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In 1941 civil rights leaders Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin planned a mass march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in defense jobs and New Deal programs -
June 1941 the march on Washington was canceled after President Roosevelt issued executive order 8802 which banned racial discrimination in defense and federal war-related jobs. -
On July 26, 1948, President Truman issues executive order 9981 that ended segregation in the military. -
In 1954 the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. -
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. This historic event helped to trigger the Montgomery Bus Boycott. A mass protest against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King Jr. -
In 1957 and 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists held Prayer Pilgrimages and Youth Marches to pressure the federal government to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. -
In 1962, Randolph and Rustin proposed a march on Washington to highlight the economic plight, the high unemployment rates, and the low wages of people of color.
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In 1963 the civil rights movement gained strength with protests, Freedom Rides, and sit-ins. -
Officially called The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, this historic event occurred on August 28, 1963 and was led by Mr. Randolph. It is estimated that over 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. -
President Kennedy did not sign the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation and discrimination. He proposed the bill in 1963, but it was passed by Congress and signed by President Johnson after Kennedy was assassinated.