civil rights timeline

  • Jim Crow Laws

    Jim Crow Laws
    The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the racist policy of segregation by legalizing “separate but equal” facilities for blacks and whites.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimous decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools.
  • Murder of Emmett Till

    Murder of Emmett Till
    Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi.
  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks
    Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery City Bus and was arrested.
  • Boycott

    Boycott
    The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
  • The Little Rock 9

    The Little Rock 9
    The Little Rock 9 enter Central High School as federal troops oversee the situation sent by President Eisenhower.
  • Temple Bombing

    fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in a recessed entranceway at the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, Atlanta's oldest and most prominent synagogue, more commonly known as "the Temple."
  • Sit-in

    Sit-in
    4 black college students sat at an all-white lunch counter and started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s store.
  • Albany movement

    residents of Albany, Georgia, launched an ambitious campaign to eliminate segregation in all facets of local life.
  • Georgia Tech Interigation

    To avoid the civil unrest that attended the University of Georgia's court-ordered desegregation, officials at Georgia Tech began plotting an integration strategy
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders
    Freedom riders begin a bus ride through the South to protest segregation.
  • NAACP convention

    the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held its annual convention in Atlanta.
  • NAACP covention

    the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held its annual convention in Atlanta.
  • Ole Miss Integration

    riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school.
  • MLK and others arrested

    MLK and others arrested
    Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham protesting in the “most segregated city in America.”
  • University of Alabama Integration

    a federal district court in Alabama ordered the University of Alabama to admit African American students Vivien Malone and James Hood during its summer session.
  • March on Washington

    March on Washington
    More than 250,000 people, march on Washington to demand immediate passage of the civil rights bill.
  • Heart of Atlanta

    two Atlanta business owners captured national attention when they refused to comply with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  • Civil Rights Act

    Civil Rights Act
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests.
  • Malcom X assassination

    Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.
  • Selma to Montgomery march

    Selma to Montgomery march
    A march from Selma to Montgomery to fight for voting rights begins.
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act
    President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law outlawing literacy tests.
  • Black Panthers

    Black Panthers
    Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the “Black Power” political group known as the Black Panthers.
  • MLK assassination

    MLK assassination
    Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis.