1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

President John F. Kennedy establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Interstate Commerce Commission, 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. The first group of Freedom Riders, with the intent of integrating interstate buses, leaves Washington, D.C. by Greyhound bus Dr. 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.

President John F. Kennedy upholds 1960 campaign promise to eliminate housing segregation by signing Executive Order 11063 banning segregation in Federally funded housing.
Segregated transportation facilities, both interstate and intrastate, ruled unconstitutional. September 20 James Meredith is barred from becoming the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.

September 20 James Meredith is barred from becoming the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.

July 2 Civil Rights Act of 1964signed, banning discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations .

July 2 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opens.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed by President Johnson. It eliminated literacy tests, poll tax, and other subjective voter tests that was widely responsible for the disfranchisement of African-Americans in the Southern States

November Edward Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. He is the first black senator since 1881.

June 13 Thurgood Marshall is the first African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed. The Fair Housing Act is Title VIII of this Civil Rights Act it bans discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. The law is passed following a series of housing campaigns throughout the North.

The Birmingham campaign, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights challenges city leaders and business owners in Birmingham, Alabama, with daily mass demonstrations.

Mississippi Freedom Summer voter registration in the state. Create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to elect an alternative slate of delegates for the national convention, as blacks are still officially disfranchised. Organization of AfroAmerican Unity is founded by Malcolm X, lasts until death.

Bloody Sunday: Civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin a march to Montgomery but are stopped by a massive police blockade as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Watts Riot erupt in Los Angeles which lasted over five days. 34 were killed, 1,032 injured, 3,438 arrested, and cost over $40 million

Black Panthers founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.

April 4 Dr. Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Riots broke out in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Louisville, Kansas City, and more than 150 U.S. cities in response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People's Campaign marches on Washington, DC

1953

1954

1955
The Supreme Court rules in "Brown II" that desegregation must occur with "all deliberate speed"

1956

1957

1958

1960

Federal Government Action

Executive Order 10479 signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower establishes the antidiscrimination Committee on Government Contracts.

The Supreme Court rules against the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.

In Browder v.Gayle, the Supreme Court strikes down Alabama laws requiring segregation of buses

Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10590, establishing the President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce a nondiscrimination policy in Federal employment.

Civil Rights Movements Action

NAACP organized boycott of a newly built school in Layfette protesting that its facilities were obviously inferior to those at the closest white

UDL organized bus boycott for a week accompanied by a car pooling scheme.

Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. MLK rises to prominence and is elected to lead the Boycott. MIA established Teenager Emmett Till is killed for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. Killers are found innocent by an all white jury.

Autherine Lucy is admitted to the University of Alabama. Whites riot, and she is suspended. Later, she is expelled for her part in further legal action against the university.

September 29 Civil Rights Act of Supreme Court rules 1957 signed by that states may not President use evasive measures to avoid Eisenhower. desegregation. Southern Christian A Federal judge orders Leadership Louisiana State Conference formed. University to Dr. Martin Luther desegregate. 69 King, Jr. is named African-Americans chairman of the enroll successfully on Sep. 12. organization. NAACP Youth Council conduct the largest successful sit-in to date, on drug store lunch-counters in Oklahoma City.

President Dwight Eisenhower federalizes the National Guard and also orders US Army troops to ensure Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas is integrated. Federal and National Guard troops escort the Little Rock Nine.

In Cooper v. Aaron the 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

May 6 Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Black students sit at the Woolworth's lunch counter, six months of the Greensboro Sit-Ins