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The timespan expresses the duration of the civil rights movement which was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980.
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Truman signs Executive Order 9981 stating that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
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On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights.
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The Civil Rights Act (1960) enabled federal judges to appoint referees to hear persons claiming that state election officials had denied them the right to register and vote. The act was ineffective and therefore it was necessary for President Lyndon B. Johnson to persuade Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act
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JFK issues an executive order to prevent racial discrimination in the sale or lease of housing facilities owned or operated by the federal government or housing built or purchased with federal aid.
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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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In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 82-352 (78 Stat. 241). The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing.
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The Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.". On August 6, President Johnson signed the Act into law with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other civil rights leaders in attendance.
