What happened? (sequence of events)The ruling constitutionally sanctioned laws barring African Americans from sharing the same buses, schools and other public facilities as whites—known as “Jim Crow” laws—and established the “separate but equal” doctrine that would stand for the next six decades.

Where and when did it occur?Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all.

What was the response from the authorities?  When Brown’s case and four other cases related to school segregation first came before the Supreme Court in 1952, the Court combined them into a single case under the name Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
Who was punished?Displaying considerable political skill and determination, the new chief justice succeeded in engineering a unanimous verdict against school segregation the following year.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? In the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place,” as segregated schools are “inherently unequal.” As a result, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs were being “deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.”

How did it influence the promotion of civil rights?  In May 1955, the Court issued a second opinion in the case (known as Brown v. Board of Education II), which remanded future desegregation cases to lower federal courts and directed district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation “with all deliberate speed.”

Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?Though well intentioned, the Court’s actions effectively opened the door to local judicial and political evasion of desegregation. While Kansas and some other states acted in accordance with the verdict, many school and local officials in the South defied it.

What happened? (sequence of events)Upon her arrest, Parks called E.D. Nixon, a prominent black leader, who bailed her out of jail and determined she would be an upstanding and sympathetic plaintiff in a legal challenge of the segregation ordinance. African-American leaders decided to attack the ordinance using other tactics as well.

Where and when did it occur?Upon her arrest, Parks called E.D. Nixon, a prominent black leader, who bailed her out of jail and determined she would be an upstanding and sympathetic plaintiff in a legal challenge of the segregation ordinance. 

What was the response from the authorities?  The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5, the day Parks would be tried in municipal court.

Who was punished?When the bus filled up and no seats remained, the driver ordered four African Americans, including Parks, to clear their seats so that a white man could sit down. All but Parks acquiesced.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home?On Dec. 1, 1955, 42-year-old Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in routine fashion, but her ride home from work changed the course of history. Parks had taken a seat near the middle of the bus, just behind the “whites only” section. When the bus filled up and no seats remained, the driver ordered four African Americans, including Parks, to clear their seats so that a white man could sit down. All but Parks acquiesced.
How did it influence the promotion of civil rights?  Parks was arrested for her act of civil disobedience and convicted of violating the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South until 1965. Her arrest and subsequent appeal helped spark a 381-day-long boycott of public buses led by Martin Luther King Jr. and a court case that took Alabama’s discriminatory laws all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?A symbol of dignity and strength in the face of discrimination, Parks came to be known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.” She famously declared, “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity – for all people.”

-What happened? (sequence of events)- Roy Bryant, the proprietor of the store and the woman’s husband, returned from a business trip a few days later and heard how Emmett had allegedly spoken to his wife. Enraged, he went to the home of Till’s great uncle, Mose Wright, with his brother-in-law J.W. Milam in the early morning hours of August 28. The pair demanded to see the boy. Despite pleas from Wright, they forced Emmett into their car. After driving around in the Memphis night, and perhaps beating Till in a toolhouse behind Milam’s residence, they drove him down to the Tallahatchie River.
Three days later, his corpse was recovered but was so disfigured that Mose Wright could only identify it by an initialed ring. Authorities wanted to bury the body quickly, but Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley, requested it be sent back to Chicago.

-Where and when did it occur?On August 24, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till reportedly flirted with a white cashier in Money, Mississippi Four days later, two white men tortured and murdered Till. His murder galvanized the emerging Civil Rights Movement.

-What was the response from the authorities?  The authorities tried the woman who accused Till of harassment and she admitted that he did nothing of the sort.
-Who was punished? The men that killed Till were tied and were not convicted of the murder.

-What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the promotion of civil rights? Sixty years later, at a time when race relations are once more at the front of the American mind, Till’s name is still invoked as a reminder of the worst consequences of ignoring the problem. Not coincidentally, his story has inspired a resurgence of interest from historians and scholars as well as from TV and movie producers.
- Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation? Till grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and though he had attended a segregated elementary school, he was not prepared for the level of segregation he encountered in Mississippi. His mother warned him to take care because of his race, but Emmett enjoyed pulling pranks.

What happened? (sequence of events) - September 1927

Little Rock Senior (renamed Central in 1953) High School opens its doors for the first time. The school cost more than $1.5 million to construct.

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, the high school for African American students, opens. The school cost $400,000 of which the Rosenwald Foundation donated $67,500 and $30,000 came from the Rockefeller General Education Fund.

The United States Supreme Court rules racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Five days later, the Little Rock School Board issues a policy statement saying it will comply with the Supreme Court’s decision. In May 1955, The Supreme Court further defines the standard of implementation for integration as being “with all deliberate speed,” in Brown II and charges the federal courts with establishing guidelines for compliance.

Where and when did it occur?- formally all-white central high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. September 4, 1957

What was the response from the authorities?  Who was punished?- Many white citizens of Little Rock were angry about the black students integrating into a formally all-white school. On the first day of school, Governor Orval Faubus called in the state National guard to bar the student's entry into the school. However, Eisenhower eventually sent federal troops to help escort the Little a Rock Nine into the school.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the promotion of civil rights?  Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?LBJ passed this in 1964. Prohibited discrimination of African Americans in employment, voting, or public accommodation. Also said there could be no discrimination against race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.

What happened? (sequence of events)- Foundation of SNCC
Continuing media interest
Highlighted economic power of blacks: Woolworth's profits decreased by 1/3 during the protests.Showed widespread willingness of young black people to stand up for their rights
Eisenhower publicly expressed support for those campaigning for greater civil rights

Where and when did it occur?-  Woolworth's store 

What was the response from the authorities?  Who was punished?- Woolworth's store desegregated in May 1960.By the beginning of 1962, 70,000 people, black and white, had taken part in some kind of protest against segregation
By the end of 1961, 810 towns in the southern states had desegregated public places

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the promotion of civil rights? - Demonstrated unity between civil rights organisations (CORE, SNCC and SCLC).Demonstrated JFKs reluctance to support direct action initially refusing to protect the protesters instead offering them grants to abandon their campaign
Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?-Federal Government promised to enforce the desegregation of interstate buses and bus facilities.By sep 1961, all signs of enforcing segregation had been removed from interstate transport

What happened? (sequence of events)- They planted 15 sticks of dynamite under the front steps

Where and when did it occur?-  Birmingham Church 1886
 What was the response from the authorities?  Who was punished?- On 17th May, 2000, the FBI announced that the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing had been carried out by the Ku Klux Klan splinter group, the Cahaba Boys. It was claimed that four men, Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton andBobby Cherry had been responsible for the crime.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the promotion of civil rights? -  For a window into the public reaction to the 1963 bombing, below are some of the front pages of local newspapers from across the country the day after the attack. Virtually all of the articles themselves are the same Associated Press or United Press International wire stories. But the headlines, photos and placement of the stories hint at the varying degrees of shock, grief, fear and indifference with which different communities reacted to the crime.
Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?- One of the things that really helped the civil rights movement to break through, was the fact that the United States was fighting a war against fascism around the globe and yet at the same time treating its black citizens as less than human

This person was an integral part of the Mississippi freedom Summer and Freedom Democratic Party.
James Chaney

One of three civil rights workers who was murdered during the Freedom Summer campaign by the KKK.

What happened? (sequence of events)
Where and when did it occur?
A campaign in Mississippi during the summer of 1964 to register as many African American voters as possible. Mississippi had previously outlawed African American voters almost entirely.

What was the response from the authorities? Who was punished?
The Ku Klux Klan, police and state and local authorities carried out a series of violent attacks against the activists, including arson, beatings, false arrest and the murder of at least three people.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the
promotion of civil rights?
was important because it brought to the North what was going on in Mississippi 

 Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation? registered only twelve hundred African Americans. Another blow came in August when, with the acquiescence of party liberals and civil rights leaders.

What was the response from the media and the people watching it at home? How did it influence the
promotion of civil rights?
The brutal scene was captured on television, enraging many Americans and drawing civil rights and religious leaders of all faiths to Selma in protest. Hundreds of ministers, priests, rabbis and social activists soon headed to Selma to join the voting rights march.


 Did the event/march/action lead to any civil rights legislation?
President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress, calling for federal voting rights legislation to protect African Americans from barriers that prevented them from voting.