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Executive Order 9981
Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "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." -
Brown v.s. Board of Education
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall -
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. -
Rose Parks
December 1, 1955, African American woman refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Was a huge factor and leading the boycott of African American Civil Rights during that time. -
Little Rock Nine
were a group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. This resulted after little rock crisis where all black people were denied of school. -
Woolworth sit-ins
A Non-violent movement led by college African American students in the fight against segregation. These African American students sat in un-authorized seats across their college campus and city. There actions made almost immediate impact and forced Woolworth to address discrimination in their town. -
SNCC: (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
A group of African Americans who advocated non- violent acts which spread across the united states for the next decade. Started with Woolworth Sit in’s. Played a central role in civil right movement. -
Freedom Rides
A protest in the south that put pressure to end segregation. They would get on Busses and ride from DC to Jackson, Mississippi. -
James Meredith
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws -
“Bull” Connor uses fire hoses on black demonstrators-
May 1963- Used fire hoses and police dogs on African Americans. Images of the incident were televised and published, which gained sympathy for civil rights movement across the world. -
March on Washington
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. Attended by some 250,000 people, it was the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital, and one of the first to have extensive television coverage. This was the prerequisite to Martin Luther Kings I have a dream speech. -
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The KKK was later found guily for the cause of the explosion. -
24th Amendment
The right for all citizens in the United States to vote. This amendment ended the poll tax in elections, which gave more rights to African Americans, women, and poor. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman
The bodies of three civil-rights workers—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson. James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church -
Civil Rights Act 1965
This was the date that allowed no racial rule against voting. This is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the US. -
Malcolm X assassinated
Malcom was the the former Nation of Islam leader who was shot by rivalry Black Muslims while addressing Organization of Afro- American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Laid the foundation for the Black Power movement. -
Bloody Sunday
Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. -
Los Angeles Race Riots
arquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white California Highway Patrolman, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. As a crowd on onlookers gathered at the scene of Frye's arrest, strained tensions between police officers and the crowd erupted in a violent exchange. -
Executive Order 11246
Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment. -
Black Panthers
U.S. African-American militant party, founded (1966) in Oakland, Calif., by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Originally aimed at armed self-defense against the local police, the party grew to espouse violent revolution as the only means of achieving black liberation. The Black Panthers called on African Americans to arm themselves for the liberation struggle. -
Loving v. Virginia
In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws. -
Assasination of MLK
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. -
Civil Rights Act 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s. -
Voting Rights Act 1991
Law passed to make it illegal to discriminate in the workplace by failing to hire, grant bonuses or give promotions due to race, sex, age, religion or pregnancy of women. This Act gave workers who were discriminated against the ability to win a case in court. -
Los Angeles Race Riot
The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King. -
Closing of Emmett Till's Murder
Emmett Till's 1955 murder case, reopened by the Department of Justice in 2004, is officially closed. The two confessed murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were dead of cancer by 1994, and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue further convictions. Read more: Civil Rights Movement Timeline (14th Amendment, 1964 Act, Human Rights Law) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#events-1968#ixzz2reUljUqu
