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Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Ruling
State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed
Established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
Little Rock Nine Intervention
The students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. -
Greensboro Sit-In Protest
A civil rights protest that started in 1960, when young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. -
Integration of Ole Miss Riots
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
The Birmingham Children’s March
A march by over 1,000 school students in Birmingham, Alabama on May 2–3, 1963. Initiated and organized by Rev. James Bevel, the purpose of the march was to walk downtown to talk to the mayor about segregation in their city. -
George Wallace’s “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”
Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, to stop the enrollment of African-American students Vivan Malone and James Hood. -
March on Washington / I Have a Dream Speech
King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
A white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Passed
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously (9–0) struck down state anti-miscegenation statutes in Virginia as unconstitutional under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. -
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is Assassinated
An African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Executive Order 9981 signed by President Truman
An Executive Order intended to extend powers and responsibilities of U.S. intelligence agencies and direct the leaders of U.S. federal agencies to co-operate fully with CIA requests for information.