Freedom Riders

May 4, 1960, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begins sending student volunteers on bus trips to test the implementation of new laws prohibiting segregation in interstate travel facilities. The "freedom riders" encountered its first problem within two weeks when a mob in Alabama sets the riders' bus on fire. By the end of the summer, 1,000 volunteers - both black and white - participated.

Read May's Featured Article: They Risked Their Lives to Fight Injustice

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Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas

In the early 1950's, racial segregation in public schools was the norm across America. Although all the schools in a given district were supposed to be equal, most black schools were far inferior to their white counterparts.

In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. Linda's father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the white elementary school, but the principal of the school refused. Brown went to McKinley Burnett, the head of Topeka's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and asked for help. The NAACP was eager to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to challenge segregation in public schools. With Brown's complaint, it had "the right plaintiff at the right time." Other black parents joined Brown, and, in 1951, the NAACP requested an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka's public schools.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. This ruling paved the way for large-scale desegregation. This was a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who later became the nation's first African American Supreme Court Justice.

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National Women's Suffrage Association

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), founded in 1890, united two suffragist organizations that had pursued opposing policies in the years after the Civil War. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in 1869, had agitated for a federal constitutional amendment that would give women the vote, whereas the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), organized the same year by Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and others, sought action through the state legislatures.

In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton united two suffragist organizations to form the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). The chief goal of the NWSA was an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. The NWSA also demanded equal education and equal employment opportunities for women.

The NWSA's insistence on immediate federal action brought the women's movement into direct competition with the campaign for black male suffrage. Some recommended that women should not seek federal action until the campaign for black suffrage had been won. But after this goal was achieved with the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, it became clear that the Republican party would not take up the fight for woman suffrage. In 1919, with twenty-six state legislatures petitioning Congress on behalf of woman suffrage, the Nineteenth Amendment passed by a large majority. It was proclaimed ratified in 1920. NWSA disbanded shortly after but the leaders went on to found other organizations to promote women's rights.

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Black Wall Street

Tired of being denied opportunities by White America, many blacks began creating their own businesses. Tulsa, Oklahoma became the Black Wall Street and had one of the most affluent Black communities in America. There were hundreds of Black-owned businesses throughout the city, but most were confined to a particular area in Tulsa.

On May 21, 1921, the fortunes of Black Wall Street changed forever. When a black male was accused of raping a white woman, the Klu Klux Klan helped spur a revolt that has yet to be repeated in American history. Whites, with the help of police, stormed the black community, completely destroying the 35 block business district in less than 12 hours. Within ten days, 600 businesses, 21 churches, several schools and libraries, and almost 3,000 black citizens were wiped out.

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Ida Wells-Barnett

While on the train, Ida was asked by the conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. She was ordered to take a seat in the smoking or "Jim Crow" car, which was already full of passengers. She refused and when he grabbed her wrist to move her, she bit him. The conductor then went forward and got two other men to help him, and together they dragged her out of the train, to the applause of the all-white passengers in the parlor car in which she was seated.

When she returned to Memphis, she immediately secured an attorney and sued the railroad for $500. She won her case, initially, but when the railroad company appealed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee, it reversed the decision of the lower court. This was the first of Ida's many struggles to overturn injustices in America against women and minorities.

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League for the Physically Handicapped

The League of the Physically Handicapped was formed in New York City in May 1935. A group of six people with disabilities grew to a membership of several hundred. The league's first action was a sit-in of the office of the Emergency Relief Bureau (ERB) in New York City. The six had requested a meeting with the director of the ERB to protest the Bureau's unwillingness to refer people with disabilities to the Works Progress Administration for employment. The director refused to meet with the league and the six then started their sit-in. The action attracted popular support and press attention.

Later actions included picket lines and demonstrations and league members spoke to labor unions and progressive organizations in an attempt to educate these groups on disability issues. The League of the Physically Handicapped struggled for economic and social justice.

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