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Brown V Board
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. https://www.britannica.com/list/timeline-of-the-american-civil-rights-movement -
Rosa Praka and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, African American civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest initiated a sustained bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. -
Rosa parks arrested
civil rights activist Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger. The arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference formed
In 1957 Martin Luther Kind Jr. established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which is an African-American civil rights organization. -
The Little Rock Nine
In September 1957 nine African American students attended their first day at Little Rock Central High School, whose entire student population had until that point been white. The Little Rock Nine, as they came to be called, encountered a large white mob and soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard, sent by Arkansas Gov. -
The Desegregation of Interstate travel
In the months following John F. Kennedy's inauguration, civil rights activists were disappointed that the president did not introduce any new legislation on the issue. However, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling in December 1960 that interstate buses and bus terminals were required to integrate. -
The Greensboro Four & Sit-In Movement
On February 1, 1960, a group of four African American students from the Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (now North Carolina AT State University), a historically Black college, began a sit-in movement in downtown Greensboro. After making purchases at the F.W. Woolworth department store, they sat at the “whites only” lunch counter. They were refused service and eventually asked to leave. -
Ruby Bridges & the New Orleans School Integration
On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted to her first day at the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans by four armed federal marshals. They were met with angry mobs shouting their disapproval, and, throughout the day, parents marched in to remove their children from the school as a protest to desegregation. -
Freedom Rides
The Freedom Rides began on May 4, 1961, with a group of seven African Americans and six white people who boarded two buses bound for New Orleans. Testing the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which extended an earlier ruling banning segregated interstate bus travel (1946) to include bus terminals and restrooms, the Freedom Riders used facilities for the opposite race as their buses made stops along the way. -
The Supreme Court Orders Ole Miss to Integrate
Southern states defied the courts decision to desegregate school. In a specific case at University of Mississippi James Howard Meredith applied for admission to Ole Miss and was denied. The case went to the Supreme Court which ruled that Meredith should be allowed to attend the state-funded school. -
Birmingham demonstrations
In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC launched a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, with local Pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) to undermine the city’s system of racial segregation. The campaign began on April 3, 1963, with sit-ins, economic boycotts, mass protests, and marches on City Hall. -
March on Washington
The demonstrations of 1963 culminated with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28 to protest civil rights abuses and employment discrimination. A crowd of about 250,000 individuals gathered peacefully on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to listen to speeches by civil rights leaders, notably Martin Luther King, Jr. He addressed the crowd with an eloquent and uplifting message that famously became known as the “I Have a Dream” speech. -
1964 Election
In the presidential election of 1964, incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson soundly defeated Republican Barry Goldwater. -
24th Amendment
This amendment abolished
poll taxes in federal elections, removing a financial barrier that had been used to suppress Black voters, particularly in the South. -
Civil Rights Act
On July 2, 1964, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act into law, a stronger version of what his predecessor, President Kennedy, had proposed the previous summer before his assassination in November 1963. The act authorized the federal government to prevent racial discrimination in employment, voting, and the use of public facilities. Although controversial, the legislation was a victory for the civil rights movement. -
Assasination of Malcom X
On February 21, 1965, the prominent Black leader Malcolm X was assassinated while lecturing at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. An eloquent orator, Malcolm X spoke out on the civil rights movement, demanding it move beyond civil rights to human rights, and argued that the solution to racial problems was in orthodox Islam. -
Selma March
On March 7, 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., organized a march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery, to call for a federal voting rights law that would provide legal support for disenfranchised African Americans in the South. -
Watts Riots
A series of violent confrontations between the city police and residents of Watts and other predominantly African American neighborhoods of Los Angeles began on August 11, 1965, after a white police officer arrested a Black man, Marquette Frye, on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. -
Black Panther Party
In the wake of the assassination of Malcolm X and urban uprisings, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, to protect African American neighborhoods from police brutality. -
Harper v Virginia Board of Elections
This Supreme Court case ruled that poll taxes in the state elections were unconstitutional, further protecting voting rights. -
Loving V Virginia
On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Virginia statutes prohibiting interracial marriage unconstitutional in the case Loving v. Virginia. -
Detroit Riot
A series of violent confrontations between residents of predominantly Black neighborhoods and city police in Detroit began on July 23, 1967, after a raid at an illegal drinking club where police arrested everyone inside, including 82 African Americans. -
Assasination of MLK
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed by a sniper while standing on the second-floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mercklenburg Board of Education
This Supreme Court decision upheld busing to achieve school desegregation which helped integrate schools across the country. -
Civil Rights Restoration Act
This law reinforced desegregation attempts by requiring that institutions receiving federal funds comply with civil rights laws across all programs, not just in specific areas. -
Fair Housing Amendments Act
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in all types of housing transactions.