Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement was an organized effort by Black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late nineteen forties and ended in the late nineteen sixties. Although tumultuous at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American's constitutional rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin.

TIMELINE

July twenty-six, nineteen forty-eight

President Harry Truman signed Executive Order nine thousand eight hundred eighty-one, creating the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. The order mandated the desegregation of the U.S. military. The first point in the executive order 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. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale."

May seventeen, nineteen fifty-four

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark nineteen fifty-four Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that "separate-but-equal" education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all.

August twenty-eight, nineteen fifty-five

While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier.

In March of twenty twenty-two, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law, making lynching a federal hate crime.

December one, nineteen fifty-five

Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating.

January ten to eleven, nineteen fifty-seven

Sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states, including Martin Luther King, Junior, meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation.

September four, nineteen fifty-seven

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 nine, nineteen fifty-seven

Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of nineteen fifty-seven into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another's right to vote.

February one, nineteen sixty

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 Junior, 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 fourteen, nineteen sixty

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, nineteen sixty-four.

Nineteen sixty-one

Throughout nineteen sixty-one, 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.

June eleven, nineteen sixty-three

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 twenty-eight, nineteen sixty-three

Approximately two hundred fifty thousand 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 fifteen, nineteen sixty-three

A bomb at Sixteenth 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 two, nineteen sixty-four

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title seven of the Act establishes the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to help prevent workplace discrimination.

February twenty-one, nineteen sixty-five

Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.

March seven, nineteen sixty-five

Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around six hundred 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 twenty-five.

August six, nineteen sixty-five

President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty-five 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 four, nineteen sixty-eight

Martin Luther King, Junior, is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in nineteen sixty-nine.

April eleven, nineteen sixty-eight

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-eight, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.