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1945
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The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white passenger, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Nine Black students attempt to integrate Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas but face resistance. Federal troops are sent to enforce integration. -
Four African American college students stage a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina, inspiring similar protests nationwide. -
President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, banning literacy tests and other barriers to Black voting rights. -
Over 250,000 people gather in Washington, D.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. -
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
600 civil rights activists are attacked by police while marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama. The event leads to national outrage. -
The law prohibits discrimination in housing sales, rentals, and financing based on race, religion, or national origin. -