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Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln frees American slaves in the South -
Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Tennessee
The KKK is formed to fight against rights for African Americans. -
Plessy vs Ferguson
Court decides having separate facilities for white and black people is legal. -
NAACP is founded
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) is founded to fight racist discrimination. -
Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Court says having separate schools for black and white students is not legal. -
Emmett Till case
An African-American boy, aged 14, is killed for 'wolf-whistling' at a white woman. His murderers are identified but go free. -
Bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama
Rosa Parks starts the boycott when she refuses to give up her bus seat for a white man. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Rides were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions. -
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Martin Luther King Jr delivers 'i have a dream' speech. -
Bomb at Baptist Church
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests. -
Freedom Summer
In the summer of 1964, forty one Freedom Schools opened in the churches, on the back porches, and under the trees of Mississippi. -
Bloody Sunday
This march went down in history as Bloody Sunday for the violent beatings state troopers inflicted on protesters as they attempted to march peacefully from Selma, Ala., to the state capital, Montgomery. -
Black religious leader assassinated
Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.