1954

• May 3  In Hernandez v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Mexican = Americans and all other racial groups in the United States are entitled to equal = protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
• May 17  In Brown = v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. and in Bolling v. Sharpe, the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the "separate but = equal" doctrine, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson and saying that segregation of public schools is unconstitutional.
• July 30  At a special meeting in Jackson, Mississippi called by Governor Hugh White, T.R.M. Howard of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, along with nearly one hundred other = black leaders, publicly refuse to support a segregationist plan to maintain "separate but equal" in exchange for a crash program to increase = spending on black schools.
• September 2  In Montgomery, Alabama, 23 black = children are prevented from attending all-white elementary schools, defying the recent U.S. = Supreme Court ruling.
• September 7  The District of Columbia ends = segregated education; Baltimore, Maryland follows suit on September 8
• September 15  Protests by white parents in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia force schools to postpone = desegregation another year.
• September 16  Mississippi abolishes all public = schools with an amendment to its State Constitution; private segregation = academies are founded for white students.
• September 30  Integration of a high school in = Milford, Delaware collapses when white students boycott classes.
• October 4  Student demonstrations take place against = integration of Washington, DC public schools.
• October 19  Federal judge upholds an Oklahoma law = requiring African-American candidates to be identified on voting ballots as "negro".
• October 30  Desegregation of U.S. Armed Forces said = to be complete.
• Frankie Muse Freeman is the lead attorney for the landmark NAACP case = Davis et al. v. the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal racial discrimination in the city's public housing. Constance Baker Motley]] = was an attorney for NAACP: it was unusual to have two women attorneys leading = such a high-profile case.

1955

• January 15  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10590, establishing the = President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce a nondiscrimination policy = in Federal employment.
• January 20  Demonstrators from CORE and Morgan State = University stage a successful sit-in to desegregate Read's = Drug Store in Baltimore, Maryland
• April 5  Mississippi passes a law penalizing white = students by jail and fines who attend school with blacks .
• May 7  NAACP and Regional Council of Negro Leadership activist Reverend George W. Lee = is killed in Belzoni, Mississippi.
• May 31  The U.S. Supreme Court rules in "Brown II" = that desegregation must occur with "all deliberate speed".
• June 8  University = of Oklahoma decides to allow black students.
• June 23  Virginia governor and Board of Education = decide to continue segregated schools into 1956.
• June 29  The NAACP wins a U.S. Supreme Court suit = which orders the University of Alabama to admit Autherine Lucy.
• July 11  Georgia Board of Education orders that any = teacher supporting integration be fired.
• July 14  A Federal Appeals Court overturns = segregation on Columbia, SC buses.
• August 1  Georgia Board of Education fires all black = teachers who are members of the NAACP.
• August 13  Regional Council of Negro Leadership registration activist Lamar = Smith is murdered in Brookhaven= , Mississippi.
• August 28  Teenager Emmett Till is killed for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi.
• November 7  The Interstate Commerce Commission bans = bus segregation in interstate travel in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. = On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation on public parks and playgrounds. The governor of Georgia responds that his state would = "get out of the park business" rather than allow playgrounds to be = desegregated.
• December 1  Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus, starting the Montgomery = Bus Boycott. This occurs nine months after 15-year-old high school = student Claudette = Colvin became the first to refuse to give up her seat. Colvin's was the legal = case which eventually ended the practice in Montgomery.
• Roy Wilkins = becomes the NAACP executive secretary.

1956

• January 9  Virginia voters and representatives = decide to fund private schools with state money to maintain segregation.
• January 16  FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover writes a rare open letter of complaint directed to = civil rights leader Dr. T.R.M. Howard after Howard charged in a speech that the "FBI can pick up = pieces of a fallen airplane on the slopes of a Colorado mountain and find the = man who caused the crash, but they can't find a white man when he kills a = Negro in the South." ^[1]
=
• January 24  Governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South = Carolina and Virginia agree to block integration of schools.
• February 1  Virginia legislature passes a resolution = that the U.S. Supreme Court integration decision was an "illegal encroachment".
• February 3  Autherine Lucy is admitted to the University of Alabama. Whites riot for days, and she is suspended. Later, she = is expelled for her part in filing legal action against the = university.
• February 24  The policy of Massive = Resistance is declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. from Virginia.
• February/March  The Southern Manifesto, opposing integration of schools, is drafted and signed = by members of the Congressional delegations of Southern states, including = 19 senators and 81 members of the House of Representatives, notably the = entire delegations of the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, = Louisiana, Mississippi, = South Carolina and Virginia. On March = 12, it is released to the press.
• February 13  Wilmington, Delaware school board = decides to end segregation.
• February 22  Ninety black leaders in Montgomery, = Alabama are arrested for leading a bus boycott.
• February 29  Mississippi legislature declares U.S. = Supreme Court integration decision "invalid" in that state.
• March 1  Alabama legislature votes to ask for = federal funds to deport blacks to northern states.
• March 12  U.S. Supreme Court orders the University = of Florida to admit a black law school applicant "without = delay".
• March 22  King sentenced to fine or jail for = instigating Montgomery bus boycott, suspended pending appeal.
• April 23  U.S. Supreme Court strikes down = segregation on buses nationwide.
• May 26  Circuit Judge Walter B. Jones issues an = injunction prohibiting the NAACP from operating in Alabama.
• May 28  The Tallahassee, = Florida bus boycott begins.
• June 5  The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) is founded at a mass = meeting in Birmingham, Alabama.
• September 2 11  Teargas and National Guard = used to quell segregationists rioting in Clinton, Tennessee; 12 black students enter = high school under Guard protection. Smaller disturbances occur in = Mansfield, Texas and Sturgis, Kentucky.
• September 10  Two black students are prevented by a = mob from entering a junior college in Texarkana, Texas. Schools in Louisville, = Kentucky are successfully desegregated.
• September 12  Four black children enter an = elementary school in Clay, Kentucky under National Guard protection; white students = boycott. The school board bars the four again on Sep. 17.
• October 15  Integrated athletic or social events are = banned in Louisiana.
• November 13  In Browder v. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Alabama laws = requiring segregation of buses. This ruling, together with the ICC's 1955 ruling = in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach banning "Jim Crow laws" in bus = travel among the states, is a landmark in outlawing "Jim Crow" in bus = travel.
• December 20  Federal marshals enforce the ruling to = desegregate bus systems in Montgomery.
• December 24  Blacks in Tallahassee, Florida begin = defying segregation on city buses.
• December 25  The parsonage in Birmingham, Alabama occupied by Fred Shuttlesworth, movement leader, is bombed. Shuttlesworth receives = only minor injuries.
• December 26  The ACMHR tests the Browder v. = Gayle ruling by riding in the white sections of Birmingham= city buses. 22 demonstrators are arrested.
• Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission formed.
• Director J. Edgar Hoover orders the FB= I to begin the COINTELPRO program to investigate and disrupt "dissident" groups within the United = States.

1957

• February 8  Georgia Senate votes to declare the 14th = and 15th Amendments to the United = States Constitution null and void in that state.
• February 14  Southern Christian Leadership Conference is formed; Dr. Martin = Luther King, Jr. is named its chairman.
• April 18  Florida Senate votes to consider U.S. = Supreme Court's desegregation decisions "null and void".
• May 17  The Pray= er Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington, DC is at the time the = largest nonviolent demonstration for civil rights.
• September 2  Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to block integration= of Li= ttle Rock Central High School.
• September 6  Federal judge orders Nashville public = schools to integrate immediately.
• September 15  New York Times reports that in = three years since the decision, there has been minimal progress toward integration = in four southern states, and no progress at all in seven.
• September 24  President Dwight = Eisenhower federalizes the National Guard and also orders US Army troops to = ensure Li= ttle Rock Central High School in Arkansas is integrated. Federal and National Guard troops escort the Little Rock Nine.
• September 27  Civil Rights Act of 1957 signed by President Eisenhower.
• October 7  The finance minister of Ghana is refused = service at a Dover, Delaware restaurant. President Eisenhower hosts him at the = White House to apologize Oct. 10.
• October 9  Florida legislature votes to close any = school if federal troops are sent to enforce integration.
• October 31  Officers of NAACP arrested in Little = Rock for failing to comply with a new financial disclosure ordinance.
• November 26  Texas legislature votes to close any = school where federal troops might be sent.

1958

• June 29  Bethel Baptist Church (Birmingham, Alabama) is bombed by Ku Klux Klan = members, killing four girls.
• June 30  In NAACP v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the NAACP was = not required to release membership lists to continue operating in the = state.
• July  NAACP Youth Council sponsored sit-ins at the lunch counter of a Dockum = Drug Store in downtown Wichita, Kansas. After three weeks, the movement successfully got the store = to change its policy and soon afterward all Dockum stores in Kansas were desegregated.
• August 19  Clara Luper and the NAACP Youth Council conduct the largest successful sit-in to date, on drug store lunch-counters in Oklahoma City. This starts a successful six-year campaign by Luper and the = Council to desegregate businesses and related institutions in Oklahoma = City.
• September 2  Governor J. = Lindsay Almond, Jr. of Virginia threatens to shut down any school if it is forced = to integrate.
• September 4  Justice Department sues under Civil = Rights Act to force Terrell County, Georgia to register blacks to vote.
• September 8  A Federal judge orders Louisia= na State University to desegregate; sixty-nine African-Americans = enroll successfully on Sep. 12.
• September 12  In Cooper v. Aaron the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the states were = bound by the Court's decisions. Governor Faubus responds by shutting down all = four high schools in Little Rock, and Governor Almond shuts one in Front Royal, Virginia.
• September 18  Governor Lindsay closes two more = schools in Charlottesville, Virginia, and six in Norfolk on Sep. 27.
• September 29  The U.S. Supreme Court rules that = states may not use evasive measures to avoid desegregation.
• October 8  A Federal judge in Harrisonburg, VA rules = that public money may not be used for segregated private schools.
• October 20  Thirteen blacks arrested for sitting in = front of bus in Birmingham.
• November 28  Federal court throws out Louisiana law = against integrated athletic events.
• December 8  Voter registration officials in = Montgomery refuse to cooperate with US Civil Rights Commission investigation.

1959

• January 9  One Federal judge throws out segregation = on Atlanta, Georgia, buses, while another orders Montgomery registrars to comply = with the Civil Rights Commission.
• January 19  Federal Appeals court overturns = Virginia's closure of the schools in Norfolk; they reopen January 28 with 17 black = students.
• April 18  King speaks for the integration of schools = at a rally of 26,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
• November 20  Alabama passes laws to limit black = voter registration.

1960 1968

1960

• February 1  Four black students sit at the Woolworth'= s lunch counter in Greensb= oro, North = Carolina, sparking six months of the Greensboro Sit-Ins.
• February 13  The Nashville, Tennessee Sit-in begins, although the Nashville students, trained by activist and = nonviolent teacher J= ames Lawson, had been doing preliminary groundwork towards the action = for two months. The sit-in ends successfully in May.
• February 17  Alabama grand jury indicts King for tax evasion.
• February 19  Virginia= Union University students, called the Richmond 34 stage sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter in Richmond, Virginia.^[2]
• February 22  The Richmond 34 stage a sit in the Richmond Room at Thalhimer's = department store.
• March 3  Vanderbilt University expels J= ames Lawson for sit-in participation.
• March 4, 1960  Houston's first sit-in, led by Texas = Southern University students, was held at Weingarten supermarket, located at = 4110 Almeda in Houston, Texas. [1]
• March 19  San Antonio becomes first city to integrate lunch counters.
• April 8  Weak civil rights bill survives Senate filibuster.
• April 15 17  The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is formed in Raleigh, North = Carolina.
• April 19  Z. Alexander Looby's home is bombed, with no injuries. Looby, a Nashville= civil rights lawyer, was active in the city's ongoing sit-in movement for integration of public facilities.
• May  Nashville sit-ins end with business agreements to integrate lunch counters, etc.
• May 6  Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• May 28  William Robert Ming and Hubert Delaney obtain an acquittal of Dr. King from an all-white jury in Alabama.^[3]
• June 28  Bayard Rustin resigns from SCLC after condemnation by Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
• July 31  Elijah Muhammad calls for an all-black state. Membership in Nation of = Islam estimated at 100,000.
• August  Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker replaces Ella Baker as SCLC=E2=80=99s Executive Director.
• October 19  King and fifty others arrested at sit-in = at Atlanta=E2=80=99s Rich=E2=80=99s Department Store.
• October 26  King=E2=80=99s earlier probation = revoked; he is transferred to Reidsville State Prison.
• October 28  After intervention from Robert F. = Kennedy, King is free on bond.
• November 14  Ruby Bridges becomes the first African-American child to attend an = all-white elementary school in the South (William Frantz Elementary School) = following court-ordered integration in New Orleans, Louisiana. This event was portrayed by Norman Rockwell in his 1964 painting The = Problem We All Live With.
• December 5  In Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that racial = segregation in bus terminals is illegal because such segregation violates the Interstate= Commerce Act. This ruling, in combination with the ICC's 1955 = decision in Keys v. Carolina Coach, effectively outlaws segregation on interstate = buses and at the terminals servicing such buses.

1961

• January 11  Rioting over court-ordered admission of = first two African Americans (Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault) at the University of Georgia leads to their suspension, but they are ordered reinstated.
• January 31  Member of the Congre= ss of Racial Equality (CORE) and nine students were arrested in Rock = Hill, South Carolina for a sit-in at a McCrory's lunch counter.
• March 6  President Kennedy issues Executive = Order 10925, which establishes a Presidential committee that later = becomes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• May 4  The first group of Freedom = Riders, with the intent of integrating interstate buses, leaves Washington, D.C. by Greyhound = bus. The group, organized by the Congre= ss of Racial Equality (CORE), leaves shortly after the U.S. Supreme = Court has outlawed segregation in interstate transportation terminals.^[4]
• May 14  The Freedom Riders' bus is attacked and = burned outside of Anniston, Alabama. A mob beats the Freedom Riders upon their arrival in Birmingham= . The Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, and spend forty to sixty days in Parchman Penitentiary.^[4]
• May 17  Nashville students, coordinated by Diane Nash, John = Lewis, and James Bevel, = take up the Freedom Ride, signaling the increased involvement of SNCC.
• May 20  Freedom Riders are assaulted in Montgomery, = Alabama, at the Greyhound Bus Station.
• May 21  MLK, the Freedom Riders, and congregation of = 1,500 at Rev. Ralph Abernathy=E2=80=99s First Baptist Church in Montgomery are besieged by mob of = segregationists; RFK as Attorney General sends federal marshals to protect them.
• May 29  Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, citing = the 1955 landmark ICC ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company and the U.S. Supreme Court's = 1960 decision in Boynton v. Virginia, petitions the ICC to enforce desegregation = in interstate travel.
• June August  U.S. = Dept. of Justice initiates talks with civil rights groups and foundations = on beginning Voter Education Project.
• July  SCLC begins citizenship classes; Andrew J. = Young hired to direct the program. Bob Moses begins voter registration in McComb, Mississippi. He leaves because of violence.
• September  James Forman becomes SNCC=E2=80=99s Executive Secretary.
• September 23  The Int= erstate Commerce Commission, at RFK=E2=80=99s insistence, issues new rules = ending discrimination in interstate travel, effective November 1, 1961, six = years after the ICC's own ruling in Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company.
• September 25  Voter registration activist and NAACP = member Herbert Lee is shot and killed by a white state legislator in McComb, Mississippi.
• November 1  All interstate buses required to display = a certificate that reads: =E2=80=9CSeating aboard this vehicle is without regard to = race, color, creed, or national origin, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission.=E2=80=9D^[5]
• November 1  SNCC workers Charles Sherrod and Cordell Reagon and nine Chatmon Youth Council members = test new ICC rules at Trailways bus station in Albany, Georgia.^[6]
• November 17  SNCC workers help encourage and = coordinate black activism in Albany, Georgia, culminating in the founding of the Albany = Movement as a formal coalition.^[6]
• November 22  Three high school students from = Chatmon=E2=80=99s Youth Council arrested after using =E2=80=9Cpositive actions=E2=80=9D by walking = into white sections of the Albany bus station.^[6]
• November 22  Albany State College students Bertha = Gober and Blanton Hall arrested after entering the white waiting room of the Albany = Trailways station.^[6]
• December 10  Freedom Riders from Atlanta, SNCC leader Charles Jones, and Albany State student Bertha Gober are = arrested at Albany Union Railway Terminal, sparking mass demonstrations, with = hundreds of protesters arrested over the next five days.^[7]
• December 11 15  Five hundred protesters = arrested in Albany, Georgia.
• December 15  King arrives in Albany, Georgia in = response to a call from Dr. W. G. Anderson, the leader of the Albany Movement to desegregate public facilities.^[4]
• December 16  King is arrested at an Albany, Georgia = demonstration. He is charged with obstructing the sidewalk and parading without a = permit.[4]
• December 18  Albany truce, including a 60-day = postponement of King's trial; King leaves town.^[8]
• Whitney Young is appointed executive director of the National = Urban League and begins expanding its size and mission.
• Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, a white southerner who deliberately darkened his = skin to pass as a Negro in the Deep South, is published, describing "Jim Crow" = segregation for a national audience.

1962

• January 18 20  Student protests over sit-in = leaders=E2=80=99 expulsions at Baton Rouge=E2=80=99s Southern University, the nation=E2=80=99s largest black school, close it = down.
• February  Representatives of SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP form the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). A grant request to fund COFO = voter registration activities is submitted to the Voter Education Project (VEP).
• February 26  Segregated transportation facilities, = both interstate and intrastate, ruled unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court.
• March  SNCC workers sit-in at US Attorney General = Robert F. Kennedy's office to protest jailings in Baton = Rouge.
• March 20  FBI installs wiretaps on NAACP activist Stanley Levison=E2=80=99s office.
• April 3  Defense Department orders full racial integration of military reserve = units, except the National Guard.
• June  SNCC workers establish voter registration = projects in rural southwest Georgia.
• July 10  August 28 SCLC renews protests in Albany; MLK = in jail July 10 12 and July 27 August 10.
• August 31  Fannie Lou Hamer attempts to register to vote in Indianola, = Mississippi.
• September 9  Two black churches used by SNCC for = voter registration meetings are burned in Sasser, Georgia.
• September 20  James Meredith is barred from becoming the first black student to enroll = at the Universi= ty of Mississippi.
• September 30-October 1  U.S. Supreme Court Justice = Hugo Black = orders James Meredith admitted to Ole Miss.; he enrolls and a white riot ensues. = French photographer Paul Guihard and Oxford resident Ray Gunter are killed.
• October  Leflor= e County, Mississippi, supervisors cut off surplus food distribution = in retaliation against voter drive.
• October 23  FB= I begins Communist Infiltration (COMINFIL) investigation of SCLC.
• November 20  Attorney General Kennedy authorizes FBI = wiretap on Stanley = Levison=E2=80=99s home telephone.
• November 20  President Kennedy upholds 1960 = presidential campaign promise to eliminate housing segregation by signing Executive = Order 11063 banning segregation in Federally funded housing.

1963

• January 18  Incoming Alabama governor George Wallace calls for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, = segregation forever" in his inaugural address.
• April 3 May 10  The Birmingham campaign, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, protests segregation in = Birmingham by daily mass demonstrations.
• April  Mary Lucille Hamilton, Field Secretary for = the Congre= ss of Racial Equality, refuses to answer a judge in Gadsden, = Alabama, until she is addressed by the honorific "Miss". /at the time, it was = southern custom to address white people by honorifics and people of color by = their first names. Jailed for contempt of court Hamilton refused to pay = bail. The case Hamilton v. Alabama is filed by the NAACP. It reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1964 that courts = must address persons of color with the same courtesy extended to = whites.
• April 7  Ministers John Thomas Porter, Nelson H. = Smith and A. D. King lead a group of 2,000 marchers to protest the jailing of movement = leaders in Birmingham.
• April 12  King is arrested in Birmingham for = "parading without a permit".
• April 16  Dr. King's Letter= from Birmingham Jail is completed.
• April 23  CORE activist William L. Moore is killed in Gadsden, Alabama.
• May 2-4  Birmingham's juvenile court is inundated = with African-American children and teenagers arrested after James Bevel, = SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, = launches his "D-Day" youth march. The actions spans three days to become the Birmingham Children's Crusade where over a thousand children and students are = arrested. The images of fire hoses and police dogs turned on the = protesters are televised around the world.^[9]
• May 9 10  The Children's Crusade lays the groundwork for the terms of a negotiated truce on = Thursday, May 9, which puts an end to mass demonstrations in return = for rolling back segregation laws and practices. King and Rev. Fred = Shuttlesworth announce the settlement terms on Friday, May 10, only after King holds = out to orchestrate the release of thousands of jailed demonstrators with bail = money from Harry Belafonte and Robert Kennedy.^[10]
• May 11 12  A double bombing in Birmingham, = probably organized by the KKK with help from local police, precipitates= rioting, police retaliation, intervention of state troopers, and = finally mobilization of federal troops.
• May 13  In United States of America and Int= erstate Commerce Commission v. the City of Jackson, Mississippi et al., the Uni= ted States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit rules the city's attempt to circumvent laws desegregating interstate transportation facilities by = posting sidewalk signs outside Greyhound, Trailways and Illinois Central terminals reading "Waiting Room for White Only =E2=80=94 = By Order Police Department" and "Waiting Room for Colored Only  By Order = Police Department" to be unlawful.^[11]
• May 24  A group of Black leaders (assembled by James = Baldwin) me= ets with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to discuss race = relations.
• May 29  Violence escalates at NAACP picket of = Philadelphia construction site.^[12]
• May 30  Police attack Florida A&M = anti-segregation demonstrators with tear gas; arrest 257.^[13]
• June 9  Fannie Lou Hamer is among several SNCC workers badly beaten by police in the Winona, Mississippi, jail after their bus stops there.
• June 11  "The = Stand in the Schoolhouse Door": Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in front of a schoolhouse door at the University = of Alabama in an attempt to stop desegregation by the enrollment of two black students, Vivian Malone = and James Hood. Wallace stands aside after being confronted by fed= eral marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the Alabama Natio= nal Guard. Later in life he apologizes for his opposition to racial integration.
• June 11  President Kennedy makes his historic civil = rights address, promising a bill to Congress the next week. About civil = rights for "Negroes", in his speech he asks for "the kind of equality of = treatment which we would want for ourselves."
• June 12  NAACP worker Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi. (His killer is convicted in 1994.)^[14]
• Summer  80,000 blacks quickly register to vote in Mississippi by = a test project to show their desire to participate in the political = system.
• June 19  President Kennedy sends Congress (H. Doc. = 124, 88th Cong., 1st session.) his proposed Civil Rights Act.^[15] White leaders in business and philanthropy gather at the Carlyle Hotel = to raise initial funds for the Council on United Civil Rights Leadership
• August 28  ( Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Northwest = Baltimore, County, Maryland is desegregated.
• August 28  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held. MLK gives his I Have a = Dream speech.^[16]
• September 10  Birmingham= , Alabama City Schools are integrated by National Guardsmen under = orders from President Kennedy.
• September 15  16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham= kills four young girls. That same day, in response to the killings, James Bevel and = Diane Nash begin = the Alabama Project, which will later develop as the Selma Voting Rights Movement.

1964

• All year  The Alabama Voting Rights Project = continues organizing led by James Bevel, Diane Nash, and = James Orange. = The SCLC is not yet participating. Bevel represents it as Director of Direct = Action and Director of Nonviolent Education.
• January 23  Twenty-fourth Amendment abolishes the poll tax for Federal elections.
• Summer  Mississippi Freedom Summer movement for voter education and registration in = the state. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was founded and elected an alternative = slate of delegates for the national convention, as blacks are still officially disenfranchised.
• June 21  Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders, three civil rights workers disappear = from Philadelphia, MS, later to be found murdered and buried in an earthen dam.
• June 28  Organization of Afro-American Unity is founded by Malcolm X, lasts until his death.
• July 2  Civil Rights Act of 1964^[17] signed, banning discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or = national origin" in employment practices and public = accommodations.^[18]
• August  Congress passes the E= conomic Opportunity Act which, among other things, provides federal funds = for legal representation of Native Americans in both civil and criminal suits. This allows the ACLU = and the American = Bar Association to represent Native Americans in cases that later = win them additional civil rights.
• August  The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates challenge the seating of = all-white Mississippi representatives at the Democratic national convention.
• December 10  King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person so honored.^[19]
• December 14  In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court = upholds the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[17]

1965

• February 18  After a peaceful protest march in Marion, = Alabama, state troopers break i it up and one shoots Jimmie Lee Jackson. Jackson dies on February 26. Thought not prosecuted at = the time, James Bonard Fowler is indicted for his murder in 2007.
• February 21  Malcolm X is assassinated in Manhattan, New York, = probably by three members of the Nation of Islam.
• March 7  Bloody Sunday: Civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin the Selma = to Montgomery march but are attacked and stopped by a massive Alabama = State trooper and police blockade as they cross the Edmund = Pettus Bridge into the county. Many marchers are injured. This march, = initiated and organized by James Bevel, becomes the visual symbol of the Selma Voting Rights = Movement.
• March 15  President Lyndon = Johnson uses the phrase "We Shall Overcome" in a speech before Congress to urge passage of the = voting rights bill.^[20]
=
• March 25  After the completion of the Selma to = Montgomery March, a white volunteer Viola Liuzzo is shot and killed by KKK = members in Alabama, one of whom was an FB= I informant.
• June 2  Black deputy sheriff Oneal Moore is murdered in Varnado, Louisiana.
• July 2  Equal Employment Opportunity Commission begins operations.
• August 6  Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed by President Johnson. It provided = for federal oversight and enforcement of voter registration in states and individual voting districts with a history of discriminatory tests and = underrepresented populations. It prohibited discriminatory practices preventing African Americans and other minorities from registering and = voting, and electoral systems diluting their vote. ^[20][20]
=
• August 11 15  Following the accusations of = mistreatment and police = brutality by the Los = Angeles Police Department towards the city's African-American = community, Watts riots erupt in South = Central Los Angeles which lasted over five days. Over 34 were killed, = 1,032 injured, 3,438 arrested, and cost over $40 million in property = damage.
• September  Raylawni Branch and Gwendol= yn Elaine Armstrong become the first African-American students to = attend the University of Southern Mississippi.
• September 24  President Johnson signs Executive = Order 11246 requiring Equal Employment Opportunity by federal contractors.

1966

• January 10  NAACP local chapter president Vernon Dahmer is injured by a bomb in Hattiesbu= rg, Mississippi. He dies the next day.
• June 5  James Meredith begins a solitary March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. Shortly after starting, he is shot with birdshot and = injured. Civil rights leaders and organizations rally and continue the march = leading to, on June 16, Stokely Carmichael first using the slogan Black power = in a speech. Twenty-five thousand marchers entered the capital.
• Summer  The Chic= ago Open Housing Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., James Bevel^[21][22] and Al Raby, includes a large rally, marches, and demands to Mayor Richard J. = Daley and the City of Chicago which are = discussed in a movement-ending Summit Conference.
• October  Black Panther Party founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.

1967

• April 4  MLK delivers "Beyond Vietnam" speech, calling for defeat of "the giant triplets of = racism, materialism, and militarism".
• June 12  In Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional.
• In the trial of accused killers in the Mississippi civil rights worker murders, the jury convicts 7 of 18 accused = men. Conspirator Edgar Ray Killen is later convicted in 2005.

1968

• February 1  Two Memphis sanitation workers are = killed in the line of duty, exacerbating labor tensions.
• February 8  The Orangeburg Massacre occurs during university protest in South Carolina.
• February 12  First day of the (wildcat)= Memphis = Sanitation Strike
• April 3  King returns to Memphis; delivers "Mou= ntaintop" speech in support of the workers.
• April 4  Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot and killed = in Memphis, Tennessee.
• April 4 8 and one on May 1968  Riots broke = out in Chicago, = Washin= gton, D.C., Baltimore, Louisvill= e, Kansas City, and more than 150 U.S. cities in response to the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..
• April 11  Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed. The Fair Housing = Act is Title VIII of this Civil Rights Act, and bans discrimination in the = sale, rental, and financing of housing. The law is passed following a series = of Open Housing campaigns throughout the urban North, the most significant = being the 1966 Chic= ago Open Housing Movement and the organized events in Milwaukee during = 1967 68. In both cities, angry white mobs had attacked nonviolent = protesters.[23][24]
• May 12  Poor People's Campaign encamps on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
• In Powe v. Miles, a federal court holds that the portions of private = colleges that are funded by public money are subject to the Civil Rights = Act.

References

External links

• University of Southern Mississippi's Civil Rights = Documentation Project, includes an extensive Timeline
• Freedom Riders website chronology, extremely = detailed
• Civil Rights Movement Veterans movement timeline
• Civil Rights Timeline, sections on Martin Luther = King, Jr.
• Civil Rights: Pivotal Events slideshow = by Life magazine
• "Cases: U.S. Civil rights Movement". Global = Nonviolent Action Database. Pennsylvania: Swarthmore