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Civil Rights Movement Timeline
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Civil Rights Movement
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Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt v. Painter courtcase - the Supreme Court rules that a separate-but-equal Texas law school was actually unequal, partly in that it deprived black students from the collegiality of future white lawyers -
Regional Council of Negro Leadership is founded
The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) is founded in Cleveland, Mississippi by T.R.M. Howard, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, and other civil rights activists. Assisted by member Medgar Evers, the RCNL distributed more than 50,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan, "Don't Buy Gas Where you Can't Use the Restroom." This campaign successfully pressured many Mississippi service stations to provide restrooms for blacks. -
African American Students Integrated Claymont High School
Eleven black students attend the first day of school at Claymont High School, Delaware, becoming the first black students in the 17 segregated states to integrate a white public school. The day occurs without incident or notice by the community. -
President Eisenhower establishes the anti-discrimination Committee on Government Contracts
Executive Order 10479 signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower establishes the anti-discrimination Committee on Government Contracts. -
Brown vs Board of Education Topeka Kansas
• May 17 – The Supreme Court rules against the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. and in Bolling v. Sharpe, thus overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Brown II
May 31 – The Supreme Court rules in "Brown II" that desegregation must occur with "all deliberate speed -
The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) is founded
June 5 – The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) is founded at a mass meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. -
Little Rock Nine incident
September 4 – Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to block integration of Little Rock Central High School. -
Willie O'Ree joins the NHL
• January 18 - Willie O'Ree breaks the color barrier in the National Hockey League, in his first game playing for the Boston Bruins. -
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun, a play by Lorraine Hansberry, debuts on Broadway. -
Ruby Bridges attends an all-white school
Ruby Bridges becomes the first African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South (William Frantz Elementary School) following court-ordered integration in New Orleans, Louisiana. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
May 4, 1961,[3] and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.[4] 1961 Boynton outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines. Five years prior to the Boynton ruling, the Interstate Commerce Commission had issued a ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company that had explicitly denounced the Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of separate but equal in interstate bus travel. The ICC failed to enforce its ruling, and Jim Cro -
Student protest a sit-in leader's expulsion from school
Student protests over sit-in leaders’ expulsions at Baton Rouge’s Southern University, the nation’s largest black school, close it down -
Alabama Governor George Wallace calls for segregation
Incoming Alabama governor George Wallace calls for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" in his inaugural address All year -
Alabama Voting Rights Project continues organizing
1964– The Alabama Voting Rights Project continues organizing as James Bevel, Diane Nash, and James Orange work without the support of SCLC, the group which Bevel represents as its Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education -
March on Selma, Alabama
Civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin a march to but are stopped by a massive police blockade as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many marchers are severely injured and one killed. This action, initiated and organized by James Bevel, becomes the Montgomery visual symbol of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. -
NAACP local chapter president Vernon Dahmer is injured by a bomb in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He dies the next day
NAACP local chapter president Vernon Dahmer is injured by a bomb in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He dies the next day. -
Thurgood Marshall appointed to U.S. Supreme Court
Thurgood Marshall is the first African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. -
Dr. Martin Luther King is assasinated
Dr. Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. -
Poor People's Campaign marches on Washington, D.C.
1968
Poor People's Campaign marches on Washington, DC. -
W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research founded at Harvard University -
G.Harrold Carswell's nomination
G. Harrold Carswell's nomination to the Supreme Court rejected
1971 -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds desegregation busing of students to achieve integration. -
Shirley Chisholm becomes first African American candidate for President
1972
Shirley Chisholm becomes the first major-party African-American candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination
