https://www.nps.gov/features/malu/feat0002/wof/index.htm provides brief biographical information about a number of heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/civil_rights/civil_rights.htm#civil_rights The year 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a milestone in the struggle to extend civil, political, and legal rights and protections to African Americans, including former slaves and their descendants, and to end segregation in public and private facilities. The U.S. Senate played an integral part in this story. United States Senate Historical Highlights
https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining Feb 15, 2024 "In the 1930s the federal government created redlining maps for almost every major American city. Mapping Inequality lets you explore these maps and the history of racial and ethnic discrimination in housing policy." Digital Scholarship Lab
https://www.ua.edu/about/history/desegregation Jan 20, 2025 "On June 11, 1963 Black students Vivian Malone and James Hood registered for classes at The University of Alabama despite then-Gov. George C. Wallace’s unsuccessful attempt to block their enrollment. That day changed Alabama and the nation when Malone and Hood walked through the doors of Foster Auditorium to enroll as students at The University of Alabama — marking the beginning of school desegregation in the state and moving forward a comprehensive federal civil rights act." University of Alabama
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a Nobel Lecture on December 11, 1964, called the "The Quest for Peace and Justice"
King states, "Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. Indeed, it is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it."
Declaration of Independence ideals were never fully reached
That all men are created equal
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyhcoImHODk Dec 17, 2021 As the US economy began to boom after World War II, so did the demand for alternate means of transportation. While personal car usage rose and the highway system was created, many Black people relied heavily on public transit as their primary mode of transportation day-to-day. Jim Crow’s separate but equal not only impacted restaurants and schools, but it also led to the segregation of travel on buses. Black patrons in Winston Salem, North Carolina, frustrated with limited routes, took matters into their own hands. From jitney’s organizing, to the creation of the Safe Bus Company, Black patrons began to implement multiple options on their journey to safe travel. In this episode of Black History In Two Minutes or So hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. — with additional commentary from Daina Berry of The University of Texas, Imani Perry of Princeton University and Hasan Jeffries of Ohio State University, we look at how Black people organized safer travel during a time of segregation. Black History in Two Minutes or so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwwDR2ve8mM Aug 28, 2017 Sunburst Digital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OrHWrA9DqM Jul 18, 2016 Date: 8/1963 Scope & Content: Scenes from Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C., August 1963. People walking up sidewalk; gathering on Mall, standing, singing. Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, crowd gathered on the Mall. People marching with signs, many men wearing UAW hats. People at speakers podium, men with guitars. Crowds outside of the White House, sign: The Catholic University of America. Band, people marching down street. Many signs, including All D.C. wants to vote! Home Rule for DC; Alpha Phi Alpha; and Woodstock Catholic Seminary for Equal Rights. Lincoln Memorial with crowds gathered around reflecting pool. People singing and clapping at speakers platform. Signs, people clapping. Man speaking, woman playing guitar and singing at podium. More speakers and shots of the crowd. A chorus, NAACP men in crowd. Close-ups of people in crowd with bowed heads. Shots taken from above of White House. More speakers, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Women at podium singing We Shall Overcome. Crowd swaying, singing, holding hands. US National Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnEKiw7LPvw Published on Apr 27, 2015 The thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially outlawed slavery throughout the U.S. and its territories, but the fight for equality for African Americans was far from over in this scene from "Bloodbath."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3UNny8p4w8 Published on Oct 5, 2016 Reconstruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3VrR_7FUYw Published on Jul 11, 2013 LeadershipHipHop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbCNRCrdtdQ Published on Oct 22, 2014 Official Content From Republic Pictures Home Video Acclaimed television chronicle of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling on civil rights in the Brown vs. Board of Education case. Separate But Equal Trailer 1990 Director: George Stevens Starring: Burt Lancaster, Richard Kiley, Sidney Poitier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ1wmrS2Q_g Published on Dec 2, 2016 The year is 1950...and America is divided between black and white. Schools, restaurants, trains, and buses...even drinking fountains cannot be shared by both races. Although slavery has been outlawed for nearly a century, segregation is legal. But white and Negro facilities are separate and unequal...and the tension had reached a breaking point for the blacks of Clarendon County, South Carolina. When their request for a single school bus is denied by white school officials, a bitter, violent and courageous battle for justice and equality begins...pitting black against white and friend against neighbor all across the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fygjGXnaV9w Published on Feb 4, 2019 Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist, civil rights leader, and anti-lynching advocate who fought for equality and justice. In the late 1800’s, lynchings were happening all over the American South, often without any investigation or consequences for the murderers. A young journalist set out to expose the truth about these killings. Her reports shocked the nation, launched her journalism career and a lifelong pursuit of civil rights. Christina Greer details the life of Ida B. Wells and her tireless struggle for justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE6Yvy--5aw Published on Jan 19, 2014 For 382 days, almost the entire African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama, including leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, refused to ride on segregated buses, a turning point in the American civil rights movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tuCAAPOZQQ Published on Jan 30, 2009 The official trailer for the film, The Rosa Parks Story, starring Angela Bassett. For more information visit http://www.xenonpictures.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LM9i7Klwt4 Published on Feb 27, 2018 Learn about vocalist Marian Anderson and how she became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. Anderson broke barriers with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt and JFK and later contributed to the Civil Rights Movement. #Biography
https://youtu.be/mAONYTMf2pk Published on Mar 26, 2010 Marian Anderson, contralto, was denied the right to perform at Constitution Hall by the DAR because of her color. Instead, and at the urging of Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Ickes permitted her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial on April 9, 1939.
April 16: A bill originally sponsored by Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, the DC Compensated Emancipation Act becomes law.
January 1: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation granting freedom to slaves residing in Confederate states not occupied by Union forces.
December 6: The Thirteenth Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery.
April 9: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over President Andrew Johnson’s veto.
July 9: The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and providing them equal protection under the law.
February 3: The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified, prohibiting states from disenfranchising voters "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
February 25: Hiram Revels (R-MS) becomes first African American to serve in Senate.
November 17: Supreme Court rules in favor of Senate employee Kate Brown in anti-discrimination case.
February 14: Blanche K. Bruce (R-MS) becomes first African American to preside over Senate.
March 1: The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is signed into law (later overturned).
May 18: Supreme Court issues Plessy v. Ferguson decision, stating that segregation is constitutional as long as facilities for blacks and whites are "equal."
August 8: 35,000 Ku Klux Klan members march on Washington.
April 9: Marian Anderson performs on steps of Lincoln Memorial.
January 25: A. Philip Randolph proposes a march on Washington.
June 25: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802 forbidding discriminatory hiring practices by federal contractors.
July 12: Senate candidate Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) calls for civil rights plank at Democratic National Convention.
July 26: President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9981, de-segregating the armed services.
August 13: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Executive Order 10479, establishes the Anti-discrimination Committee on Government Contracts.
May 17: Supreme Court issues Brown vs. Board of Education decision, finding racial segregation in public schools to be in violation of the Constitution.
January 15: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in Executive Order 10590, establishes the President’s Committee on Government Policy to enforce nondiscrimination in federal employment.
December 1: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, AL, bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
September 27: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is signed into law.
February 1: North Carolina college students stage a sit-in at a department store in Greensboro, NC, that refuses to serve them because of their race.
May 6: Civil Rights Act of 1960 is signed into law.
March 6: President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925, creating the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
June 19: President Kennedy sends to Congress his proposed civil rights bill. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) introduces the bill and it is assigned to the Judiciary Committee. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL) introduces another bill, co-sponsored with Mansfield, which is similar to the administration's bill but lacks a public accommodations section. Mansfield and Warren Magnuson (D-WA) introduce a separate public accommodations bill which is assigned to the Commerce Committee.
August 28: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., leads the March on Washington and delivers his speech, “I Have a Dream,” in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
September 15: A bomb at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, AL, kills four girls and wounds 20 more children.
November 22: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as president.
November 27: President Johnson delivers a speech to joint congressional session, calling for passage of Kennedy's civil rights bill.
January 23: The Twenty-fourth Amendment, abolishing the poll tax is ratified.
February 10: House passes H.R. 7152, the Civil Rights Act, sending the bill to the Senate.
February 26: Majority Leader Mike Mansfield places H.R. 7152 directly on the calendar, bypassing the Judiciary Committee.
March 9: Mansfield introduces motion to make the Civil Rights Act the Senate's pending business and debate begins.
March 26: Senate votes to make H.R. 7152 pending business, 67-17.
May 26: Mansfield and Dirksen submit a "clean bill" as substitute for H.R. 7152.
June 8: Mansfield and Dirksen file cloture motion.
June 9-10: Senator Robert Byrd delivers the longest speech against the civil rights bill, speaking for 14 hours and 13 minutes.
June 10: For the first time since Rule XXII was established in 1917, the Senate approves cloture on a civil rights bill, with a vote of 71-29. Everett Dirksen offers a memorable speech in support of the bill. Quoting Victor Hugo, he declares, “Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.”
June 17: Senate adopts the Mansfield-Dirksen substitute bill with a roll call vote of 76-18.
June 19: Senate approves the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
July 2: House approves Senate bill, avoiding conference committee, and President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act into law.