| Southern
Christian Leadership Conference forms with Martin Luther King, Jr., as
president. |
|
| The
Washington Prayer Pilgrimage |
| The Washington Prayer Pilgrimage was held on May 17 to
commemorate the Supreme Court Decision Bown vs. board of Education. This rally,
the biggest civil rights demonstration to date, was where Martin Luther King
gave his "Give Us the Ballot" speech. For a full text of the speech go to:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/speeches/Give_us_the_ballot.html |
| |
| During 1956 and 1957 houses in Fountain
Heights, Birmingham, are bombed so often that the area acquires a new nickname,
"Dynamite Hill." |
| |
| The Civil
Rights Act of 1957 |
| The Civil Rights Act of 1957 makes it a federal crime to
interfere with the voting rights of U.S. citizens. The Civil Rights Commission
is established to investigate infringements of this law. |
| |
| Nashville's Hattie Cotton Elementary
School dynamited and one wing is destroyed. |
| |
| Tuskegee Boycott |
After blacks began a voter registration drive, the Alabama
Legislature redrew Tuskegee's previously square boundaries to exclude all black
neighborhoods.
In response, blacks boycotted the city's stores, doing
considerable economic damage to Tuskegee businesses.
The Supreme Court
ultimately declared that Alabama's artful boundary creations were
unconstitutional. |
