-
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that segregation in United States public schools was unconstitutional. This overruled the "separate but equal" doctrine which had been established in 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson.
-
When a black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus for a white man, black community leaders petitioned the city and bus company to end segregated seating on busses. They both refused and the leaders called for a boycott of the bus line. Before the boycott began, city residents gathered at a church, to listen to Martin Luther King Jr., the leader of the boycott movement. He spoke about the importance of civil disobedience, and standing up while remaining peaceful.
-
After almost a whole year of boycotting in Montgomery, the Supreme Court ruled that the segregation on the busses was unconstitutional. This ended the boycott and the violence that had sprung from it. Martin Luther King Jr. had been nearly attacked and seen his property destroyed, but he insisted on remaining peaceful throughout.
-
From May until September 1961, organized by James Farmer, from the Congress of Racial Equality, black riders rode busses from Washington D.C. throughout the south, to test the new Supreme Court ruling that bus lines must be desegregated. The Freedom Riders were attacked and many were arrested. They rode to Montgomery, Birmingham, and on to Jackson, Mississippi.
-
Martin Luther King Jr. organized protest marches in Birmingham against racial segregation. He was arrested at a march, and while in jail he wrote the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", defending his tactics and calling for more peaceful civil disobedience. Violence broke out in Birmingham when protesters were attacked, and continued until President Kennedy sent 3,000 troops in.
-
After Birmingham, President Kennedy chose to make civil rights a priority and sent legislation to Congress which would mandate integration in all public places. In order to pressure Congress to support the bill, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a March On Washington. There he gave a now-famous speech, stating, "I have a dream... that my four little children will one day live... where they will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.