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Plessy v. Ferguson
U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal" -
Executive Order 9981
Signed by President Truman ending segregation in the armed services -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
Supreme Court unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-
scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v.
Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" -
Murder of Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The case becomes a cause of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks Arrest
NAACP member 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. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21,
1956. -
Southern Manifesto
A document written by the United States Congress in opposition to racial integration of public places. It was signed by 19 US Senators and 82 Representatives from the South. -
Formation of SCLC
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine black students are blocked from entering formally all-white Central High School in Arkansas. President Eisenhower is forced to send U.S. troops for to Little Rock for over a year. -
Greensboro Four
Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities. -
Formation of SNCC
(Raleigh, N.C.) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael -
Freedom Riders
Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. They are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white. -
James Meredith and Ole Miss
Becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of
Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
TV Impacts Movement
During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world. -
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
Four young girls attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular
location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths. -
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. -
Medgar Evers Murder
Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, is murdered outside his home. Thirty years later Byron De La Beckwith is convicted for murdering Evers. -
March on Washington
About 250,000 people join the Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial
as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Poll Taxes Eliminated
The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Burring Mississippi
The bodies of three civil-rights workers
(2) white, (1) black are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a
federal investigation backed by President Johnson.They had been
working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had
gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them. -
Malcolm X Murdered
Malcolm X, black nationalist is shot to death. It is believed the
assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned. -
Selma March
Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers
are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were in place are eliminated -
The Watts Riot
Marquette Frye 21 year-old African American man, was pulled over for drunken driving and after failing a field sobriety test officers attempted to arrest him. He resisted arrest and was struck in the face with a baton. Onlookers had gathered and rumors spread that the police had kicked a pregnant woman who was present at the scene. Six days of civil unrest followed, motivated in part by allegations of police abuse, leaving 34 dead. -
Executive Order 11246
President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. -
Formation of Black Panthers
The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. -
Loving v. Virginia
In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws. -
The Kerner Commission
Commission set-up by President Johnson to investigate what was leading to the race riot's breaking out across the United States. The commission blamed racism, lack of economic opportunity, police brutality, failed social service programs, and the white-oriented media for the riots. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968 "Fair Housing Act"
Prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of
housing.
