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Plessy v. Ferguson
Legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races." This was overturned by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954).
Photo: Homer Plessy (left) and John Howard Ferguson (right). -
Executive Order 9981
Ended segregation in the armed forces.
Photo: President Harry S. Truman (front row, fifth from right) and Secretary of the Army Frank Pace (front row, fourth from right) with members of the integrated 82nd Airborne in the Rose Garden behind the White House in February, 1951. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Ended racial segregation in public schools (though many stayed segregated).
Photo: Increase in black students enrolled at southern white majority schools. -
Murder of Emmet Till
14 year old boy from Chicago gets brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman.
Photo: Emmet Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, mourns the death of her son at an open casket funeral. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. This starts up the year long Montgomery bus boycott.
Photo: Rosa Parks sitting on a Montgomery bus. -
60 Black pastors and Civil Rights leaders meet in Atlanta, Georgia
60 black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states—including MLK—meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation. -
Little Rock Nine
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends in federal troops to escort and protect nine black students, “Little Rock Nine”, to enter and attend Little Rock Central High School. They continue to be harassed after this effort.
Photo: Little Rock Nine members. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Helped protect voter rights and allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote.
Photo: Chart of voters in the Senate who voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and those who didn’t (08/07/1957). -
Boynton v. Virginia
Declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.
Photo: Riders continue to sit in segregated sections, due in part to pressure from white patrons, in this 1956 photo in Texas even as courts ruled to desegregate buses. -
Civil Rights Act of 1960
Aimed to strengthen and cover loopholes in the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Included penalties for anyone who obstructed someone’s attempt to register to vote, prosecution for interfering with court orders regarding school desegregation, etc.
Photo: Dwight D Eisenhower signing the Civil Rights Act of 1960. -
Greensboro Sit-Ins
Inspired by the nonviolent protests of Gandhi, four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. This sparked similar sit ins throughout the city and other states.
Photo: In the weeks following the Greensboro sit-in, Black protesters began staging sit-ins at places to eat across the United States. This sit-in at a lunch counter in Charlotte, North Carolina, happened on February 9, 1960. -
Ruby Bridges and the New Orleans School Integration
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Her actions inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With (1964).
Photo: U.S. deputy marshals escort six-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in November 1960. -
Greyhound bus burning
13 Freedom Riders (7 black 6 white) mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington D.C., aiming to protest segregated bus terminals to the south. Bus arrived Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted and threw a bomb at the bus.
Photo: Freedom Riders on a Greyhound bus sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sit on the ground outside the bus after it was set afire by a group of white people who met the group on arrival at Anniston, Alabama on May 14, 1961. -
Group of freedom riders reached Jackson, Mississippi
Group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi, where they were met with hundreds of supporters. They were arrested for trespassing in a “whites-only” facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Photo: The original Freedom Ride of May 1961 began in Washington, D.C. It lasted 39 days, they stopped at 13 places and traveled 1,168 miles. -
George C. Wallace 1963 Inauguration Speech
“I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny… and I say… segregation now… segregation tomorrow… segregation forever.”
- George C. Wallace -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
MLK wrote the Letter from Birmingham Jail while he was imprisoned for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations in Alabama in 1963. The Letter explains why MLK believed people had a responsibility to follow just laws and a duty to break unjust ones.
Photo: Martin Luther King Jr. in Jefferson County Jail, Birmingham, Alabama, November 3, 1967. -
Children’s Crusade
1,000+ Black school children march through Birmingham, Alabama to protest against segregation. The goal of this nonviolent protest was to provoke the city’s leaders to desegregate. Law enforcement brought out water hoses and police dogs, which caused national outrage.
Photo: Schoolchildren and adults marching against segregation near the 16th Street Baptist Church on May 10, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. -
Governor George C. Wallace
Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two Black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.
Photo: George Wallace during the Stand at the School House Door on the University of Alabama. -
March on Washington
250,000 people march to Washington for jobs and freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial. -
Bombing of Baptist Church in Birmingham
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.
Photo: Images of the aftermath of the bombing. -
The testimony of Fannie Lou Hammer to the 1964 Democratic National Convention
Fannie described how she was fired from her plantation job in retaliation for trying to register to vote and brutalized in jail for encouraging other Black people to assert their rights. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prevented employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
Photo: Chart showing those who were and weren’t for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 (a year after Fannie’s testimony)
Prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. This also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.
Photo: Impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Malcolm X Assassination
Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.
Photo: Open casket funeral of Malcolm X. -
Bloody Sunday
During the Montgomery March, many people were brutally attacked and blocked by police. MLK and other civil rights leaders lead two more marched and finally reached Montgomery on March 25.
Photo: State troopers swing billy clubs to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala., March 7, 1965. John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (in the foreground) is being beaten by a state trooper. -
James Meredith and the March Against Fear
Activist James Meredith, the first African American to enroll at the University of Mississippi, began a solitary walk on June 6, 1966, intending to walk from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to call attention to racism and continued voter discrimination in the South.
Photo: James Meredith walking on the campus of the University of Mississippi, accompanied by U.S. marshals, in 1962. -
Loving v. Virginia
Mildred and Richard Loving moved to Virginia, where interracial marriages were banned. They sued for violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The Court held that the Virginia law violated the 14th Amendment. The court struck down state laws banning marriage between individuals of different races.
Photo: Richard Loving kissing wife Mildred as he arrives home from work, King and Queen County, Virginia, April 1965. -
MLK and Rev. Ralph Abernathy arrested
MLK and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy were arrested and forced to begin serving sentences in Birmingham jail because they led peaceful protests against unconstitutional bans on "race mixing" in Birmingham in 1963.
Photo: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy jailed in Birmingham, Alabama. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. News of his assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence.
Photo: Civil rights leader Andrew Young (L) and others on balcony of Lorraine motel pointing in direction of assailant after assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is lying mortally wounded at their feet. -
Fair Housing Act/Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights act of 1968, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.
Photo: President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968.