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Creation of the NAACP
The NAACP was created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others concerned with the challenges facing African Americans, especially in the wake of the 1908 Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot. -
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused in Alabama of raping two White American women on a train in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier
As with many aspects of life in late-19th century America, baseball was segregated. There were separate teams for black players because they were not allowed to play on white professional teams, until Robinson came along. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
The story of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools, is one of hope and courage. When the people agreed to be plaintiffs in the case, they never knew they would change history. The people who make up this story were ordinary people. They were teachers, secretaries, welders, ministers and students who simply wanted to be treated equally. -
Ruby Bridges desegregate elementary school
Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South. -
The Murder of Emmitt Till
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on August 24, 1955, 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. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks in Montgomery began on the day of Parks' court hearing and lasted 381 days. -
The Little Rock 9
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Letters written by Martin Luther King Jr while he was in jail. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States[5] that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was shot before he was about to deliver a speech about his new organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Reporters inspect the scene of the assassination, inside the Audobon Ballroom in New York. -
Creation of the Black Panthers
It was a Black political organization; originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense -
Thurgood Marshall Named Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and mortally wounded as he stood on the second-floor balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at St. Joseph Hospital. -
Election of Barak Obama
Barack Obama is the first African American ever to be elected president of the United States. Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president.
