Civil Rights Timeline

  • Tulsa, Massacre

    Tulsa, Massacre
    The Tulsa Massacre white mob attacked the Black community of Greenwood, which was one of the wealthiest Black communities in the United States, often referred to as "Black Wall Street." The violence was triggered by a false accusation that a Black man had assaulted a white woman. The mob looted, burned, and destroyed homes, businesses, and churches, leaving hundreds of Black residents dead and thousands homeless.
  • Brown v. Board

    Brown v. Board
    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. It included Robert Carter, Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, Louis Redding, Charles and John Scott, Harold R. Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown were also involved.
  • Emmet Till

    Emmet Till
    Emmett Till a 14-year-old boy who was visiting his family in Money, Mississippi from Chicago. He was accused of whistling at a white women in a store owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant. He was kidnapped, beaten, shot in the head, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam were accused of the murder. Till’s death inspired a movement against racial injustice and terrorism.
  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks
    Rosa Parks who was arrested because she refused to to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her act of defiance led to a major protest against racial segregation on public transportation.
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference

    Southern Christian Leadership Conference
    The SCLC was an organization linked to the black churches. 60 black ministers were pivotal in organizing civil right activism. Martin Luther King Jr was elected President. They focused its non violent strategy on citizenship, schools and efforts to desegregate individual cities. It played key roles in the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma Voting Rights Campaign and March to Montgomery in 1965.
  • Little Rock 9

    Little Rock 9
    Little Rock Nine a group of nine African American students who attempted to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. The students attempted to enter the school, they were met with angry mobs and a guard prevented them from attending classes.
  • Greensboro

    Greensboro
    Greensboro sit-ins a protest against segregation that helped advance the Civil Rights Movement. It began when four Black students sat at the whites-only lunch counter. The students were refused service and stayed until store closed. Next day 25 students repeated the protest, and by February 4, over 300 students were participating.
  • Ruby Bridges

    Ruby Bridges
    Ruby Bridges was the first Black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the U.S. Ruby's bravery helped pave the way for Civil Rights action in the American South.
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders
    A group of civil rights activists who rode buses through the American South to protest segregation. They faced violence, arrest, and imprisonment. They also tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters. They continued years to challenge the non-enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia, which stated that segregated public buses were unconstitutional.
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    The March on Washington was a civil rights demonstration. To demand an end to segregation, job discrimination, and economic injustice. The march was orderly and peaceful.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    The Civil Right Act was a law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in the United States.
  • Malcom X

    Malcom X
    Malcom X was a civil rights leader, minister, and a human rights activist. Urged for Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary”
  • Selma to Montgomery “Bloody Sunday”

    Selma to Montgomery “Bloody Sunday”
    The Selma to Montgomery was a series of civil rights protests where activists marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand the right to vote for African Americans. State troopers violently attacked marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act
    A landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B.
  • Martin Luther King Jr

    Martin Luther King Jr
    Martin Luther King Jr was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who fought for equality through nonviolent resistance. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested. Helped organize the March on Washington where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech