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Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham on April 16
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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
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Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death
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Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote.
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Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary."9
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Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles.
