Category Archives: African-American Civil Rights

Rosa Parks arrested after refusing to give bus seat to white man 60 years ago this hour (Dec 1 1955)


Video: 'Rosa Parks_Dec 1, 1955 achievement'

(Thursday, December 1, 1955, around 6 p.m. local time)Rosa Parks, an African-American seamstress, was arrested today after refusing to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.

New version of Ku Klux Klan founded 100 years ago tonight (Nov 25 1915)


Video: 'Ku Klux Klan - A Secret History' (Nov. 25, 1915, at 18:19)

(Thursday, November 25, 1915, Thanksgiving Day) — A new version of the Ku Klux Klan, targeting blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants, was founded tonight by William Joseph Simmons, who proclaimed himself the Imperial Wizard of the group as he staged a cross-burning on Stone Mountain outside Atlanta.

Mississippi becomes first Southern state to enact ‘Black Codes’ 150 years ago today (Nov 24 1865)


Video: 'Reconstruction - black codes 14th wques'

(Friday, November 24, 1865) — Mississippi today became the first Southern state to enact laws which came to be known as “Black Codes” aimed at limiting the rights of newly freed blacks. Other states of the former Confederacy soon followed.

Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks becomes first woman to lie in honor in U.S. Capitol Rotunda 10 years ago this hour (Oct 30 2005)


Video: 'Ceremony for lying in state of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks'

(Sunday, October 30, 2005, shortly before 8:00 p.m. EDT) — Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died Oct. 24, 2005, at the age of 92, tonight became the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Rosa Parks, founding symbol of Civil Rights Movement, dies 10 years ago this hour (Oct 24 2005)


Video: 'Rosa Parks - Mini Bio'

(Monday, October 24, 2005, between 7:00-8:00 p.m. EDT)Rosa Parks, a black seamstress whose refusal to relinquish her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, almost 50 years ago grew into a mythic event that helped touch off the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, died today in her apartment on the east side of the Detroit. She was 92 years old.

837,000 black men gather in Washington for ‘Million Man March’ 20 years ago today (Oct 16 1995)


Video: 'October 16th, 1995: The Million Man March - www.NBCUniversalArchives.com'

(Monday, October 16, 1995, during the Million Man March) — Heeding a call for personal atonement and racial solidarity, hundreds of thousands of black men gathered from across the nation in the heart of the capital today to vow stronger leadership in protecting their communities from violence and social despair.

“There’s a new black man in America today,” declared Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose call for the rally brought out an extraordinary throng — officially estimated at 400,000 — to gather in an exuberant mood of self-dedication on the Mall.

Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ opens on Broadway 80 years ago this hour (Oct 10 1935)


Video: 'Porgy and Bess, 1935 silent home movie'

(Thursday, October 10, 1935, 8:10 p.m. EST) — The George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess, featuring an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers, opened tonight at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway in New York.

The leading roles were played by Todd Duncan and Anne Brown.

Mississippi jury acquits two white men in Emmett Till murder 60 years ago this hour (Sep 23 1955)


Video: 'The Murder Of Emmett Till - Documetary' (Sept. 23, 1955, at 45:58)

(Friday, September 23, 1955, at 3:43 p.m. local time) — Two Mississippi white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, accused of murdering 14-year-old Chicago African-American Emmett Louis Till after he had supposedly whistled at a white woman were acquitted today in Sumner, Mississippi.

A jury of twelve white neighbors of the defendants reached the verdict after one hour and five minutes of deliberations. The two men later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine.