Biography: Historical Research

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1st December 1955, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refuses to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Cleveland Avenue bus. She is arrested and fined.

4th December 1955, a boycott of Montgomery buses is announced, 40,000 African-Americans join.
5th of June 1956, Montgomery Federal Court rules segregated seating to be a violation of amendment 14.
21st December 1956 Montgomery's buses become integrated and the boycott ends after 381 days.

12th April 1963, Martin Luther King is arrested on Good Friday for demonstrating in the streets of Birmingham Alabama without a permit.
Writes his famous letter from Birmingham Jail; "I am here because injustice is here, I would agree with Saint Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all."

http://time.com/3773914/mlk-birmingham-jail/

28th August 1963, King leads the largest civil rights march in history, The March on Washington. He leads over 250,000 marchers in a protest for Jobs and freedom.
During the march King delivers his famous 'I had a Dream' speech; "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."
"And when this happens…we will be able to speed up that day when all God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last"

3rd January 1964, King appears on Time's magazines front cover as Man of the Year.
10th December 1964, King is awarded a Nobel Peace Prize at aged 35.

4th April 1968, King is assassinated in Memphis, resulting in riots in over 100 US cities.

Birmingham Alabama Church Bombing

15th September 1963, a bomb explodes before Sunday morning service in 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham Alabama.
There were 200 people in the church at the time, as the bomb destroyed the east side of the church, caving in walls and spraying mortar.
4 schoolchildren were killed in the attack, 14 year old Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson and 11-year-old Denise McNair.
KKK member was brought to trial in 1977, over a decade after the incident and sentenced for murder.

Medger Evers

Medger Evers served as the first state field secretary of NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
He organised voter registration demonstrations, national boycotts, and investigated murders of black people which were going investigated by the US police force.
12th June 1963, Evers was assassinated in his own driveway, after being shot in the back he was pronounced dead at the scene.
His death sparked protests and demonstrations across America which would leave the climax of the Civil Rights Movement.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X was a prominent black activist who fought for the rights of Black Muslims in America.
He became a controversial leader in the civil rights movement because of his contrasting approach to MLK, he told his supporters to 'protects themselves against white supremacy by any means possible', taking a more direct approach to the movement.
X was assassinated on the 21st of February 1965 at a speaking arrangement in Manhattan, pronounced dead at the scene aged 39.

Civil Rights Acts

1964, The Civil Rights Act comes into legislation, ending public segregation, and preventing workplace racial discrimination.
Voting Rights Act made law in 1965, allowing equal rights to vote and introducing penalties for those attempting to prevent another from making their vote.
Fair Housing Act is introduced in 1968, preventing discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of property.

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