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Civil Rights.
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Truman's Excutive Orders.
President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services. -
Brown Vs. Board of Education.
The Supreme Court rules on the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. -
Rosa Parks Arrested.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom at the time. In response to her arrest, the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government took legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Civil Rights Act of 1960.
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. -
SNCC is founded.
The SNCC is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael. -
Selma to Montgomery March.
Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the press.
