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Truman Signs Executive Order 9981
President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, the order stated: "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." This was the first big step in the US towards racial equality. -
Brown v Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on the case of Brown v. Board of Education hat segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling was a big movement for desegregation on a bigger scale. -
The Murder of Emmett TIll
Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was was kidnapped, beaten, shot, and thrown in the Tallahatchie River while is visiting family in Mississippi. This happened because he allegedly whistled at a white woman. The men who did it, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and set free by an all-white jury. -
Rosa Parks Refsual
Rosa Parks was riding the bus one day, and when a white man and the bus driver told her she must give up her seat to give to the white man, she refused. Rosa was arrested and this launched a massive boycott in the Montgomery area, causing bus companies to lose lots of money, but more importantly, it brought the Civil Rights Movement to the national press. -
The Little Rock Nine
The all-white Central High School learned that integration is easier said than done. Nine black kids were stopped from going to the school due to an order of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower had to send federal troops as well as the National Guard to intervene on the students behalf, and the students were then known as the "Little Rock Nine." -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, which helped protect voter rights for non-white people as well as other religious people. The law allowed federal prosecution of those who suppressed or tried to suppress another’s right to vote. -
The Greensboro Sit In
Four African American college students in Greensboro, NC refused to leave a “whites only” lunch counter in Woolworth’s without being served. The 4 boys who participated in it—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—became known as The Greensboro Four. They were inspired by the non-violent protests done by Gandhi, and their protest inspired more “sit-ins” throughout the city and even in other states. -
The Freedom Riders
Throughout all of 1961, Black and white activists known as freedom riders, took trips through the South to protest segregated bus terminals. They would also attempt to use “white-only” restrooms and lunch tables. The Freedom Rides were met with/konow for the horrible violence gotten as a retaliation from white protestors, however The Freedom Riders drew big international attention to the cause. -
Bombing of 16ht Street
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures many other people in the black church before the Sunday services. The bombing fueled many angry protests from the black community. -
Bloody Sunday
During the Selma to Montgomery March, about 600 civil rights activists march to Selma, Alabama and to Montgomery to protest Black voter suppression. Local police blocked and brutally attacked the marchers. After successfully fighting in court for the right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reached Montgomery on March 25. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was caught and convicted of the murder in 1969.