GROUP+4

__1955: The Montgomery bus boycott (Lily)__
It all started on December 1st 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama.The black Americans were fed up with having to move to the back of the buses when ever a white boarded. They wanted to sit where ever they wanted, without being screamed at for sitting at the front or being thrown off the bus because there were no more seats left for the white. The problem was that if the black didn't give up their seats, they would get arrested.

One of the examples are: "On Thursday, December 1, 1955, a seamstress named Rosa Parks boarded a city bus and sat with three other blacks in the fifth row, the first row that blacks could occupy. A few stops later, the front four rows were filled with whites, and one white man was left standing. According to law, blacks and whites could not occupy the same row, so the bus driver asked all four of the blacks seated in the fifth row to move. Three followed instrusctions willingly, but Rosa Parks refused. She was arrested immediately."

There are many more cases similar to Rosa Park's, and they were all arrested. Many would protest and write letters to the Mayor of Montgomery, but none of those worked. That is how the Montgomery Bus Boycot began. They came up with a brilliant idea. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign, against the city's policy of racial segregation. This was no longer a "little" problem, and was soon led to a Supreme Court decision. This struggle lasted until December 20, 1956.

__1957: Resistance in Little Rock (Peter)__
The **Little Rock Nine** was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing **Little Rock Crisis**, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the [|racially segregated] school by [|Arkansas] [|Governor] [|Orval Faubus], and then attended after the intervention of [|President] [|Eisenhower], is considered to be one of the most important events in the [|African-American Civil Rights Movement].[|[1]] Several segregationist councils threatened to hold protests at Central High and physically block the black students from entering the school. Governor [|Orval Faubus] deployed the [|Arkansas National Guard] to support the segregationists on September 4, 1957. The sight of a line of soldiers blocking nine black students from attending high school made national headlines and polarized the city. Regarding the accompanying crowd, one of the nine black students, [|Elizabeth Eckford], recalled "they moved closer and closer". "Somebody started yelling, 'Lynch her! Lynch her!' I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd — someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me."[|[4]] On September 9, "The Council of Church Women" issued a statement condemning the governor's deployment of soldiers to the high school and called for a citywide prayer service on September 12. Even President [|Dwight Eisenhower] attempted to de-escalate the situation and summoned Governor Faubus to meet him. The President warned the governor not to interfere with the Supreme Court's ruling.[|[5]] The next day, Woodrow Mann, the Mayor of Little Rock, asked President Eisenhower to send federal troops to enforce integration and protect the nine students. On September 24, the President ordered the [|101st Airborne Division] of the [|United States Army] to Little Rock and [|federalized] the entire 10,000 member Arkansas National Guard, taking it out of the hands of Governor Faubus. The 101st took positions immediately, and the nine students successfully entered the school on the next day, Wednesday, September 25, 1957. By the end of September 1957, the nine were admitted to Little Rock Central High under the protection of the U.S. Army (and later the Arkansas National Guard), but they were still subjected to a year of physical and verbal abuse (spitting on them, calling them names) by many of the white students. [|Melba Pattillo] had acid thrown into her eyes.[|[9]] Ano ther one of the students, [|Minnijean Brown], was verbally confronted and abused. She said "I was one of the kids 'approved' by the school officials. We were told we would have to take a lot and were warned not to fight back if anything happened. One girl ran up to me and said, 'I'm so glad you’re here. Won’t you go to lunch with me today?' I never saw her again."[|[10]] Minnijean Brown was also tormented by a group of white, male students in December 1957 in the school cafeteria during lunch. She was called names and bullied. Out of frustration, she dropped her lunch – a bowl of chili – and some got on the white students. She was suspended for six days. Two months later, after more confrontation, Brown was suspended for the rest of the school year. She transferred to New Lincoln High School in [|New York City].[|[3]] There is no record of associated punishment for her antagonists.

__1960: Greensburo sit-in (Bam)__
On February 1, 1960 , four African American students – Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain (from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a historically black college/university) sat at a segregated lunch counter in the Greensburo, North Carolina,Woolworth's store. This lunch counter only had chairs/stools for whites, while blacks had to stand and eat. Although they were refused service, they were allowed to stay at the counter. The four students were aware that Woolworth’s would not serve blacks at their lunch counter but they sat down anyway, engaging themselves in a plan they had been discussing for a month prior to the sit-in.

__1963: Protest in Alabama (Lasse)__
First of all, the blacks in birmingham alabama wanted to ban segregation, and second of all birmingham alabama was home to one of the most violent cells of the KKK (Ku Klux Klan). So there was a lot of racial tension and violence. This caused martin luther king to come and organize a series of non-violent protests. But these protests weren't very well attended and this is because of the the fact that political rivalries between King’s organization, the SCLC, and other civil right’s organizations like CORE and the NAACP. But because of the response of police officer eugene "bull" it soon made head lines soon there was reports on german shepherds attacking black protesters and firemen hosing down black protesters. Also while protesting martin luther king was arrested, this is when he wrote the very famous "letter from birmingham jail".

Another important event that happened in September of 1963 was the bombing of the 16th street Baptist Church. In the explosion, four little girls were killed. (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Rosamond Robertson and Addie Mae Collins) Four men had committed the bombing in an attempt to slow down the civil rights movement in Birmingham. On may 2 1963 a large group of black children marched towards the white area of town to protest against segregation. The next day even more children marched. The only way the police could stop this was spray the kids with water hoses, arrest them and even set police dogs on them, but this shocked most of the americans watching from their television sets. As a result President Kennedy demanded that the segregation in birmingham should be ended and a week later the council in birmingham gave into the protesters demands. This shows that the protest was a successes.

__1964: The Civil Rights Act (Lily)__
In 1960 anew president was elected. Over 70% of the African American vote went to John F. Kennedy.

He then introduced the "Civl Rights Act" to all American citizens. Separating people of different races, classes, or enthic groups, schools, housing, and public or cemmercial faciltes, especially as a form of discrimination was band in public places. He also banned racial discrimination in employment, as well as establishing equal employment opportunities commssion (to investigate complaint of discrimination).