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Landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Topeka, Kansas. "Separate but equal" schools ruled unconstitutional.
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Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a Montgomery City bus to allow a white man to have her seat, resulting in her arrest for violating the city's segregation ordinance.
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The Montgomery Bus Boycott finally ends in December, and results in Montgomery buses being fully integrated.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed by Congress. This act creates the Civil Rights Commission and also authorizes the Justice Department to look into cases of African Americans being deprived of their voting rights in the South.
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Orval Faubus, the governor of Arkansas, blocks the integration of Little Rock High School, by using the National Guard to prevent nine students from entering. President Eisenhower instructs federal troops to integrate Little Rock High School.
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In a 7-2 decision handed down on December 5 by the Supreme Court in the case Boynton v. Virginia case, the court rules that segregation on vehicles that travel between states is unlawful and unconstitutional because it is in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.
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Civil rights activists take part in a series of protests in November, meetings and marches in Albany, Georgia, which are later called the Albany Movement
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1962: Meredith becomes the 1st African-American student at the University of Mississippi on October 1 after President Kennedy orders United States marshals to the campus to ensure his safety.
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The Birmingham police arrested Martin Luther King, Jr. for demonstrating in the city without a city permit.
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The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom occurs on August 28 in Washington D.C. where nearly 250,000. Here, King famously delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
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Kennedy is assassinated, but Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, uses the country’s anger to pass civil rights legislation, using the legacy of Kennedy's memory to do so.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The act bans discrimination in public places and in employment.
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Malcolm X is assasinated.
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President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, which illegalizes all discriminatory voting requirements, such as requiring literacy tests before registering to vote, which was previously used by white Southerners to prevent black Southerners from voting.
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James Meredith beings his journey on the "March Against Fear", from Memphis, Tennessee, to encourage African American Mississippians to register to vote. Near Hernando, Mississippi, he is shot. Others, including King, take up the march.
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The Supreme Court hands down a decision in Loving v. Virginia, which strikes down laws that forbid interracial marriage.
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Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American Justice appointed to the Supreme Court.
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Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated as he goes outside on the balcony of his motel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This act prohibits discrimination by renters or sellers of property.