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Period: to
1950s-19070s
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murder of Emmett Till
Emmett was a 14 year old boy who was brutally murdered after being accused of offending a white woman in Mississippi. His killers were acquitted and drew more attention to the long history of violence. -
Montgomery bus boycott
The boycott was a political and social protest campaign against public transit racial segregation. It resulted in the Supreme Court ruling that public segregation on buses was unconstitutional. -
The Little Rock 9 campaign
The "Little Rock Nine," were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. -
Civil rights act 1957
It allowed any citizen who was 21 years old to vote. It also allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. -
Greensboro sit in
Four students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth's in downtown Greensboro, where the official policy was to refuse service to anyone but whites. They refused to give up their seats. -
Freedom riders 1947-1961
There were 13 original Freedom Riders, who encountered violence and resistance as they rode buses across the South, challenging the nation’s segregation laws. They were testing the compliance of transportation segregation after Supreme Court rulings. -
Mississippi freedom summer
A 1964 voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered Black voters in Mississippi. The increased awareness it brought to voter discrimination helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
It 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. -
Voting rights Act of 1965
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. It made an immediate increase in the number of Black Americans who were able to vote. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr
He was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement form 1955-1968. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
A landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools. It was held as a appropriate remedy for the problem of racial imbalance in school. -
Shirley Chisolm’s Presidential Campaign
She became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United State. She was the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's nomination. -
Hank Aaron's home run record
On April 8, 1974, Atlanta Braves star Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing to break the revered record held by Babe Ruth. He received many racial and physical threats due to his skin color. -
University of California Regents vs. Bakke
A Supreme Court case which held that a university's admissions criteria which used race as a definite and exclusive basis for an admission decision violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was important because it declared affirmative action constitutional but invalidated the use of racial quotas. -
Barbara Jordan's Address at the Democratic National Convention
She was the first African-American as well as the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a party’s convention. As Americans sensed a fracturing of American life in the 1970s, Jordan called for Americans to commit themselves to a “national community” and the “common good.”