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Brown vs Board
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark Brown vs Board of Education,unanimously agreeing the segregation in public schools in unconsitutional. -
Emmet Till
Fourteen year old Emmet Till was visiting family in Mississippi when he was lynched(for a mob to killed someone for an alleged offence)and then dumped in the Tallahatchie River by two white men because he allegedly whislted at a white woman. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move from her seat at the front of the "coloured section" for a white passenger, defying a southern custom at the time.The Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Martin Luther King Jr, Charles K Steele, and Fred L Shuttlesworth established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King if made first president.The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the Civil Rights Movement and bases it principals on nonviolence and civil disobedience. This ended in February 1957 -
The Little Rock Nine
Formerly all white Central High School learns that integration is easier said then done. Nine black students are stopped from entering the school on order of Governor Orval Faubus. These students became known as the Little Rock Nine. -
Woolworths Counter
Four black students from North Carolina Agriculture and Technology College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworths lunch counter.Although they are refused service they are allowed to stay at the counter. Six months later these same students our severed lunch at the same Woolworths counter. -
SNCC
The SNCC is founded at Shaw University, Providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement.The SNCC later grows into a more racial organization.(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) -
Segregation
Over the spring and summer students have been taking bus trips through the south to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. Some people were attacked by angry mobsters on the way their. -
James Meredith
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounded the event. -
Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham -
Civil Rights Protests
During Civil rights protests “Bull” Connor used fire hoses and police dogs on the black demonstrators. -
Medgar Evers
37 year old Medgar Evers was murdered outside his home -
I Have a Dream
(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. -
Sixteenth Street Bombing
Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. -
No Voting for Poor Blacks
The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. -
Freedom Summer
The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a network of civil rights groups that includes CORE and SNCC, launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. -
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. -
Missing Civil Rights Workers
The bodies of three civil-rights workers two white, one black are found in an earthen dam.James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church.They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam. -
Bloody Sunday
Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. -
Voting Rights
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal. -
Riots in L.A.
Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles. This lasted until August 17 1965. -
Executive Order 11246
Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. -
Black Panthers
The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. -
Black Power
Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." The term's radicalism alarms many who believe the civil rights movement's effectiveness and moral authority crucially depend on nonviolent civil disobedience. -
Interracial Marriage
The Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws. -
Major Race Riots
Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12–16) and Detroit (July 23–30) -
Martin Luther King Jr Death
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 -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. -
Integration of Public Schools
The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s. -
Civil Rights Restoration Act
Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. -
Civil Rights Act of 1991
After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
