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The Supreme Court unanimously rules that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, sparking a rise in efforts to end segregation altogether. -
The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed by several African American leaders after Rosa Park's appearance in court. Martin Luther King, Jr., is elected as its leader. African Americans began boycotting buses and instead organizing car pools and walking to work. -
Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, attempts to stop nine African American students from being admitted to Central High in Little Rock despite it being required by a court order. Faubus sends troops from the Arkansas National Guard to stop the students from entering the school, forcing President Eisenhower to retaliate by sending army troops to Central High. -
Four freshman at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College - Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, and Franklin McCain - begin protesting at a local Woolworth's by sitting at the whites-only lunch counter until they would receive service.
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CORE leader James Farmer creates the Freedom Riders, who aimed to desegregate interstate bus travel by boarding buses and traveling to the South. However, upon arriving at Birmingham, the Freedom Riders are beaten beyond recognition by a gang of young men who were later revealed to be members of the Ku Klux Klan contacted by Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor, head of the police in Birmingham. -
James Meredith attempts to register for the University of Mississippi, but is stopped by Governor Ross Barnett. President Kennedy responds to this by sending 500 federal marshals to escort Meredith to the campus. This caused an angry white mob to start a riot, which went on all night. Kennedy decides to send army troops to the campus, and Meredith was allowed to attend the university under federal guard. -
Dr. King and the SCLC lead a march in Selma, Alabama as part of their campaign for voting rights. About 2,000 African Americans were arrested as a result of the march, and the story made national news. -
The passage of civil rights laws during the 1950s and 1960s did not do much to end racism, and many African Americans were stuck in poverty. Only 15 percent of African Americans held profession, managerial, or clerical jobs, leaving everyone else to become blue-collar workers. The average African American family made only 55% of the income of the average white family, and nearly half of the African American population was in poverty. -
Malcolm X is killed by members of the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) after breaking with them. He joined the Black Muslims under the belief that African Americans should separate from whites and create their own society, but realized they could live alongside one another after visiting the Muslim holy city of Mekkah. -
The House of Representatives passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which allowed federal examiners to bypass local officials and register qualified voters. Additionally, it banned discriminatory methods (i.e. literacy tests) in counties where less than half of all adults were registered to vote. -
Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver form the Black Panthers, a movement that believed in revolution and promoted African Americans using arms to forcefully gain equal rights.
