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Brown vs. Board of Education
The Supreme Court decided unanimously that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, and banned local governments from segregating their public schools. However, private schools were not effected by these rules, and often maintained segregationist policies, especially in the South. This date specifically marks the decision by the Supreme Court, and does not include the years it took to argue the case. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old boy, got brutally murdered in a case of racial hatred. The choice of his mother to hold an open-casket funeral revealed the horror that his corpse ended up in as a result of the murder, and allowed for national attention. This national attention from the graphic imagery helped to persuade the public into opposing racism and segregation. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
This boycott was started by Rosa Parks' arrest. Black Americans in Montgomery, Alabama decided to boycott the Montgomery bus system (of which they were the primary customers) in order to force them into desegregating their system. It was led by MLK and is where he began to gain popularity. The boycott ended with the Supreme Court deciding that segregation on public buses was illegal. -
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Little Rock Nine Integration Crisis
This event was started when Black students were admitted for the first time into a majority white high school. This group of nine students faced violent white mobs formed of both students and of townspeople. The governor of Arkansas used the National Guard to prevent the students from entering school, in an attempt to prevent integration. Eventually, Eisenhower took control over the Arkansas National Guard and sent in the 101st Airborne to protect, escort, and accompany the students. -
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Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-ins
The Greensboro sit-ins were the protests that four Black college students made by sitting at the "Whites Only" lunch counter sections at a Woolworth store in Greensboro, NC. They refused to leave and continued to lead the sit-in movement for 5 months. This helped kick-start the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and in turn increased student activism in the Civil Rights movement. -
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Freedom Rides
The Freedom Rides were a test of if the government would enforce desegregation rulings that the Supreme Court had made. The Supreme Court had already determined that segregated public buses were unconstitutional, and the hundreds of both Black and white freedom riders joined together to protest the segregation especially at bus stations. Eventually, it led to the enforcement of the rulings by the Interstate Commerce Commission who was given the authority over enforcing rules on interstate buses. -
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Birmingham campaign
Organized by the SCLC and MLK, peaceful protests were held against segregation across Birmingham, Alabama. Protestors were attacked by extremely high pressure water hoses, and dispersed. MLK got arrested during this campaign, and then wrote his famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" which became the manifesto of the Civil Rights Movement. -
March on Washington
This was a huge protest where African Americans marched for their rights in Washington, D.C. and gathered at the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. MLK gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech and drew hundreds of thousands of participants as well as national media attention. -
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Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a large-scale campaign during 1964 aimed at increasing voter registration for African Americans in Mississippi. Activists also established small local schools to educate the Black youth and faced incredible threats and some were even murdered.