The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision: The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, issued on May 17, 1954, declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The decision was a major victory for the civil rights movement and helped to pave the way for the desegregation of schools and other public facilities.
The assassination of Emmett Till: The brutal murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, in Money, Mississippi, in August 1955, shocked the nation and helped to galvanize the civil rights movement. Till was killed after he was accused of flirting with a white woman. His killers were acquitted by an all-white jury, but the case drew widespread attention and became a symbol of the racist violence that African Americans faced in the United States.