-
US Supreme Court orders schools to desegregate
School integration in the United States is the process of ending race-based segregation, also known as desegregation, within American public and private schools. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 42-year-old Rosa Parks was coming back from work, and she refused to give up her seat on the bus. The law reserved the front seats of the bus for whites. African Americans could sit in the back of the bus or in the middle if whites did not require these seats. The bus driver called the police, who arrested her. In protest, the African American community began a boycott of the city’s buses that continued for 382 days. -
Army Protects Black Students and Civil Rights Act Initiated
US Army protects African American students entering Central High School, Little Rock.
T President Eisenhower initiates 1957
Civil Rights Act -
Campaign of ‘sit-ins’ against segregation
In February 1960, in North Carolina, four black college students refused to leave the seats they had taken at the local ‘whites only’ Wool-worth’s cafeteria. With others supporting them, they maintained a presence on the seats for the day, forcing cafeteria business to a stand still. Martin Luther King encouraged this initiative. In 1960–61, over 70000 people took part in ‘sit-ins’ which succeeded in integrating public eating areas and also in desegregating other public facilities in cities. -
Influences growing
Growing influence of Malcolm X, Black Power and Black Panthers -
Protest marches in Birmingham, Alabama and March on to Washington
On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King faced a crowd of over 200000 civil rights supporters crammed in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It was the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation that ended slavery. King said: ‘Those who hope that the Negro ... will now be content will have a rude awakening if the Nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights’ -
‘Freedom Summer’ volunteers murdered
On 21 June 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared in Mississippi. They were on their way to the burning of an African American church. Police arrested them for a minor driving offence and later said that the three were released from gaol a few hours later. Their car was found in a swamp two days later and six weeks later their bodies. They had been beaten and shot. Of the 18 white men accused of the murders, 11 were acquitted and seven were found guilty of lesser charges. -
Civil Rights bill becomes law
The Civil Rights Bill became law when the new president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, signed it on 4 July 1964. Johnson had pushed the Bill through Congress partly out of a sense of obligation to Kennedy and, more significantly, because he believed discrimination to be morally wrong. Martin Luther King was present at the signing ceremony. In late 1964, The Swedish Academy awarded King the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Civil Rights Movement. -
‘Bloody Sunday’ and Selma to Montgomery march
On 7 March 1965, 600 activists embarked on a march to highlight the cause of voting rights. King’s campaign wanted to allow for more black Americans to vote, this led to police violence but no progress. Police attacked the crowd with clubs and tear gas. Martin Luther King then led a second protest march to the bridge and began the walk to Montgomery. the crowd had grown to 25000. Similar marches in key US cities highlighted the growing popular support for this issue.
