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Founding of CORE
an organization founded in 1942 that was dedicated to civil rights reform through nonviolent action. -
Integration of Military
President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. -
Brown v Board of Education
The NAACP's legal campaign triumphed in 1954 when the Warren Court issued the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This ruling declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional and undermined the legal basis for segregation in other areas of American life. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott starts
The one-day boycott was so successful that the organizers, who called themselves the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), decided to extend it. To lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 1955 boycott that resulted in the integration of Montgomery, Alabama's bus system, the MIA chose a 26-year-old minister, Martin Luther King Jr. -
Little Rock 9
In 1957, a federal judge ordered public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, to begin desegregation. The Little Rock school superintendent, Virgil Blossom, hoped to postpone the change as long as possible. He set up a plan to integrate just one school, Central High School. Two thousand white students attended Central. In September 1957, nine black students were scheduled to join them. They would later be known as the Little Rock Nine. -
Sit-ins-1st example
The campaign to integrate public facilities in the South continued through the 1960s. Student protesters challenged segregation in various ways. They sat down in “whites-only” public places and refused to move, thereby causing the business to lose customers. This tactic is known as a sit-in (a civil rights protest in which protesters sit down in a public place and refuse to move, thereby causing the business to lose customers).They rode buses that whites tried to keep segregated. -
Freedom Rides
A civil rights protests in which blacks and whites rode interstate buses together in 1961 to test whether southern states were complying with the Supreme Court ruling against segregation on interstate transport -
James Meredith (enrolls @ Ole Miss)
In 1961, James Meredith, an African American veteran of the Korean War, applied for admission as a transfer student to the University of Mississippi. The university had traditionally been all white. Meredith knew he would be taking a stand to integrate it. When his application was rejected, Meredith turned to the NAACP to help him take his case through the courts. -
Birmingham
Civil rights efforts to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama, where shocking images of police brutality. -
March on Washington
Massive demonstration in the nation’s capital that demanded passage of a federal civil rights act and more economic opportunities. -
Freedom Summer
A multi-pronged attack on white supremacy in Mississippi that included a voter registration drive and the creation of Freedom Schools. 3 workers murdered leading to a massive manhunt. -
Civil Rights Act
Legislation that 1) banned segregation in businesses and places open to the public (such as restaurants and public schools) and 2) prohibits racial and gender discrimination in employment. The result of thousands of individuals risking their safety, as well as high-profile events of the last 18 months. -
Selma March (1st one)
Selma to Montgomery march led to another day of televised police brutality. Marchers returned two weeks later with extensive white support. -
Voting Rights Act
Legislation that prohibited literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tactics that had long been used to deny African Americans the right to vote. -
MLK Assassination
King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his associates were staying when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39.
