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Supreme Court upholds racial segregation
In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court upholds de jure racial segregation of "separate but equal" facilities. -
35,000 Ku Klux Klan members march Washington, D.C.
35,000 Ku Klux Klan members march in Washington, D.C. -
Jesse Owens wins gold at Olympics
Sprinter Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. -
Murder of Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. Read more: Civil Rights Movement Timeline (14th Amendmen -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat
(Montgomery, Ala.) NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott. R -
James Meredith first black student at University of Mississippi
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech
(Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin in employment practices and public accomidations. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Martin Luther King is assassinated
(Memphis, Tenn.) Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime. -
Barack Obama elected as President
On November 4th, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President, making him the first African-American President of the United States. His victory made a powerful statement about how far the country has come on the issue of race.
