-
Executive Order 9981 signed by President Truman
Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, creating the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. The order mandated the desegregation of the U.S. military. -
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling
State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. -
Emmett Till is murdered
kidnapped, beaten, shot in the head, had a large metal fan tied to his neck with barbed wire, and was thrown into the Tallahatchie River. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
violating a city law requiring racial segregation of public buses
a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. -
Little Rock Nine Intervention
The Little Rock Nine refers to a group of African American students who were the first to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
keeping the nine students from entering the school, -
Greensboro Sit-In Protest
young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
killing four African-American girls on the other side and injuring more than 20 inside the church. -
Integration of Ole Miss Riots
a federal appeals court ordered the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, an African-American student. -
Medgar Evers shooting
Byron De La Beckwith fired a single bullet,
Evers died shortly after arriving at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. His last words were, “Turn me loose.” -
George Wallace’s “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama
a symbolic protest by Alabama governor George Wallace against integration of Alabama public universities. -
March on Washington / I Have a Dream Speech
racial equality, justice
helped create the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending racial segregation in the United States. -
The Selma Marches / Bloody Sunday
three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery.
law enforcement officers beat unarmed marchers with billy clubs and sprayed them with tear gas. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 is passed
United States Senate passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Black Panther Party is formed
It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated
James Earl Ray knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.