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The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board, unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time.
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Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience.
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An all-white Central High School there were nine black students blocked from entering the school. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine."
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Student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," were attacked by angry mobs. The program sponsored CORE and SNCC.
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The March on Washington had about 200,000 people and there was congregating at the Lincoln Memorial. The participants listen as Martin Luther King Jr delievered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
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The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it hard for poor blacks to vote.
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress and it made it easier for the Southern blacks to vote. The restrictions on the blacs like literacy tests, poll taxes, and others were made illegal.
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Martin Luther King was shot when he was outside his hotel room at the age of 39. James Earl Ray was the killer and a racist.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed by President Johnson to prohibit the discrimination in sale, rental, and financing of housing to the blacks.