Civil Rights Timeline
Category: Other
Updated: 21 May 2021
Contributors
Created byErin Boyle
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Events
July 26, 1948 - President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the armed servicesMay 17, 1954 - Brown v. Board of Education,
is decided by the Supreme Court,
effectively ending racial segregation
in public schools. Many schools,
however, remained segregatedAugust 28, 1955 - Emmett Till, a 14-year-old
from Chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi
for allegedly flirting with a white woman.
His murderers are acquitted, and the
case brings international attention to
the civil rights movement after Jet
magazine publishes a photo of Till’s
beaten body at his open-casket funeral.December 1, 1955 - Rosa Parks
refuses to give up her seat to a
white man on a
Montgomery, Alabama bus.
Her defiant stance prompts a
year-long Montgomery bus
boycott.January 10-11, 1957 - Sixty Black pastors and
civil rights leaders from several southern states,
including Martin Luther King, Jr. meet in Atlanta,
Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests
against racial discrimination and segregation.September 4 - Nine Black students known as the
“Little Rock Nine” are blocked from
integrating into Little Rock Central High
School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
eventually sends federal troops to
escort the students, however, they
continue to be harassed.
September 9 - Eisenhower signs the
Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law
to help protect voter rights. The
law allows federal prosecution
of those who suppress another’s
right to vote.Feburary 1st, 1960 - Four African American
college students in Greensboro, North Carolina
refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only”
lunch counter without being served.
The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Jr.,
David Richmond, Franklin McCain and
Joseph McNeil—were inspired by
the nonviolent protest of Gandhi.
The Greensboro Sit-In, as it came to be
called, sparks similar “sit-ins” throughout
the city and in other states.November 14, 1960 - Six-year-old
Ruby Bridges is escorted by four
armed federal marshals as she
becomes the first student to integrate
William Frantz Elementary School in
New Orleans. Her actions inspired
Norman Rockwell’s painting" The Problem
We All Live With"June 11, 1963 - Governor George C.
Wallace stands in a doorway at the
University of Alabama to block two
Black students from registering. The
standoff continues until President
John F. Kennedy sends the National
Guard to the campus.August 28, 1963 - Approximately
250,000 people take part in The March
on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Martin Luther King gives his
“I Have A Dream” speech as the closing address
in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating,
“I have a dream that one day this nation
will rise up and live out the true meaning
of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”September 15, 1963 - A bomb at 16th
Street Baptist Church in Birmingham,
Alabama kills four young girls and
injures several other people prior to
Sunday services. The bombing fuels
angry protests.July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson
signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into
law, preventing employment discrimination
due to race, color, sex, religion or
national origin. Title VII of the Act
establishes the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
to help prevent workplace discrimination.February 21, 1965 - Black religious leader
Malcolm X is assassinated during a
rally by members of the Nation of Islam.March 7, 1965 - Bloody Sunday. In the Selma
to Montgomery March, around 600 civil
rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama
to Montgomery, the state’s capital,
in protest of Black voter suppression.
Local police block and brutally attack
them. After successfully fighting in court
for their right to march, Martin Luther King
and other civil rights leaders lead two
more marches and finally reach
Montgomery on March 25.August 6, 1965 - President Johnson signs
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent
the use of literacy tests as a voting
requirement. It also allowed federal
examiners to review voter qualifications
and federal observers to monitor polling places.April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr.
is assassinated on the balcony of his
hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee.
James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder
in 1969.April 11, 1968 - President Johnson
signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968,
also known as the Fair Housing Act,
providing equal housing opportunity
regardless of race, religion, or
national origin.Periods
Throughout 1961, Black and white
activists, known as freedom riders,
took bus trips through the American
South to protest segregated bus
terminals and attempted to use
“whites-only” restrooms and lunch
counters. The Freedom Rides were
marked by horrific violence from
white protestors, they drew
international attention to their cause
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