US History Timeline

  • Jim Crow

    Jim Crow
    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.
  • Jackie Robinson

    Jackie Robinson
    Broke baseballs color barrier and played for the Brooklyn Dodgers
  • Brown v Board of Education

    Brown v Board of Education
    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimous decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools.
  • Emmet Till's Death

    Emmet Till's Death
    Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi.
  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks
    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested.
  • Bus Boycott

    Bus Boycott
    The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
  • Little Rock 9

    Little Rock 9
    The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower.
  • Temple Bombing

    Temple Bombing
    fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in a recessed entranceway at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation
  • Augusta Movement

    Augusta Movement
    In March 1960, students from Augusta's historically black Paine College initiated the direct action phase of the city's Civil Rights movement when they organized sit-ins at area department stores.
  • Greensboro Sit-in

    Greensboro Sit-in
    4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch counter and started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s store.
  • Ruby Bridges Integration

    Ruby Bridges Integration
    Ruby Bridges walks into William J. Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
  • Albany Movement

    Albany Movement
    March challenged forms of racial segregation in cities
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders
    Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation.
  • NACCP Convention in Atlanta

    NACCP Convention in Atlanta
    In July 1962, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held its annual convention in Atlanta.
  • Ole Miss Integration

    Ole Miss Integration
    Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.
  • Arrested

    Arrested
    Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the “most segregated city in America.”
  • MLK Letter

    MLK Letter
    MLK writes the Brimingham letter while in jail.
  • Washington March

    Washington March
    More than 250,000 people, march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill.
  • Civil Rights into Law

    Civil Rights into Law
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the premier legislation for Civil Rights into law.
  • Malcom X's Death

    Malcom X's Death
    Malcolm X is shot in Audubon, Ballroom.
  • Selma March

    Selma March
    A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins.
  • Literacy Tests

    Literacy Tests
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests.
  • Watts Riots

    Watts Riots
    The Watts Riot, which raged for six days and resulted in more than forty million dollars worth of property damage, was both the largest and costliest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights era.
  • Black Panthers

    Black Panthers
    Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the “Black Power” political group known as the Black Panthers.
  • MLK's Death

    MLK's Death
    Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.