In a landmark decision, theUnited States Supreme Court ruled inMorgan v. Virginia, that aVirginia law imposing racial segregation in public facilities and transportation was unconstitutional, as the Commerce clause protected interstate traffic. But neither Virginia nor other states observed the ruling, and it was not enforced for decades.
During the early years of theMiss America pageant, under the directorship of Lenora Slaughter, it becameracially segregated via rule number seven that stated: "contestants must be of good health and of thewhite race.”[3][4] Rule number seven was abolished in 1950.[5]
In April 1951, students at Robert Russa Moton High School, a segregated "Colored" school in Prince Edward County Virginia, staged a student strike over poor conditions and racial segregation. That strike led to theNAACP filingDavis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County in 1952.[6]
On May 11, 1951,Lillie Mae Bradford, four years beforeRosa Park's more publicized action, performed an act ofcivil disobedience on a city bus inMontgomery, Alabama, for which she was arrested, on a charge ofdisorderly conduct.[7] She saw that the bus driver had punched her ticket for the wrong price, apparently "a costly and frequently recurring error if it was indeed an error". Bradford asked to be charged the correct price, and after being told twice to return to the back of the bus, she sat down in the front.[8]
On December 25, 1951, the house ofHarry and Harriette Moore in Mims, Florida was bombed. Harry died while being transported to the hospital, while Harriette died nine days later of her injuries. Their assassination made them the first martyrs of the movement and was the first assassination of any activist to occur during the Civil Rights Movement, and the only time that a husband and wife were killed during the history of the movement.
The Briggs v. Elliott petition signed by parents in Summerton, South Carolina becomes first case in history that attacks segregation in public education. Due to what some say was clerical error, and what some speculate behind closed doors, Governor Jimmy Byrnes lobbied to move Briggs as lead case and instead, Brown v. Board of Education. On behalf of Black parents and children, theNAACP filed five lawsuits against school segregation that challenged the legality of the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling inPlessy v. Ferguson. The five cases wereBrown v. Board of Education, from Topeka Kansas,Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County from Virginia,Bolling v. Sharpe from Washington DC,Briggs v. Elliott from Clarendon County South Carolina, andBulah v. Gebhart from Delaware. The five cases were later consolidated in the Supreme Court'sBrown v. Board of Education ruling.[9]
May 28 – TheFayetteville, Arkansas, school board votes unanimously to integrate its historically Black school, Lincoln, with its white schools, starting with high school and gradually integrating junior highs and elementaries over an undefined period.
July 27 – TheCharleston, Arkansas, school board unanimously votes to end segregation in the school district. Ending segregation for first through twelfth grades, the Charleston school district was the first school district among the formerConfederate States to desegregate. The schools opened for the new school year on August 23.
September 2 – InMontgomery,Alabama, 23 black children are prevented from attending all-white elementary schools, defying the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
January 15 – PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower signsExecutive Order 10590, establishing the President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce a nondiscrimination policy in Federal employment.
November 7 – TheInterstate Commerce Commission bans bus segregation in interstate travel inSarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court bans segregation onpublic parks andplaygrounds. Georgia GovernorMarvin Griffin responds that his state would "get out of the park business" rather than allow playgrounds to be desegregated.
December 1 – Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus, starting theMontgomery bus boycott. This occurs nine months after 15-year-old high school studentClaudette Colvin became the first to refuse to give up her seat. Colvin's wasthe legal case that eventually ended the practice in Montgomery.
January 9 – Virginia voters and representatives decide to fundprivate schools with state money to maintain segregation.
January 16 – FBI DirectorJ. Edgar Hoover writes a rare open letter of complaint directed to civil rights leaderT. R. M. Howard after Howard charged in a speech that the "FBI can pick up pieces of a fallen airplane on the slopes of a Colorado mountain and find the man who caused the crash, but they can't find a white man when he kills a Negro in the South."[12]
January 24 – Governors of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia agree to block the integration of schools.
February 1 – TheVirginia General Assembly passes a resolution that the U.S. Supreme Court integration decision was an "illegal encroachment".
February 3 – Autherine Lucy is admitted to theUniversity of Alabama. Whites riot for days, and she is suspended. Later, she is expelled for her part in filing legal action against the university.
February/March – TheSouthern Manifesto, opposing integration of schools, is drafted and signed by members of the Congressional delegations of Southern states, including 19 members of theSenate and 81 members of theHouse of Representatives, notably the entire delegations of the states ofAlabama,Arkansas,Georgia,Louisiana,Mississippi, South Carolina andVirginia. On March 12, it is released to the press.
September 10 – Two black students are prevented by a mob from entering a junior college inTexarkana,Texas. Schools inLouisville,Kentucky, are successfully desegregated.
September 12 – Four black children enter an elementary school inClay, Kentucky, under National Guard protection; white students boycott. The school board bars the four again on September 17.
October 15 – Integrated athletic or social events are banned inLouisiana.
November 13 – InBrowder v. Gayle, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Alabama laws requiring segregation of buses. This ruling, together with the ICC's 1955 ruling inKeys v. Carolina Coach banning "Jim Crow laws" in bus travel among the states, is a landmark in outlawing "Jim Crow" in bus travel. TheBrowder case was brought and won by noted civil rights attorneyFred Gray.
December 20 – Federal marshals enforce the ruling to desegregate bus systems in Montgomery.
December 24 – Blacks in Tallahassee, Florida, begin defying segregation on city buses.
September 15 – New York Times reports that in three years since the decision, there has been minimal progress toward integration in four southern states, and no progress at all in seven.
October 7 – The finance minister ofGhana is refused service at aDover, Delaware, restaurant. President Eisenhower hosts him at the White House to apologize on October 10.
October 9 – The Florida Legislature votes to close any school if federal troops are sent to enforce integration.
October 31 – Officers of NAACP were arrested in Little Rock for failing to comply with a new financial disclosure ordinance.
November 26 – TheTexas Legislature votes to close any school where federal troops might be sent.
June 30 – InNAACP v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the NAACP was not required to release membership lists to continue operating in the state.
July – NAACP Youth Council sponsored sit-ins at the lunch counter of aDockum Drug Store in downtownWichita, Kansas. After three weeks, the movement successfully gets the store to change its policy and soon afterward all Dockum stores in Kansas are desegregated.
August 19 – Clara Luper and the NAACP Youth Council conduct the largest successfulsit-in to date, ondrug storelunch-counters inOklahoma City. This starts a successful six-year campaign by Luper and the council to desegregate businesses and related institutions in Oklahoma City.
September 2 – GovernorJ. Lindsay Almond of Virginia threatens to shut down any school if it is forced to integrate.
September 8 – A Federal judge ordersLouisiana State University to desegregate; sixty-nine African-Americans enroll successfully on September 12.
September 12 – InCooper v. Aaron the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the states were bound by the Court's decisions. GovernorOrval Faubus responds by shutting down all four high schools in Little Rock, and Governor Almond shuts one inFront Royal, Virginia.
February 13 – TheNashville, TennesseeSit-in begins, although the Nashville students, trained by activists and nonviolent teachersJames Lawson andMyles Horton, had been doing preliminary groundwork towards the action for two months. The sit-in ends successfully in May.
March 4 – Houston's first sit-in, led by Texas Southern University students, was held at Weingarten supermarket, located at 4110 Almeda in Houston, Texas.
April 19 – Z. Alexander Looby's home is bombed, with no injuries. Looby, aNashville civil rights lawyer, was active in the city's ongoing Nashville sit-in for integration of public facilities.
May – Nashville sit-ins end with business agreements to integrate lunch counters and other public areas.
August – Jacksonville sit-ins begin on August 13, but are met with a clash between Ku Klux Klansmen and an African-American street gang on August 27 reslulting in a day known asAx Handle Saturday.
May 4 – The first group ofFreedom Riders, with the intent of integrating interstate buses, leaves Washington, D.C., byGreyhound bus. The group, organized by theCongress of Racial Equality (CORE), leaves shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court has outlawed segregation in interstate transportation terminals.[16]
May 21 – King, the Freedom Riders, and congregation of 1,500 at Rev.Ralph Abernathy’sFirst Baptist Church in Montgomery are besieged by a mob of segregationists; RFK as Attorney General sends federal marshals to protect them.
September 25 – Voter registration activist and NAACP memberHerbert Lee is shot and killed by a white state legislator inMcComb, Mississippi.
November 1 – All interstate buses are required to display a certificate that reads: "Seating aboard this vehicle is without regard to race, color, creed, or national origin, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission."[18]
November 17 – SNCC workers help encourage and coordinate black activism inAlbany, Georgia, culminating in the founding of theAlbany Movement as a formal coalition.[19]
November 22 – Three high school students from Chatmon's Youth Council were arrested after using "positive actions" by walking into white sections of the Albany bus station.[19]
November 22 – Albany State College students Bertha Gober and Blanton Hall were arrested after entering the white waiting room of the Albany Trailways station.[19]
December 10 – Freedom Riders fromAtlanta, SNCC leaderJ. Charles Jones, and Albany State student Bertha Gober are arrested at Albany Union Railway Terminal, sparking mass demonstrations, with hundreds of protesters arrested over the next five days.[20]
December 11–15 – Five hundred protesters arrested in Albany, Georgia.
December 15 – 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.[16]
December 16 – King is arrested at an Albany, Georgia demonstration. He is charged with obstructing the sidewalk and parading without a permit.[16]
December 18 – Albany truce, including a 60-day postponement of King's trial; King leaves town.[21]
An amendment to theLibrary Bill of Rights was passed in 1961 that made clear that an individual's library use should not be denied or abridged because of race, religion, national origin, or political views. Some communities decided to close their doors rather than desegregate.[22]
January 18–20 – Student protests over sit-in leaders’ expulsions atBaton Rouge’sSouthern University, the nation's largest black school, close it down.
February – Representatives ofSNCC,CORE, and theNAACP form theCouncil of Federated Organizations (COFO). A grant request to fund COFO voter registration activities is submitted to the Voter Education Project (VEP).
February 26 – Segregated transportation facilities, both interstate and intrastate, ruled unconstitutional by U.S. Supreme Court.
March – SNCC workers sit-in at US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's office to protest jailings in Baton Rouge.
September 30 – October 1 – U.S. Supreme Court JusticeHugo Black orders James Meredith admitted toOle Miss.; he enrolls and a white riot inOxford ensues. French photographerPaul Guihard (the only journalist murdered during the Civil Rights Era) and Oxford resident Ray Gunter are killed.
October – Leflore County, Mississippi, supervisors cut off surplus food distribution in retaliation against voter drive.
October 23 – FBI begins Communist Infiltration (COMINFIL) investigation ofSCLC.
November 20 – Attorney General Kennedy authorizes FBI wiretap onStanley Levison’s home telephone.
April – Mary Lucille Hamilton, Field Secretary for theCongress of Racial Equality, refuses to answer a judge inGadsden, Alabama, until she is addressed by thehonorific "Miss". At the time, it was the southern custom to address white people by honorifics and people of color by their first names. Jailed for contempt of court Hamilton refused to pay bail. The caseHamilton v. Alabama is filed by theNAACP. It reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1964 that courts must address persons of color with the same courtesy extended to whites.
April 7 – Ministers John Thomas Porter, Nelson H. Smith, andA. D. King lead a group of 2,000 marchers to protest the jailing of movement leaders in Birmingham.
April 12 – King is arrested inBirmingham for "parading without a permit".
May 2–4 – Birmingham'sjuvenile court is inundated with African-American children and teenagers arrested afterJames Bevel, SCLC's Director ofDirect Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, launches his "D-Day" youth march. The actions span three days to become theBirmingham Children's Crusade where over a thousand children and students are arrested. The images of fire hoses and police dogs turned on the protesters are televised around the world.[25]
May 9–10 – TheChildren's Crusade lays the groundwork for the terms of a negotiated truce on Thursday, May 9, which puts an end to mass demonstrations in return for rolling back segregation laws and practices. Dr. King and ReverendFred Shuttlesworth announce the settlement terms on Friday, May 10, only after King holds out to orchestrate the release of thousands of jailed demonstrators with bail money fromHarry Belafonte andRobert Kennedy.[26]
May 11–12 – A double bombing in Birmingham, probably organized by theKKK with help fromlocal police,precipitates rioting, police retaliation, the intervention of state troopers, and finally mobilization of federal troops.
May 13 – InUnited States of America andInterstate Commerce Commission v. the City ofJackson, Mississippi, et al., theUnited States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit rules the city's attempt to circumvent laws desegregating interstate transportation facilities by posting sidewalk signs outsideGreyhound,Trailways andIllinois Central terminals reading "Waiting Room for White Only — By Order Police Department" and "Waiting Room for Colored Only – By Order Police Department" to be unlawful.[27]
June 11 – President Kennedy makes his historiccivil rights address, promising a bill to Congress the next week. About civil rights for "Negroes", in his speech, he asks for "the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves."
Summer – 80,000 blacks quickly register to vote inMississippi by a test project to show their desire to participate in the political system.
June 19 – President Kennedy sends Congress (H. Doc. 124, 88th Cong., 1st session.) his proposed Civil Rights Act.[31] White leaders in business and philanthropy gather at theCarlyle Hotel to raise initial funds for theCouncil on United Civil Rights Leadership
All year – The Alabama Voting Rights Project continues organizing led byJames Bevel,Diane Nash, andJames Orange. Although Bevel is SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education, the organization itself is not yet participating.
All year – Throughout Mississippi approximately fifty Freedom Libraries are established and run by librarian volunteers.[33]
Summer – Freedom Summer – movement for voter education and registration in the Mississippi. TheMississippi Freedom Democratic Party was founded and elected an alternative slate of delegates for the national convention, as blacks are still officially disenfranchised.
June 9 – Bloody Tuesday – peaceful marchers beaten, arrested, and tear-gassed byTuscaloosa, Alabama, police on a peaceful march to the County Courthouse to protest whites-only restroom signs and drinking fountains
June 21 – Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, three civil rights workers disappear from Philadelphia, Mississippi, later to be found murdered and buried in an earthen dam.
July 2 – Civil Rights Act of 1964[38] signed, banning discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations.[39]
August – Congress passes theEconomic Opportunity Act which, among other things, provides federal funds for legal representation ofNative Americans in both civil and criminal suits. This allows the ACLU and theAmerican Bar Association to represent Native Americans in cases that later win them additional civil rights.
February 18 – After a peaceful nighttime protest march inMarion, Alabama, state troopers turn off the streetlights, break up the march, and one trooper shootsJimmie Lee Jackson. Jackson dies on February 26. His death helped inspire the Selma to Montgomery marches. Though not prosecuted at the time,James Bonard Fowler is indicted for Jackson's murder in 2007.
March 9 – Joined by clergy from all over the country who responded to his urgent appeals for reinforcements in Selma, King led a second attempt to cross the Pettus Bridge. Although amassed law enforcement personnel are ordered to draw back when the protesters near the foot of the bridge on the other side, King responds by telling the marchers to turn around, and they return to Brown Chapel nearby. He obeys a just-minted federal order prohibiting the group from walking the highway to Montgomery.[42]
March 11 – Rev. James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister who had heeded King's call for clergy to come to Selma, is beaten by Klansmen. Reeb dies of his injuries. Reeb's murder shocks the nation.[43]
March 15 – PresidentLyndon Johnson uses the phrase "We Shall Overcome" in a speech before Congress to urge passage of the voting rights bill.[44]
March 21 – Participants in the third and successful Selma to Montgomery march stepped off on a five-day 54-mile march to Montgomery, Alabama's capitol.
March 25 – After the successful completion of the Selma to Montgomery March, and after King has delivered his "How Long, Not Long" speech on the steps of the state capitol, a white volunteer,Viola Liuzzo, is shot and killed byKKK members in Alabama, one of whom was anFBI informant.
August 6 – Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed by President Johnson. It provides for federal oversight and enforcement of voter registration in states and individual voting districts with a history of discriminatory tests and underrepresented populations. It prohibits discriminatory practices preventing African Americans and other minorities from registering and voting, and electoral systems diluting their vote.[44]
August 11–15 – Following the accusations of mistreatment andpolice brutality by theLos Angeles Police Department towards the city's African-American community,Watts riots erupt inSouth Central Los Angeles which last over five days. Over 34 are killed, 1,032 injured, 3,438 arrested, and cost over $40 million in property damage.
June – August – Over 150 communities burn during theLong, Hot Summer of 1967. The largest and deadliest riots of the summer take place inNewark, New Jersey, andDetroit with 26 fatalities reported in Newark and 43 people losing their lives in the Motor City.
April 11 – Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed. TheFair Housing Act isTitle VIII of thisCivil Rights Act, and bans discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. The law is passed following a series of Open Housing campaigns throughout the urban North, the most significant being the 1966Chicago Open Housing Movement and the organized events inMilwaukee during 1967–68. In both cities, angry white mobs had attacked nonviolent protesters.[47][48]
October 16 – InMexico City, African-American athletesTommie Smith andJohn Carlos raise their fists in ablack power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 meters.
December 23 – InPowe v. Miles, a federal court holds that the portions of private colleges that are funded by public money are subject to the Civil Rights Act.
^David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito,Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009, pp.154–55.
^"James L. Bevel The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement" by Randall Kryn, published inDavid Garrow's 1989 bookWe Shall Overcome, Volume II, Carlson Publishing Company
