The Murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was fourteen years old when he went to visit family near Money, Mississippi in August of 1955. Bragging to some friends, he shows them a picture of a white girl and says that she is his girlfriend back home. The boys dare him to go talk to a white girl in the store. Walking out of the store, Till said "Bye babe" to the shop owner's wife. A few days later, the shop keeper and his brother-in-law kidnapped and murdered Emmett Till.
The Bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church
On the morning of Sunday, September 15, 1936, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley went to church. The Ku Klux Klan bombed their church, the 16th Street Baptist Church, on that very day. The bombing came without warning. The four girls' deaths shocked the nation.
Murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner
On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers James Chaney,Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were murdered near Philadelphia, in Nashoba County, Mississippi. They had been working to register black voters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer and had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police and were in prison for several hours. They were given to The Klu Klux Klan, who beat and murdered them.
The Murder of Medgar Evers
In New York City, Medgar Evers, an African American religious leader was killed by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.
Bloody Sunday
March 7, 1965 in now known as Bloody Sunday. On that day, around 500 people set out to march to the state capital in Montgomery in support of what would become the Voting Rights Act. A state trooper told the protestors that they were unlawfully assembled and told them to disperse. They were attacked by about 150 troopers and others who wielded billy clubs and tear gas when they refused to leave. Fifty-eight people were injured and had to be treated at the local hospital.