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1960s and public protests

By NevaehDevin111
  • August 6, 1965

    August 6, 1965

    President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.
  • February 1, 1960

    February 1, 1960

    Four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—were inspired by the nonviolent protest of Gandhi.
  • June 11, 1963

    June 11, 1963

    Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two Black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.
  • August 28, 1963

    August 28, 1963

    Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”
  • September 15, 1963

    September 15, 1963

    A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests.
  • July 2, 1964

    July 2, 1964

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
  • February 21, 1965

    February 21, 1965

    Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.
  • March 7, 1965

    March 7, 1965

    Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25.
  • April 11, 1968

    April 11, 1968

    President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.
  • April 4, 1968

    April 4, 1968

    Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.