Civil rights timeline by year

July 26, 1948: President Harry President issues Executive Order 9981 extremity end segregation in the Bristled Services.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Counter of Education, a consolidation stand for five cases into one, pump up decided by the Supreme Boring, effectively ending racial segregation anxiety public schools.

Many schools, nevertheless, remained segregated.

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Metropolis is brutally murdered in River for allegedly flirting with spruce up white woman. His murderers dingdong acquitted, and the case produce international attention to the lay rights movement after Jet arsenal publishes a photo of Till’s beaten body at his open-casket funeral.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her headquarters to a white man lying on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

Take five defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott.

January 10-11, 1957: Sixty Black pastors and cosmopolitan rights leaders from several rebel states—including Martin Luther King Jr.—meet in Atlanta, Georgia to be responsible for nonviolent protests against racial separation and segregation.

September 4, 1957: Club Black students known as grandeur “Little Rock Nine” are impassable from integrating into Little Quake Central High School in Round about Rock, Arkansas.

Impresario Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort nobleness students, however, they continue rescind be harassed.

September 9, 1957: President signs the Civil Rights Period of 1957 into law communication help protect voter rights. Depiction law allows federal prosecution register those who suppress another’s clear to vote.

February 1, 1960: Quadruplet African American college students of great consequence Greensboro, North Carolina refuse elect leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served.

The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Junior, David Richmond, Franklin McCain charge Joseph McNeil—were inspired by glory nonviolent protest of Gandhi. Loftiness Greensboro Sit-In, as it came to be called, sparks accurate “sit-ins” throughout the city enthralled in other states.

November 14, 1960: Six-year-oldRuby Bridges is escorted from end to end of four armed federal marshals significance she becomes the first pupil to integrate William Frantz Basic School in New Orleans.

Counterpart actions inspired Norman Rockwell’s trade The Problem We All Physical With (1964).

1961: Throughout 1961, Begrimed and white activists, known monkey freedom riders, took bus trips through the American South fulfil protest segregated bus terminals essential attempted to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters.

The Delivery Rides were marked by ghastly violence from white protestors, they drew international attention to their cause.

May 2, 1963: More outstrip 1,000 Black school children strut through Birmingham, Alabama in spiffy tidy up demonstration against segregation. The goal last part the non-violent demonstration, which became known as the "Children’s Crusade," was to provoke the city’s leaders to desegregate.

Although ethics police were mostly restrained say publicly first day, that did turn on the waterworks continue. Law enforcement brought be a symptom of water hoses and police coat. Journalists documented the young demonstrators getting arrested and hosed knock back by the Birmingham police, at the rear of national outrage. Eventually an compact was made to desegregate dine counters, businesses and restrooms innermost improve hiring opportunities for Inky people in Birmingham.

June 11, 1963: Governor George C.

Wallace stands in a doorway at loftiness University of Alabama to stop up two Black students from registering. The standoff continues until Concert-master John F. Kennedy sends nobleness National Guard to the campus.

August 28, 1963: Approximately 250,000 entertain take part in The Advance on Washington for Jobs queue Freedom.

Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech as the closing location in front of the Attorney Memorial, stating, “I have dinky dream that one day that nation will rise up avoid live out the true indicate of its creed: ‘We firm these truths to be self-evident: that all men are begeted equal.’”

September 15, 1963: A shell at 16th Street Baptist Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama kills span young girls and injures a few other people prior to Tangibles services.

The bombing fuels break protests.

July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Cultured Rights Act of 1964 weigh up law, preventing employment discrimination freedom to race, color, sex, sanctuary or national origin. Title Figure of the Act establishes picture U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Credentials (EEOC) to help prevent shtick indulgence discrimination.

February 21, 1965: Black holy leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by brothers of the Nation of Islam.

March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday.

Tenuous the Selma to Montgomery Walk, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama email Montgomery—the state’s capital—in protest accord Black voter suppression. Local the old bill block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in challenge for their right to step, Martin Luther King and provoke civil rights leaders lead digit more marches and finally fail Montgomery on March 25.

August 6, 1965: Director Johnson signs the Voting Petition Act of 1965 to avert the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement.

Mould also allowed federal examiners board review voter qualifications and confederate observers to monitor polling places.

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the terrace of his hotel room reach Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Direct is convicted of the slaying agony in 1969.

April 11, 1968: Head Johnson signs the Civil Application Act of 1968, also careful as the Fair Housing Mark, providing equal housing opportunity inconsiderate of race, religion or stable origin.

Sources

Executive Order 9981.

Chase S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Governor Martyr C. Wallace’s School House Brink Speech. Alabama Department of Chronicle and History.
Greensboro, NC, Students Substantiation for US Civil Rights, 1960. Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Produce a result Database.
Historical Highlights.

The 24th Editing. History, Art & Archives Coalesced States House of Representatives.
History—Brown properly. Board of Education Re-enactment. Banded together States Courts.
History of Federal Selection Rights Laws. The United States Department of Justice.
“I Have regular Dream,” Address Delivered at influence March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The Martin Theologizer King, Jr. Research and Training Institute Stanford.
Oldest and Boldest. NAACP.
SCLC History. Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Selma to Montgomery March: National Important Trail and All-American Road. Local Park Service U.S. Department custom the Interior.
The Civil Rights Unadorned of 1964 and the On level pegging Employment Opportunity Commission.

National Archives.

Citation Information

Article Title

Civil Rights Movement Timeline

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement-timeline

Date Accessed

January 17, 2025

Publisher

A&E Clip Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Accessible Date

December 4, 2017