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The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was created on February 12, 1909, by an interracial group of activists, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Mary White Ovington, spurred by the horrific 1908 Springfield Race Riot to fight racial injustice and secure civil rights for African Americans through democratic processes, aiming to end segregation and discrimination. -
The Tulsa race massacre was a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place in the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, between May 31 and June 1, 1921. -
The Scottsboro Boys refers to nine Black teenagers wrongly accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931, a case that became a pivotal civil rights battleground highlighting racial injustice, biased juries, and the right to fair legal representation, featuring rushed trials and lynch mob threats, ultimately leading to major Supreme Court decisions affirming rights to counsel and impartial juries. -
Jackie Robinson was the first to break baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers 78 years ago Tuesday. His legacy continues to inspire people inside the major leagues -- and outside, too. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, even if the segregated facilities are equal in quality. -
In August 1955 two Mississippians bludgeon and kill Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, for whistling at a white woman; their acquittal and boasting of the atrocity spur the civil rights cause. -
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. -
The Little Rock Nine were nine African American students who became famous in 1957 for integrating Little Rock Central High School, a pivotal event in the American Civil Rights Movement, facing mobs and state obstruction before President Eisenhower sent federal troops to ensure their entry, demonstrating federal commitment to desegregation after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. -
Ruby Bridges desegregated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960, becoming the first African American child to attend the all-white school, a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, where she was escorted by U.S. Marshals amidst violent white protests, showing immense courage as she walked into a hostile environment for her education. -
The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. -
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, was a massive, peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C., where over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to advocate for civil and economic rights for Black Americans, famously featuring Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and pushing for civil rights legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and ending segregation in public places and employment, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, after President Kennedy's proposal and a historic Senate filibuster. -
Malcolm X was an African American revolutionary and human rights activist who founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was also a prominent figure during the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1965. -
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 6, 1965. It is widely considered one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement, effectively dismantling the "Jim Crow" legal barriers that had systematically disenfranchised Black Americans for decades. -
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was created in October 1966 in Oakland, California, by college students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, initially as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, to combat police brutality and systemic racism through armed patrols, political education, and community service, embodying Black Power with tenets of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense inspired by leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. -
Thurgood Marshall was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson on June 13, 1967, becoming the first African American Justice after Senate confirmation on August 30, 1967, and was sworn in on October 2, 1967, marking a historic moment for civil rights and American law, building on his career as a top civil rights lawyer who argued Brown v. Board of Education. -
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at age 39.