-
To protest racial discrimination in the defense industries and the armed services, A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, suggested a march on Washington. Executive Order 8802, which outlawed racial discrimination in the defense industry, was issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response.
-
After Rosa Parks' imprisonment in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger, the Montgomery Bus Boycott got underway. The 381-day boycott came to an end when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on Montgomery buses was unconstitutional.
-
Martin Luther King Jr. served as the organization's first president when it was created in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Aiming to remove segregation and secure voting rights for African Americans, the SCLC coordinated and supported nonviolent direct-action campaigns.
-
In an effort to draw attention to Woolworth's discriminatory practices, four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged a sit-in at one of the chain's lunch counters. Similar sit-ins took place all over the South, which resulted in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to plan and promote student-led movements.
-
The Freedom Rides were organized by the Congress of Racial Equality, in which diverse activist groups traveled by bus throughout the South in an effort to end racial segregation on public transportation. Those who oppose violently protested against the Freedom Rides.
-
After a legal dispute involving the NAACP and the federal government, James Meredith became the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Those who opposed violently protested his enrollment, prompting government involvement.
-
The NAACP, the SCLC, CORE, SNCC, and other civil rights organizations supported Randolph and Bayard Rustin in organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march demanded an end to racial discrimination and segregation in public places, employment, education, housing, and other settings. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted as a result of King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which was the march's pinnacle and was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.
-
In order to combat segregation in one of the South's most racially divided cities, the SCLC created the Birmingham Campaign. The campaign included peaceful direct action such as sit-ins, marches, and boycotts; nevertheless, the police violently resisted the campaign. The Birmingham Campaign attracted widespread notice and sparked talks that resulted in desegregation agreements.