Civil Rights Movement of the 20th Century

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955

Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider, thereby breaking the norm of blacks giving up the seats toward the front of buses to whites. When she was jailed, the black community boycott the city’s buses as a way to protest

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference

1957

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Marin Luther- King as its president.

SNCC (Student violent coordinating committee

Apr 1, 1960

These protests spread rapidly throughout the South and led to the founding, in April 1960, of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This student-led group, even more aggressive in its use of nonviolent direct action tactics than King’s SCLC

Birhingham and Washington March

1963

The SCLC protest strategy achieved its first major success in 1963 when the group launched a major campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.
August 28 March on Washington, which attracted at least 200,000 participants. King’s address on that occasion captured the idealistic spirit of the expanding protests. “I have a dream,” he said, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed–we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Civil Rights Act

Jul 2, 1964

This legislation outlawed segregation in public facilities and racial discrimination in employment and education. In addition to blacks, women and other victims of discrimination benefited from the act.

Selma to Montgomery March

Mar 7, 1965

This Selma to Montgomery march was the culmination of a stage of the African-American freedom struggle. Soon afterward, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Voting Rights Act

Aug 6, 1965

This act greatly increased the number of southern blacks able to register to vote. But it was also the last major racial protest of the 1960s to receive substantial white support.