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President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services.
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On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1960 enabled federal judges to appoint referees to hear people claiming that state election officials had denied them the right to vote.
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Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
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The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.
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Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
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Black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is assassinated. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith.
