Download

Civil Rights Timeline

  • NAACP was founded

    NAACP was founded
    The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was founded in 1909 as an interracial civil rights organization to fight for the rights of African Americans and other minorities, and it remains the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States
  • Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers

    Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers
    Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, making his major league debut on April 15th and becoming the first African American to play in the modern era of Major League Baseball.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    In the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-sponsored segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, overturning the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson
  • Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man-

    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man-
    Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. She is known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”
  • Desegregation of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas

    Desegregation of Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas
    The desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, began in September 1957 when nine African American students, known as the "Little Rock Nine," attempted to enroll, facing resistance from the Arkansas National Guard and white mobs, ultimately leading to federal intervention and the students' successful integration on September 25, 1957.
  • Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957

    Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957
    The United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was the first federal civil rights legislation since 1875, and it was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 9, 1957.
  • Sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter

    Sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter
    On February 1, 1960, four African American students from North Carolina AT sat at a "whites only" Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, refusing to leave when denied service, sparking the sit-in movement and challenging segregation
  • Period: to

    CORE “freedom ride”

    Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States
  • Dr. King was thrown into Birmingham Jail

    Dr. King was thrown into Birmingham Jail
    On April 10, 1963, a state judge granted city officials an injunction banning all anti-segregation protest activity in the city of Birmingham. Dr. King and the Rev. Abernathy chose to lead a march in defiance of the injunction and were arrested on April 12, 1963
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement, took place on August 28, 1963, with an estimated 250,000 people gathering in Washington, D.C., to advocate for civil and economic rights for African Americans, culminating in Martin Luther King Jr.'s iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.
  • Period: to

    Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    On July 2, 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment, public accommodations, and federally funded programs, and strengthened enforcement of voting rights.
  • “Bloody Sunday”

    “Bloody Sunday”
    A march held in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 for the 600 people attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was there that law enforcement officers beat unarmed marchers with billy clubs and sprayed them with tear gas
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act
    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated

    Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated
    He was shot to death on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Moments before the fatal shot rang out at 6:01 PM on that tragic day, April 4, 1968