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National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization launched a mass lobby that led to the founding of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era-timeline.html
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Gwendolyn Brooks awarded the Pulitzer Prize in poetry; the first African American to receive the award
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Murder. Six weeks later on Christmas night, 1951, on the Moores' 25th wedding anniversary, a bomb went off beneath the couple's house in Mims, Florida. Both were fatally injured; Moore died on the way to the hospital in Sanford, Florida, which was about 30 miles away but was the closest to serve African Americans.
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The Korean War (also known by other names) was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War
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n response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation, white segregationists throughout the South created the White Citizens’ Councils (WCC). These local groups typically drew a more middle and upper-class membership than the Ku Klux Klan and, in addition to using violence and intimidation to counter civil rights goals, they sought to economically and socially oppressed blacks. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/white-citizens-councils-wcc
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On August 28, 1955, while visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till
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Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) coordinated the boycott, and its president, Martin Luther King, Jr.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott#:~:text=Sparked%20by%20the%20arrest%20of,on%20public%20buses%20is%20unconstitutional. -
In 1956 the star singer and pianist Nat King Cole became the host of a weekly national TV program, stepping into the biggest spotlight an African-American performer had ever had in the still-young medium. Though it ran for only little more than a year, Cole‘s program established a milestone in the cultural struggle for civil rights, bringing him and many other talented artists. https://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/nat-king-cole-show.php
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Autherine Lucy Foster, who faced racist mobs and death threats as the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama, and who was suspended and ultimately expelled by a school board that was unable or unwilling to ensure her safety, died March 2 at 92.
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On this date, Howard Smith of Virginia, chairman of the House Rules Committee, introduced the Southern Manifesto in a speech on the House Floor. Formally titled the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” it was signed by 82 Representatives and 19 Senators—roughly one-fifth of the membership of Congress and all from states that had once composed the Confederacy. https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-Southern-Manifesto-of-1956/
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On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the Black students' entry into the high school. Later that month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine into the school.
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Elizabeth Eckford ignores the hostile screams and stares of fellow students on her first day of school. She was one of the students whose integration into Little Rock’s Central High School was ordered by a Federal Court following legal action by NAACP. Eisenhower and Faubus agreed that the Arkansas National Guard would remain at the school to maintain order, so the black students could attend. https://www.history.com/news/little-rock-nine-brown-v-board-eisenhower-101-airborne
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Four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, launched the lunch counter sit-in movement. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded. Martin Luther King, Jr., arrested during a sit-in at Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta; Robert Kennedy arranged his release. King endorsed John F. Kennedy for president and helped to secure the black vote for Kennedy. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era-timeline.html
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President Kennedy appointed the President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW). CORE organized the first Freedom Ride to test the Supreme Court’s Boynton v. Virginia decision banning the segregation of bus terminal facilities. The Albany Movement began in Albany, Georgia. 50,000 women mobilized in Women Strike for Peace to protest nuclear bombs and tainted milk. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era-timeline.html
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Voter Education Project began. Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) cofounded by SNNC’s Robert Moses and CORE’s David Dennis. President Kennedy sent federal troops to Mississippi to stop rioting as James Meredith enrolled in the University of Mississippi. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) elected the first Japanese American to the U.S. Senate. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/civil-rights-era-timeline.html
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Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in response to religious leaders who criticized his tactics. SNCC launched a major voter registration drive in Greenwood, Mississippi; police arrested James Forman, Charles McDew, Robert Moses, and other SNCC workers.Governor George Wallace failed to block the admission of Vivian Malone and James Hood to the University of Alabama.James Baldwin published The Fire Next Time. President Kennedy assassinated.
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Shortly after President Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress and urged them to pass the Civil Rights legislation to honor Kennedy’s memory. He said, ...no memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long. We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. We have talked for one hundred years or more. It is time