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A diverse group of social reformers including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimke, Mary Church Terrell, Henry Moskowitz, William English Walling, and Mary White Ovington founded the NAACP.
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On April 10, 1947, Robinson signed his first National League contract. Five days later, Robinson would make history by becoming the first African American to play major league baseball in the modern era.
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks refuses to give up seat to white man
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The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 9, 1957. An Act to provide means of further securing and protecting the civil rights of persons within the jurisdiction of the United States.
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In response to Faubus' action, a team of NAACP lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, won a federal district court injunction to prevent the governor from blocking the students' entry. With the help of police escorts, the students successfully entered the school through a side entrance on 23 September 1957.
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Four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats.
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CORE reignited the strategy used during the Journey of Reconciliation and launched the first Freedom Ride on May 4, 1961.
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Dr. King spent eight days in jail before being released on bail, and during that time wrote his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.
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more than a quarter million people participated in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, gathering near the Lincoln Memorial.
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The United States House of Representatives passed the bill on February 10, 1964, and after a 72-day filibuster, it passed the United States Senate on June 19, 1964. The final vote was 290–130 in the House of Representatives and 73–27 in the Senate.
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Law enforcement officers attacked a group of peaceful civil rights protestors crossing Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965. The images of the beatings and gassing of protestors on the bridge shocked the nation.
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United States Senate passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The long-delayed issue of voting rights had come to the forefront because of a voter registration drive launched by civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama.
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MLK shot to death on balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.