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The US Supreme Court rules an end to segregation in schools. It overturns the earlier Plessy v Ferguson (1896) decision that permitted “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites. In reality, of course, “separate” facilities were hardly ever “equal”.
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Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till from Chicago is brutally murdered by whites while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His alleged crime is saying “Bye, baby” to a white woman in a store for a dare. The case causes outrage among America’s black population.
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Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, boycott buses for 13 months after the arrest of Rosa Parks for breaking segregation laws. The US Supreme Court eventually rules a complete end to segregation on city buses in Montgomery.
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Arkansas Governor Orval E Faubus prevents the desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School by calling out National Guard troops. President Dwight D Eisenhower sends in federal soldiers to allow nine black students to attend the school.
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Four black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, hold the first sit-in. They refuse to move from a segregated lunch counter when denied service. Sit-ins are employed by a growing number of civil rights activists in the South.
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Activists run integrated freedom rides on coaches across the South to test a US Supreme Court ruling forbidding segregated facilities in interstate transport. Passengers are beaten in transit, forcing President John F Kennedy’s administration to intervene.
