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Jackie Robinson was signed to the brooklyn dodgers. All the players on the other team hated him. He won his MVP award before the civil rights movement.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, banning racial discrimination in federal hiring for war-related work.
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In Chicago, James Farmer and other activists committted to nonviolent direct action establish the interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
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President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981, desegregating the United States Armed Forces.
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Supreme Court rules unanimously against school segregation, overturning its 1896 decision of "separate but equal"
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Martin Luther King Jr. and other clergy establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to work for full equality for African Americans.
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Althea Gibson becomes the first African American tennis player to win a major title by winning both the women’s singles and doubles championships at Wimbledon.
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Arkansas to enforce fedral court-orded integration at Little Rock's Central High School.F
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James Meredith enrolls as the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi. A night of rioting and violence follows despite the presence of US marshals on campus. President Kennedy orders federal troops to the University. Find out more.
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Four African American college students hold a sit - in to integrate a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro NC launching a wave of similar protests across the south
