1951

  • Linda Brown, an 8-year-old girl in Topeka, Kansas, lives within walking distance of a whites-only elementary school. Because of segregation, she has to travel by bus to a more distant school for African-American children. Her father sues the school board of Topeka, and the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the case.

1953

  • The Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, which runs workshops on organizing protests for individuals such as union organizers, issues invitations to civil rights workers.

1954

  • The Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, arguing that "separate but equal" schools are inherently unequal. The decision declares legal school segregation unconstitutional.

1955

  • Rosa Parks attends a workshop for civil rights organizers at the Highlander Folk School in July.
  • On August 28,Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, is killed near Money, Mississippi, for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
  • In November, the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission proscribes segregation on interstate buses and trains.
  • On December 1, Rosa Parks refuses to give her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
  • The Montgomery Improvement Association elects Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as president on December 5 in order to lead the boycott.

1956

  • In January and February, whites angry about the Montgomery Bus Boycott bomb four African-American churches and the homes of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King and E.D. Nixon.
  • On court order, the University of Alabama admits its first African-American student, Autherine Lucy, but finds legal ways to prevent her attendance.
  • On Nov. 13, the Supreme Court upholds an Alabama district court ruling in favor of the Montgomery bus boycotters.
  • TheMontgomery Bus Boycott ends in December, having successfully integrated Montgomery's buses.

1957

  • Martin Luther King helps found theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in January. The organization's purpose is to fight for civil rights, and King is elected its first president.
  • The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, obstructs the integration of Little Rock High School, using the National Guard to block the entry of nine students. President Eisenhower orders federal troops to integrate the school.
  • Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which creates the Civil Rights Commission and authorizes the Justice Department to investigate cases of African Americans being denied voting rights in the South.

1958

  • The Supreme Court decision Cooper v. Aaron rules that a threat of mob violence is not reason enough to delay school desegregation.

1959

  • Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, visit India, the homeland of Mahatma Gandhi, who won independence for India through nonviolent tactics. King discusses the philosophy of nonviolence with Gandhi's followers.


The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi brought about tremendous changes. No longer were blacks denied the right to vote, to eat, shop, and swim where they pleased, and more importantly, to attend integrated schools. The movement encouraged black Mississippians a sense of pride not seen since the days of Reconstruction. Having opened up the Magnolia state to the rest of the world, civil rights activists succeeded in demonstrating the power of nonviolent direct action. Despite its many accomplishments, however, the civil rights movement had its shortcomings. For example, many people, both young and old, lost their lives, homes, jobs, and families. Still other individuals were so damaged by psychological trauma that they stopped being productive members of the community. The movement left intact the economic inequities that had contributed to the maintenance of segregation. And finally, racism remained alive and well long after the movement's end. Like most movements of its kind, the civil rights movement left behind a mixed legacy of triumph and tragedy. Nevertheless, it changed the way blacks and whites thought of themselves, and therefore helped to advance the cause of social equality.