-
Plessy v. Ferguson
This Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments. -
Formation of NAACP
The NAACP was founded by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, and William English Walling. It was founded as a means to work on organizing for black civil rights. -
Brown v. BOE of Topeka
In the Supreme Court case, the court decides that "separate but equal" schools cannot be equal and are inherently unequal. This makes any legal school segregation unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. The boycott took place from December 5, 1955, to December 20, 1956. Four days before the boycott began, Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system. -
Formation of the SCLC
Martin Luther King assists in founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The purpose of the organization is to fight for civil rights. Martin Luther King is elected as the organization’s first president. -
Integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
Nine black students enrolled at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, testing a Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. The court had mandated that public schools in the US be integrated “with all deliberate speed”. The first day at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the state National Guard to prevent the students’ entry into the school. President Dwight D. Eisenhower later sent in troops to escort them into the school. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed by Congress. This act creates the Civil Rights Commission and also authorizes the Justice Department to look into cases of African Americans being deprived of their voting rights in the South. -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four African-American men who were students at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College, visit Woolworth in Greensboro, where they sit down at a whites-only lunch counter to order coffee. They are denied service but sit politely and silently at the counter until the store closes. This starts a series of Greensboro sit-ins and triggers similar protests in the South. -
Malcolm X leads the Nation of Islam
While in prison, he became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole, he quickly rose to become one of the organization's most influential leaders. He served as the public face of the controversial group for a dozen years.He founded the Nation’s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, and initiated the practice of requiring every male member of the Nation to sell an assigned number of newspapers on the street as a recruiting and fund-raising technique. -
Formation of SNCC
It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker held at Shaw University. SNCC's major contribution was in its field work, organizing voter registration drives all over the South, especially in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. -
Boynton v. Virginia
In a 7-2 decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Boynton v. Virginia case, the court rules that segregation on vehicles that travel between states is unlawful and unconstitutional because it is in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act. -
First Freedom Ride
Seven African American men and six white activists who are known as the Freedom Riders, leave Washington, D.C. and travel through the rigidly segregated Deep South, with the goal to test Boynton v. Virginia. They are later attacked on the 14th of May by members of the Ku Klux Klan. -
James Meredith enrolls in Ole Miss
The Supreme Court rules that the University of Mississippi has to admit, James Meredith, an African-American veteran and student. -
Birmingham Protests
Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC, and the SNCC organize a set of protests and demonstrations to fight segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurs in Washington D.C. where nearly 250,000 gather. Here, King famously delivers his "I have a dream" speech. -
24th Amendment Passed
The 24th Amendment prohibits any poll tax in elections for federal officials. -
Freedom Summer
From June to August, the SNCC organizes a voter registration drive in Mississippi, now called the Freedom Summer. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It was first proposed by John F. Kennedy and was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom. -
Selma March
Three thousand marchers leave Selma for Montgomery and complete the march without opposition. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Lyndon B Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which makes all discriminatory voting requirements illegal. -
Black Panthers founded
The party’s original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. It then developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all African Americans, the exemption of African Americans from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America, the release of all African Americans from jail, and the payment of compensation to African Americans for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. -
MLK Jr. assassinated
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated when he goes out on his motel room balcony at the Lorraine Motel. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This act prohibits discrimination by renters or sellers of property. -
Robert F. Kennedy assassinated
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, shortly after winning the California presidential primaries in the 1968 election, and died the next day while hospitalized.
