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Jackie Robinson Joins The Dodgers
On April 10, 1947, Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey purchased the contract of Jackie Robinson to join the Brooklyn Dogers baseball team. Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the major leagues in the modern era. This was important because it gave insperation to other people of color to want to join other sports and broke the Major League Baseball’s color barrier. -
Excutive Order 9981
Issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman, it abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and established the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity. Initially integration was used as a matter of efficiency, it was important because it eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. -
Brown V. Topeka Board of Education
In December, 1952,in Topeka, Kansas, Oliver Brown was the first parent listed in a suit for his daughter to go to a white school. This was one of the cases of five the U.S. Supreme Court had from Kansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Virginia. All challenged the constitutionality of racial segregation in schools. This was important because the court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This was a protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front. The United States Supreme Court decided that the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. This was important because people involved in it like Martin Luther King Jr. would be inpired to spark a greater movement of racial change in society. -
SNCC Founded
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was organized by Ella Baker. This characterized new tactics and goals–including black self-reliance and the use of violence as a legitimate means of self-defense. This was important because it contributed to the Freedom Riders as well as marches with Martin Luther King Jr. and would draw attention to other African Americans to follow their ways. -
24th Amendment passes
The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits Congress and states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. Judiciary Chairman Emanuel Celler of New York proceeded with the bill as introduced On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment became part of the Constitution when South Dakota ratified it. This was important because it made it so that all citizens could afford to vote and not have to pay a tax on it. -
16th Street Bombing (Brimmingham, Al)
On Sunday, September 15, 1963, 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, a bombing occured that was an act of white supremacist terrorism. It was claimed that four men, Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime. It was important because it drew national attention to how hard it was often a dangerous struggle to fight for civil rights for African Americans. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964. The act outlawed forms of discrimination against African American and woman. It terminated racial segregation in schools, in workplace, unequal application in regards to voter registration requirements, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection under the 5th Amendment. This was important because it is giving people like immigrants rights to the problems they face today and others who are discriminated in any other way. -
Selma March
In 1965, Alabama, civil rights organizations such as the (SCLC) and the (SNCC) always struggled and fought to be able to have black voters. People like Martin Luther King Jr. led groups to march and protest to be able to vote. President Lyndon Johnson backed up the protestors, broadcasting it nationally, and they reached Montgomery on March 25. This was important because congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote to all African Americans. -
Loving V. Virginia
In April 10, 1967, the Supreme Court looked into laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The case was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other.The Supreme Court decided that this prohibition was unconstitutional. This was important because it ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
