Bus Boycott

By Harrison Hertzberg

  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    Plessy attempted to sit in an all white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car, Plessy was arrested for violating an 1892 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations. Those using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute.

  • Malcom X becomes minister

    Malcolm X becomes a minister of the Nation of Islam. Over the next several years his influence increases until he is one of the two most powerful members of the Black Muslims (the other was its leader, Elijah Muhammad). A black nationalist and separatist movement, the Nation of Islam contends that only blacks can resolve the problems of blacks.

  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision

    Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed".

  • Bus Boycott

    Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded this Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On this bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality.

  • The Little Rock Nine go to School

    Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. Federal troops and the National Guard are called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." Despite a year of violent threats, several of the "Little Rock Nine" manage to graduate from Central High.

  • James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi

    James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy sends 5,000 federal troops after rioting breaks out.

  • Martian Luther King Jr. gets arrested

    Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala. He writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which advocated nonviolent civil disobedience.

  • President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act

    President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights legislation since

  • The Black Panthers founded

    The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It has no specific day.

  • Thurgood Marshall gets appointed Supreme Court Justice

    President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice.

  • Martin Luther King Jr. assasinated

    Martin Luther King Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennesse. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing on April 11.

  • First Race Riots

    The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King.