Civil Rights Movement Timeline

  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act

    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.
  • World War and Civil Rights

    It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.
  • Jim Crow Laws

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests.
  • March on Washington

    More than 250,000 people, march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill.
  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested.
  • Bus Boycott

    The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    The first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting.
  • Little Rock 9

    The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower.
  • Woolworth's Store

    4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch counter and started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s store.
  • Georgia Tech Integration

    To avoid the civil unrest that attended the University of Georgia's court-ordered desegregation, officials at Georgia Tech began plotting an integration strategy.
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation.
  • Albany Movement

    Residents of Albany, Georgia, launched an ambitious campaign to eliminate segregation in all facets of local life.
  • Ole Miss Integration

    Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith.
  • Arrest of Martin Luther King Jr.

    Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the “most segregated city in America.”
  • Emmett Till

    Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi.
  • Mississippi Freedom Summer

    The voter registration drive sponsored by civil rights organizations including the Congress on Racial Equality.
  • Battle for Civil Rights

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the premier legislation for Civil Rights into law
  • Malcolm X Assassination

    former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally
  • Selma

    A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins.
  • Brown V. Board of Education

    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.
  • Watts Rebellion

    The Watts Riots lasted for six days, resulting in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries and 4,000 arrests, involving 34,000 people and ending in the destruction of 1,000 buildings, totaling $40 million in damages.
  • Blank Panthers

    Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the “Black Power” political group known as the Black Panthers.
  • Loving V. Virginia

    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously (9–0) struck down state anti-miscegenation statutes in Virginia as unconstitutional under the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination

    Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.
  • Fair Housing Act of 1968

    It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

Want to make a timeline like this?

Use Timetoast to turn dates, events, milestones, and phases into a clear visual timeline you can build and share. Timetoast is a timeline maker for work, school, research, and stories.