Freedom Rides*
The Freedom rides are groups of people who travel across the U.S who promote equal rights to all American citizens. These groups of people went on the "Journey of Reconciliation." May 4, 1961. Seven Blacks and six Whites traveled south on two buses. They had trouble when a group of about twenty Southerners hurt two people before the police arrived. They faced more beatings. In Jackson, Mississippi, on May 25, 1961, many Freedom Riders were arrested and put in jail. More Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson to continue the Freedom Rides and they were arrested, too. The attention inspired more Freedom Rides. The Freedom Rides spread to train stations and airports across the south. The more people heard about them, the more people wanted to help. They felt bad about the unnecessary violence and lack of police protection for the Freedom Riders. It became a big influence in ending Discrimination in the south.
The Murder of Emmitt Till*
Emmitt Till was a black boy who only whistled toward a white women. Because he was black, that was considered an insult to this white women. A few days later, he was taken hold of by the husband of the white women and was beat. He was found dead at the edge of Tallahatchie River. There where two white men who had done this. They were put into a trail of all white jury. They were announced innocent even though they admitted to the kidnapping. Once the civil rights movement kicked in, they were punished with a even harsher sentence during the retrial.
Bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church
September 15, 1963. The Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls inside the church. This was just around the time of the assassination of President Kennedy which made sadness and anger rise even farther. This made The civil Rights Act of 1964 easier to pass.
Little Rock Nine
Governor Orval Faubus had the National Guard block nine black students from entering Central High in Little Rock because he didn’t want to integrate Little Rock’s schools. Eventually the nine black students were integrated with the help of the Federal troops president Eisenhower sent to stop this unfair act of the governor.
CORE is founded
Core stands for Congress of Racial Equality. CORE was founded in Chicago in 1942 by James L. Farmer, Jr, George Houser, James R. Robinson, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn. They aimed to create equal rights to all blacks. This organization lead the Freedom Rides in the south along with other symbolic movements.