1955-1975

  • Warsaw Pact signed.

  • Emmett Till murdered.

    Emmett Till murdered.
    In August 1955, a fourteen-year-old black boy whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till, a teen from Chicago, didn't understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South until three days later, when two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and then shot him in the head.
  • Rosa Parks.

    Rosa Parks.
    Refused to give up her seat on the bus.
  • Period: to

    Montgomery Bus Boycott.

    The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system.
  • Martin Luther King Jr.

    Martin Luther King Jr.
    Elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The organization leads a year-long boycott against Montgomery’s segregated transportation system.
  • Nat King Cole.

    Nat King Cole.
    Becomes the first African-American to host a primetime show on national television.
  • The first trans-Atlantic telephone begins operation.

  • Dwight D, Eisenhower

    Dwight D, Eisenhower
    2nd inauguration.
  • Perry H. Young

    Perry H. Young
    Becomes the first African-American pilot of a commercial passenger airline.
  • Congress signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957

  • Alaska is admitted to the U.S. as the 49th state

    Alaska is admitted to the U.S. as the 49th state
  • U.S. and Japan sign a joint defense treaty.

  • John F. Kennedy

    John F. Kennedy
    Elected 35th U.S. President.
  • 23rd Amendment is ratified.

  • CORE.

    Eleven members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begin Freedom Rides on buses leaving from Washington D.C. and head to various points in the South.
  • Jackie Robinson

    Jackie Robinson
    First African American elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
  • Cuban Missile Crisis.

  • Congress passes Equal Pay Act

  • Civil Rights March.

    Civil Rights March.
    The Civil Rights march on Washington, D.C. for Jobs and Freedom culminates with Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Over 200,000 people participated in the march for equal rights.
  • Lyndon B. Johnson

    Lyndon B. Johnson
    Sworn in as president.
  • John F. Kennedy Assassinated.

  • 24th Amendment is ratified

  • President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

    Athorizing President Johnson to take any measures necessary to defend U.S. forces and prevent further aggression.
  • President Johnson orders continuous bombing of North Vietnam

  • Malcolm X gets Assassinated.

    Malcolm X gets Assassinated.
  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965.

    Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two significant portions of the act; the outlawing of the requirement of potential voters to take a literacy test in order to qualify and the provision of federal registration of voters in areas with less than 50% of all voters registered.
  • The National Historic Preservation Act is now a law.

  • George H.W. Bush elected to the U.S. House of Represenatives.

  • Edward Brooke.

    Edward Brooke.
    The first black United States Senator in eighty-five years is elected to Congress. Brooke was the Republican candidate from Massachusetts and former Attorney General of that state.
  • The Outer Space Treaty is signed.

    Signed into force by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.
  • 25th Amendment is ratified

  • Thurgood Marshall.

    Thurgood Marshall.
    Sworn into office as the first black Supreme Court Justice.
  • My Lai Massacre.

    My Lai Massacre.
    American soldiers kill 300 Vietnamese villagers.
  • Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated

    Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated
  • The First Earth Day

    The First Earth Day
  • U.S. Troops invade Cambodia.

  • Cigarette advertisements are banned from TV.

    Cigarette advertisements are banned from TV.
  • 26th Amendment is ratified.

  • Period: to

    The National Black Political Convention.

    Held in Gary, Indianna.
  • Vietnam War ends.