Civil Rights Movement Archives

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Civil Rights Movement Timeline

Sources Executive Order 9981. Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.Governor George C. Wallace’s School House Door Speech. Alabama Department of Archives and History.Greensboro, NC, Students Sit‑In for US Civil Rights, 1960. Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database.Historical Highlights. The 24th Amendment. History, Art & Archives United […]

‘I Have a Dream’ Speech

Civil Rights Movement Before the Speech Martin Luther King, Jr., a young Baptist minister, rose to prominence in the 1950s as a spiritual leader of the burgeoning civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC). By the early 1960s, African Americans had seen gains made through organized campaigns that placed its participants […]

Loving v. Virginia

What Is Miscegenation? The Loving case was a challenge to centuries of American laws banning miscegenation, i.e., any marriage or interbreeding among different races. Restrictions on miscegenation existed as early as the colonial era, and of the 50 U.S. states, all but nine had a law against the practice at some point in their history. […]

Black Panthers

Black Panthers Origins and History Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale met in 1961 while students at Merritt College in Oakland, California. They both protested the college’s “Pioneer Day” celebration, which honored the pioneers who came to California in the 1800s, but omitted the role of African Americans in settling the American […]

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Loving v. Virginia

Learn about the landmark Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage in the United States.

How the NAACP Fights Racial Discrimination

How did the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) get its start? What needs and issues does it address, and what has it accomplished since it was founded in 1909?

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When Segregationists Bombed Martin Luther King Jr.’s House

On January 30, 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.’s house was bombed by segregationists in retaliation for the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Martin Luther King Jr.

On the night of January 27, 1956, when he was just 27 years old, Martin Luther King Jr. received a threatening phone call that would cause his life to change forever.

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