# data[].attributes.headline
Brown V. Board of Education                   

# data[].attributes.subject
Brown V. Board of Education                   

# data[].attributes.body
This court case lasted around 2 years from December 9, 1952-May 17th, 1954. This court case proved that segregation in public schools violated the constitution. This helped open the door for many other civil rights arguments.

# data[].attributes.body
During the Brown V. Board of Education decision the supreme court had the Hernandez V. Texas decision which ended the exclusion of Mexican Americans from trial Juries. This was the first court case for discrimination other than African Americans.

# data[].attributes.body
A Mexican-American had not served on a jury in Jackson county in over 25 years so Hernandez claimed they were discriminated as a special class.

# data[].attributes.body
From December 5, 1955-December 20, 1956 the black community in Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride the buses. This was in protest to Rosa Parks getting thrown off of a bus and arrested after refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger. In 1956, after over a year of not riding the buses, the supreme court ruled that the law the segregated buses was unconstitutional.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1957 after the Brown V. Board of education case the federal government had little involvement with the school board and local officials resisted the court's decision of desegregation. In Little Rock, Arkansas the school board planned to gradually desegregate schools. When 9 African American students tried to enter Central High School, the national guard stopped them and an angry white formed and stopped them from entering the building.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1957 President Eisenhower signed a bill into law that established the united states civil rights commission so they could investigate civil rights violations. This bill gave the attorney general power to make civil rights lawsuits and to protect the voting rights of African Americans. The bill wasn't perfect but it has symbolic importance.

# data[].attributes.body
From February 1, 1960 to July 25, 1960 students would sit at counters in restaurants until they closed because they were refused service. This spread all through out the country and soon it started to apply to Libraries and public benches. protesters used non violent methods to get their message across.

# data[].attributes.body
In the Spring of 1961 a group of African Americans set off in 2 separate buses from Washington D.C. to New Orleans. On the way they broke segregation rules by sitting in the front of the bus and using "White Only" restrooms. When they got to Alabama one of the buses was firebombed and when the second bus arrived a white mob attacked the group.

# data[].attributes.body
Where were the freedom rider busses going

A. Louisiana

B. Alabama

C. Georgia

D. Florida

# data[].attributes.body
In 1962 James Meredith wanted to enroll at Ole Miss, in September he won a court case to make the university desegregated. Towards the end of that month rumors of Meredith on campus spread and during the night a riot erupted.  when the riot was over 160 people were injured and 2 died.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1963 the SCLC targeted Birmingham, Alabama because it was one of the most segregated cities. Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested and sent out a letter from the Birmingham jail explaining why he is tired of waiting. He explained the struggles of not having the same rights as white people and said that if they didn't have the same rights they would understand they are tired of waiting.

# data[].attributes.body
The letter from Birmingham jail is considered one of, if not, the most important written document from the civil rights era.

# data[].attributes.body
The march took place on August 28, 1963, and over 200,000 people showed up at the nation's Capitol. There were people from all different kinds of ages and backgrounds and over a quarter of the people were white. The march was peaceful and the main rally was in front of the lincoln memorial.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Speech

# data[].attributes.body
On September 15, 1963 a bomb exploded at a church in Birmingham, Alabama and killed 4 African American girls. Lyndon B. Johnson surprisingly supported behind the civil rights bill and helped the bill pass through the house of representatives but was filibustered for more than 80 days but was finally passed.

# data[].attributes.body
The 24th amendment was ratified on August 27, 1962, this banned poll tax and expanded the right to participate in democratic process. This made voting percentages in the south skyrocket and the number of African American elected officials went from fewer than 100 to more than 6,000.

# data[].attributes.body
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law in July of that year. This act banned segregation in public and gave the government power to make schools desegregated. The act gave the government power to arrest people for violating civil rights and helped get rid of job discrimination.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1964 over 1,000 mostly black and some white students went to Mississippi to register African Americans to vote. Three activists disappeared before most of the people got there. President Johnson ordered a search and all of the bodies were found burred in a dam with bullet wounds.

# data[].attributes.body
The economic opportunity act was signed into law in August 1964 by Lyndon B. Johnson. The goal of this act was to facilitate education, health, employment, and general welfare for Americans living in poverty. The act was a success and help lay the foundation for things like the supplemental nutrition assistance program and Medicare.

# data[].attributes.body
MLK lead the march on Selma in 1965, to get the government to enact voting rights. On March 7, state troopers and other authorities attacked marchers on the Edmund bridge. President Johnson later called for strong federal voting rights.

# data[].attributes.body
What was the march on Selma for?

A. Voting rights

B. desegregation in school

C. Worker rights

D. Bus seating

# data[].attributes.body
congress passed the voting rights act of 1965 after the protests. the act banned literacy tests and gave the federal government power over the stats for voting rights. This was then expanded to Hispanic voters 10 years later.

# data[].attributes.body
On September 24, 1965, the Nixon administration established Affirmative Action to close the economic gap between blacks and whites. Very quickly colleges, businesses, and state governments made their own Affirmative Actions to increase African American representation. Affirmative Action was very controversial and it had unintended consequences.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1966 Malcolm x broke away from the nation of Islam and seemed willing to consider limited acceptance of whites. Many young African Americans started to move away from the principle of nonviolence. The term black power was used and this was meant for African Americans used that to use their power to gain equality but many white people thought it mean violence.

# data[].attributes.body
From July 23, 1967, to July 28, 1967, one of the worst race riots in American history took place. In Detroit, 43 people died and there was over $50 million in property damage. This frightened many white Americans because this was the first time blacks were using violence against police and white businesses.

# data[].attributes.headline
 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

# data[].attributes.subject
 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

# data[].attributes.body
On April 4, 1968, MLK was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room after assisting sanitation workers to get better wages. The Governor of Georgia wouldn't even let MLK's body lay in the capitol building. The Civil rights movement had made significant gains and MLK's impact continued to grow even after his death.

# data[].attributes.body
Where was MLK assassinated?

A. At the Washington monument

B. Outside his hotel room

C. At a cafe

D. In his house

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us475#:~:text=Facts%20of%20the%20case&text=A%20Mexican%2DAmerican%20had%20not,trial%20court%20denied%20the%20motions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A case in which the Court found that intentionally excluding Mexicans from a jury in a trial where the defendant was a Mexican was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

# data[].attributes.body
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1389#:~:text=Martin%20Luther%20King's%20%22Letter,around%20actions%20and%20spoken%20words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is the most important written document of the civil rights era. The letter served as a tangible, reproducible account of the long road to freedom in a movement that was largely centered around actions and spoken words. Despite its pragmatic and hurried origins, the document is now considered a classic work of protest literature.

Martin Luther King and Wyatt Tee Walker

In April 1963, leaders from the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and the Southern Christian Leadership Council, including Birmingham civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr., commenced a series of sit-ins and pickets, known as the Birmingham Campaign, aimed at bringing an end to municipal segregation ordinances in Birmingham. On Good Friday, April 12, King violated a court injunction prohibiting public civil rights demonstrations in the city. Local police officers arrested King and a handful of protestors, including Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and transported them to the Birmingham city jail, where 40 years earlier, a prisoner had penned a mournful folk ballad about the place that included the line "write me a letter; send it by mail; send it in care of Birmingham jail."

Charles Carpenter

During King's marches prior to his arrest, a diverse group of Alabama's leading white religious leaders had gathered to discuss the rising racial tensions and issued a public statement that questioned the timing and methods of the civil rights demonstrations. This group included Episcopal bishops Charles C. J. Carpenter and George Murray, Methodist bishops Nolan Harmon and Paul Hardin, Roman Catholic bishop Joseph Durick, Southern Baptist minister Earl Stallings, Presbyterian clergyman Edward Ramage, and Rabbi Milton Grafman. The ministers joined a chorus of critics who questioned why King and his fellow activists had chosen to stage their protests in Birmingham so soon after the city's voters had rejected the leadership of its vocally segregationist Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. These critics favored the electoral process, rather than King's use of direct action, as a means of pursuing social justice.

Edward Ramage

Early in his eight-day imprisonment, King read the white ministers' statement and began composing a response. He gave bits and pieces of the letter to his lawyers to take back to movement headquarters, where the Reverend Wyatt Walker began compiling and editing the literary jigsaw puzzle. The men settled on a final version on April 16, 1963. The 21-page, typed, double-spaced essay appears as though it is personal correspondence, addressed to the eight white ministers. It opens with a salutation reading "My dear fellow clergymen" and concludes with "Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood." The final version of the letter explores two central themes: justification and admonishment. King justifies his presence in Birmingham, his uses of nonviolence and direct action, his timing, his willingness to break laws, and his apparent extremism. The civil rights leader also admonishes white moderates and white churches for not doing more to help the movement's quest for equality.

In reality, the document was never sent to the eight ministers and instead was used by the movement for public-relations purposes as a response to broader criticisms from around the country. The "Letter From Birmingham Jail" first appeared in the national press on May 19, 1963, and was soon printed and reprinted throughout the United States. In the aftermath of the Birmingham campaign, the "Letter" became part of American folklore. It now appears in hundreds of anthologies and is studied in secondary schools and colleges all over the world.
Additional Resources
Bass, S. Jonathan. Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.

King, Martin Luther. Why We Can't Wait. New York: Signet Classics, 2000.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" is the most important written document of the civil rights era. The letter served as a tangible, reproducible account of the long road to freedom in a movement that was largely centered around actions and spoken words.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jim Crow Laws

During Reconstruction, Black people took on leadership roles like never before. They held public office and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote. Still, many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they'd once enslaved were now on a more-or-less equal playing field.

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they'd made during Reconstruction, " Jim Crow " laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century. Black people couldn't use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people couldn't vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Jim Crow laws weren't adopted in northern states; however, Black people still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education. To make matters worse, laws were passed in some states to limit voting rights for Black Americans.

Moreover, southern segregation gained ground in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that facilities for Black and white people could be "separate but equal."

World War II and Civil Rights

Prior to World War II, most Black people worked as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, war-related work was booming, but most Black Americans weren't given better-paying jobs. They were also discouraged from joining the military.

After thousands of Black people threatened to march on Washington to demand equal employment rights, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the racial barrier to become the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Yet many Black veterans were met with prejudice and scorn upon returning home. This was a stark contrast to why America had entered the war to begin with-to defend freedom and democracy in the world.

As the Cold War began, President Harry Truman initiated a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. These events helped set the stage for grass-roots initiatives to enact racial equality legislation and incite the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. Segregation laws at the time stated Black passengers must sit in designated seats at the back of the bus, and Parks complied.

When a white man got on the bus and couldn't find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus, the bus driver instructed Parks and three other Black passengers to give up their seats. Parks refused and was arrested.

As word of her arrest ignited outrage and support, Parks unwittingly became the "mother of the modern-day civil rights movement." Black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr., a role which would place him front and center in the fight for civil rights.

Parks' courage incited the MIA to stage a boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. On November 14, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating was unconstitutional.

Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 4, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and prejudice.

Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Even though all Americans had gained the right to vote, many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass.

Wanting to show a commitment to the civil rights movement and minimize racial tensions in the South, the Eisenhower administration pressured Congress to consider new civil rights legislation.

On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.

Sit-In at Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Despite making some gains, Black Americans still experienced blatant prejudice in their daily lives. On February 1, 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina when they refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter without being served.

Over the next several days, hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. After some were arrested and charged with trespassing, protesters launched a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the owners caved and the original four students were finally served at the Woolworth's lunch counter where they'd first stood their ground.

Their efforts spearheaded peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations in dozens of cities and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage all students to get involved in the civil rights movement. It also caught the eye of young college graduate Stokely Carmichael, who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC, giving his famous speech in which he originated the phrase "Black power."

Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, 13 " Freedom Riders"-seven Black and six white activists-mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.

Facing violence from both police officers and white protesters, the Freedom Rides drew international attention. On Mother's Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus but were badly beaten. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames were widely circulated, and the group could not find a bus driver to take them further. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy) negotiated with Alabama Governor John Patterson to find a suitable driver, and the Freedom Riders resumed their journey under police escort on May 20. But the officers left the group once they reached Montgomery, where a white mob brutally attacked the bus. Attorney General Kennedy responded to the riders-and a call from Martin Luther King Jr.-by sending federal marshals to Montgomery.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi. Though met with hundreds of supporters, the group was arrested for trespassing in a "whites-only" facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington. It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.

More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King's speech in which he continually stated, "I have a dream..."

King's " I Have a Dream" speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964-legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination -into law on July 2 of that year.

King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated.

Bloody Sunday

On March 7, 1965, the civil rights movement in Alabama took an especially violent turn as 600 peaceful demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery march to protest the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white police officer and to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment.

As the protesters neared the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were blocked by Alabama state and local police sent by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a vocal opponent of desegregation. Refusing to stand down, protesters moved forward and were viciously beaten and teargassed by police and dozens of protesters were hospitalized.

The entire incident was televised and became known as " Bloody Sunday." Some activists wanted to retaliate with violence, but King pushed for nonviolent protests and eventually gained federal protection for another march.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, he took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 several steps further. The new law banned all voter literacy tests and provided federal examiners in certain voting jurisdictions.

It also allowed the attorney general to contest state and local poll taxes. As a result, poll taxes were later declared unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966.

Part of the Act was walked back decades later, in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision ruled that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated.

Civil Rights Leaders Assassinated

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room's balcony. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King's assassination. It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and countless protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment and housing practices.

Sources

A Brief History of Jim Crow. Constitutional Rights Foundation.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. National Archives.
Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. African American Odyssey.
Little Rock School Desegregation (1957). The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Rosa Marie Parks Biography. Rosa and Raymond Parks.
Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965). BlackPast.org.
The Civil Rights Movement (1919-1960s). National Humanities Center.
The Little Rock Nine. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
Turning Point: World War II. Virginia Historical Society.

Photo Galleries

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Civil Rights Movement: Timeline, Key Events & Leaders | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The civil rights movement was a struggle for justice and equality for African Americans that took place mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Among its leaders were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Little Rock Nine, Rosa Parks and many others.