1950s Race Relations in America and the Civil Rights Era
1917U.S. Supreme court declares residential (housing) segregation unconstitutional 1948President Truman desegregates the military 1954The court case Brown vs. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) is decided; the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation is unconstitutional
1955Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, triggering a successful, year-long African-American boycott of the bus system 1959A Raisin in the Sun is the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway