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1954- Little Rock Nine Crisis
The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education ruling on May 17, 1954. The decision declared all laws establishing segregated schools to be unconstitutional. Little Rock, Arkansas, school board agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. -
1955-Emmett till
On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman. The white woman's husband and his half brother kidnapped him and beat him to death then continued to put the corpse in to the Tallahatchie River. -
1956 montgomery bus boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation. African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. -
1957-Founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was founded in 1957. MLK, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others helped found the organization. The SCLC advocated confrontation of segregation through civil dissent. -
1957- Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors. The act also established a federal Civil Rights Commission with authority to investigate discriminatory conditions. Congress weakened the final act due to lack of support from Democrats. -
1960- Greensboro Sit-In
The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960. Students refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter after being denied service. Many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace. The sit-ins soon spread to college towns throughout the South. -
1961-Freedom Rides
Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists. In 1961, Freedom Rides were bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals. The groups were confronted by arresting police officers and horrific violence from white protesters. But they also drew international attention to the civil rights movement. -
1963- Birmingham Movement
In April 1963 King joined with Birmingham's existing local movement to attack the city's segregation system. The campaign was originally scheduled to begin in March 1963, but postponed until April. Actions included sit-ins at churches, marches on City Hall, and a boycott of downtown merchants. -
1963- March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
On 28 August 1963, more than 200,000 demonstrators marched in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. The march was successful in pressuring the Kennedy administration to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill. In 1941, A. Philip Randolph cancelled plans for a march. -
1965- Mississippi Freedom Summer
The Freedom Summer Project was a voter registration drive aimed at increasing the number of registered Black voters in Mississippi. Over 700 mostly white volunteers joined African Americans to fight against voter intimidation and discrimination. The increased awareness it brought to voter discrimination helped lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
1971 - Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
In the United States, buses have been used to transport children of different races across district lines to further the goal of integrating public schools. The Fourteenth Amendment permits the systematic use of buses to convey children from different races within a single school district for equal educational opportunities. -
1972-Shirley Chisolm’s Presidential Campaign
Shirley Anita Chisholm was the first black woman elected to Congress. She represented New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms. In 1972, she became the first woman to run for President of the United States. -
1974- Hank Aaron’s Home Run Record
On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron hit his 715th career home run. The National Recording Preservation Registry names 25 recordings "vital to the history of America". Each includes an in-depth essay by an expert on the subject. -
1976-Barbara Jordan’s Address at the Democratic National Convention
Barbara Jordan delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 1976. Jordan called for Americans to commit themselves to a "national community" and the "common good". In 1976, Jordan was the first black woman to ever deliver a major party convention keynote address. -
1978 - University of California Regents vs. Bakke
In Bakke v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court declared affirmative action constitutional but invalidated the use of racial quotas. The medical school at the University of California, Davis had reserved 16 percent of its admission places for minority applicants. In subsequent decisions during the next several decades the court limited the scope of such programs.