-
Sixty black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states including Martin Luther King, Jr. meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation
-
Nine black students known as the Little Rock Nine are blocked from integrating into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students however they continue to be harassed.
-
Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote
-
John F Kennedy became the 35th president in January 1965
-
In October , police in Atlanta, Georgia arrested civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and 33 other African Americans for sitting at a segregated lunch table. JFK immediately talked to the wife of MLK and his brother got him out of jail on bail.
-
Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus
-
Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial and states, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
-
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services.
-
President John F Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22nd, 1963
-
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title VII of the Act establishes the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to help prevent workplace discrimination.
-
Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.
-
In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery the state’s capital in protest of black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25.
-
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.
-
Just a week after Mlk Jr death President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin
