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Plessy vs Ferguson
Plessy, a 7/8 white and white skin attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car, after refusing to sit in the black railway car, Plessy was arrested for violating the Jim Crow Laws: “separate by equal facilities.” Plessy was found guilty. -
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Civil Rights Movement
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NAACP
The National Negro Committee chooses "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" as its organization name. The NAACP begins publishing The Crisis. -
The Birth of a Nation
The Birth of a Nation is released to film theaters. The NAACP protests in cities across the country, convincing some not to show the film. -
Buchanan vs Warley
The United States Supreme Court upholds that racially segregated housing violates the 14th Amendment. -
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were arrested. All are later freed, pardoned or paroled. The film Heavens Fall was made about the incident. -
Jesse Owens
(specific date unknown) -- Sprinter Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. -
CORE
(specific date unknown) -- Six non-violence activists in the Fellowship of Reconciliation — Bernice Fisher, James Russell Robinson, George Houser, James Farmer, Jr., Joe Guinn and Homer Jack — found the Committee on Racial Equality, which becomes Congress of Racial Equality. -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson plays his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black baseball player in professional baseball in 60 years. -
Shelley vs Kraemer
Companion case Hurd vs Hodge (ACLU) the Supreme Court rules that the government cannot enforce racially restrictive covenants and asserts that they are in conflict with the nation's public policy. -
Executive Order 9981
President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981 ordering the end of segregation in the Armed Forces. -
Brown vs Board of Education
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. -
Emmet Till
Teenager Emmett Till is killed for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Occurs nine months after 15-year-old high school student Claudette Colvin became the first to refuse to give up her seat. Colvin's was the legal case which eventually ended the practice in Montgomery. -
Central High School
(specific date unknown) -- President Dwight Eisenhower federalizes the National Guard and also orders US Army troops to ensure Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas is integrated. Federal and National Guard troops escort the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine was a group of nince African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. -
Lunch Counter Sit-Ins
Four black students sit at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparking six months of the Greensboro Sit-Ins. -
Freedom Riders
The first group of Freedom Riders, with the intent of integrating interstate buses, leaves Washington, D.C. by Greyhound bus. The group, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), leaves shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed segregation in interstate transportation terminals. -
James Meredith
James Meredith is barred from becoming the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King, Jr. is arrested in Birmingham for "parading without a permit". -
Medgar Evers
NAACP worker Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi. -
March on Washington
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held. Dr. Martin Luther King gives his "I Have a Dream" speech. -
16th Street Baptist Church
16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham kills four young girls. That same day, in response to the killings, James Bevel and Diane Nash begin the Alabama Project, which will later grow into the Selma Voting Rights Movement. -
Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed. -
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(specific date unknown) -- The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates challenge the seating of all-white Mississippi representatives at the Democratic national convention. -
Bloody Sunday
Civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin a march to Montgomery 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 visual symbol of the Selma Voting Rights Movement. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall is the first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. -
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
