-
Jackie Robinson enters Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson hit the field as the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers as they started the season at home against the Boston Braves. -
Executive Order 9981 signed by President Truman
President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. -
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till is murdered
Milam, who were armed, went to Till's great-uncle's house and abducted Emmett. They took him away and beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Little Rock Nine Intervention
The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. -
Greensboro Sit-In Protest
The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started when young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. -
Integration of Ole Miss Riots
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
The Birmingham Children’s March
The Children's Crusade, or Children's March, was a march by over 1,000 school students in Birmingham, Alabama. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about segregation in their city. -
March on Washington / I Have a Dream Speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. -
Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
The Selma Marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery.
