-
"It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President 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."
-
The Supreme Court unanimously agrees that segregation in schools is unconstitutional. This begins to pave the way for large-scale organisations.
-
14-year-old Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, beaten, shot and thrown in the Tallahatchie River due to him allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men who arrested, however later aquitted.
-
Rosa Parks (NAACP member) refused to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger.
-
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Conference, of which King is made the first president.
-
Founded at Shaw University and provided young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement.
-
During the spring and summer, the freedom riders were attacked by angry mobs whilst testing out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities.
-
-
Jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham and argues that people have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.
-
37-year-old Medgar Evers is murdered outside his home. 30 years later his killer Byron De La Beckwith is convicted.
-
200,000 people join the March on Washington and Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech.
-
Four young girls are killed whilst attending Sunday school as a bomb explodes - this was a popular location for civil rights meetings.
-
The poll tax was originally instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction in order to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.
-
Founder of the Organisation of Afro-American Unity and black nationalist, Malcolm X, is assassinated.
-
This made it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests and other requirements that were once used to make voting difficult for blacks had now been made illegal.
