Civil Rights Timeline

Brown v. Board Of Education

1954

A young African American girl was denied admission to her neighborhood school Topeka,Kansas,because of her race. She had to travel across town just to attend an all-black school.
With the help of the NAACP, her parents then sued the Topeka school board.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955

The leader was the boycott was Martin Lurther King Jr.
The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of a special three-judge panel declaring Alabama’s laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional.
Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white man showed that even small acts of defiance could empower people to create change.

The Little Rock 9

1957

In September 1957,the school board in Little Rock,Arkansas,won a court order requiring that nine African American students be admitted to Central High,a school with 2,000 white students.
The governor of Arkansas,Orval Faubus,was known as moderate on racial issues,but he was determined to win reelection and began to campaign as a defender of white supremacy.Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard.

Sit-in Movement

1960

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Joseph Mcneil,Ezell Blair Jr,David Richmond,and Franklin Mcain
They were trying to do a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter until they had gotten the same services as the whites.Later,more and more people supported this act and decided to join with the four original members of the committee.

The Freedom Riders

1961

Many African Americans and white volunteers were asked to travel into the South to draw attention to refusal to integrate bus terminals.
They were beaten up by a gang of young men who were armed with baseball bats,chains,and lead pipes.

James Meredith and the Desegregation of Universities

1962

James Meredith African American air force verteran.
President Kennedy dispatched 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to the campus.

March on Washington

1963

Dr.King realized that Kennedy would have a very difficult time pushing his civil rights bill through Congress. Therefore, he searched for a way to lobby Congress and to build more public support. As an alternative,Dr King had received an idea from A.Philip Randolph to march of Washington.
Dr King's “I have a dream” speech
The bill Civil Rights Act of 1964 shortly after the march.

Voting Rights Among Minorities

1965

Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed,voting rights were far from secure. The act had focused on segregation and job discrimmination, and it did little to address voting issues.
The purpose of the Selma March was to protect against voting rights.
The bill authorized the US attorney general to send federal examiners to register qualified voters,by passing local officials who often refused to register African Americans.

Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement

1965

He had lost patiences with the slow progress of civil rights and felt that African Americans needed to act more militantly and demand equality, not wait for it to be given.
After Malcom X broke with the Nation of Islam, he countinued to criticize the organization. Because of this, organization members shot and killed him in February 1965.

Urban Problems and the Black Panthers

1966

African Americans lived in poor neighborhoods in the nation’s major cities were overcrowded and dirty,leading to higher rates of illness and infant mortality. Many of them were trapped in poverty and they found themselves channeled into low=paying jobs with little chance of advancements.
Black Power political organization founded by college students. Their views of the civil rights bill through Congress.Therefore,He searched for a way to lobby Congress and to build more public support.