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A major precursor to the Civil War, this controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision denied citizenship and basic rights to all blacks -- whether slave or free.
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The US Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing " separate by equal" facilities for blacks and whites.
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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Founded
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The US Supreme Court unanimous decision that overturned the " Separate but equal" doctrine in public schools.
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Emmet Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi.
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Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
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The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower.
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4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch table counter and started a sit in protest at a Woolworths store.
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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.
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Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation.
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The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bailey v. Patterson declares that segregation in transportation facilities is unconstitutional.
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Martin Luther King Jr was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the most " segregated city in America"
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More than 250,000 people march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson signed for the premier legislation for Civil Rights into law
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Beginning as a community-wide reaction to the arrest of three African-Americans in central Los Angeles, the Watts Riots continue for six days and is a key precursor to the "Black Power" movement of the late 1960's
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Malcolm X Assassinated in New York City
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A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy test.
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Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the " Black Power" political group known as the Black Panthers.
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The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Loving v. Virginia declares that laws prohibiting inter-racial marriage are unconstitutional.
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A series of violent confrontations between residents of predominantly African American 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. Nearby residents protested, and several began to vandalize property, loot businesses, and start fires for the next five days.
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Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.
