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Children’s crusade
More than 1,000 Black school children march through Birmingham, Alabama in a demonstration against segregation. -
Executive order
President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. -
Brown v. Board of education
Ended racial segregation in public schools. -
Emmet Till murder
Emmet Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. -
Montgomery bus boycott
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott. -
Georgia confederate state flag change
Georgia's General Assembly ratified the addition of the Confederate Battle Flag to the state flag in 1956 as a backlash. -
Nonviolent protests conference
Sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states—including Martin Luther King Jr.—meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation. -
Little Rock nine
Federal troops escort nine black students from integrating a public school. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Protects voters rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote. -
Little Rock school closure
Gov. Orval Faubus closed all Little Rock, Arkansas public high schools for one year rather than allow integration to continue. -
The Desegregation of Interstate Travel
A ruling in December 1960 that interstate buses and bus terminals were required to integrate. -
Greensboro sit-in
Four black college students sit on a “whites only” counter without being served, where they are then harassed. -
Ruby bridges integration
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. -
Freedom rides
Black activists took rides through the south to protest segregated bus terminals and used “white only” stops. -
Bombing of Freedom Buses
White Mob Attacks Freedom Riders in Anniston, Alabama. -
Integration of Ole Miss
The Supreme Court Orders Ole Miss to Integrate -
Birmingham Demonstrations
Sit-ins, economic boycotts, mass protests, and marches on City Hall. The demonstrations faced challenges and harassments. -
George Wallace inaugural address
George Wallace during his 1963 inaugural address said, “Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow. And segregation forever.” -
University of Alabama Blockade
Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two Black students from registering. -
March on Washington
Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech. -
16th street bombing
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. -
Civil rights act of 1964
Prevents employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. -
Malcom X assassination
Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinatedduring a rally by members of the Nation of Islam. -
Bloody Sunday
In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest of Black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. -
Voting rights act of 1965
Prevents the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
Watts Riots
A series of violent confrontation between the city police and residents of predominantly black neighborhood. 34 deaths, 1,000 injuries, and $40 million in property damage. -
Thurgood Marshall Confirmed
The u.s senate confirmed thurgood Marshall to become first African American to sit in on u.s supreme court -
Martin Luther King Jr. is assasinated
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Fair housing act
Provides equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin. -
The Bakke Case and the Status of Affirmative Action
Supreme Court reaffirmed Powell's core holding that race could be considered in the admissions policy of the University of Michigan law school.