Civil rights timeline

Civil Rights Movement

By tuf36922

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    United States Supreme Court decides that the segregation of public schools is unconsitutional
  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Movement

  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus, which sparks national publicity on the issue of race and civil rights.

  • Little Rock Nine

    The Arkansas governor calls the national guard to Little Rock High School to block the entry of nine African American students into the school.

  • Sit-Ins

    Starting in July 1958, the NAACP Youth Council begin to sponser 'sit-ins' at a Kansas drug store to change its policy on segregated seating.

  • Freedom Rides

    The first of a number of bus rides from Northern cities into the segregated south to test the Supreme Court case, Boynton v. Virginia, which ruled that segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional.

  • March on Washington

    Involving a number of major civil rights orginizations, the march was a call for meaningful civil rights laws, fair housing and employment, the right to vote, and integrated education.

  • Mississippi Freedom Summer

    Throughout the summer of 1964, over 1,000 activists convened in Mississppi to join with black activists to register voters, teach in freedom schools, and organize the Freedom Democratic Party.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bans discrimination on race, color, sex or national origin in employment practices and public accomodations

  • Selma March

    Over 600 people started a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery to fight for a voter registration program. Violence from federal authorities would push the marchers back to Selma before ever getting to the state capital.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    Passed by Lyndon B. Johnson, this act suspened poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter registration tests.

  • Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination

    One day after his "I've been to the mountaintop" speech, MLK was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1968

    Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibits discrimination regarding sale, rental and financing of houses based on race, religion or national origin.