Key events and importance of Brown versus Topeka (1954), Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) and Little Rock 1957

Key events and importance of Brown versus Topeka (1954), Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955) and Little Rock 1957. 

-Brown versus Topeka (1954):

1. The US Supreme Court ruled in the case Brown v Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in state schools was unconstitutional.
2. This was important, as the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, the highest law of the land, so the government was obliged to intervene when the law was contradicted by local state law.

-Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955):

1. In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. She was arrested.
2. Black ministers, led by 26-year-old Martin Luther King, organised a bus boycott in protest. African Americans supported the boycott by walking to work or sharing cars for a year, until 1956, when it was finally ruled that Alabama's bus segregation laws were unconstitutional.
3. The success of this peaceful protest was inspirational to all those who opposed segregation in the South.

-Little Rock 1957:

1. The Governor of Arkansas sent National Guard soldiers to prevent the black children from entering the school. The black people brought a case against the Governor. They won and the soldiers were forced to leave.
2. In 1957 President Eisenhower then ordered 1000 paratroopers to the Central High School campus at Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the admission of nine African-American pupils in the face of local mob violence.
3. The state governor, backed by passionate public support from white people for segregation, did all he could to defy the federal authorities.
4. This showed great progress in political attitudes towards the movement.