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Civil Rights Movement

By 21cmoriarty

  • Executive Order 9981

    President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services.

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Consolidation of 5 cases into 1 is decided by the Supreme Court. This ended racial segregation in public schools and many schools remained segregated.

  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance starts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott.

  • Nonviolent Protest Planning Meetup

    60 black pastors and civil rights leaders from southern states, including Martin Luther King, Jr., meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation.

  • The Little Rock Nine

    9 black students, known as the “Little Rock Nine,” are stopped from going to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students, however, they are still harassed.

  • Eisenhower Signs Civil Rights Act

    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.

  • "Whites Only" Lunch, Bi-Racial School

    4 college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. Their nonviolent demonstration starts “sit-ins” like it throughout the city and in other states.

  • The First Black Student

    James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence around the incident caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.

  • Wallace Blocks 2 Students from Registering

    Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block 2 black students from registering. It continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.

  • The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

    About 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: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

  • Bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church

    A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills 4 young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests.

  • Lyndon B. Johnson Signs the Civil Rights Act

    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 (EEOC) to help prevent workplace discrimination.

  • The Militant Black Panthers

    The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. (Oakland, Calif.)

  • Malcolm X is Assassinated

    Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. They believed the assailants were members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.

  • The Selma to Montgomery March

    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.

  • Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act

    President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.

  • Stokely Carmichael's "Black Power"

    Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defined it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary."

  • Interracial Marriage is Unconstitutional

    In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. 16 states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws.

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. is Assassinated

    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.

  • Johnson Signs the Civil Rights Act

    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.