For many centuries, black people were treated horribly over the years. They were slaves in the early to mid-1800s and weren’t given civil rights after the American Civil War when they were considered free. Not many years after the Civil War, many southern states established the Jim Crow Laws, which introduced segregation. Schools that black kids went to were closed down temporarily or permanently. 

One of these schools was Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nine black teenagers tried to go inside but were rejected. They would forever be known as the "Little Rock Nine." One teenager, Elizabeth, was threatened on her way home from school. Someone even said they’d hang her from a tree. Luckily for Elizabeth, a woman named Grace Lorch scolded the crowd and helped Elizabeth on the bus.

On January 15th, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. In his early years, he was a paper boy but wanted to be a fireman. When he got older, he organized a protest group twice and got arrested both times. In 1963, he gave a speech in Washington D.C. about how African Americans were suffering without civil rights. In retaliation, a white man named James Earl Ray assassinated him.

As a result, all African Americans were given certain civil rights. Over the years, they were given all the civil rights white people had.