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Plessy v. Ferguson
Court case that upheld legality of separate but equal laws in states. -
Formation of NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States was formed. -
Brown v. BOE of Topeka
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
A political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, it was started by the arrest of Rosa Parks. -
Formation of SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. Its first president was Martin Luther King Jr. -
Integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
Nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957, testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The goal of the 1957 Civil Rights Act was to ensure that all Americans could exercise their right to vote -
Greensboro Sit-In
Four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. -
Formation of SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was one of the most important organizations of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in April 1960. -
Malcolm X leads the Nation of Islam
Malcolm X was known as an outspoken activist who was highly vocal about the poor treatment of blacks in the United States. He lived from 1925 to 1965 and was involved in one of the most important pushes for equal rights in American history. He lead the Nation of Islam -
Boynton v. Virginia
A decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The case overturned a judgment convicting an African American law student for trespassing by being in a restaurant in a bus terminal which was "whites only". -
First Freedom Ride
A group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals -
James Meredith enrolls in Ole Miss
An African-American man named James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Chaos briefly broke out on the Ole Miss campus, with riots ending in two dead, hundreds wounded and many others arrested, after the Kennedy administration called out some 31,000 National Guardsmen and other federal forces to enforce order. -
Birmingham Protests
A movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by a number of civil rights and religious groups, the event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. -
24th Amendment Passed
Prohibited any poll tax in elections for federal officials. -
Freedom Summer
In 1964, civil rights organizations including the Congress on Racial Equality and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee organized a voter registration drive, known as Freedom Summer, aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Malcolm X was shot before he was about to deliver a speech about his new organization called the Organization of Afro-American Unity -
Selma March
Protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. -
Black Panthers Founded
The Black Panther Party or the BPP was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. -
MLK Jr. assassinated
MLK Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 defines housing discrimination as the “refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion, or national origin”. -
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
