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Jackie Robinson's major league debut
Jackie Robinson became the first black player to ever play in any major sport. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He broke the color barrier for more black athletes to play major sports across the country. -
Executive Order 9981
President Truman signed the Executive Order 9981. It states "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and oppurtunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin." This made it possible for African Americans to join the military and serve the country. -
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The Supreme Court ruled on the case of Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. It is a victory for the NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. It made it legal for blacks and whites to attend the same schools and paved the way for larger-scale desegregation. -
Rosa Parks Bus Refusal
In Montgomery, Alabama NAACP member Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the "colored" section of the bus to a white man, defying southern custom. She was arrested for her actions. This resulted in a bus boycott in Montgomery which lasted more than a year. -
Jackie Robinson retires
Jackie Robinson retired from Major League baseball at the age of 37. He was quite successul during his 10 year career earning 6 all star selections and going to multiple World Series'. Robinson influenced other young black baseball players that they can make it to the big leagues and succeed, too. -
Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins
In Greensboro, North Carolina four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. They were refused service but allowed to stay at the counter. This caused many similar nonviolent protests throughout the south. Six months later the original four protesters were served lunch at the same counter they were originally denied. -
Freedom Riders
"Freedom Riders" began taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. Many were attacked by angry mobs along the way. This helped self-enforce the new laws. -
Jackie Robinson inducted into MLB Hall of Fame
Jackie Robinson became the first black man to ever be inducted into Major League Baseball's Hall Of Fame. He insisted voters didn't consider his cultural impact and rather his on-field play. He was on the first ballot. He inspired minorities everywhere that nothing was impossible. -
James Meredith's enrollment
James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. This caused so much violence and riots surrounding the incident caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops in to help. This paved the way for other African Americans hoping to enroll at Universities throughout the South. -
Martin Luther King's arrest
Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed during his anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama. While incarcerated he wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail". His arrest and nonviolent approach made some whites question segregation. -
Medgar Ever's death
Mississippi's NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. Byron De La Beckwith was tried twice in 1964, with both trials resulting in hung juries until he was convicted of murdering Evers thirty years later. -
"I Have A Dream" Speech
About 200,000 people join the March on Washington in Washington, D.C. . Participants listened to Martin Luther King deliver his famous "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. This widespred the hopes for desgregation. -
Birmingham church explosion
Four young girls attending Sunday school in Birmingham, Alabama were killed when a bomb exploded in the bathroom at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church which was a popular location for civil rights meetings. This caused riots in Birmingham which led to the deaths of two more black youths. This act of terrorism enraged African Americans. -
The 24th Amendment
The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax which was instituted in 11 southern states to make it difficult for blacks to vote because it placed a fee to vote and there were more poor blacks than whites. This made it easier for African Americans to vote. -
Civil Rights Act Of 1964
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was the best civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It prohibited discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin and gave the federal government the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Cil Rights workers bodies found
The bodies of three civil-rights workers that involved two-white and one-black are found in a dam, six weeks into a federal investigation. The civil rights workers had been working to register black voters in Mississipi and were arrested on speeding charges on June 21 in Neshoba Country, incarcerated and released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. This outraged blacks and caused some whites to empathize for the group. -
Malcom X murdered
Malcolm X was murdered in Harlem, New York. He was shot to death. This caused an outrour of his followers to push for more civil rights. -
"Bloody Sunday"
In Selma, Alabama blacks began a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but were stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty members of the march were hospitalized after experiencing what some would call police brutality. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. It made literacy tests, poll taxes and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voters illegal. -
Executive Order 11246
President Johnson asserted that civil rights laws alone were not enough to remedy discrimination, he issued Executive Order 11246. The order required government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. -
"Black Power"
Stokely Carmichael coined the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defined 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 alarmed many who believed in the nonviolent effectiveness of the civil right's movement. -
Loving vs. Virginia
In the Loving vs. Virginia case, the Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting interracial marriages was unconstitutional. Sixteen states that banned interracial marriages were forced to revise their laws. This allowed freedom of marriage based on race. -
Martin Luther King is shot
Martin Luther King was shot and killed outside his hotel room on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39. James Earl Ray was convicted of the crime. This caused deep sympathy and great recognition for Dr. King's mission. -
Civil Rights Act Of 1968
President Johnson signed The Civil Rights Act of 1968. This Act prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. This allowed blacks to live where they wanted. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
The Supreme Court upheld busing as a legitmate means for achieving integration of public schools. This enforced court-ordered busing plans in local school districts. This ultimately forced blacks and whites to ride school buses together.