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In this time period, African-Americans decided enough was enough. They decided to fight for basic human rights. This is a battle still in present day.
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In the Dred Scott case, the U.S. Supreme Court denied constitutional rights and citizenship to all African-Americans. This legally made African-Americans "subordinate, inferior beings -- whether slave or freedmen."
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An executive order was issued by President Lincoln that freed all slaves that in the Confederacy.
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The United States Supreme Court declared that laws that made separate public schools for white and African-American students to be unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white man. The seat was in the "colored" section of the bus. The white section was full.
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A majority of Montgomery, Alabama African-American citizens refused to use public bus transportation. They demanded that seating be desegregated on a first-come, first-serve basis. This boycott lasted thirteen months. It ended with a Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was and is unconstitutional.
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Organized nonviolent sit-ins and marches that eventually involved students began to provoke mass arrests. The Birmingham police department used high-pressure water hoses and police dogs to attack protesters.
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Martin Luther King Jr. gives his "I have a Dream" speech to fight for the rights for African-American citizens. Well over 200,000 people attended.
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The Ku Klux Klan blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church and murdered four innocent children named: Addie Colllins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise. They injured many more. They chose the church because it was a meeting place for protesters.
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This law outlaws discrimination based on color, race, religion, sex, or national origin. This caused schools, employment, restaurants, public places and accommodations to no longer be allowed to be segregated.
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State troopers attacked unarmed peaceful activists with tear gas and billy clubs as they marched from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama for voting rights.
