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James Meredith
He was the first african american student to apply to the segregated Uiversity of Mississippi. It was an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement. His goal was to pressure the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African American. -
Truman signs executive order 9981
Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." Read more: Civil Rights Movement Timeline (14th Amendment, 1964 Act, Human Rights Law) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#ixzz2rcA1HElS -
Brown v. Board of education
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Su -
Emmitt 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
(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. Rea -
SCLC
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignit -
Little Rock Nine
(Little Rock, Ark.) Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine."| -
Woolworths Sit-ins
(Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, the -
SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committe was one of the organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement. Its main contriubtation was in feild work and organizing voter registration drives. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom riders challenged the status by riding buses into the south. The Freedom riders helped inspire participation in other Civil Rights campaigns, including voting resgistration in the south. -
24th Amendment
It prohibited Congress and the states from getting the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or any other type of tax. -
“Bull” Connor uses fire hoses on black demonstrators
During the Birmingham Campaign, the police officers started to get worried because the African Americans had no fear anymore. So they brought out fire hoses and sprayed them with it. It ended up drawing the worlds attention to racial segregation. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
It was a written letter by Martin Luther King Jr. It defends the nonviolent resistance to racisim, saying people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws. -
March on Washington
The march was a sucess. More that 200,000 blacks and Whites joined together all day and they sang songs together and celebrated together. -
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
It was an act of white supermacist terrorism. It was a turning point in the United States 1960s Civil Rights Movement and supported the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
It outlawed major laws of discrimination againest racial, ethnic and religious people. It ended unequal application of voter registration requiements and racial segregation in schools. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Many people were sad about Malcome X's passing. Over 1,000 people attended the funeral and the press were very sympathetic. He ended up being known as the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. -
Civil Rights Act 1965
It was designed to enforce the voting rights guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendment to the United States constitution. It was considered one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation enacted in the U.S. -
Watts Riots
This was a race riot that took place in the Wats neighborhood of Los Angeles. It became the site of significant racial violence twoards the blacks from the whites. -
Executive Order 11246
The order came after Executive Order 10479 which established the anti- discrimination committee. This executive Order required the business it covered to maintain documentations or hiring and employment. -
Black Panther party, Founded
At first the purpose and initial point was to set a doctrine calling for protection for the black neighborhoods from police brutality. IN the end it caused some members to openly disagree with the views of the leaders. -
Loving vs. Virginia
It was a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme court which invalidated laws laws prohibiting interracial marriage. It ended up increasing interracial marriage in the U.S and also brought up the debate of same-sex marriage in the U.S. -
MLK is assassinated
Many people believe that the Kings assassination involved the US government. Some believed that the assassination meant the end of a strategy of non-violence. Others believed that they needed to carry out their work. -
Civil Rights Act
It is a landmark piece that provides equal housing opprotunities regardless of race and made it a federal crime to force, threat, injure, intimidate anyone because of their race, color or religion. -
Bloody Sunday
The shooting was quite unnecessary, with the army shooting inocent people. The people may have been contributing in a march that was banned, but that doesn't mean they needed to go on a killing spree. -
Voting Rights Act 1991
The act was the first effort to modify some of the basic procedural rights provided by federal law in employment and discrimination cases. -
1992 Los Angeles Race Riots
The actions were undertaken in the Los Angeles Police Department which included the retrial of the police officers involved, increasing minority officers in the police department, loss of support for the Mayor of Los Angeles, and analyzing the general political and economic atmosphere that contributed to the riots. -
Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner
They had been working to register black voters in mississippi. They were arrest for a couple of hours and realesed after dark into the hands of Ku Klux Klan, who beak them to death.
