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President Truman officially integrated the military.
establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military -
Brown v. Board of Education
ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The decision declared that separate educational facilities for white and African American students were inherently unequal -
Emmett Till
Was a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store.Shortly afterwards the accused murderers were acquitted in court. -
sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders
meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation. These meetings would set the stage for the next twenty years or anti segregation protests around the country. -
Little Rock Nine
nine Black students 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. -
President 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.While this would federally protect those affected in court, states would continue to ramp up their efforts to suppress votes -
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. -
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. -
The March on Washington
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.’” -
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. -
Bloody Sunday
around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery the state’s capital in protest of Black voter suppression. 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. -
Rosa Parks
refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus. Her actions spark a year long bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama -
assassinated mlk
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. While Doctor Kings death would set a lot of the movement back, it ultimately served as motivation to push forward.