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Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black; he decided to sit in the "whites only" railway car which was against Louisiana law. He refused to move when asked and was arrested, but he sued and the case went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state, which set the precedent that segregation was legal as long as it was "equal". -
Brown v. Board of Education
African American children were being denied admittance into "white schools" on the basis of race. They sued for their right to attend because of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students unanimously. They argued that “separate but equal” facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause, which was the beginning to ending segregation in public places in America. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a 14 year old black boy who went to visit relatives in the South, and while there had a confrontation with a white woman where she claimed he made a sexual suggestion towards her. A couple days later he was tracked down by white men, beaten severely, shot twice, once in the head, and had his body thrown in a river. This murder is significant because the brutality of it shocked and appalled white Northerners as well as blacks. This helped turn the tide of public opinion on racism. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused to move from her seat in the "colored people" section when white people requested it, resulting in her arrest. Her and Martin Luther King Jr. along with others helped organize a bus boycott against the ones who got Rosa arrested. The boycott would work and showed that peaceful protest was a viable option in the fight for civil rights. -
Founding of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Martin Luther King Jr.
The group was formed to organize nonviolent protest. Martin Luther King Jr. was a major inspiration for civil disobedience in America, and would be a major leader of the organization. Both of these would continue the Civil Rights Movement and help gain supporters through their philosophies. -
Little Rock Nine and Central High School
Nine African-American students were attempting to enter and attend Central High School, a white high school, in Little Rock, Arkansas. They would be stopped by an angry white mob and the Arkansas National Guard; however, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to help assist and protect the students. This event showed that the federal government was willing to take a stand against racial injustices. -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four African American college students sat down in the white section of segregated lunch counter in Greensboro and asked politely for service. Instead they were refused and harassed, but they didn't move until they were arrested. This inspired a youth--led movement to fight against segregation in the South. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Freedom Summer
The Committee was formed to serve as a kind of youth wing to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) but remained independent of it. They formed nonviolent protest promoting civil rights. They were inportant in giving the younger people a voice in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Freedom Ride/Freedom Riders
Seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South with the intention to test how they would react. Once in Alabama, they faced major hostility with one bus being burned while they were inside and at another point they were attacked and beaten to a pulp. This showed how deep racism ran and how people didn't care for what the law said. -
March on Washington
Martin Luther King Jr. lead a march on Washington D.C. to pressure the federal government into passing civil rights legislation. More than 200,000 demonstrates joined him in this protest to hear his "I Have A Dream" speech. It helped unify the nation in the fight for Civil rights. -
Civil Rights Act
It was a bill signed by President Johnson to bring about civil rights. It banned the discrimination due to race, color, sex, and religion. This was the equality African Americans fought for, no more Jim Crow laws and legal discrimination. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X had recently turned against and left the Nation of Islam. They held a vendetta against him for this and he was murdered by a member of the Nation of Islam, Thomas Hagen. The loss was impactful because Malcolm had a lead role in the formation of the Black Panthers and in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Voting Rights Act
This bill was passed to allow minorities to use their newfound rights without interference. It prevented literacy test which favored whites and was exponentially harder for colored people. This allowed minorities to have a real place in politics. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr was shot in a hotel in Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Ray was a wide known racist who was openly anti-civil-rights. This caused widespread anger and feeling of lose to a nation who was now progressing towards equality. -
