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President Lincoln addresses the nation with the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves
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A court case rules in favor of segregation of schools
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded
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A court case ruled the segregation of schools as unconsitutional
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Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to sit in the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama
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In Little Rick, Arkansas, nine African American students are the first to attend an all-white school following the rulings of the Brown vs. Board of Education case
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Four black college students arranged a "sit-in" where they refused to move from a restaurant that served only white patrons
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A number of activists rode buses to areas where segregation was supported to protest recent court rulings of Boynton vs Virginia
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Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous "I Have a Dream" speech outlining his dream of equality for all people
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Thurgood Marshall was the first Black American to serve in the US Supreme Court
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Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 39