Civil Rights Movement Timeline
Learning Objective:
• Identify key events in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s
Goal of the Civil Rights Movement:
• End segregation in the United States
1896
• Plessy v. Ferguson: established the doctrine of “separate but equal” facilities in the South
1954
• Brown v. Board of Education: Landmark court case that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson; made segregation in public facilities illegal; Earl Warren was Chief Justice of Supreme Court
Dec. 1, 1955
• Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white passenger; arrested and started the Montgomery Bus boycott that lasted for 54 weeks until the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional
1950s - 1960s
• Martin Luther King Jr.: major civil rights leader who advocated non-violent tactics such as sit-downs and boycotts
1957
• Little Rock (AR) School Challenge:– 9 Black students enrolled in Central H.S.
(previously all-white school); Jefferson Thomas and Elizabeth Eckford were among those who challenged the all white policy;
– President Eisenhower finally had to send in Federal troops to guarantee student’s safety for the entire year
1950s Essential Quiz
• Identify and explain two most important foreign issues and two most important domestic issues that shaped the U.S. during the 1950s. (Advanced = more than 4 issues, excellent explanations; Proficient = 4 issues, well explained)
1960s Civil Rights Movement
Learning Objective:
• Identify key events in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s
1960
• Student Non-violent Coordinating Council (SNCC): organized students to participate in sit-ins in segregated public facilities throughout the South
May 1961
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE): led what was supposed to be a 3 week bus trip throughout the South, publicizing the lack of desegregated buses; beaten, rampant violence, finally forced Robert Kennedy to force bus companies to comply with desegregation
1963
• In Birmingham, Alabama - Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor used police, and dogs to attack demonstrators and thrown many protestors into jail
Civil Rights Bill
• Issued to Congress after Birmingham marches, called for total desegregation in the South
Aug. 3, 1963
• March on Washington: get support for Civil Rights Act; time of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech
Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Legislation that banned discrimination in all public places; passed after Kennedy’s assassination– Included outlawing literacy tests, different
standards for white and black voters, and prohibited discriminatory employment and labor practices
1960s
• Malcolm X: supporter of Black Muslim Group led by Elijah Muhammad; advocated Black Nationalism which included separating blacks from whites and forming Nation of Islam– Believed in fighting back against whites, but later
Malcolm had a change of heart, and was most likely assassinated by the radical elements of the Black Muslim Church in Feb. 1965
Aug. 1965
• Watts Riots: six day riot that resulted in 35 people killed, almost $200 million in property damage
• 1965-66 - saw race riots in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco
• 1967 – sixty-seven different cities had riots
Late 1960s
• Black Panther Party: believed in self-defense, political and economic independence for blacks, and pride in black culture; very militant– Famous co-founder was Huey Newton,
who believed in black nationalism
April 4, 1968
• Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray in Tennessee
WIO: Civil Rights Movement
• Write a paragraph response selecting the two most important events of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and why they were the most important.
