CIVIL RIGHTS TIMELINE

JIM CROW LAWS

• 1877
• Racial segregation state and local laws enacted after the reconstruction period in the southern United States.

FORMATION OF CORE

• 1942
• Among the founding members were James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn.
• U.S. civil rights organization that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement.

JACKIE ROBINSON PLAYS BALL

• April 15th, 1947
• Jackie Robinson's major league debut.
• First African American person in Major League Baseball.

DESEGREGATION OF THE MILITARY

• July 26th, 1948
• African Americans were allowed to serve in U.S. Armed forced.

BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION

• 1954
• landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.
• Thurgood Marshall- He was the first African-American to serve on the supreme court.
• Linda Brown- Linda Brown was the little girl that started it all. A third grader at the time, she had to walk all the way across town to attend an all-black school.

MURDER OF EMMITT TILL

• August 28th, 1955
• Two Mississippians bludgeon killed Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, for whistling at a white woman; their acquittal and boasting of the atrocity spurred the civil rights cause.

MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT

• December 1st, 1955
• A seminal event in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama.
• Rosa Parks- Sat at front of bus and refused to give up seat to a white man.
• U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

SCLC FORMATION

• January 10th, 1957
• An African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had a large role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

LITTLE ROCK 9

• 1957
• The Little Rock Nine® Foundation was created to promote the ideals of justice and equality of opportunity for all.
• 9 black students enrolled at formerly all white Central High School in Little Rock.

FIRST LUNCH COUNTER SIT IN

• On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at a lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, and politely asked for service. Their request was refused. When asked to leave, they remained in their seats. Their passive resistance and peaceful sit-down demand helped ignite a youth-led movement to challenge racial inequality throughout the South.
• The four university freshmen – Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. (later known as Jibreel Khazan), and David Richmond – stayed until the store closed.

FREEDOM RIDES

• On May 4, 1961, a group of 13 African-American and white civil rights activists launched the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the American South to protest segregation in interstate bus terminals.
• The rides helped to inspire African Americans in the South. The bravery of the riders in the face of the violence was important in persuading more African Americans to get involved.

ADMISSION OF JAMES MEREDITH

• In 1962, he became the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi.
• Inspired more African Americans to attend college.

MARCH ON WASHINGTON

• On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
• The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DEBUT

• 1963
• The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. first gave a version of his "I Have a Dream" speech at Detroit's Cobo Hall. The speech was given by King two months before the historic March on Washington.

BIRMINGHAM CAMPAIGN

• The Birmingham campaign, or 1963 Birmingham movement, was a movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.
• Activists in Birmingham, Alabama launched one of the most influential campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

• A landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations")
• The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, at the White House.

VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

• A landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
• It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965.