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Period: to
Civil Rights Period
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Brown vs. Board of Education
The Supreme Court rules public school segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren stated that to segregate children by race "generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone." -
Lynching of Emmett Till
Fourteen year old Emmett Till is beaten, shot and lynched by whites after allegedly saying "bye, baby" to a white woman in a store in Mississippi. The two white men responsible were aquitted of all charges. -
Rosa Parks Bus Boycott
In Alabama, on December 1 Rosa Parks refuses to up her bus seat to a white man, precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. It sparked a series of boycotts including the mass African American decison to stop using the busses for transportation. -
End of Bus Boycott
Montgomery bus boycott ends in victory, December 21, after the city announces it will comply with a November Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation on buses illegal. -
Little Rock Nine
Efforts to integrate Little Rock, Ark., Central High School meet with legal resistance and violence; Gov. Orval Faubus predicts "blood will run in the streets" if African Americans push effort to integrate. On Sept. 24, federal troops mobilize to protect the nine African American students at the high school from white mobs trying to block the school's integration. -
Freedom Rides
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizes Freedom Rides into the South to test new Interstate Commerce Commission regulations and court orders barring segregation in interstate transportation. Riders are beaten by mobs in several places, including Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala.
1962: -
March on Washington
President John F. Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders at the White House in an attempt to call off the March on Washington scheduled for August. Over a quarter of a million people participate in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, and hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Malcolm X Assssination
Malcolm X, the fiery orator and Muslim leader, is assassinated. For some, Malcolm X's militant rhetoric is a rival and alternative to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message of Christian non-violence. Malcolm X was a powerful African American civil rights leader. He was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. -
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act passes and is signed into law on August 6, effectively ending literacy tests and a host of other obstacles used to disenfranchise African American and other minority citizens. -
1967 Detroit Riots
Sparked by a police raid on a black power hangout, Detroit erupts into the worst race riots ever in the nation, with 43 people dead, including 33 African Americans and 10 whites. During the nine months of the year, 164 other racial disturbances are reported across the country, including major riots in Tampa, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Newark, Plainfield and Brunswick, New Jersey, which kill at least 83 people. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered. The assassination sparks unrest and civil disorders in 124 cities across the country, including the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
