The road to civil rights: An interactive map
Here we take a look at several locations related to the modern civil rights movement and what it meant to black citizens struggling for civil rights during post-World War II.
Total Locations:
Bethel AME Church
Reno,
NV
Church leaders and members where great community activists who sought social equality for black residents of Reno, NV. and worked with the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter. The work of this congregation brought the area's discriminatory practices to national attention.
Howard University
2400 Sixth StreetWashington, DC The university's law school played a major role in getting the United States' education system desegregated. Working with civil rights leaders Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, the school became one of the most well-known schools that helped black activists study civil rights law.
Malcolm X's Home
Omaha,
NE
Malcolm Little, the boy born in a now demolished home in Omaha, Neb., would eventually grow up to become the civil rights activist known as Malcolm X. He was assassinated in February 1965.
Brown v. Board of Education
Topeka,
KS
Two schools in this city played a large role in the Brown v. Board of Education case, which stated that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The ruling, delivered by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on May 17, 1954, resulted to the desegregation of public schools in more than 20 states.
Calvary Baptist Church
Oklahoma City,
OK
This church was the starting spot and ending location to the black community's sit-ins. During these sit-ins, black community activist visited white only dining counters and peacefully sat at the counters (sometimes multiple days in a row) until owners agreed to serve them.
University of Oklahoma's Bizzell Library
Norman,
OK
In 1948, George McLaurin, a black professor, applied to the University of Oklahoma. He was denied acceptance to the school because the Separate But Equal doctrine made it a felony for the school to accept him. McLaurin filed a complaint and was eventually granted admission but kept segregated from white students. After another suit by McLaurin, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation was unconstitutional in public schools and it prohibited McLaurin from receiving an education equal to that of white scholars.
Juanita Craft House
Dallas,
TX
Juanita Craft was a civil rights activist and leader who worked toward integration. During her life, she was involved in the integration of of two universities, she helped start up 182 NAACP chapters and ended segregation in restaurants, theaters and state fairs. Craft passed away in 1985 at the age of 83.
Little Rock High School
Little Rock,
AR
This high school is one of the most notorious schools during the federal-required desegregation. It wasn't until three years after the mandate, that the federal government had to force the Arkansas governor to integrate Little Rock High School. The governor even went as far as ordering the state's national guard to not let black students inside. President Dwight Eisenhower eventually had to put the guard under federal command to restore order. Even then, bombing and threats on the black students persisted. The location is now known as Central High School National Historic Site. (Photo by AFP/AFP/Getty Images)
Lorraine Hotel (National Civil Rights Museum)
Memphis,
TN
Then a hotel and now a civil rights museum, this building marks the spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. King was in town helping striking black workers fight against wage inequality. King was on his hotel room's balcony on April 4, 1968, when he was shot and killed. (Photo by Mike Brown/Getty Images)
Tougaloo College
Jackson,
MS
Founded in 1869, Tougaloo College was a hot-bed of civil rights action during the 1950s and 1960s where the predominantly black student body participated in protests and boycotts. The college is in an unincorporated area known as Tougaloo, Miss., which lies within Jackson, Miss. city limits.
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett House
S Martin Luther King DrChicago, IL Ida Bell Wells-Barnett was a teacher in Tennessee during the 1880s when she joined the civil rights movement after a train conductor ordered her to move to a segregated car. It was after this event that the local school board fired her and she moved to Chicago. There she would become a civil rights activist, editor and co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and worked to get Chicago to elect its first black alderman. She also spearheaded several black woman's suffrage movements and lead an anti-lynching campaign.
Oscar Stanton De Priest House
S Martin Luther King Jr DrChicago, IL 60619 Oscar Stanton De Priest was Chicago's first black alderman who would eventually go on to become the first black politician elected to Congress in the 1900s. He held three terms in Congress where he introduced many anti-discriminatory bills and an anti-lynching bill that never did get passed. His final term ended in 1935.
Shelley v. Kraemer
Saint Louis,
MO
During the 1940s,the black Shelley family bought a home in an St. Louis area where home owners had sworn to a racial covenant, in which owners agreed not sell their homes to black people. Louis D. Kraemer, one of the other home owners, sued and insisted the state force the Shelley family's home's previous owner to uphold the pact. The local court originally ruled in favor of the Shelleys but the decision was overturned by the state's Supreme Court. The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was ruled in favor of the Shelleys again. The judges sited it would be against the 14th Amendment to require the state to force the upholding of the racially discriminatory pact. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights
80 BypassSelma, AL 36701 The first day of the originally scheduled march is also known as Bloody Sunday because the civil rights leaders and activists who headed out of Selma, Ala. on March 7, 1965 made it only six blocks before they were met with the billy clubs and tear gas of law enforcement officials. It would be 14 days later before civil rights leaders had court ordered protection for the right to petition and march down the highway to Montgomery, Ala. It took the entire group, which eventually grew to about 250,000 people strong, five days to reach the end. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed less than six months later by President Lyndon Johnson.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
Birmingham,
AL
Four young black girls lost their lives September 15, 1963, when the the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site
Atlanta,
GA
Along with other local Atlanta-area historic places, King's birth home, church and grave site are included in this national historic site. King was a civil rights leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner and well-known activist who was involved in notable moments in civil rights history like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. King was assassinated 1968.
Atlanta University Center Historic District
1800 Century Blvd NEAtlanta, GA 30345 This historic site is compromised of several places, all of which served as major hubs in the area's civil rights movements. Morehouse College, attended by Martin Luther King Jr., is included in the group as well as Atlanta University where W.E.B. Du Bois and Whitney Young, Jr. taught.
The Woolworth's Five & Dime
Greensboro,
NC
Black students from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina peacefully walked into the diner on February 1, 1960 and occupied seats at the "white-only" lunch counter. They were ignored by the restaurant's workers, but not by the public. The sit-ins eventually grew to 400 or more people who where staging similar demonstrations throughout the city and state. One year later 126 cities had integrated food counters.
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
Washington,
DC
More than 200,000 people, white and black, participated in the march during August 1963. The march ended with Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream Speech." Listen to part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech
Moulin Rouge Hotel
Las Vegas,
NV
As one of the first major integrated hotels in the United States, the business was a group of Las Vegas investors' first attempt at encouraging black tourism. All this was despite the fact that the local government still had not passed desegregation laws.
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