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The NAACP was established in February 1909 in New York City by an interracial group of activists, partially in response to the 1908 Springfield race riot in Illinois.
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April 15,1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American in the major leagues when he plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.
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Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to relinquish her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger,after the whites-only section was filled.
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The desegregation of Central High in Little Rock,Arkansas, gained national attention on September 3,1957, when Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating the high school.
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On September 9,1957,President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into the law the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
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Four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro,North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats.
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The First Freedom Ride took place on May 4,1961 when seven blacks and six whites left Washington D.C.,on two public buses bound for the Deep South, They intended to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960),which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional.
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In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail because he and other were protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham,Alabama. A court had ordered that King could not hold protest in Birmingham.
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The march was successful in pressuring the administration of John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill in congress. During this event, Martin Luther King delivered his memorable "I have a Dream" speech. The 1963 March on Washington had several precedents.
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This act, signed into law by president Lyndon Johnson on July 2,1964, prohibited discrimination in public places,provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities,and made employment discrimination illegal.
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It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the Civil Rights Movement on August 6,1965, and congress later amended the Act five times to expand it protections.
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Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis,Trnnessee,on April 4,1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world.
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Bloody Sunday,sometimes called the Bogside Massacre, was an incident on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, when British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians during protest march against internment.