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Linda Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
Linda Brown was forced to cross a dangerous railway switchyard in order to get to the all black elementary school. This could dangerous school route could have been avoided if she attended the all white school. With the help of the NAACP, she filed a suit against the Topeka Board of Education.The supreme court ruled in favor of Linda Brown and allowed her to attend the white school. The majority opinion written by justice Buffet found segregated schools unconstitutional, -
Emmett Till
ourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till, beat him, and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. Till's murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging civil rights movement. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks Refuses to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery Alabama. This event would spark the Montgomery bus boycott. Martin Luther King Jr. would emerge as a civil rights leader from this event. -
Little Rock 9
Governor Orval Faubus defied the court, calling in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students--"The Little Rock Nine"--from entering the building. President Eisenhower dispatched 101st Airborne Division paratroopers to Little Rock and put the Arkansas National Guard under federal command. By 3 a.m., soldiers surrounded the school, bayonets fixed.Under federal protection, the "Little Rock Nine" finished out the school year. The following year -
Freedom Rides
Members of CORE (a civil rights organization) decide to challenge the segregation of the interstate bus system. Members of CORE try to take a bus from Washington DC to Louisana. They do not make it. Their actions would inspire a group of young students to continue the rides on buses and trains until the buses and trains are desegregated -
Letter from Birmingham Jail and Violence in Birmingham
MLK writes the letter from Birmingham jail. This letter outlines the philosphies of the Civil Rights movment. On May 2 MLK would say a speech and students would march on downtown Birmingham. This would lead to 6 days of arrests and violence in Birmingham -
March on Washington
250,000 people march in Washington DC to show support for civil rights legislation. Several civil rights leaders speak in front of the Lincoln memorial. The day is ended with Martin Luther King Jr.'s I have dream speech. -
Civil Rights Act
LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act into law. This act was the most comprehensive civil rights legislation Congress had ever enacted. It gave Congress broad power to prevent racial discrimination and made it segregation illegal in a majority of public facilities -
The Voter Rights Act of 1965
The Civil Rights Act did not address the issue of voting. The Voters Right Act finally gave Congress the power to regulate elections to ensure that all people had the right to vote.
