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Emmett Till is murdered
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 at the age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. -
Jackie Robinson enters Major League Baseball
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made his MLB debut in front of 26,623 fans at Ebbets field. Robinson started at first base and went hitless, but reached base on an error in the seventh and scored the eventual go-ahead run in a victory against the Boston Braves. -
Executive Order 9981 signed by President Truman
On July 26, 1948, President 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. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. -
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling
On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.Nov 22, 2021 -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, after a bus driver ordered her to give up her bus seat to another passenger, and she refused. -
Little Rock Nine Intervention
The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Greensboro Sit-In Protest
On February 1, 1960, four friends sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro. That may not sound like a legendary moment, but it was. The four people were African American, and they sat where African Americans weren't allowed to sit. They did this to take a stand against segregation. -
Integration of Ole Miss Riots
Description: On September 30, 1962, riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
The Birmingham Children’s March
The Children's Crusade, or Children's March, was a march by over 5,000 school students in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2–10, 1963. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about segregation in their city. Wikipedia -
George Wallace’s “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”
The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door took place at Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. Wikipedia -
Medgar Evers shooting
Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a sniper hiding 150 feet away in a honeysuckle thicket. Byron De La Beckwith fired a single bullet, dropped the rifle, and ran. Evers stumbled inside and collapsed. Only 38-years-old, he died on the way to the hospital from internal injuries and blood loss. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 is passed
On August 4, 1965, the United States Senate passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The long-delayed issue of voting rights had come to the forefront because of a voter registration drive launched by civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
On Sept. 15, 1963, four Black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)Sep 14, 2023 -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi -
The Selma Marches / Bloody Sunday
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery. Wikipedia -
Malcolm X is murdered
Malcolm X, an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds in Manhattan, New York City on February 21, 1965, at age 39. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964, prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. -
Black Panther Party is formed
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. -
Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, was a landmark civil rights decision of the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled that laws banning interracial marriage violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated
At 6:05 P.M. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
March on Washington / I Have a Dream Speech
It resulted in a new determination to move toward equality, freedom and greater employment for people of color.” According to Height, “The real significance of the march, and the speech, was that it changed attitudes. Righteous indignation against racial discrimination became widespread after the march.