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July 26, 1948
President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981, which abolishes military segregation. -
May 17, 1954
Brown v. Board of Education is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively outlawing racial segregation in public schools. However, many schools remained segregated. -
August 28, 1955
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago teen, is murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. After Jet magazine publishes a photograph of Till's beaten body at his open-casket funeral, his assailants are acquitted, and the case brings international attention to the civil rights movement. -
December 1, 1955
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white man. Her unwavering stance has sparked a year-long Montgomery bus boycott. -
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January 10-11, 1957
On the 10th and 11th of January, 1957, a group of sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from across the South, including Martin Luther King, Jr., assemble in Atlanta, Georgia to plan nonviolent protests against the rasical discrimanation segregation -
September 4, 1957
Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, refuses to integrate nine Black students known as the "Little Rock Nine" on September 4, 1957. Despite the fact that President Dwight D. Eisenhower dispatches federal troops to accompany the students, they are mistreated. -
September 9, 1957
On September 9, 1957, Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voting rights. People who obstruct another person's right to vote can face criminal charges under the law. -
February 1, 1960
On February 1, 1960, four African-American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, refuse to leave a Woolworth's "whites only" lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil—were inspired by Gandhi's nonviolent protest. The Greensboro Sit-In, as it is now known, inspires "sit-ins" all over the city and country. -
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1961
Throughout 1961, black and white activists known as freedom riders rode busses across the American South to protest segregated bus terminals and sought to use “whites-only” bathrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides brought international attention to their cause despite the horrible violence perpetrated by white demonstrators. -
June 11, 1963
Governor George C. Wallace stands in the way of two Black students registering at the University of Alabama. The standoff is expected to last until President John F. Kennedy dispatches the National Guard to the campus. -
August 28, 1963
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom draws around 250,000 participants. Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have a Hope" speech as the concluding address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, saying, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the real meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." -
September 15, 1963
Prior to Sunday services, a bomb detonates at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls and injuring numerous more. The blast incites enraged demonstrations. -
July 2, 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson puts into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, gender, religion, or national origin. The Act's Title VII creates the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to assist in the prevention of employment discrimination. -
February 21, 1965
Members of the Nation of Islam murder black religious leader Malcolm X during a rally. -
March 7, 1965
Sunday was a bloodbath. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights activists walk from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama, the state capital, in protest of Black voter suppression. Local cops barricade and severely assault them. After successfully defending their right to march in court, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two additional marches, eventually reaching Montgomery on March 25. -
August 6, 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to prohibit the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also gave federal examiners the authority to assess voter eligibility and federal observers the authority to supervise polling locations. -
April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King, Jr. is killed on the balcony of his Memphis hotel room. In 1969, James Earl Ray is convicted of murder. -
April 11, 1968
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, which ensures equal housing opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, or national origin.