This law, signed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal

Who are the important people in your event?

President John F. Kennedy proposed the idea, and after he was killed, Lyndon Johnson became president and signed the act.

What strategy for change does this event use?

On June 6, 1963, President John F. Kennedy urged the nation to take action towards equal treatment for every American regardless of race. 

Why is this important?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is important in CRM because it enforces laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age in hiring, promoting, firing, setting wages, testing, training, apprenticeship, and all other terms and conditions of employment.

sources: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act

https://www.britannica.com/event/Civil-Rights-Act-United-States-1964

Over 1,000 students skipped classes and met at 16th Street Baptist Church to march to downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Hundreds were arrested and were taken to jail. The next day hundreds more young people gathered to march. Many young people were being attacked by either police officers, police dogs, or being blasted by the high pressure fire hoses. The children continued to march even though they were being attacked by police and fire fighters.

Who are important people in this event?

Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the leaders and organizers of the Birmingham Campaign. During the event he was arrested and wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.  Governor George C. Wallace supported the use of violence, including letting the police use police dogs and the fire fighters use firehouses. C. Virginia Fields took part in the Birmingham Children’s march, she was arrested and served a week in jail.

What strategy for change does the event use?

Nonviolent direct action. Children were mostly part of the protest because adults risked losing their jobs and children wouldn't face any economic risks.

Why is this important?

People were not used to children doing protests. Many people paid attention since it was a new way for a protest.

Links

• https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/childrens-crusade

• https://cypp.rutgers.edu/key-figures-birmingham-childrens/

• https://www.britannica.com/event/Birmingham-Childrens-Crusade

• https://www.history.com/articles/childrens-crusade-birmingham-civil-rights

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president, but they never found out why he wanted to kill the president, because he was killed two days later by Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald when he was being escorted in jail 

Who are the important people in your event?

JFK, the president, was important to the people because he was a big person in the civil rights movement, wanting to help and see change by being a big part of the civil rights movement 

What strategy for change does this event use?

When Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK, some people hoped that this would slow down or completely stop the civil rights movement, but what happened was that President Lyndon B. Johnson used the public grief and his legislative expertise to push the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress.

Link/Source

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/jfk-assassination#:~:text=After%20conducting%20some%2025%2C000%20interviews,carefully%20studying%20the%20assassination%2C%20agreed.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-kennedys-and-civil-rights.htm#:~:text=Shortly%20after%20being%20sworn%20in,negotiate%20support%20for%20the%20bill.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/the-kennedys-and-civil-rights.htm

Proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the act was the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. Although influential southern congressmen whittled down the bill's initial scope, it still included many important provisions for the protection of voting rights

important people?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the bill to Congress and approved the Civil Rights Bill

Attorney General Herbert Brownell originally proposed the idea for the Act

What strategy for change does this event use?

It uses legal power to make sure that everyone was allowed to vote and those who are not allowed will be held accountable

Why its inportant to the civil rights

It was the first federal civil rights legislation passed since Reconstruction, signaling a new federal commitment to civil rights

links

https://crdl.usg.edu/events/civil_rights_act_1957

https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/civil-rights-act-1957

Southern christian Leadership is an Atlanta based African American civil rights organization. This group started in 1957 and is still active till this day.

What happened in this event?

Martin Luther King Jr, Ralph Abernathy and others coordinated peaceful protests against segregation and disenfranchisement. During one of their protests called "Bloody Sunday" Alabama state troops enforced violence on the group resulting in many injured.

Important names?

The important names are Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy. They held the protests and coordinated marches. They are important to the civil rights act because they brought many people together to march and Martin had a very important speech that moved many.

Strategies used for these protests?

The strategy they used for this was peaceful protests and being coordinated. They created change by showing people they weren't the violent ones that the police were being prejudiced.

Links:

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/sclc.htm#:~:text=Martin%20Luther%20

King%2C%20Jr.%2C%20Bayard%20Rustin%2C%20Ralph,civil%20rights%20protest%20activities%20across%20the%20South.

https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/vote/selma-marches

The Voting Rights Act was enacted as a comprehensive tool meant to undo the political hold of jimJim Crow laws and policies in the south. Congress adopted the law to ensure that states followed the 15th Amendment guarantee that the right to vote not be denied because of race. 

Who are the important people in this event?

MLK launched a campaign of civil disobedience in Selma, Alabama, to bring attention to the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. MLK and Rosa Parks at the signing of the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. 

What strategy for change does the event use?

It outlawed strategies that had been used by white supremacists to disenfranchise black citizens and included provisions to facilitate the registration of new voters. Together with the Civil Rights Act and voting rights act ended most legal forms of white supremacy, although it is important that it did not end all forms of racial discrimination.

Link/Sources:

1. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-rights-act-explained 

2. https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50383 

3. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/federal/the-voting-rights-act-of-1965/#:~:text=President%20Lyndon%20B.%20Johnson%2C%20Martin,by%20Yoichi%20Okamoto%2C%20public%20domain 

4. https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/the-voting-rights-act-ten-things-you-should-know/#:~:text=The%20Voting%20Rights%20Act%20(VRA)%2C,African%20Americans%2C%20and%20American%20democracy.

5. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/08/06/voting-rights-act-of-1965-faces-new-threats-to-survival/ 

The Little Rock Nine Crisis was a significant event during the Civil Rights Movement. After the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education—affirming that school segregation was unconstitutional—nine African American students attempted to attend Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Initially, the Arkansas National Guard and hostile crowds blocked their access. Ultimately, the federal government intervened, and the students were able to attend classes under military protection.

Who are important people in your event?

Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas and Carlotta Walls.

What strategy for change does this event use?

This event used a combination of nonviolent resistance and legal enforcement. The students did not fight back physically and instead relied on their legal right to attend the school. At the same time, the federal government enforced the Supreme Court’s decision, showing how laws and peaceful protest can work together to create change.

Sources

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/little-rock-nine

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/little-rock-nine

https://www.history.com/articles/central-high-school-integration

Links: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-21/malcolm-x-assassinated https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/nyregion/malcolm-x-killing-exonerated.html

Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr.) was assassinated on a balcony on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Who are important people in your event?

Martin Luther King Jr. and the assassin (James Earl Ray), James Earl Ray was an escaped fugitive and shot MLK Jr. In a building called a Boarding house.

What strategy for change does this event use?

Many Black Americans were devastated and angry, and MLK Jr. said to his people to show non-violent protest. In response to his assassination, there were protests in 126 American cities across 29 states. This is to show that MLK helped Black Americans gain their right to vote, aka the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and led a non-violent protest known as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to eliminate legalized racial segregation. The legislation made it illegal to discriminate against black people.

LINK/SOURCE

• https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr

  
  

• https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2011.16.1 (building he was in)
  

• https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr

  
  

• https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/mourning-death-martin-luther-king-jr

  
  

• https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/martin-luther-king-jr/

• IMAGE: https://gordonbelray.com/mlk/index.html

Lyndon B. Johnson, 1967–-68 house and Senate

Lyndon B Johnson requested the law to be put in motion, and the House and Senate agreed, and so it  was enacted

Who were the important people in this event?

Rosa Parks sparked a movement when she refused to sit in the back and was arrested. The Women’s Political Council, the WPC, was led by President Jo Ann Robinson.

What strategy for change was used for this event?

The strategy was to boycott the buses and instead walk or take bikes, and it would cause the city to lose money when Black Americans didn’t use the buses.

This was important to the Civil Rights Movement because it showed that peaceful protests and boycotts can lead to change.

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/montgomery-bus-boycott

*Important key figures*

• John Lestor: Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He led the march

• Hosea Williams: SCLC field organizer who also led the march.

• Amelia Boynton Robinson

  An organizer who was beaten and gassed, then photographed in her unconscious state.

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: He wasn't there during the March, but he is the primary leader of the overall Selma voting rights movement.

• Marie Foster: A leading activist and organizer.

• Diane Nash and James Bevel initiated the concept of the march in memory of the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson

• George Wallace: Governor of Alabama who ordered the march to be stopped.

• Jim Clark: Dallas County sheriff known for being violent

• John Cloud: Who ordered the charge against the protestors

What Strategy for change does this event use?

The Strategy that is being used was a nonviolent direct action. It was designed to provoke a violent response from authorities, which was captured by the media to stir national public opinion and force federal legislative change.

Why is this event important?

The event was a crucial turning point in the civil rights movement. The televised violence shocked the nation, which directly prepared and organized the Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to pass the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Link sources

• History.com

• EBSCO.com

• lwv.org

• nclrights.com

Ruby Bridges was the first black child to attend a white school. The US Marshals had to escort her to class and also school because kids and people didn't want her to be there and go to school.Today she is a civil rights activist,author,and a speaker. She would work to end racism and promote tolerance.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges

Who are important people in your event?

Ruby Bridges

US Marshals-Had to escort her to school.

Her teacher(Barbara Henry)- was her teacher and also was the only teacher at William Frantz Elementary who was willing to help a instruct black child.

https://jtojhumanrights.org.uk/ruby-bridges-barbara-henry/

What strategy for change does this event use?

Courageous Persistence: Despite being surrounded by violent protesters and being the only student in her classroom for a year, she never missed a day of school.

Though various amendments to the Constitution had been passed to provide African Americans with rights to citizenship and the right to vote, other legal decisions were made that worked to these amendments.

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ruby-bridges

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery Alabama for not giving up her bus seat to a white man. Civil rights leader Nixon helped bail her out of jail, along with attorney Clifford Durr and his wife, Virginia Durr. She did not win the case.

Who are the Important people in the event?

Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. The bus driver, James F. Blake, called the police, who arrested her for breaking segregation laws. Afterward, civil rights leaders like E.D. Nixon and supporters such as Virginia Durr and Clifford Durr helped her and used the event to organize protests.

What strategy for change does this event use?

Rosa Parks resistance shows that she wanted to make a change badly, she highlights Black people in civil rights movement and shows good leadership.

https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/rosa-parks-arrested/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rosa-parks-lessons-learned-for-the-future-of-civil-rights/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rosa-parks-lessons-learned-for-the-future-of-civil-rights/

Rosa Parks gets arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a "colored bus" December 1st, 1955. Her act of defiance in the "colored section" sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott and became a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement

Who are important people in the event?

Rosa Parks, bus driver James F. Blake, and police officers B.R. Bagley and Leroy Pierce.

What strategy for change does this event use?

Nonviolent civil disobedience and strategic legal test casing

Sources: https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/rosa-parks-arrested/#:~:text=Transcript%20of%20Rosa%20Parks%27s%20Trial,but%20lost%20on%20a%20technicality.

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/explore/articles/anniversary-of-rosa-parks-arrest-december-1-1955#:~:text=Nixon%2C%20Rev.,civil%20rights%20cases%20to%20court.&text=Finally%2C%20we%20acknowledge%20Montgomery%27s%20black,of%20Rosa%20Parks%27%20Courageous%20Act%E2%80%9D

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/montgomery-bus-boycott

Ezell Blair Jr.

David Richmond

Franklin McCain

Joseph McNeil
- These four students are known as the Greensboro Four because they started the sit-in protest.

Mohandas Gandhi  inspired them to use peaceful protest

Congress of Racial Equality organized earlier protests like the Freedom Rides

A key strategy for change was nonviolent civil disobedience, where protesters sat at whites-only lunch counters, calmly asked for service, and refused to leave when they were denied. This peaceful approach brought attention to segregation and hurt businesses financially, which pushed them to integrate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZtF-qHr_M&t=23

https://www.history.com/articles/the-greensboro-sit-in

https://traffickinginstitute.org/on-this-day-in-history-the-woolworth-sit-in-in-greensboro-north-carolina/#:~:text=The%20students%20were%20influenced%20by:%20*%20Non%2Dviolent,throughout%20the%20South%20and%20into%20the%20North

https://traffickinginstitute.org/on-this-day-in-history-the-woolworth-sit-in-in-greensboro-north-carolina/#:~:text=The%20students%20were%20influenced%20by:%20*%20Non%2Dviolent,throughout%20the%20South%20and%20into%20the%20North

https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/1963-march-washington

In 1896, Louisiana had launched the separate car act, a law that required all passenger railways to separate but ensure accommodations for train cars that were equal in facilities. Homer Plessy, a shoemaker solicited by the Committee of Citizens who sought to have the act repealed, had agreed to participate in a test to challenge the act. After being arrested for violating the act, Plessy filed a lawsuit against the act, his lawyers arguing that the law violated the 13th and 14th amendments. In the end, the Supreme Court upheld the law and concluded that laws that provided separate but equal facilities for black and white Americans were consistent with the Constitution.

Who was involved:

• Homer Plessy

• John H. Ferguson

• Henry B. Brown

This case used civil disobedience as a strategy to challenge the Separate Cars Act

Brown v. Board was the Supreme Court's decision that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court made a big decision when it said that it was against the law to separate kids in public schools based on race. It meant the end of legal racial segregation in US schools and went against the "separate but equal." It wasn't a single case but a group of five lawsuits coordinated from schools in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia to take the case to court. Thurgood Marshall hired the best attorneys in the nation.

The LDF lawyers were helped by many legal scholars and district court judges. The argument they used against the court was the 14th Amendment, which gives equal protection under the law and prohibits racial segregation, and that the state enforced racial segregation in our education, and was a legal victory and a turning point for American education, even if they had some resistance towards some southern states.

Who are important people in your event?

“Psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark helped with some experiments which demonstrated the impact of segregation on black children and found that 'Black children were led to believe that Black dolls were inferior to white dolls and, by extension, that they were inferior to their white peers.'" Thurgood Marshall declared school segregation unconstitutional. Robert Carter, Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley, Spottswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, Louis Redding, Charles and John Scott, Harold R. Boulware, James Nabrit, and George E.C. Hayes.” Were all attorneys involved in the case.

What strategy for change does this event use?

filing a lawsuit in the Supreme. Impact litigation.Social Science Evidence.

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education

https://www.naacpldf.org/brown-vs-board/

https://www.britannica.com/event/Brown-v-Board-of-Education-of-Topeka