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Sarah Keys vs. Carolina Coach Company
In the landmark case Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, WAC Sarah Keys, represented by civil rights lawyer Dovey Roundtree, becomes the first black to challenge "separate but equal" in bus segregation before the Interstate Commerce Commission. -
Separate but Equal doctrine
May 17 – The Supreme Court rules against the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. and in Bolling v. Sharpe, thus overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. -
The African-American Civil Rights Movement
The African-American Civil Rights Movement encompasses social movements in the United States whose goal was to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans and enforce constitutional voting rights to them. The movement was between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. -
Rosa Parks refusal
After working all day, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. A man then came in after being picken up at a bus stop and saw there were no seats left, so the driver told parks and three other African-Americans to stand up so that the man can have a place to sit but Rosa Parks refused and she was arrested. -
12 African-American students go to a white school
Teargas and National Guard used to quell segregationists rioting in Clinton, TN; 12 black students enter high school under Guard protection. This is the first time when black students enter an all white school. -
The first sit in for African American protest
In one of the earliest sit-ins of the American Civil Rights Movement, the "Royal Seven," a group of three women and four men from Durham, North Carolina sat in at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor on June 23, 1957 to protest practices of segregation. The activists were arrested and charged with trespassing. Their efforts are now recognized via historical markers in the town of Durham, North Carolina. They went to court three times; each case ended in their being found guilty. -
To Kill a Mockingbird published
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom or "The Great March on Washington", as styled in a sound recording released after the event, was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C..Thousands of Americans headed to Washington on Tuesday August 27, 1963. -
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement -
Civil Rights Act signed
April 11 – Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed. The Fair Housing Act is Title VIII of this Civil Rights Act – it bans discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. The law is passed following a series of contentious open housing campaigns throughout the urban North. The most significant of these campaigns took place in Chicago (1966) and in Milwaukee (1967–68). In both cities, angry white mobs attacked non-violent protesters.
