A Timeline Of The Civil Rights Movement

A TIMELINE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Civil Rights Movement 1954-1968 SCLC Establishe d Montgomery Little Bus Boycott Rock Nine

Brown v. Board of Education

Malcolm X Murdered March On Washingto n

SNCC Founded Sit-Ins

Voting Rights Act

Freedom Rides

James Meredit h

Civil Rights Act

24th Amendment

Black Panthers Founded Executive Order “Blac 11246 k Power

Martin Luther King Jr. Shot

May

th 17 ,

1954

Brown v. Board of Education üConcerning Segregation in Schools in Topeka, Kansas. üLinda Brown had to walk 6 blocks just to catch the bus for her segregated black school. The white school was only a total of 7 blocks from her house. üOverturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which had stated that “separate but equal” was legal.

December

st 1 ,

1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. Her arrest caused others to boycott the bus systems by walking, car-pooling, and bicycling wherever they went.

February

th 14 ,

1957

SCLC Established Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Creation was triggered by the bus boycotts Nonviolent Open to all races, religions and backgrounds Martin Luther King Jr. was the first President.

September

th 24 ,

1957

Little Rock Nine üLittle Rock Central High School in Arkansas. üGovernor had the National Guard surrounding the school. üEisenhower ordered troops to help the nine students enter the

February üWoolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina

st 1

1960

Sit-ins üFour students ordered doughnuts and coffee and were refused service so they refused to get up. üThe next day, 30 students joined them and this continued the

April

th 15

1960

SNCC Founded (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)

ü Originally created at Shaw University to help stage sit-ins like those in Greensboro. ü Because of white violence, the nonviolence approach changed.

May

th 4 ,

1961

Freedom Rides üJames Farmer of CORE organized these rides to test to see if the Supreme Court legislation that banned segregation of buses would hold up. ü13 people started in Washington D.C. expecting extreme violence üAlabama caused problems

October

st 1 ,

1962

James Meredith

üUniversity of Mississippi

üTroops and federal marshals were sent in to assure that James Meredith was registered and could attend class üCrowds taunted the marshals and it ended in a confrontation where things were thrown, smashed and

August

th 28 ,

1963

March on Washington üMLK Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech here. ü Started in Birmingham üOrganized by the “Big and went to the Six.” The influential civil rights leaders of Washington Monument. Had entertainment and the time.

January

rd 23 ,

1964

24th Amendment Prohibits poll tax in federal elections. This did not eliminate poll tax in state and local elections. African Americans still had to partake in literacy tests.

July

nd 2 ,

1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Ø Outlawed discrimination in the work field Ø Equal access to public places Ø Federal Government had power to enforce this law.

February

st 21 ,

1965

Malcolm X Murdered The biggest convert of African Americans to join the Black Muslim congregation. For black pride and nationality. Spoke mostly militant about whites until his trip to Mecca.

August

th 6 ,

1965

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Ø Eliminated illegal barriers to the right to vote Ø Absolutely ended the Jim Crow laws Ø Against voter examinations

September

th 24 ,

1965

Executive Order 11246

Ø Introduced affirmative action for equal rights in the workplace and the learning environment.

June 10th and October 1st, Black Panthers1966 Founded and “Black Power” is coined. 



Founded for self-defense because of all of the violence seen in the previous fights for equality. Black power came from Stokley Carmichael’s speech vocalizing his anger with the little progress and arrests.

April

th 4 ,

1968

MLK Jr. Shot Ø 39 years old Ø Killed by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Ø The movement declined but did not end.

Works Cited 

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

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http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html

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http://www.sclcnational.org/

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http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/

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http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_polltax_1.html



Dierenfield, Bruce J. Civil Rights Movement. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2004.



Kasher, Steven. Civil Rights Movement a Photographic History, 1954-68. New York: Abbeville P, 1996.



Levy, Peter B., ed. Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. New York: Greenwood P, 1992.