Civil Rights, 1954 to 1968

African American Historical Timeline 1619-1922 Plessy v. Ferguson- Separate but equal ruling. U.S Constitution is ratified. Slavery for 20 more years and 3/5ths Law instated 75,00 slave escape to freedom using Underground Railroad Dutch ship brings 20 Africans to Virginia Booker T. Washington gives “Atlanta Compromise” 1861-Civil War Begins Beginning of Reconstruction | 1619 | 1773 | 1787 | 1791 | 1831- 1861 | 1863 | 1865 | 1881 | 1895 | 1896 | 1922 | Phillis Wheatley publishes first book by AfAm Author Congress passes 1st Fugitive Slave Act Tennessee passes the first “Jim Crow” laws Claude Mc Kay publishes poetry Harlem Shadows The Harlem Renaissance Begins 1854- Frances E.W. Harper writes “The Slave Mother” Emancipation Proclamation

1954: Brown v. Board of Education The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that school segregation – which had been legal since the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson – unconstitutional.

1955: Rosa Parks and the Bus Boycott Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, AL bus and was arrested for violating segregation laws. Parks was the local secretary for the NAACP and a graduate of the Highlander Folk School, a center for workers rights and racial equality.

1956: Bus Segregation Unconstitutional Rosa Park’s action led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted a year and crippled public transit in the city. At the time of her arrest, Parks was not in violation of any city law or ordinance. Bus segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1956

1957: SCLC Founded Martin Luther King, Jr. helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to work for racial equality. The SCLC issued a document declaring that civil rights are essential to democracy, that segregation must end, and that all Black people should reject segregation absolutely and nonviolently.

1960: Greensboro, N.C. Sit-Ins Four black college students sat at the lunch counter of Woolworth’s department store and ordered coffee. The counter had a “whites only” policy and refused to serve them. The next day, twenty black students hosted a sit-in at the counter, reading and studying while being heckled by white patrons. The sit-ins continued to grow in size and spread to other cities.

1961: CORE and the Freedom Rides The Congress for Racial Equality tests the Supreme Court ban on segregation in interstate buses and trains by organizing a bus campaign into the South of white and black riders. Busses were fire-bombed; riders were beaten and arrested. The Freedom Rides continued despite the violence and resulted in establishing new anti-segregation rules for transportation facilities.

1962: Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam Malcolm X, a leader in the Nation of Islam, publicly rejects the non-violent civil rights movement and integration, calling for a complete segregation of the races and predicting the demise of the white race. He claimed that equal rights should be secured “by any means necessary”.

1963: Marches and Bombings Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader, is assassinated in his driveway. 200,00 to 300,000 people march on Washington to demand civil rights and Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is bombed, killing four girls.

1964: Civil Rights Act President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, which gives the federal government far-reaching powers to prosecute discrimination in employment, voting, and education. CORE, the NAACP, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organize a voter registration drive for African Americans in Mississippi. Three civil rights workers are murdered.

1965: Marches, Acts, Assassinations King organizes a protest march from Selma to Montgomery for African American voting rights. Police club and teargas protesters. Following the march, the Voting Rights Act is passed, outlawing practices that kept African Americans from voting. Race riots break out in Los Angeles, leaving 34 dead. Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City, having been shot 16 times.

1966: Black Power, Black Panthers Stokely Carmichael, chairman of SNCC, calls for “black power” in a speech, ushering in a more militant civil rights stance. The Black Panther Party is founded in California. It develops a reputation for militant rhetoric and clashes with the police, but also supports food, education, and healthcare programs for poor African American communities.

1968: King Assassination Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis. His murder sparks a week of rioting throughout the country.