-
Period: to
Civil Rights
-
Railroad dining cars.
In Henderson v. United States the Supreme Court abolishes segregation in railroad dining cars. -
Law School admits a black student.
University of Virginia, under a federal court order, admits a black student to its law school. -
Segregation on trains and boats ends.
Maryland legislature ends segregation on trains and boats; meanwhile Georgia legislature votes to deny funds to schools that integrate. -
Army desegregated.
The United States Army high command announces it will desegregate the Army. -
Elections 1952
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower wins presidential election, November 4. -
Ruby McCollum's trial.
Ruby McCollum, an African-American woman, went on trial at the Suwanee County Courthouse in Live Oak, Florida, in November 1952 for the murder on August 3, 1952, of Dr. C. LeRoy Adams, a white physician and state senator who was the father of her youngest child. -
Highlander Folk School invites civil right workers.
In Monteagle, Tennessee, the Highlander Folk School in runs various workshops to teach how to organize protests for people like union organizer. The school invites civil rights workers. -
Reargument in Brown v. Board of Education.
Supreme Court orders reargument in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education arguing that "separate but equal" schools are inherently unequal. The decision declares legal school segregation unconstitutional. -
Armed forces fully desegregated.
Department of Defense announces that the armed forces have been fully desegregated. -
Chicagoan Emmett Till was kidnapped.
While visiting family in Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till was 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, were arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boasted about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case became a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus
Rosa parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white person, triggering a successful year-long African American boycott of the bus system. -
Luther King's house is bombed.
The home of Martin Luther King, Jr., is bombed in Montgomery. King is a leader in the boycott and its designated spokesman. -
Victory for Montgomery Boycott
The U.S Supreme Court rules that the segregation of Montgomery, Alabama, buses is unconstitutional. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Martin Luther King helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in January. The organization's purpose is to fight for civil rights, and Kind is elected its first president. -
The Little Rock Nine
Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. Federal troops and the National Guard are called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." Despite a year of violent threats, several of the "Little Rock Nine" manage to graduate from Central High. -
Cooper v. Aaron
Cooper v. Aaron, is ruled on by the Supreme Court where the court states that the threat of mob violence is not a good enough reason to delay desegregation of the school. -
Officials refuse to cooperate.
Voter registration officials in Montgomery refuse to cooperate with US Civil Rights Commission investigation. -
Four African-American are denied service .
Four African-American men who were students at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College, visit Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they sit down at a whites-only lunch counter to order coffee. Although they are denied service, the four men sit politely and silently at the counter until the store closes. This starts the series of Greensboro sit-ins and also triggers similar protests in the South. -
Segregation on vehicles.
In a 7-2 decision handed down on December 5 by the Supreme Court in the case Boynton v. Virginia case, the court rules that segregation on vehicles that travel between states is unlawful and unconstitutional because it is in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.
