise up and will have men who are created and treated equally. He wanted to end all racial segregation and judgement of someone’s skin tone and for them to be judged by the content of their character and what behaviors they’ve done. -
”Black Panther” Party is Founded
The Black Panther group was a new type of protester group who instead of using peaceful protest, they advocated for self defense and violence when needed. Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded Black Panther party to contrast the non-violence civil rights activists. They were often seen with heavy weapons and armory. They remained peaceful and civil until they were retaliated and were injured from someone else, like a police officer for example. -
Loving v. Virginia
The US Supreme Court unanimously struck down Virginia’s law that prohibited interracial marriages as a violation of the 14th amendment. This eventually was able to remove all laws from the US about any interracial marriages from all aspects, including having a Hispanic last name, being a certain skin tone, or being related in someway to a different ethnicity. -
Kerner Commission Report
This was a report to say that the US as a nation was moving towards two separate and completely different societies; One was Black, and one was White. America was separate but unequal in all aspects of living life inside of its borders. It also had a report on the way Asia was living a more equal and interracial society comparing ourselves to America. -
Dr Martin Luther King Jr is Assassinated
Martin Luther King is assassinated by a snipers bullet while standing on the second floor balcony. Following his assassination, riots broke out over his death. His wife held a march to mourn the loss of her husband in which over 40,000 people attended, including MLK’s 4 children. His assassination led to the Johnson administration to put more Civil Rights laws into place. -
Fair Housing Act of 1968
This act prohibited discrimination concerning any for sale properties, rental properties, and fencing/ redlining of houses based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. This removed any red lines around where Black people could live and where they weren’t allowed to live. Many Black Americans weren’t able to move out of those areas because they weren’t able to afford it because many lived in poverty. -
SSFU Student Strike
The San Fransisco State University(SSFU) strike was a strike of students refusing to go to classes and pay their tuition that lasted over 5 months. Because of this, the school had to resort to desegregation of all Black Americans and allow them to attend the same classes as white Americans. It also resulted in the nations first ever Ethnic Studies program.