There Are Some Things In Life Worth Letting Go Of

And There Are Some Things We Should Never Forget!!

TSgt Paul Quick

Federal paratroopers escort African American pupils to Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. without trouble. 1,000 paratroopers had been called by President Eisenhower to restore order and escort nine black students safely to class. Sept. 26, 1957

Police use dogs to quell civil unrest in Birmingham, Ala. in May of 1963. Birmingham's police commissioner "Bull" Connor also allowed firehoses to be turned on young civil rights demonstrators. These measures set off a backlash of sentiment that rejuvenated the flagging civil rights movement.

James Meredith, center, was the first African American student accepted by the University of Mississippi. His attendance provoked riots. Here he is escorted to class by U.S. marshals and troops. Oct. 2, 1962.

Rosa Parks sits in the front of a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. on Dec. 21, 1956, the day a Supreme Court ruling banning segregation of the city's public transit vehicles went into effect. A year earlier, she had been arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat in a crowded bus

Four girls sat on the floor in the Seattle City Council chamber during a civil-rights hearing while sit-in spokesman Eddie Givens, right, spoke about the composition of the city Human Rights Commission. Demonstrators were protesting the fact that though the commission was to address an open-housing law, only two of its 12 members were African American --- Rev. Sam McKinney and John Allen. The girls were, from left, Delores Hall, 18, Jackie Ellis,11, Infanta Spence, 20, and Susan Van Dong, 20. Councilmen were, from left, Charles M. Carroll, J.D. Braman, and Paul Alexander. July 25, 1963.

About 250,000 people attended the March on Washington, D.C. urging support for pending civil-rights legislation. The event was highlighted by King's "I have a dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. August 28, 1963.

Black, white, young and old sang "We Shall Overcome" as they marched down Denny Way to the Seattle Center to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, who had been felled by an assassin's bullet. The crowd was estimated at 10,000. April 7, 1968.

More than 700 people attended a "freedom march" protesting racial discrimination in Seattle. The marchers, many of whom were white, walked in silence but carried signs. The Rev. Mance Jackson announced that the Bon Marché promised 30 new jobs for African Americans in its downtown and Northgate stores. June 15,1963.

Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy lead a line of demonstrators to a confrontation with police that they knew would result in their arrest.

Demonstrators huddled in a doorway seek shelter from the hoses. The water is propelled at a force of one hundred pounds per square inch.

After being hit from behind and being knocked down by the hoses, a woman is picked up and rescued by a witness

As blacks flee the hoses, a young boy turns to confront his attackers.

As demonstrators lie on the sidewalk to protect themselves, firemen hose them down with high-pressure jets of water at the order of Police Commissioner Bull Connor. One disgusted fireman said later, "We're supposed to fight fires, not people."

In the 1950s, school segregation was widely accepted throughout the nation. In fact, it was required by law in most southern states. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It decided unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing the 1896 Plessy v.Ferguson ruling that had set the "separate but equal"precedent.

A man braces himself as two dogs attack him during racial unrest in Birmingham, Alabama in May, 1963.

After having been refused service at the lunch counter of aWoolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, Joseph McNeill, a Negro college student, returned the next day with three classmates to sit at the counter until they were served. They were not served. The four students returned to the lunch counter each day. When an article in the New York Times drew attention to the students' protest, they were joined by more students, both black and white, and students across the nation were inspired to launch similar protests.

Soldiers of the National Guard relax with neighborhood children on March 31, 1968.

Line of marchers turning from Chelsea Avenue onto Second Street in north Memphis during the Sanitation Workers' Strike, March 1968.

Rosa Parks, a 43 year old black seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat near the front of a bus to a white man. The following night, fifty leaders of the Negro community met at Dexter ave. Baptist Church to discuss the issue. Among them was the young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leaders organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which would deprive the bus company of 65% of its income, and cost Dr. King a $500 fine or 386 days in jail. He paid the fine, and eight months later, the Supreme Court decided, based on the school segregation cases, that bus segregation violated the constitution.

Civil Rights protestors march on Washington

PLEASE DON’T FORGET!