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Executive Order 9981
President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
This supreme court case legally ended segregation in public schools. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her defiant stance prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Nonviolent Protests
Martin Luther King, Jr. and five other pastors and civil rights leaders met in Atlanta, Georgia to plan nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students known as the "Little Rock Nine" were blocked from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect the students so that they could enter the school. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act into law to help protect voter rights. -
"Sit-in" in Greensboro, North Carolina
Four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave the "whites only" section of a lunch counter in a local store (Woolworth). This nonviolent demonstration starts a series of similar "sit-ins." -
University of Alabama
Governor George C. Wallace stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to stop two black students from registering at the university. President John F. Kennedy had to send the National Guard to the campus. -
The March on Washington D.C.
About 250,000 people participated in this nonviolent march in Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at this event. -
Civil Rights Act
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. The act authorized the federal government to prevent racial discrimination in employment, voting, and the use of public facilities. Although controversial, the legislation was a victory for the civil rights movement.
