Top 10 Civil Rights Events
1) Jackie Robinson
2) Brown vs Board of Education
A landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned the "separate but equal" stance taken in Plessy vs Ferguson. This 1954 decision integrated America's schooling system.
3) Emmet Till
A 14 year old black boy murdered in the South in 1955 for "flirting with a white woman". Till's body was beaten beyond recognition by his white murderers. His mother kept the ceremony open casket, however, to show the brutalities of segregation.
4) Rosa Parks
Was a Civil Rights activist who refused to give up her bus seat to a white person and was arrested in 1955. This event soon inspired the Montgomery (AL) bus boycott.
5) Little Rock Nine
Nine students sent to integrate Central HS in Little Rock, AR. The governor would not let them into the school until Eisenhower brought in the national guard to insure their safety.
6) Civil Rights Act of 1964
Outlawed major forms of discrimination in America. This included stopping segregation in public facilities, schools, and the workplace.
7) "I Have a Dream" speech
Perhaps the most famous speech ever given. By Martin Luther King Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Talked of a future without segregation.
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Provided all Americans with Equal Housing Opportunity regardless of their race.
Voting Rights Act
1965, outlawed the discriminatory voter registration policies used to keep the black vote from counting.
Rodney King LA Riot
Rodney King was a black man whose beating by police was caught on tape. This image fueled an outrage that caused race riots in LA on a massive scale