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Thurgood Marshal
This was extremely significant because the first African American judge had been elected. His name was Thurgood Marshall. He was one of the judges who ruled on the Brown v. Board court ruling which made it illegal to segregate schools based on race. It was also a win for the NAACP because it meant that the African American community was winning these small battles and slowly making their way towards equality. -
Brown v Board of Education, Topeka, KS
This is the court case that overturned the Plessy v. Fergeson case which stated in 1896 that seperate but equal facilities were constitutional. In the Brown vs. Education decision, the Supreme Court proved that seperate but equal was not equal and that Blacks were not getting the equal opportunities that White American students were getting. -
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Civil Rights in the United States
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Murder of Emett Till
Emmet was young black boy who "allegedly" whistled at a white woman as a joke. Several days later the husband of the woman and his brother came to his house, kidnapped him, beat him to death and threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. When they recovered his body his face was unrecongizable and no one had realized how bad the situation had escalated to. It had come to a point of life and death, and it was no longer under control. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower signed this Bill on April 9, 1957. This was one of the first attempts to give ALL people equal rights. The main point was to make sure African Americans had the right to vote. There was going to be more federal support to enforce these rights. It was the duty of the United States government to try and do something to give African Americans the rights they deserve. -
The "Little Rock Nine"
Central High School was an all White school in Arkansas. They did not allow nine black students into the school after the supreme court ordered that the schools be desegergated. President Eisenhower had to send in the National Guard to force integration. This caused issues because the people in the community were against integration of the races in their schools. They didnt feel that states should have to follow laws that they felt were unconstitutional. -
Freedom Riders
African Americans would take interstate buses and travel into the deep south. These buses were not segergated and Blacks and Whites didnt have to give up seats to each other because the buses went between multiple states. They would ride them into many southern states to prove that they did not need to be segergated. Many times, these buses were attacked by protesting groups. -
The March on Washington
250,000 men and women peacefully gathered around the Wahington Monument and protested for equal rights. This is where MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech took place. It had a large impact on the civil rights movement. Minorities wanted desegergation in federal facilities and equal access to jobs and oppertunities. This was widely televised. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
On this day president Jyndon Johnson declared that there would be no literacy tests as qualifications to see if certain people could vote. It outlawed denying the right to vote on the account of race. It also established that the federal government would be able to oversee the elections. Now states could not change these laws without federal permission. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
This stopped the segergation in the housing market. From now on there would be no more special places where only blacks and whites could live. THEY could choose where to live. Blacks were not to be stuck in the city and the Whtes were allowed to move to the suburbs. It made it so everyone had a chance in buy a house to suit their needs. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
This case re-inforced the Brown V. Board decision. It forced students to integrate. It would bus kids from innercity neighborhoods to the schools in the suburbs. Also, kids from the suburbds would go to school in the cities. The supreme court ruled that this way of integration was appropriate and constitutional and this lead to other states copying their idea of integration.
