-
Brown vs. Board of Education
Black schools in South Carolina during the 1950s had no buses and a man named Earl Warren wanted his school to have buses. So he went to the board of education. He was denied buses for his school, So he took this to court, building the case around segregation in schools being bad. He lost the court case but he took it to the supreme court and it was later ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. This case is important because it abolished segregation in public schools. -
Emmett Till Murder
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old boy from Chicago who went to Money, Mississippi to visit. While there he went to a store owned by Carolyn Bryant and her husband. Emmett Till was said to have flirted with Carolyn Bryant which led to his murder that was said to be committed by her husband and his half-brother. Till’s body was later found in the Tallahatchie River in a gruesome state. This was important to the Civil Rights movement because it made many who wouldn’t fight for civil rights fight. -
Rosa Parks & the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks was a seamstress who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. This led to Park's arrest, many civil rights activists heard about Park’s story and put together a boycott against Montgomery Bus. Rosa Parks' story is important because, during the times of hardships and racism against African Americans, Rosa helped change laws to better the lives of the African Americans in the U.S. -
The Little Rock Nine and Integration
The Little Rock Nine were 9 African American teenagers who enrolled in Little Rock High School an all-white high school at the time. The governor of Arkansas prevented the teens from going to school by calling in the Arkansas National Guard to stop them. This was important to the Civil rights movement because it caused people to fight for equal opportunity in education for African Americans. -
Greensboro Woolworth's Sit-ins
The sit-ins first happened when a group of African American teens went into Woolworths retail store. They sat at the lunch bar and were denied service. The teens stayed there and refused to get up and leave. This act of sit-ins spread all over North Carolina. This act was important because it brought the fight for civil rights to North Carolina. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom rides were when people (Black and White) rode on an interstate bus to the South to protest bus segregation. The people would sit in reverse roles, the whites would be in the back and the blacks would be in the front of the bus. This act was important because freedom rides caused the issue of segregation to be spread nationally. -
MLK’s Letter From Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King was sent to jail for protesting in Alabama. While there he writes a letter to clergymen and his followers in his letter he talks about how people can get rid of unjust laws instead of waiting for the court to take action and make their decisions. This act was important because it showed people that there can be a world where freedom exists. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington was a demonstration done by many civil rights leaders. They gathered at the Lincoln Memorial with over 250,000 people to protest against racism and inequality in America. This act was important because it helped to pass the Civil Rights Act. -
Birmingham Baptist Church Bombing
In Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham Baptist Church was bombed by four men killing 4 African American girls and injuring more than 20 people within the church. These men were said to be in or associated with the Ku Klux Klan. In the late 70s, 3 men were brought to justice and would serve the life sentence and in the early 2000’s another man was also brought to justice. the 4th man died. This act was important because it helped support the reason for the need for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
24th Amendment
In 1964 the government ratified the 24th amendment, which prohibited mandatory poll tax that people would have to pay to vote in national elections. This act was important because it ended the poll taxes that would prevent many African Americans from voting. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A law was passed in 1964 that forbids the discrimination of one's sex, race, national orientation, color, and religion. This act was important because it ended segregation in public facilities and banned employment discrimination. -
“Bloody Sunday”/Selma to Montgomery March
A Civil rights protest march that ended badly. Around 600 civil rights marchers were headed to Southwest out of Selma when they were met with police. The police stopped them and sprayed tear gas in the air, 17 people were injured by the police that Sunday so it is now called Bloody Sunday. This act was important because it ensured that African Americans could use their constitutional rights to vote. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This law outlawed discriminatory voting practices that were in the south. Part of this discriminatory voting was making citzens take literacy tests before they could vote this was one of the many was they used to prohibit African Americans from voting. This act was important because it was a big step to outlawing the Jim Crow laws. -
Loving v. Virginia
The Lovings were an interracial married couple living in Virginia. In Virginia interracial couples were not allowed, they were charged with the violation of the state's antimiscegenation statute. They went to the Supreme Court and the ruling was the ban on interracial couples was unconstitutional. This act was important because it deemed Virginia's antimiscegenation law unconstitutional and made it also made a big hit on ending segregation.