Civil Rights Movement Timeline

By rrickfor

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    In Brown V. Board of Education
    of Topeka, Kansas the US Supreme Court rules
    that segregated schools are “inherently unequal”
    and orders that schools be integrated with “all
    deliberate speed.” Briefs presented to the
    Supreme Court emphasize the international
    criticism of US race relations and the US image
    abroad

  • Rosa Parks Arrested

    Rosa Parks is arrested for
    refusing to give up her seat on a bus in
    Montgomery, Alabama. A well planned boycott
    of city buses continues for over a year and
    resulted in desegregation on city buses and the
    hiring of black bus drivers. Martin Luther King,
    Jr. utilizes the Gandhian philosophy of
    nonviolent direct action to inspire the disciplined
    boycott.

  • Little Rock Nine

    Nine students volunteer to
    integrate Little Rock Central High School, but
    are kept from entering the school by armed
    Arkansas national guardsmen. International
    press coverage and outrage directed at US
    embassies abroad contribute to Eisenhower’s
    decision to order the 101st Airborne to protect
    students. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
    warns government officials, “This situation was
    ruining our foreign policy.”

  • March on Washington

    More than 250,000 people
    gather at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington
    DC for the March on Washington for Jobs and
    Freedom. John Lewis represents the Student
    Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in his
    speech demanding protecting voting rights of
    African Americans, “One man, one vote is
    Africa’s cry and it is our cry.” The March was
    an international event, spawning sympathy
    marches around the world.

  • Alabama Church Girls Killed

    Four young girls are killed
    in Birmingham, Alabama when their church is
    bombed in retaliation for the nonviolent protest
    of the summer. International outrage falls on the
    US government for failure to protect its citizens.
    SNCC activists picket the UN in reaction to the
    murders.

  • Voting Rights Act

    Congress passes the Voting Rights
    Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibited
    the states from using literacy tests and other
    methods of excluding African Americans from
    voting. (Washington, DC)