-
14th Amendment
14th Amendment: Citizenship and Civil Rights for African-Americans. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Plessy vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court decides that "separate but equal" facilities satisfy 14th Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to "Jim Crow" segregation laws. -
NAACP Formed
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed to promote use of the courts to restore the legal rights of African-Americans. -
Federal Segregation
Federal segregation. Wilson administration begins government-wide segregation of work places, rest-rooms and lunch rooms. -
WWII Ends *
* -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown vs. Board of Education: Supreme Court bans school segregation. First "White Citizens" council forms in Mississippi in response to Supreme Court's Brown decision. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott starts
Montgomery Bus Boycott starts when Rosa Parks refuses to give seat up to a White passenger. Boycott brings 26-year-old Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence. Emmett Till, a Chicago youth visiting relatives in the South, is murdered by Whites, who are then acquitted by an all-White jury. -
The Little Rock Nine and SCLC
President Eisenhower sends in the National Guard to enforce integration of Little Rock's Central High School in the face of violent White opposition. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) forms, with Martin Luther King, Jr., as president. -
New Orleans School Integration Inforced
In New Orleans, school integration is enforced by the federal government after the legislature closes the public school system. Black students of the Consumer League of Greater New Orleans lead a picket of White-owned businesses that refuse to hire Black employees. -
Freedom Rides
"Freedom Rides" to desegregate southern bus terminals. -
University of Mississippi Integration
James Meredith becomes the first African-American to enroll at the University of Mississippi. White protesters riot. Federal troops sent in to quash riots. -
Birmingham's Discriminatory Practices Attacked, President Kennedy and Martin Luther King Give Important Speeches
SCLC, led by King, attacks Birmingham's discriminatory practices. Thousands of young students are arrested and brutalized by Birmingham police dogs and water cannons. Medgar Evers, Mississippi NAACP leader, is assassinated. President Kennedy gives first presidential address in support of Civil Rights. March on Washington. MLK delivers "I Have A Dream Speech." -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 *
President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin
