Civil rights movement timeline

By lsmith105

  • military desegregation

    President Truman issues an executive order outlawing segregation in the U.S. military

  • Executive Order 9981

    Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."

  • Dwight D Eisenhower

    Dwight D Eisenhower came into office

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.

  • MLK Nobel Peace Prize

    Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded a nobel peace prize.

  • claudette

    At the age of 15 colvin was an african american woman from Alabama who refused to give up her seat on a montgomery bus to a white person.

  • Rosa parks

    Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus as required, she is then arrested and a boycott follows and bus segregation ordinance is declared unconstitutional.

  • Browder V. gayle

    colvin testified in a montgromery federal court hearing about her actions on the bus. the same year she gave nirth to a son raymond who was so fair-skinned.

  • Little rock 9

    Arkansas Gov. Orval Rubus desides to use National Guard to block nine black students from attending a Little Rock High School, following a court order, President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to ensure safety in the schools.

  • "Raisin in the Sun"

    Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun" is the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.

  • Greensboro Sit-Ins

    Four black college students begin sit-ins at lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant where black patrons are not served.

  • SNCC

    The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement

  • The first freedom rides begin from washington DC

    Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern States

  • Wilt Chamberlain

    he was an african american man who was the first person to ever score 100 points in a single basketball game. his record still stands

  • James Meredith

    President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend. The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all transportation facilities

  • Martin Luther King is arrested

    Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham,

  • Medgar Evers death

    Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is killed by a sniper's bullet.

  • Martin luther king jr march

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington.

  • sunday school 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 meeting

  • the 24th Amendment

    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.