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Brown vs. Board of Education Topeka
In Topeka, Kansas, elementary schools were segregated. A pastor with the last name of Brown had a daughter named Linda who had to walk six blocks to her school, when there was a white elementary school seven blocks away. He attempted to have Linda enrolled at the white elementary school, but she was refused enrollment. After being denied by courts in Kansas, Brown took the case to the Supreme Court where he banned the segregation of public schools with help of the Supereme Court. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy who went to visit some relatives. He met a woman who was married to the owner of a small grocery store. Her husband believed that Till had been flirting with his wife and so he and his brother kidnapped Till from his relatives home in the middle of the night. He was brutally murdered, and his body tossed in the river. After his body was found, his mother demanded an open casket funeral and thousands of black and white americans came to mourn for Till. -
Rosa Parks and the bus boycott
Rosa Parks got on the bus one day after work and sat in the front row of the colored section of the bus. The bus driver moved back the colored sign one row behind Rosa and told her to move when the white section was full. She said no since she had been in the colored section, and the bus driver called the police. This lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where African-Americans refused to ride the bus for 381 days, damaging the economy of public transportation, and ending segregation there. -
The formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
On February 14, 1957, 60 black ministers and leaders traveled to New Orleans with Dr. King to create an organization that would coordinate and support nonviolent direct action against segregation in the South. They called themselves the "Southern Christian Leadership Conference" (SCLC). They were initially repressed by the police and the Klu Klux Klan, but churches and communities still supported SCLC at the risk of arson and bombing against themselves. -
Little Rock, Arkansas - Central High School Integration
Nine African-American students were denied entrance to Little Rock Central High School in defiance to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling for integration of public schools. When the students attempted to attend school, an angry mob greeted them and the police escorted the students back home. The next day, President Eisenhower sent in one of the U.S. Army's Airborne Divisions to escort the students into the school. Guards had to patrol the school for the rest of the year, but the students were safe. -
Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's sit-in
Four college students attempted to purchase coffee at a Woolworth's Department Store, but they ordered at the "white only" counter, and were refused service. The manager asked the students to leave, but they stayed in the store till it closed. The next day, over twenty African-American students began a sit-in at the store. This lead to more sit-ins at other department stores, and a boycott that dropped salfes by a third. This lead to store owners finally abandoning their segregation policies. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders were a group of civil rights activists who rode public buses through Southern States that still enforced Jim Crow laws of segregating public transportation and ignored the new Supereme Court rulings for integregation of public transporation. The Freedom Riders were met with violent reactions and were often arrested for trespassing, unlawful assembly, and violating Jim Crow laws. It brought attention to disregard for Supreme Court rulings and increased enforcement of new laws. -
James Meredith, University of Mississippi
James Meredith applied to the University of Missippi twice and was denied both times. Afterwards, he filed a suit to the U.S. District Court that he was only being rejected for his race. The Supreme Court ruled he had the right to be admitted to the University. Attempts were made to find reason to not admit him, such as a law that no one convicted of a state crime could attend, since he had been charged with false voter registration. He was the first African-American student to attend the school -
Birmingham, Alabama protests - "fire hoses" - televised.
The Birmingham campaign was a movement organized by the SCLC to bring attention to unfair treatment of African-Americans in Brimingham, Alabama. It began with boycotts to pressure business leaders to desegregate employment and turned into sit-ins when the boycotts were resisted. Adult volunteers ran low, so the SCLC trained children to participate. The Police used high-pressure water jets and police dogs on children to contorl the protests. King drew criticism from putting children in harms way. -
Martin Luther King arrested, "letter from Birmingham jail"
Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for being apart of the Birmingham campaign, a non-violent protest to racial segregation by the city government and downtown retailers. An editor at the New York Times Magazine asked King to write a letter to publish in the magazine, but Times chose not to publish it. He sent the letter in to lawyers back at movement headquarts to edit the letter for publication. It was addressed to accusations from the Alabama clergymen. -
"March on Washington"
The march was organized by civil rights, labor, and religious organizations. More than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airliners, and uncounted cars traveled to Washington, as well as all regularly schedules planes, trains, adn buses. The march began at the Washington Monument and ended at the Lincoln Memorial, starting without the leaders who were meeting with members of Congress and were late to the start time. This is where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
24th Amendment to the Constitution
Poll taxes were instated in southern states to prevent African-Americans from voting. It was held as unconstitutional in 1937, but states still retained a poll tax. However, Congress proposed the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which prohibited poll taxes, and was successfully ratified because poll taxes were unconstitutional and violted the Fourteenth Amendment already. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
President JFK asked legislation to give all Americans the right to be served in public places and vote. This created the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities. This also included the discrimination of women. The act was able to put a stop to unequal application of vote registration requirements and racial segregation in schools and other general public areas. -
Malcolm X shot
Malcolm X was a spokesman for the Nation of Islam who taught black supremacy and pushed for the separation of black and white Americans, in contrast to the civil rights movement. Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when he was assassinated. Going to quiet a disturbance in a crowd, three men pulled out guns and shot him 21 times in the chest, shoulder, arms, and legs. -
Voting rights march "bloody Sunday"
There were three marches for voting rights that were planned to span from Selma to the capitol of Alabama, Montgomery. The first march was 600 people strong, and marchers were attacked by police officers with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march was on the following Tuesday, and had 2,500 people marching. The final march was one week later, and they were protected by 2000 U.S. Army soldiers and 1,900 Alabama National Guard members. The march was 1 day long and finally successful. -
Watts riots
This was a six day riot in Los Angeles that resulted in many deaths, injuries, arrests, and cost millions in property damage. The riot was in response to racial segregation of neighborhoods, job opportunities, and unfair treatement by police offiers. The event that sparked the rebellion was when a police officer attempted to arrest a man for apparently driving under the influence. He brought in his family and neighbors to defend him, and the riot eventually intensified to include the whole city. -
Formation of the Black Panthers
Originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Black Panther Party was an African-American group fighting against unfair treatement by police. They followed socialist and Marxist doctrines, but were still able to attract a diverse membership to the organization. They were originally formed to protect African-American neighborhoods from police brutality, and were most popular during the 1960's and 1970's. -
Stokely Carmichael - "Black Power" - Seattle
Carmichael was a black activist of the Black Panther Party for most of his life. After the "March Against Fear" march, Carmichael gave a speech in Seattle, Washington. He used the phrase "Black Power" for the first time in that sppech, to urge black pride and independence. Carmichael also later wrote a book called Black Power, and slowly distanced himself from the Black Panthers as he began to believe more of what Malcolm X was teaching, and disagreed with leaders of the Black Panthers. -
Martin Luther King Assassination
MLK was standing on the balcony of his motel room when he was shot. Two of his friends heard the shot from inside their own motel rooms, and rushed in to find King passed out on the floor and bleeding profusely. One believed he was already dead, but the other found a pulse and rushed him to the hospital. The doctors performed a manual heart massage, but he was pronounced dead that same night. His attacked was seen fleeing a rooming house across the street, and he was arrested two months later. -
Civil Rights Act 1968
Also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was a piece of legislation that provided equal opportunities for housing, no matter what race a person was. It was signed during MLK's assassination riots by President Johnson. The act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, gender, people with disabilities, and families with children.
