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Executive Order 9981
Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education was an accumulation of 5 cases that called to end legal segregation in public schools. The lawsuit was filed against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas and was ruled in favor of the board by the District Court due to the negro and white schools being substantially equal. The Supreme Court heard the case in spring of 1953 but asked to rehear the case in the fall, ultimately to give them time to form a unanimous decision. Once they reconvened, the Supreme Court g -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till's Life Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi when he was kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The story of Emmett Till’s demis -
Rosa Parks Arrested For Civil Disobedience
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks left a lasting legacy for the Civil Rights Movement. Her brave actions motivated others to demand change. -
Formation of the SCLC
The formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, was the beginning of organized, non-violent and direct action in the name of civil rights lead by Martin Luther King, Jr. The SCLS would go on to be a support and resource for those in the name of civil rights all across the southern United States. -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine was a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The nine were admitted to Little Rock Central High under the protection of the U.S. Army (and later the Arkansas National Guard), but they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse (being spat on and called names) by many of the white students. The Little Rock Nine left behind a huge legacy as strong and brave children who endured much discrimination and abuse. -
Woolworth sit-ins
Four African Americans ordered doughnuts and coffee at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The waitress refused to serve them because the restaurant only served whites. The students then sat at the counter and refused to leave until the restaurant closed. The Woolworth Sit-Ins initiated a the new form of non-violent protests called "sit-ins". -
Formation of the SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was formed at Shaw University by Ella Baker. The civil rights group became popular and was heavily funded by the North. This organization had paid workers as well as volunteers that were involved in protests, sit-ins, freedom rides, and voter registration drives. The SNCC played a major role in gaining attention and support for civil rights. In later years, they would go on to get a bit more radical until their dissolve in the 1970’s. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Through these Freedom Rides, the issue of segregation on interstate buses was made known to the public. The Freedom Riders encountered mob -
James Meredith- University of Mississippi
James Meredith became the first African American student to attend the University of Mississippi. After being denied acceptance to the school twice and filing a lawsuit claiming it was due to his ethnicity, Meredith was admitted and went on to receive a degree in political science. However, his admittance caused massive riots that ended up requiring aid from the US Marshals, military police, and the Mississippi Army National Guard. -
“Bull” Connor uses fire hoses on black demonstrators
Then Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham, Alabama “Bull” Connor uses violence against a demonstration on more than one occasion. The violence included spraying the people with fire hoses and setting police dogs on them. This was seen all over with the use of media, gaining the civil rights movement lots of support and sympathy. It was a visual example of the struggle and violence against these people. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
After Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested and sent to Birmingham jail, an article had been printed in the newspaper by 8 white Alabama clergymen titled A Call for Unity which criticized King and his choices. Upon reading it, King wrote a response in his cell on the edges of the newspaper defending his methods and countering the arguments made by the authors. This letter was eventually edited and released to the public as the Letter from Birmingham Jail. -
Death of Medgar Evers, respected civil rights activist
Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist as well as a field secretary for the NAACP, was murdered at the age of 37 outside his home by Byron De La Beckwith, a white supremacist and Klansmen. It took 30 years and 3 trials to finally convict Byron, the first two having been hung juries (cannot make a decision). His death and the trials rocked the nation, prompting protests and involvement. Medgar Evers is a symbol that lives on in history as well as media about the event and his life. -
March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Drea -
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
On September 15, a bomb exploded before Sunday morning services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama--a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. Four young girls were killed and many other people injured; outrage over the incident and the violent clash between protesters and police that followed helped draw national attention to the hard-fought, often dangerous struggle for civil rights for African Americans. -
Passing of the 24th Amendment
The House passed the 24th Amendment which outlawed the poll tax. This was a tax that had kept many people, mainly African Americans, from being able to afford to vote. At the time Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas were the only states still using this tax and it’s believed that it was used in an effort to continuously institute segregation. -
Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, civil rights activists 21-24 years of age, were in Mississippi when they were arrested for speeding and then released late at night. Their disappearance brought national attention since two of the three were white. After a search investigation ordered by President Johnson, they found the three bodies in a hole in the ground as well as hundreds of other bodies of black men and women around the area. They had been beaten and killed gruesomely. T -
Civil Rights Act 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination by color, race, sex, religion, or national origin. This act also served to outlaw the “Jim Crow” laws that had earlier been enforced by the Plessy vs Ferguson case which declared separate but equal to be lawful. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an African American nationalist as well as religious leader. He joined the “Black Muslims” while in prison, believing in separatism and condemnation of all of European descent. He was for self protection through any means necessary, including violence. After being suspended and formally leaving the Nation of Islam (Black Islam), Malcolm X converted to traditional Muslim and denounced any racism, even against white people. He became favored by many, including civil rights organizati -
Bloody Sunday
The Selma to Montgomery marches, also known as Bloody Sunday and the two marches that followed, were marches and protests held in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. -
Civil Rights Act 1965
The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was a Voting Rights Act set to counter riots and outbreaks of violence that had occurred in response to the Act of 1964. This law prohibited the use of literacy tests, poll taxes, or things of that nature to be used in determining whether or not someone was allowed to vote. It ensured that as long as someone had American citizenship and their name registered, then they would be allowed to participate in the election. -
Los Angeles Race Riots
An incident occurred with police pulling over a man supposedly driving drunk. After an possibly violent altercation with police, the man, and the man’s mother, rumors spread that the LA police had beat him and kicked a pregnant woman. Crowds assembled in protest until a full out riot began. Lasting 6 days, the riot lead to “34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, 3,438 arrests, and over $40 million in property damage.” This was a picture of the breaking of social and racial tensions, as well as law enforceme -
Executive Order 11246
The Executive Order 11246 prohibits employers who do over $10,000 in Government business a year from discriminating by color, race, sex, religion or national origin. It also requires employers to ensure that equal opportunity is presented to all workers. -
Founding of the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party was a “black revolutionary socialist organization” founded in 1966 in order to call for protection of black communities from law enforcement. They held socialist and Marxist beliefs. While some of their philosophies changed over the years, they ended up in believing in socialism “without racial exclusivity”. The group was an icon as the head of the counterculture. They worked to improve conditions of the black inner city communities. However, some of their acts were put i -
Loving vs. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia, (1967), was a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
A significant leader in the African- American civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., was shot and killed in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The day before, he had delivered his last speech towards the goal of obtaining racial equality. -
The Civil RIghts of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 came after the assassination of MLK and the riots that followed. The act made it a federal crime to basically harass, hurt, or deny housing to anyone based on race, color, religion, or national origin. This was a major turning point in the civil rights movement. However, a part of the act said that travelling between states and planning to initiate, take part in, or encourage a riot would be a felony. This was highly criticized as aligning “organized political protes -
Voting Rights Act of 1991
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 served to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It focused mainly on discrimination regarding employment based on things such as color, race, sex, religion, or national origin. It provided for the right to trial by jury and introduce possibilities of distress damages to victims of employment discrimination. -
The LA Race Riots of 1992
The LA Race Riots began after policemen were acquitted of a police brutality despite a video of them beating a man named Rodney King after a high speed car chase. The end of the trial started riots that grew all over the metro area. After the six day riot of looting, murder, arson, and assaults, 53 people were dead and 2,000 injured. This event lead to the retrial of the officers, increased minorities in law enforcement, stricter rules on excessive force, and social and racial tensions that lead -
Civil Rights Act of 2008
The Civil Rights act of 2008 was a bill that was introduced which would stand to reaffirm and strengthen laws prohibiting discrimination in state- funded programs and activities.
