Timeline: Civil Rights from 1948 to 1970

Jul 26, 1948

Executive Order 9981

President Harry S. Truman issues an order getting rid of racial segregation in the armed forces, integrating all African-American troops with white units.

Jan 1, 1950

NAACP Pressure

Pressure for a ruling in Sweatt v. Painter that states that separate professional schools for blacks were not equal. Caused the slow awakening of the national conscience. Eventually caused the result of the Brown v. Board of Education case.

May 17, 1954

Brown v. Board of Education

Supreme Court decision that declared the establishment of separate public schools for African-American children unconstitutional.

Dec 1, 1955

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, an African American, college educated seamstress refused to give up her seat in the "whites only" section of a bus in Montgomery Alabama.
"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people."

Dec 2, 1955

Year-long Black Boycott

Effect of Rosa Parks' actions. African Americans sent out a message that they would not stand for segregation anymore. Boycotted city buses for a whole year.

Jan 19, 1957

SLCC

Martin Luther King, Jr., formed the SCLC. It aimed to utilize the power of black churches. Nonviolent means to produce an end.
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."" -MLK

Sep 1, 1957

Little Rock Nine

Nine African American teenagers were barred from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower mobilized the National Guard in order to ensure the attendance of the children to their classes

Feb 1, 1960

SNCC

Sit-in movement: Greensboro, North Carolina. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: would lose patience with NAACP and SCLC

May 1, 1961

Freedom Riders

Cause: Freedom Riders fanned out to end segregation in facilities serving interstate bus passengers
Effect: Freedom Ride bus torched, Robert Kennedy's representative beaten up, federal marshals dispatched for protection

Aug 28, 1963

March on Washington

MLK-led; non-violent; 200,000 black and white demonstrators showing support for proposed civil rights legislation

Jul 2, 1964

Civil Rights Act

Congress passed the law after a long filibuster. Banning, racial discrimation in most private facilities, it was a landmark bill. LBJ pushed for the passing of this as to honor JFK's memory.

Aug 6, 1965

Voting Rights Act

Outlawed the literacy tests and sent federal voter registrars into several souther states. Results: African Americans no longer barred from the polls by southern states

Jan 1, 1974