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The Supreme Court Decision of Plessy v. Ferguson
Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal". -
The Tuskegee airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military pilots in the United States. They served in World War II and were a key part of the Allied bomber effort. The Tuskegee Airmen are important because they helped pave the way for the desegregation of the U.S. military. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by President Johnson
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
The Integration of Major League Baseball
For nearly 60 years baseball was a segregated sport as the American and National Leagues that formed Major League Baseball unofficially banned African-Americans from their ranks. That all changed when Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. -
The Integration of the Armed Forces
On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, creating the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. The order mandated the desegregation of the U.S. military. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Sweatt v. Painter
In the Supreme Court case of "Sweatt v. Painter" (1950), the court ruled that the University of Texas Law School must admit Heman Sweatt, an African American applicant, because the separate law school created for Black students was deemed grossly unequal, effectively striking a blow against segregation in graduate education and marking a significant step towards the later Brown v. Board of Education decision; this ruling was based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
The Supreme Court Decision of Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" (1954) ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, effectively overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson and marking a major milestone in the Civil Rights Movement; this decision declared that separating children in public schools based on race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
The Death of Emmitt Till
Emmett's murder galvanized the nascent civil rights movement and reshaped America. One day in the summer of 1955, when he was only 14 years old, Emmett traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Money, Mississippi. -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a 381-day protest that led to the desegregation of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycott began in December 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. The boycott ended with a 1956 Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. -
The Integration of Little Rock High School
The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, gained national attention on September 3, 1957, when Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating the high school. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
The resulting law—the first significant measure to address African-American civil rights since 1875—established the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for two years, created a civil rights division in the U.S. Justice Department, and authorized the U.S. Attorney General to seek federal court injunctions to protect. -
The Freedom Rides by Freedom Rides of 1961
A series of protests during the Civil Rights Movement where activists, known as "Freedom Riders," intentionally rode interstate buses through the segregated Southern United States in mixed racial groups to challenge the non-enforcement of Supreme Court rulings that declared segregated public transportation unconstitutional. -
The Greensboro Four Lunch Counter Sit-In
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store — now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum — in Greensboro, North Carolina, which led to the F. W. Woolworth Company department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation. -
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment
It abolished and forbids the federal and state governments from imposing taxes on voters during federal elections. -
The Integration of the University of Mississippi
In 1962, a federal appeals court ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, an African-American student. Upon his arrival, a mob of more than 2,000 white people rioted; two people were killed. -
The Integration of the University of Alabama
The successful integration of The University of Alabama that began on June 11, 1963, opened doors not only to two Black students, but for decades of progress toward becoming an inclusive campus. -
The March on Washington & "I Have a Dream" Speech by MLK
An estimated 250,000 people marched to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington where they heard Martin Luther King Jr. give a speech destined to resonate through the ages. -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas
Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was visiting Texas in an attempt to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party. -
The Assassination of Malcolm X
US black nationalist leader Malcolm X was assassinated on 21 February 1965, at the age of 39. The BBC reported on the reaction in his adopted home of Harlem, New York, as thousands of people queued to pay their last respects. -
The Selma to Montgomery March: "Bloody Sunday"
Approximately at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 7, 1965 , 300 protestors, led by Hosea Williams, John Lewis, Albert Turner and Bob Mants, gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma and proceeded through town to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. -
The voting Rights Act of 1965
When Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it determined that racial discrimination in voting had been more prevalent in certain areas of the country. Section 4(a) of the Act established a formula to identify those areas and to provide for more stringent remedies where appropriate. -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee
At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, 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 King's assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1968
He 1968 Act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968).