Facts about the Civil Rights Movement
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In 1957, federal troops escorted nine Black students into Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas after the governor tried to prevent school desegregation, making it a defining confrontation between state and federal authority.
- 11
Selma's Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965, saw state troopers brutally attack 600 peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an event that mobilized national outrage and led Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act within months.
- 10
James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi in 1962 required federal marshals to protect him from violent opposition, marking a major desegregation victory in higher education during the Civil Rights Movement.
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated literacy tests and other discriminatory voting requirements, resulting in Black voter registration in the South increasing from 29% to 67% by 1968.
- 08
Four little girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963, a massacre that galvanized national support for the Civil Rights Movement.
- 07
Malcolm X's assassination on February 21, 1965, in New York City marked a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, dividing the Nation of Islam and intensifying debates over nonviolent versus militant approaches to racial justice.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations and employment.
- 05
Mississippi's Freedom Summer in 1964 brought approximately 1,000 Northern college students to register Black voters, resulting in the creation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party that challenged the all-white Democratic delegation at the Democratic National Convention.
- 04
Approximately 600,000 people participated in the Freedom Rides between 1961 and 1962, with interracial bus groups traveling through the South to challenge segregation laws during the Civil Rights Movement.
- 03
Sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina began February 1, 1960, with four college students and spread to 100 cities within two months during the Civil Rights Movement.
- 02
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, sparking a 381-day boycott that desegregated public transportation.
- 01
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech to approximately 250,000 people during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.