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Brown vs Board of Education
The Brown case challenged the “separate but equal” principle which was established in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. The supreme court declared that segregated schools between blacks and whites were unconstitutional. They declared in a unanimous vote of 9-0 that public schools should not be split between blacks and whites. This was a landmark and led the way for the civil rights movement. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was the first African American Supreme Court Justice and is most famous for the Brown vs. Board of Education case where separate publics schools for blacks and whites was declared unconstitutional. This paved the way for civil rights movements across the country. -
Earl Warren supports Brown decision
The newly appointed Chief Justice wrote out the verdict of Brown v. Board of Education with the support of all nine Chief Justices. Seperate but equal was no longer legal and desegregation was to happen in public schools. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A social and political movement in Montgomery Alabama that started with the Rosa Parks arrest, and ended when the United States Supreme Court declared the segregation laws unconstitutional. The boycott involved many famous civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a seamstress who was most famously known for boarding a bus in Montgomery Alabama and sitting in a seat at the front. When several stops later she was asked to give up her seat to a white passenger, she refused and was arrested. She sparked a chain of events that launched a civil rights movement that encouraged activists to stand up against a country that was still segregated. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This act established the United States Civil Rights Commission. This gave them the power to investigate civil rights violations. It also protected the voting rights of African Americans. Although this was the first civil rights bill passed since Reconstruction, it was a small victory because it was vague in nature. -
SNCC
A group of 175 college students from 30 states met at Shaw University in North Carolina to listen to James Lawson deliver his speech. Ella Baker, a daughter of enslaved African Americans, organized this meeting and help young students establish a new civil rights organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. -
Freedom Ride
A bus ride through the deep south that started in Washington DC and headed toward New Orleans. Black riders defied segregation by riding in the front of the busses and using white restrooms at bus stops. It took a horrible turn when one of the busses was firebombed and a mob attacked the other in Anniston, Alabama. -
James Meredith Integrates Ole Miss
Medgar Evans was the civil rights activist that helped James Meredith win his federal court case that ordred the University of Missisippi to desegregate. Less than a year later, Evans was assinated on his front doorstep. This was a painful reminder of the high cost of fighting racial discrimination. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. is most famously known for the speech he gave at the march on Washington DC where a crowd of over 200,000 demonstrators gathered to protest civil rights. This is where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech where he described his dream of a color blind society with free and equal rights for everyone. -
March on Washington
This event where more than 200,000 demonstrators gathered at the capital in Washington DC was organized to demand equal rights for everyone. It was a diverse group of young and old from different socioeconomic classes, with more than 25% being white. -
Freedom Summer
The SNCC set up a major campaign known as the Freedom Summer. More than 1,000 volunteers entered Mississippi to register African Americans to vote and join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Volunteers were killed, beaten, and abused. The party gained groud, but was not statisfying for them. -
Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam
Malcolm X became part of the Nation of Islam, a religious sect that had strict rules of behavior and a demand for the seperation of the races, headed by Elijah Muhammad while in prison. When he was realased, Malcolm became one of the most prominent ministers. He left the Nation of Islam in 1964 and formed his own organization. However, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X wanted to rejoin the Nation, but he was assinated in Feb. 1965 by three memebers of the Nation of Islam. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act banned segregation in public places and schools. It also allowed the justice department to prosecute people who violated civil rights laws and discriminated in the workplace. This act also established the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. -
The passing of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment
The Constitution was amended in 1964 to ban poll tax, limit gerrymandering, and established the "one man, one vote." In the Deep South, the impact was obvious with African American voting rising from 7% to 70% in 22 years -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Due to the pressure from the President and protestors, Congress passed this act. It banned literary tests and granted the federal government to oversee voting registration and elections in states that struggled with discrimination against minorities. -
Stokely Carmichael calls for black power
Carmichael called for African Americans to use the economic and political power that they possed to gain the equality they were searching for. This threatned many white people, thinking that black power meant more violence. -
The Kerner Commission
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders was established by President Johnson to determine the cause of the worsening riots. The commission established that racial discrimination was the main cause of all the violence. The ideas were not followed through and there was enormous white backlash. -
The Black Panthers protect African Americans
The Black Panthers formed to protect African Americans from police abuse and looked out for the well beeing of all African Americans. When in Sacramento, the Panthers pushed the limits by carrying shotguns, which was illegal. They embraced their heritage and often had violent confrontations with the police.
