Civil Rights Timeline

By ryi621

  • President Truman Issues Executive Order 9981

    President Truman Issues Executive Order 9981
    https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=84 Executive Order 9981 was issued to end segregation in the Armed Services. This granted the equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.

  • Brown V. Board of Education

    Brown V. Board of Education
    https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka This was a consolidation of five cases into one. It was decided by the Supreme Court to effectively end racial segregation in public schools.

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    Montgomery Bus Boycott
    Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus resulted in her arrest which sparked a year long Montgomery bus boycott.

  • Eisenhower Signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Eisenhower Signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957
    http://crdl.usg.edu/events/civil_rights_act_1957/?Welcome Eisenhower Signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another's right to vote.

  • Greensboro Lunch "sit in"

    Greensboro Lunch "sit in"
    Four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. Their nonviolent demonstration sparks similar “sit-ins” throughout the city and in other states.

  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington Approximately 250,000 people take part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King Jr. gives the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial signifying his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.