The Civil Rights Act of 1866, the United States' first federal law to affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law, was enacted on April 9, 1866.
On February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, African-American Isaac Woodard was severely beaten by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. Woodard lost the sight in both eyes, and the incident galvanized the civil rights movement.
On August 28, 1955 African-American teenager Emmett Till was murdered near Money, Mississippi, for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His death energized the nascent American civil rights movement.
On December 1,1955 Rosa Parks, a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The incident galvanised the black community and led to a successful year long boycott of the Montgomery bus system and further energized the American civil rights movement.
One of the leaders of the boycott was a young minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, named Dr Martin Luther King Jnr.
Nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery for the same act. The city's black leaders prepared to protest, until it was discovered Colvin was pregnant and deemed an inappropriate symbol for their cause.
In 1963 Dr Martin Luther King, now the Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta gave at the climax of a Washington interracial march his famous "I had a dream" speech to 250,000 followers. A passionate believer in non-violence, King’s unique combination of the message of Jesus (love your enemies) and the method of Gandhi (non-violent protest) gave both a strategy and a philosophy to the Civil Rights movement. " I want to be the White man's brother and not his brother in law" he once wrote.
People during the American Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s were encouraged to march in their finest clothes so as to reframe the very idea of what a disrupter looked like.
When three civil rights activists trying to get to get black voters registered to vote in Mississippi were murdered by the Ku Klax Klan in 1964, the national outrage over their death helped spur support for the Civil Rights Act.
On February 12, 1946, hours after being honorably discharged from the United States Army, African-American Isaac Woodard was severely beaten by South Carolina police as he was taking a bus home. Woodard lost the sight in both eyes, and the incident galvanized the civil rights movement.
On August 28, 1955 African-American teenager Emmett Till was murdered near Money, Mississippi, for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His death energized the nascent American civil rights movement.
On December 1,1955 Rosa Parks, a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The incident galvanised the black community and led to a successful year long boycott of the Montgomery bus system and further energized the American civil rights movement.
One of the leaders of the boycott was a young minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, named Dr Martin Luther King Jnr.
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| Rosa Parks riding a Montgomery bus immediately following the decision to desegregate buses. Wikipedia |
Nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery for the same act. The city's black leaders prepared to protest, until it was discovered Colvin was pregnant and deemed an inappropriate symbol for their cause.
In 1963 Dr Martin Luther King, now the Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta gave at the climax of a Washington interracial march his famous "I had a dream" speech to 250,000 followers. A passionate believer in non-violence, King’s unique combination of the message of Jesus (love your enemies) and the method of Gandhi (non-violent protest) gave both a strategy and a philosophy to the Civil Rights movement. " I want to be the White man's brother and not his brother in law" he once wrote.
People during the American Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s were encouraged to march in their finest clothes so as to reframe the very idea of what a disrupter looked like.
When three civil rights activists trying to get to get black voters registered to vote in Mississippi were murdered by the Ku Klax Klan in 1964, the national outrage over their death helped spur support for the Civil Rights Act.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964. The Civil Rights Act aimed to end racial segregation in public places, such as schools, restaurants, and theaters. It also prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Act granted the federal government the authority to enforce desegregation and take legal action against those who violated the law.
When President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, he referred to it as a means to "close the springs of racial poison" and to promote equal rights and opportunities for all Americans, regardless of their race or ethnicity.
Peaceful civil rights marchers in Alabama were attacked by police and white vigilantes on March 7, 1965 in an event known as "Bloody Sunday." Led by Dr Martin Luther King, the marchers intended to walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama; 3,200 people eventually completed the march on March 21-25 protected by the federalized Alabama National Guard.
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| The third Selma Civil Rights March frontline |
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