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Rosa Parks Was Arrested for Civil Disobedience
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956.
www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_parks_1.html -
"I Have a Dream" speech
About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html -
Malcolm X was murdered
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html -
Martin Luther King was murdered
Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html -
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1991
After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1991
