Supreme Court Showdowns
Legislative Landmarks
Organizations & Leaders
Civic Action
Segregation
Cities and Places
100
This 1896 decision upheld “separate but equal,” giving legal cover to Jim Crow.
Plessy v. Ferguson
100
This 1965 act let federal officials register voters and suspended literacy tests.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
100
MLK founded and led this church-based civil-rights group.
SCLC
100
Sparked by Rosa Parks, this 1955–56 protest desegregated city buses.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
100
Segregation “by law.”
De Jure
100
King called this Alabama industrial center “the most segregated city in America.”
Birmingham
200
The 1946 ruling that struck down segregation on interstate buses.
Morgan v. Virginia
200
The 1964 law that bars a motel engaged in interstate commerce from turning guests away because of race.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
200
College students used sit-ins through this group to desegregate lunch counters.
SNCC
200
Thousands of students joined this 1964 voter-registration drive in Mississippi.
Freedom Summer
200
Segregation “in fact”
De Facto
200
A 1965 riot here left 36 dead, 900 injured, and 4,000 arrested
Los Angeles Watts District
300
In 1950 the Court said a state law school must admit Black students even if a separate Black school existed.
Sweatt v. Painter
300
This 1968 statute outlawed housing discrimination
Civil Rights Act of 1968
300
Nine teenagers who integrated Central High in 1957 are collectively called this.
Little Rock Nine
300
Roughly 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for this 1963 event.
the March on Washington
300
King’s nickname for his philosophy of nonviolent direct action and the 4 leaders who help create it.
300
ames Meredith integrated this university, better known as Ole Miss.
University of Mississippi
400
The 1954 decision that reversed Plessy in public education
Brown v. Board of Education
400
A policy of actively recruiting women and minorities for jobs or college slots.
Affirmative Action
400
Often nicknamed the “Black Muslims,” this religious organization counted Malcolm X among its leaders.
Nation of Islam
400
This Alabama voting-rights march produced “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Selma-to-Montgomery March
400
Stokely Carmichael’s slogan that King feared would incite violence
Black Power
400
Nine students faced mobs integrating Central High in this state.
Arkansas
500
Its 1955 follow-up ordered schools to desegregate “with all deliberate speed."
Brown II
500
Created in 1967, it studied the causes of urban unrest and warned of “two societies, one Black, one white.”
Kerner Commission
500
Formed in 1966 to fight police brutality and run community programs.
Black Panthers
500
Kids braved fire hoses and police dogs in this 1963 Birmingham action.
Children’s Crusade
500
Malcolm X warned change would come by these if necessary.
Ballots or Bullets
500
Rosa Parks’ arrest sparked a historic bus boycott in this city
Montgomery
600
The constitutional clause the Court relied on in Brown
Equal-Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
600
his amendment clause guarantees “equal protection of the laws.”
14th Amendment’s Equal-Protection Clause
600
The local group that led the 381-day Alabama bus boycott by applying economic pressure.
Montgomery Improvement Association
600
A 1963 Good Friday protest in Birmingham ended with MLK writing a famous jailhouse letter
the Good Friday Demonstration
600
Biblical teaching King cited: “Love thy enemies as thyself.”
Christian ethics of love
600
The 1965 voting-rights march that met “Bloody Sunday” began in this town.
Selma