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Proposed March on Washington
A proposed march on segregated Washington, organized by A. Philip Randolph, is reported by the media, stating that 100,000 people were planning to march. Roosevelt feared that a race riot, so he met with Randolph and agreed to issue an executive order that would forbid discrimination against workers in defense industries and government establishing the Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC). -
Major League Baseball
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American player in Major League Baseball's modern era, playing in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. -
US Military
President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which called for the desegregation of the US Armed Forces. African Americans had been able to fight in the armed forces previously, but were fighting separately from the white soldiers. This was also the first time a US Commander in Chief had used an executive order to implement a civil rights policy. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools violated the 14th amendment of the Constitution, which states that all citizens deserve equal protection under the law. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was incited by Rosa Parks, when she refused to get up after the bus driver asked her to move to the back of the bus. This started a bus boycott, when all of the African Americans in Montgomery stopped riding the bus to the places they needed to go, in protest following Parks' arrest. -
Central High School
This was an incident when the Arkansas National Guard was called to Central High School, which was an all white school, after nine African American students tried to attend the school. These students would then be known as the Little Rock Nine. The president called for the removal of troops as the Arkansas state government was in violation of federal decree. -
Sit-ins
Students staged peaceful sit-ins at Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. They would go inside of these stores and sit at the lunch counter and patiently wait to be served. They faced many revolts from white people, including many violent outbreaks in which the students would take the beatings. The SNCC was created by students from the North and South. -
Freedom Riders
CORE organized the first freedom ride in 1961 in protest of laws mandating segregated interstate transportation, where busloads of black and white students rode through the South. The first freedom ride left from DC bound for New Orleans. An angry mob in Anniston, Alabama slashed the tires on one bus and set it on fire, and others on the other bus were violently attacked. The riders had to complete their journey by plane. -
James Meredith
Under the protection of federal troops, James Meredith became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. -
Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers was the leader of the NAACP. He was murdered in the summer of 1963 as he tried to enter his home in Mississippi. -
Birmingham Campaign - Project C
This was a plan between the SCLC and ACMHR to attack the segregation policy in Birmingham by putting pressure on merchants in the city during the Easter season, which was the second biggest shopping season of the year. The campaign was scheduled to begin in March of 1963, but was postponed until April 2nd, and ultimately began on April 3rd, 1963. -
March on Washington
Over 250,000 people went to Washington and marched on the city, peacefully protesting for equal rights and better treatment for African Americans throughout the United Statets. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
16th Street Church Bombing
Church burnings and bombings were on the rise. In the 16th street church bombing, four young girls were killed while they were attending Sunday school by the KKK. -
Malcom X
Malcom X developed a distrust for white Americans, as the KKK had burned his house, and his father being later murdered by local whites. Malcom moved to Harlem and turned to crime. He converted to Islam and became a changed man with a new identity. Wallace Fard founded the Nation of Islam, in which the religion's roots were closely related to Africa. Elijah Muhammad became the leader of the movement and appointed Malcom X as a speaker for the people because of his talents. (through 1965) -
Civil Rights Act, 24th Amendment
Many African Americans had been robbed of their right to vote because many southern states had enacted poll taxes and literacy tests. As a solution the 24th Amendment banned the poll tax. -
Voting Rights Act
Only five percent of African Americans in Mississippi were registered to vote due to literacy tests and poll taxes. As a solution, the government passed the Voting Rights Act, which would ban the literacy test and other tests that kept African Americans from voting. -
Black Power movement, Black Panther Party
Black power was a powerful message in the streets of urban America. This feeling gave African Americans nation wide a feeling of racial pride. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party in Oakland. They steered away from peaceful protest, and began openly brandishing weapons and began resisting police brutality. They borrowed many tenets from socialist movements, including Mao Zedong's creed "Political power comes through the barrel of a gun." -
Rioting and Kerner Commission
Many riots were breaking out, many of which were deadly. As a result, the Kerner Commission was created to investigate the causes of these riots. After a six month investigation, the commission came to the conclusion that the cause of these riots was white racism. -
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King was one of the frontrunners in the Civil Rights movement. He advocated for peaceful protest and equal rights for all. The nation would be shocked on April 4, 1968, as King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.