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President Truman signed executive order 9981, which gave the right to equal treatment in the armed forces no matter the serviceman's race, color, religion, or national origin.
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The case of Brown v. Board of Education is ruled by the Supreme Court of the United States. The court found segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. The decision led to large scale de-segregation.
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Emmett Till, a Chicago native is kidnapped, beaten, killed and dumped into a river while visiting family in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. He was 14 years old at the time. The accused murders were acquitted by an all white jury and later boasted about committing the murder in Look magazine. The act helped the cause of civil rights because of the outrage surrounding the circumstances.
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Rosa Parks refuses to give her seat on a bus to a white passenger. She was arrested and jailed, and because of this the black community in Montgomery, AL boycotted the bus service for more than a year until the buses were integrated.
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President Eisenhower uses federal troops to integrate the public schools of Little Rock, AR. The Governor, Orval Faubus had blocked colored people from entering the school. The group of students that entered the school became known as "The Little Rock Nine."
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Colored students in North Carolina begin a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter that was segregated, They are refused service, but are allowed to remain at the counter. The event triggered nonviolent protests throughout the South. Eventually, it would prove successful and helped to integrate many other areas in the deep south.
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A group of people sponsored by the The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee(SNCC) begins testing laws that prohibit segregation in travel facilities. Their efforts are met by angry mobs along the way.
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Because of the backlash regarding James Meredith enrolling at the University of Mississippi, President Kennedy has to send 5,000 Federal trrops to Mississippi to stop the violence and riots.
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Dr. King is arrested in Birmingham, AL for anti-segregation protests. He writes the letter stating that individuals have the duty to disobey unjust laws.
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Nearly 200,000 people march on Washington, congreating at the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King then delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law prohobits discrimination of all kinds based on color, race, religion, or national origin. It also enables the federal government to enforce desegregation.
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Congress passes the act, eliminating the Literacy Tests, poll taxes, and other limitations used to restrict black voting.
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The President, acknowledging that civil rights laws alone will not solve the problem of discrimination, issues Executive Order 11246, which requires government contractors to take affirmative action toward minority employees.
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In a Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, the prohibition of interracial marriage is ruled unconstitutional. 16 states prohibiting the practice are forced to revise their laws.
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At the age of 39, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is shot and killed while on the balcony outside hos hotel room in Memphis, TN. James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime.
