Civil Rights Movement from the end of World War II until the assassination of MLK in 1968
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SourceThe U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas ended legal racial segregation in public schools.
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The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas II implements the anti-segregation provisions that had been mandated in Brown I, and orders that states comply with "all deliberate speed."
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African-American woman Rosa Parks's arrest after her refusal to move to the back of a bus (as required under city law in Montgomery, Alabama) triggers a citywide boycott of the bus system.
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In protest of local restaurants that refuse to serve African-American customers, a series of sit-ins is staged at lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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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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Passing Congress in 1963, the Equal Pay Act is a federal law requiring that employers pay all employees equally for equal work, regardless of whether the employees are male or female.
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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the historic "I Have a Dream" speech in front of hundreds of thousands of participants in the "March on Washington."
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passes Congress, prohibiting discrimination in a number of settings: Title I prohibits discrimination in voting; Title II: public accommodations; Title III: Public Facilities; Title IV: Public Education; Title VI: Federally-Assisted Programs; Title VII: Employment. The Act also establishes the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
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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 are viewed by some as purposeless criminal behavior. Others viewed the riots as a necessary uprising by African-Americans as a reaction to oppression, and consider the Watts Riots a key precursor to the "Black Power" movement of the late 1960's.
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Signed into law in 1965, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits the denial or restriction of the right to vote, and forbids discriminatory voting practices nationwide.
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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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