1. 1950s Race Relations in America and the Civil Rights Era

2. 1917U.S. Supreme court declares residential (housing) segregation unconstitutional
1948President Truman desegregates the military
1954The court case Brown vs. Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) is decided; the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation is unconstitutional

3. 1955Rosa 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
1959A Raisin in the Sun is the first play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway