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Truman signs Executive Order 9981
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The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KAns
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Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger
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Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations.
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Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama
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Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands outside on the balcony outside his hotel room.
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The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools.
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Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.
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After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
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James Bonard Fowler, a former state trooper, is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson 40 years after Jackson's death.