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Executive Order 8802
Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to prohibit ethnic or racial discrimination in the nation's defense industry.Set up the Fair Employment Practice Committee. There is evidence available that needed workers have been barred from industries engaged in defense production solely because of considerations of race, creed, color or national origin, to the detriment of workers' morale and of national unity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_8802 -
Jackie Robinson’s MLB Debut
Jackie Robinson made his Major League Baseball debut with the Dodgers, against the Boston Braves, in front of more than 25,000 spectators at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York. Robinson played first base and went zero for three at the plate. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jackie-robinson-breaks-major-league-color-barrier -
Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. The executive order eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 -
Brown v. Board of Education Court Case is Decided
Brown v. Board of Education was a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that American state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. After their local public school district refused to enroll their daughter in the school closest to their home, instead to ride a bus to a blacks-only school further away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education -
Lynching of Emmett Till
A young African-American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 at the age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store.Till posthumously became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till -
Bus Boycott in Montgomery Begins
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama. The protest was about segregated seating. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott -
Creation of the SCLC
The very beginnings of the SCLC can be traced back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on December 5, 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. https://nationalsclc.org/about/history/ -
Little Rock Nine First Escorted to School
The first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black students' entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration -
Greensboro sit-ins begin
The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, which led to the Woolworth department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. While not the first sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement, the Greensboro sit-ins were an instrumental action, and also the most well-known sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins -
Freedom Riders are attacked in Anniston, Alabama
Freedom Riders were brutally attacked by violent, well-armed and organized mobs of Klansmen and other terrorists in Anniston and Birmingham, Ala. The vicious beatings and a firebombing of the Anniston-bound bus by the Ku Klux Klan had the support of local law enforcement and politicians. https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/today-in-labor-history-freedom-riders-attacked-in-alabama/ -
Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution Ratified
The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution -
James Meredith Enrolls at Ole Miss
Segregationists were protesting the enrollment of James Meredith, a black US military veteran, at the University of Mississippi. Two civilians, one a French journalist, were killed during the night, and over 300 people were injured, including one third of the US Marshals deployed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Miss_riot_of_1962 -
“I Have A Dream” Speech is Delivered
I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, , in which he called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. -
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism which occurred at the African American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. A church with a predominantly black congregation that also served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders. https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/birmingham-church-bombing -
Signing of the Civil Rights Act
This act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. This document was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=97 -
March on Selma Begins
Civil rights demonstrators led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. begin a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. It happens weeks after marchers pushing for voting rights in the south are attacked in Selma. The marching leads to the passing of the Voting Rights Act months later. https://www.wbaltv.com/article/today-in-history-for-march-21-mlk-begins-march-from-selma-to-montgomery/26894449 -
Signing of the Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. Legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act -
Loving v. Virginia Court Case is Decided
In a unanimous decision, the justices found that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The plaintiffs in the case were Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and black woman whose marriage was deemed illegal according to Virginia state law. https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/loving-v-virginia -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr. -
University of Alabama is Integrated
The court's decision virtually ensured a showdown between federal authorities and Alabama Governor George Wallace who had made a campaign promise a year earlier to prevent the school's integration even if it required that he stand in the schoolhouse door.http://crdl.usg.edu/events/ua_integration/?Welcome
