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In 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiant stance prompts a year long bus boycott.
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In 1957, Eisenhower signs the civil rights act of 1957 to help protect voters rights.
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In 1963, approximately 250,000 people take part in the March on Washington. Martin Luther King gives his "I have a dream" speech.
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In 1963, more than 1,000 black school children marched through Birmingham in a demonstration against segregation. It was meant to provoke desegregation to the city's leaders.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was meant to prevent employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, or religion.
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In 1964, Congress told the president to take all necessary measures to protect American soldiers and their allies from the communist viet Cong. Within days the draft began.
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In the Selma to Montgomery March, about 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama. It was in protest of black voter suppression. Local police brutally attacked them.
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In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.
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In 1968, president Johnson signed the civil rights act of 1968, also known as the fair housing act. It provided equal housing opportunities to all Americans.
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During 1968, the north Vietnamese tet offensive convinced many people that the Vietnam war would be impossible to win. The Democratic party also split and Johnson ended his reelection campaign