Timeline: Civil Rights

May 17, 1954

Brown v. Board of Education

This was the day the court case was decided. The case desegregated schools. At the beginning schools were trying to find ways to work around this ruling.

Dec 5, 1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

This was the first major act against segregation on buses. This is when the African Americans stopped riding buses in Montgomery.

Jan 2, 1958

Bilingual Education Act

This act was ratified to teach Spanish immigrants English as another language.

Sep 15, 1958

Little Rock Crisis

This was one of the first schools to go along with the supreme court case of Brown v Board of education. The school officials had interviews for the students that were African American that wanted to attend white only schools.

Dec 14, 1961

Femanist Movement

JFK issues the executive order called the President's Commission on the Status of Women. He had Eleanor Roosevelt to be one of the chairmen of the organization.

Feb 16, 1962

SDS March During the Counterculture Mvement

The First anti nuclear march is held. There were 4000-8000 protesters that participated.

Mar 17, 1963

Latino Movement

Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association marched from Delano to the California capital

Aug 28, 1963

March on Washington

This march was lead by Martin Luther King Jr. and it is where the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. There was a turnout of over 200,000 Americans at this march

Jul 2, 1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964

This is the date that this Act was sighed into law. It was signed by president Johnson.

Mar 7, 1965

Selma March

This is the date when the march started and it lasted 5 days. The march was from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery.

Aug 6, 1965

Voting Rights Act of 1965

This act outlawed voting discrimination practices that were common in the southern states. This was signed over 50 years after the 15 amendment was ratified which gave all men the right to vote.

Aug 11, 1965

Watts Riiot

This riot started when an African American was arrested on the account of drunk driving. People were angered by this arrest and started the riot which would result in over 30 people getting killed.

Jun 5, 1966

Black Power Spark

James Meredith is shot on this date at a rally that he was leading. When he was in his hospital bed he told the people that were beside him to continue the march. Nothing changed and there was still a lot of violence and they said they needed "Black Power".