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Brown v. Board of Education - Dec 9, 1952 – May 17, 1954

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Brown v. Board of Education - Dec 9, 1952 – May 17, 1954

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The title given to five individual Supreme Court cases regarding the segregation of public schools. These cases took place in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Virginia, South Carolina, and Kansas. The court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling, deciding that “separate but equal” facilities were actually not equal, and that they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
History - Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment | United States Courts

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The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the murder conviction of Pete Hernandez should be overturned because Mexican Americans were not allowed on the jury that indicted and convicted him.  The ruling stated that the 14th Amendment included all racial and ethnic groups that faced discrimination, further expanding civil rights laws to all people facing racial injustice.
https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/hernandez-v-texas

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What was Hernandez originally convicted of?

A. Drug distribution

B. Murder
C. Aggravated assault

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Montgomery Bus Boycott - Dec 5, 1955 – Dec 20, 1956

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Montgomery Bus Boycott - Dec 5, 1955 – Dec 20, 1956

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After the arrest of Rosa Parks, civil rights activists organized boycotts of the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama. The boycotts lasted 13 months, they did not stop until a Supreme Court ruling declared that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. This was the first large-scale nonviolent protest.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott (article) | Khan Academy

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Rosa Parks graduated high school in 1933, making her a part of the less than 7% of African-Americans who had a high school diploma at the time

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Nine African American teens that integrated Little Rock's Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. They were met with mobs and immense hatred as they tied to enter the school. Little Rock's mayor begged President Eisenhower for help. Eisenhower responded by sending the National Guard and the U.S. Army to protect the students.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/little-rock-nine

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Established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and a federal Civil Rights Commission with the authority to investigate discrimination and suggest ways to correct it. Signed and proposed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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Began when four African-American college students sat at a white-only lunch counter. They were kicked out and alerted campus leaders who spread word of what happened. The sit-ins continued all week, gaining more & more support. The next week the protests expanded to other stores with segregated lunch counters. Protesters faced abundant harassment, but it proved to be worth it. African-Americans were soon eating at the same lunch counters as whites.
https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/greensboro-sit-in/

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Smithsonian artifacts: Greensboro Lunch Counter

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An interracial group of activists that rode buses through the South together. As the Freedom riders entered the deep south buses were firebombed, tires were slashed, and they were beaten. Resulted in JFK calling for stricter banning of interstate segregation.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Freedom-Rides

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James Meredith was the first African-American student to be enrolled at Ole Miss (University of Mississippi). Upon arrival at Ole Miss, a violent mob blocked him from entering. Two were killed and man others were injured. Federal marshals and National Guardsmen were sent to defuse the chaos. Meredith graduated the following year despite the resistance.

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/ole-miss-integratio

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What is Ole Miss an abbreviation of?
A. University of Missouri
B. University of Mississippi

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Outlawed poll taxes as a voting requirement in federal elections. This made voting more accessible to African American voters that could afford poll taxes prior.

https://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/37045

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After being imprisoned for a nonviolent protest, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter from jail. In the letter, King claimed that it was okay to break unjust laws for the betterment of society in a nonviolent way. This encouraged people to use nonviolence when fighting for equality.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/letter-from-birmingham-jail

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Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth name was acutal Michael.

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Bombing at Sixteenth St. Baptist - September 15, 1963

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Bombing at Sixteenth St. Baptist - September 15, 1963

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Four KKK members bombed a black church killing four African-American girls and injuring more than 20. Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton Jr. did not face federal charges in the ‘60s, but they were later convicted and sentenced to life in prison (excluding Cash who died before being convicted)
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/baptist-street-church-bombing

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The crater and other damage caused by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four African-American girls. AP Photo.

It was a quiet Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama-around 10:24 on September 15, 1963-when a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

The violent blast ripped through the wall, killing four African-American girls on the other side and injuring more than 20 inside the church.

It was a clear act of racial hatred: the church was a key civil rights meeting place and had been a frequent target of bomb threats.

Our Birmingham office launched an immediate investigation and wired the FBI Director about the crime. FBI bomb experts raced to the scene-via military jet-and an additional dozen personnel from other offices were sent to assist Birmingham.

At 10:00 p.m. that night, Assistant Director Al Rosen assured Assistant Attorney General Katzenbach that "the Bureau considered this a most heinous offense...[and]...we had entered the investigation with no holds barred."

And we backed that promise up. Dozens of FBI agents worked the case throughout September and October and into the new year-as many as 36 at one point. One internal memo noted that:

"...we have practically torn Birmingham apart and have interviewed thousands of persons. We have seriously disrupted Klan activities by our pressure and interviews so that these organizations have lost members and support. ...We have made extensive use of the polygraph, surveillances, microphone surveillances and technical surveillances..."

By 1965, we had serious suspects-namely, Robert E. Chambliss, Bobby Frank Cherry, Herman Frank Cash, and Thomas E. Blanton, Jr., all KKK members-but witnesses were reluctant to talk and physical evidence was lacking. Also, at that time, information from our surveillances was not admissible in court. As a result, no federal charges were filed in the '60s.

It has been claimed that Director Hoover held back evidence from prosecutors in the '60s or even tried to block prosecution. But it's simply not true. His concern was to prevent leaks, not to stifle justice. In one memo concerning a Justice Department prosecutor seeking information, he wrote, "Haven't these reports already been furnished to the Dept.?" In 1966, Hoover overruled his staff and made transcripts of wiretaps available to Justice. And he couldn't have blocked the prosecution and didn't-he simply didn't think the evidence was there to convict.

In the end, justice was served.

Chambliss received life in prison in 1977 following a case led by Alabama Attorney General Robert Baxley. And eventually the fear, prejudice, and reticence that kept witnesses from coming forward began to subside. We re-opened our case in the mid-1990s, and Blanton and Cherry were indicted in May 2000. Both were convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison. The fourth man, Herman Frank Cash, had died in 1994.

If you are interested in learning more, please read our 3,400 pages on this case-what was called the "BAPBOMB" investigation- posted online. Also see more pictures on our Multimedia website.

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Baptist Street Church Bombing | Federal Bureau of Investigation

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The crater and other damage caused by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four African-American girls. AP Photo. It was a quiet Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama-around 10:24 on September 15, 1963-when a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.

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200,000 people marched in the nation’s capital to pressure the JFK administration to make an effective civil rights bill in congress. This is where MLK gave his notorious “I have a dream” speech.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom

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I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King .Jr HD (subtitled)

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Prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It outlawed discrimination against public facility usage (bathrooms, water fountains, etc.) and federally financed programs. The act also boosted the fight for voting rights and the desegregation of schools.

Legal Highlight: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 | US Department of Labor

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A volunteer campaign with the goal to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. The project established 41 Freedom Schools in Mississippi that taught math, reading, etc. to increase the chances of black voters being accepted by Mississippi voting officials.

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/freedom-summer

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Lyndon B. Johnson sign an act that evoked the federal legislation to start an array of programs meant to give education, health, employment, and general welfare to impoverished Americans. The social welfare programs helped even out the wealth gap between races.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Economic-Opportunity-Act

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MLK led nonviolent protesters to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama from Selma, Alabama, where African Americans were protesting nonviolently for voting rights. The protests in Selma started with mass arrests but little violence. Later police attacks against nonviolent protesters increased. Televised police brutality sparked outrage across the nation.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/selma-montgomery-march

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What were the people that marched on Selma protesting?
A. Voting rights
B. Affordable housing
C. workplace equality

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Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson. The act made discriminatory voting practices that took place in southern states like poll taxes and literacy tests illegal. This allowed for far more black Americans' voices to be heard in elections.

Voting Rights Act (1965) | National Archives

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 Affirmative Action - September 24, 1965

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 Affirmative Action - September 24, 1965

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Started by the Lyndon Johnson administration with the goal of leveling out the playing field for minorities in the workplace and educationally. It sought to end, more realistically lessen, discrimination against African Americans, women, and other minorities in corporate settings.

Affirmative Action | Wex | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute

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Malcolm X & the “Black Power” Movement - 1966

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Malcolm X & the “Black Power” Movement - 1966

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Malcolm X supported the separation of black and white Americans and rejected the idea of integration. The black power movement was motivated by a want for security and self-sufficiency that they believed they could not receive in redlined African American neighborhoods. They believed that making a community that served black American interests was the way to attain civil rights.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/foundations-black-power

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Black Power emphasized black self-reliance and self-determination more than integration. Proponents believed African Americans should secure their human rights by creating political and cultural organizations that served their interests. They insisted that African Americans should have power over th…

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Police arrested 82 African Americans at a welcome home party for two Vietnam veterans. Locals that witnessed the raid protested by vandalizing property, looting businesses, and starting fires. Outrage spread and the riots continued for 5 days. 33 black people died and 10 white people died.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Detroit-Riot-of-1967

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Detroit Riot of 1967 | Definition, Causes, Aftermath, & Facts

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Detroit Riot of 1967, a series of violent confrontations between residents of largely African American neighbourhoods in Detroit and the police.

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 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. - April 4, 1968

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 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. - April 4, 1968

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MLK was shot by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in Memphis for a march to support striking Memphis sanitation workers. His assassination led to rage in Black communities, and a time of national mourning. His death helped speed up the passing of an equal housing bill which was the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.

Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination - Facts, Reaction & Impact - HISTORY.