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Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to move to the back of the bus. A boycott follows.
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Federal troops are sent to Little Rock, Arkansas where nine black students are the first to integrate the school district.
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Four black college students begin sit-ins at the lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant where blacks are not served.
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Freedom rides begin -- student volunteers are bused in to test new laws prohibiting segregation.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech, which calls for an end to racism.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, declaring discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or religion, illegal.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law; it prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
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President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Barack Obama, the United States' first black president, is inaugurated.