1. 1955
While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants–the white woman’s husband and her brother–made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.

3. Rosa Parks, a seamstress, is arrested for refusing to give up her seat and move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
1955

4. In response, the black community of Montgomery organize a boycott of all buses in the city.
Lasting over a year, the Supreme Court eventually ruled that it was unconstitutional to segregate whites and blacks on buses.

5. 1957
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus orders the National Guard to deny access to 9 black students attempting to attend Little Rock High School.
Eventually these students are given “Little Rock Nine.”

7. Acting as Commander in Chief, President Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under his control and sent the army in to escort the nine students into the school.
This shows the President using his power to enforce a Supreme Court decision (Brown v Board)

8. 1963
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE and NON VIOLENT PROTEST (Thoreau, Gandhi)
Goals: Desegregation of America, extension of full equality for all citizens, and for blacks and whites to peacefully co-exist

10. 1963
Young people, both black and white, practiced non violent protests for equal rights
Freedom Riders-rode down South to register blacks to vote
Sit in-stay at a restaurant until you are served
Boycotts-refusal to use or buy something

14. After the assassinations of Malcolm X (1965) and Dr
After the assassinations of Malcolm X (1965) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968), some civil rights activists took a more violent approach to gain rights
The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966-promoted Black Power/Nationalism, also for blacks to arm and protect themselves against the police/government

16. CIVIL RIGHTS LEGISLATION
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Protected voting right for all Americans
Opened public facilities
Commission established to protect equal jopb opportunities
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Fair Housing Act

17. Legislation Continued
24th Amendment (1964)
Abolished poll tax in federal elections
Voting Rights Acts of 1965 and 1970
Ended literacy test
Provided for federal examiners to register voters in areas denying African-Americans the right to vote
Attorney-General allowed to take legal action against states using a poll tax on state level elections