The Civil Rights Era
by Kristin Anderson
1. Brown v. Board of Education
A case that ended school segregation across America. This jumpstarted the Civil Rights Movement and was the first major event in the movement. The ruling was that segregation in schools is unequal, which is therefore unconstitutional.
2. Montgomery Bus Boycott
After Rosa Parks is arrested MLK got the Civil Rights movement to rally against Alabama busses, and seriously hurt the industry for 381 days. Was ended with the bus system desegregating their transportation.
3. Jackie Robinson Joins Brooklyn Dodgers
Robinson was the first black baseball player to join Major League Baseball, after coming from the Negro League. His actions began to inspire to pursue the originally inaccessible world of sports and professional jobs.
4. Central H.S. Desegregated
It started with a group of African-American student who were enrolled in the high school then forced to leave because it was a racially segregated school. Later on it became the first school in America to desegregate their school.
5. Southern Manifesto Urges Resistance to Desegregation
A document signed by more than 100 southern politicians. Declared that states could nullify federal laws that they didn't want. To add to it, many would pressure other states to completely ignore the Brown decision.
6. Armed Forces Integration- 1948
Harry Trumans Executive Order 9981. Came shortly after World War II and was one of the largest milestones in the Civil Rights Movement. Through using the Executive Order, Truman bypassed the congress representatives from the south, all white democrats and those who would reject the idea.
7. Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Bus Seat for White Man
Parks was a prominent Civil Rights activist before the famous Alabama bus incident. Although, when she refused to move on the bus it officially triggered the Civil Rights Movement and sparked national attention.
8. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC). It was one of the many programs Martin Luther King Jr. started. Its main focus was to teach that Civil Rights can be achieved by peaceful, nonviolent protests, and refusing to fight back.
9. Emmet Till, 9 Year Old Brutally Murdered
A young black boy was murdered by white people in 1955. He whistled at a woman and was attacked by her husband and his friends, kidnapped and brutally beaten until death. This was the turning point where many joined the Civil Rights Movement.
10. "Freedom Riders"- Student Volunteers Begin Testing State Laws
Black and white volunteers rode from Washington D.C. through all southern states. They did this to make sure all cities and towns were complying with the Supreme Court Legislation and have completely integrated.