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Jackie Robinson joins Brooklyn Dodgers
Pasadena resident and UCLA alum Robinson breaks the color barrier by being the first black to play major league baseball in modern times -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision
Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed" -
Montgomery bus boycott
Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. -
Little Rock Central High School desegregated
After Little Rock school board votes to integrate schools, National Guard troops prevent black children from attending school. 1000 federal paratroopers are needed to escort black students and preserve peace. Arkansas Gov. Faubus responds by closing schools for 1958-59 school year -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather before Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches (including King's "I Have a Dream") and protest racial injustice -
Bombing of Birmingham church
4 black girls are killed by bomb planted in church -
Malcolm X assassinated
Rejecting integration and nonviolence, Malcolm splits off from Elijah Muhammad's Black Muslims and is killed by black opponents -
King assassinated
While supporting sanitation workers' strike which had been marred by violence in Memphis, King is shot by James Earl Ray. Riots result in 125 cities