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"Bloody Sunday" refers to the violent attack on civil rights marchers on March 7, 1965, as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during their march to demand voting rights. State troopers and local police brutally attacked the non-violent protesters with clubs and tear gas, injuring many, which was broadcast nationwide and drew national attention to the Civil Rights Movement. This event was a pivotal moment that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on May 17, 1954, that state-sponsored segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The case argued that segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, asserting that "separate but equal" facilities were inherently unequal. The ruling overturned the precedent set by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which had established the "separate bu
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Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in August 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman. His killers, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury, and their subsequent boasting about the atrocity helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. The case drew national attention and became a symbol of the racial violence and injustice of the era, especially after Till's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral to show -
Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 381-day protest that ended segregation on public buses. The boycott was a major event in the Civil Rights Movement, organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Martin Luther King Jr., and successfully desegregated buses after a Supreme Court rulin -
The "Little Rock Nine" refers to nine African American students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, following the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. Their integration was met with violent resistance, first by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus who used the National Guard to block them, and later by mobs. President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by federalizing the National Guard and sending in the 101st Airborne Division to escort the students and enforce the co -
The Greensboro Woolworth's sit-in was a pivotal civil rights protest that began on February 1, 1960, when four Black college freshmen sat at the "whites-only" lunch counter and were refused service. This nonviolent protest, organized by students at the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina, sparked a wave of sit-ins across the South, leading to the desegregation of Woolworth's lunch counters and inspiring similar actions nationwide. Today, the former Woolworth building is home -
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. The bombing was committed by the white supremacist terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan -
During the spring of 1961, student activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) launched the Freedom Rides to challenge segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals -
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was an open letter written by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 while he was imprisoned for his role in nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. It was a direct response to a statement by eight white clergymen who criticized his actions as "unwise and untimely". The letter defends his use of direct, nonviolent action and makes a moral case for disobeying unjust laws. -
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. -
Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 24 – “Elimination of Poll Taxes” Amendment Twenty-four to the Constitution was ratified on January 23, 1964. It abolished and forbids the federal and state governments from imposing taxes on voters during federal elections. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, ending segregation in public places and prohibiting employment discrimination. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, it also made discrimination in federally funded programs illegal and is considered one of the most significant legislative achievements in U.S. history. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark federal law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965. It outlawed discriminatory practices like literacy tests and poll taxes, and provided federal oversight for voter registration in areas with a history of discrimination. A key component required certain jurisdictions to get federal "preclearance" before changing their voting laws, though this provision was later modified by the Suprem -
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, was a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that the laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution