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Sports Player, Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was the first African American baseball player to be on an American team. -
Civil Rights
Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." -
Civil Rights
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans agrees that public school for African Americans is unconstitutional. It's a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice. -
Civil Rights
"Let Paul Roberson Sing!" was the holler of a public relations campaign that spread out to the State Department offices in Washington, D.C., with petitions, letters, and cables from all over the world. People supported Paul Roberson, the grest singer and activist who had been stripped of his American passport in 1954. -
Civil Rights
African American, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to an American in front of the "colored section" of a bus. -
Civil Rights
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them -
Civil Rights
King, from Dester Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, addresses a rapt audience on the need for peaceful protest. -
Civil Rights
While the civil rights movment was chaning America, Africa was experiencing changes too. For the first time, Africans were gaining indepedence from their colonial masters. -
Civil Rights
Student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that include segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of these people are attacked by angry mobs along the way. -
Civil Rights
The first African American student to enroll at the University of MI is James Meredith. This incident caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
Civil Rights
Martin Luther King is arrested and sent to jail during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, AL. He writes a letter saying that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. -
Famous People
In 1963, Martin Luther King gave his famous speech, "I Have a Dream." He gave this speech to over 250,000 protesters at the Lincoln Memorial. -
Civil Rights
The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally instituted in 11 southern states which made it hard for poor African Americans to vote. -
Traffic Stop
On a hot August day, a routine traffic stop unraveled into a fight between police and by passers near the Watts Housing project in South Central Los Angeles. The fight lasted 6 days, and made the African-American community frusterated and very angry.
