-
Greensboro Sit-In
Sitting for Justice: On February 1st 1960, at Woolworth's Lunch Counter four African American college students sat down at the lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina and refused to leave. -
JFK elected
Defeats Richard M. Nixon to become the 35th president of the United States. Kennedy wins by a margin of 2/10 of 1 percent with 49.75 percent of the votes. Nixon receives 49.55 percent. -
I Have a Dream Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States and called for civil and economic rights. The speech was delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
On November 22nd 1963, crowds of people crowded the street in hopes of getting a glimpse of the Kennedy's car in Dallas, Texas but as the car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. When it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly let out in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck and head. At 1:00 p.m. , John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. -
1964 Civil Rights Act
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. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation -
Malcolm X is assassinated
On Feb. 21, 1965, Civil Rights leader Malcolm X was about to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem when he was shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims. -
Black Panther
In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs -
My Lai Massacre
The My Lai Massacre occured when an American unit was sent out on a search-and-destroy mission in an area suspected of harboring Viet Cong. As many as 500 Vietnamese were killed. The Massacre was kept hidden from the American public for over a year. Lieutenant William Calley was the only American soldier at My Lai to be found guilty of any crimes. He was charged with systematically killing unarmed women, children, and the elderly, and was originally sentenced to life in prison -
Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was then shot by a sniper. Dr.King was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Robert Kennedy is assassinated
Early morning on June 5, 1968, shortly after delivering a speech to in the California primary, Kennedy was shot in a kitchen corridor outside the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died the next day at age 42.
