Civil Rights
Bryan Waters
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
1955- Rosa Parks was an African American woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and was arrested for it. In response, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was put into effect so no African Americans would ride the buses.
Brown v. Board of Education and Sweatt v. Painter
1954- Brown v. Board of Education; Supreme Court unanimously agreeing that segregation in school is unconstitutional. A victory for attorney general, Thurgood Marshall.
1950- Sweatt v. Painter - This case successfully challenged the "separate but equal" principle of racial segregation set by Plessy v. Ferguson. Sweatt v. Painter was influential in the Brown v. Board of education case.
Student non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
1960- The SNCC is founded at Shaw University. It provided young African Americans a place in the civil rights movement. It was led by Stokley Carmichael.
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson revolutionized sports by being the first African American to play major league baseball. Starting in 1946 and playing for the Royals.
Central High School
1957- 9 black students are denied their entry of Central High School. Federal troops and the National Guard are sent by Eisenhower to take action on behalf of the students.
Martin Luther King jr.
Martin Luther King jr. led many things during the civil rights era. Also, he delivered one of the most powerful speeches ever while 200,000 people participated on the March on Washington in August, 1963.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
1957- Established by Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttersworth, the SCLC was a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and was built on nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Emmett Till
1955- Kidnapped in Mississippi while visiting family, 14 year old Till was brutally beaten, shot and then dumped into Tallahatchie river for whistling at a white women.