Civil Rights on Long Island
Hofstra University
Documents:
6A) Civil Rights Timeline
National Events
Long Island Events
1947- Jackie Robinson joins Brooklyn Dodgers.
1947- Levittown bars African American
1948- U.S. armed forces are desegregated.
homeowners and renters.
1954- In Brown v. Topeka, Kansas Board of
1949- Levittown drops racial exclusion clause
Education, the Supreme Court rules that
from lease but continues discrimination.
separate is not equal.
1957- NAACP charges that Long Island schools discriminate in the
1955-56- Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott.
hiring of teachers.
1957- Federal troops enforce school
1961- Census shows African Americans
integration in Little Rock, Arkansas.
moving to New York City suburbs.
1960- Civil rights activists launch sit-in
- Huntington Human Relations group welcomes
campaign in the south.
African American residents.
1962- James Meredith desegregates University
1962- Nassau County establishes Committee on Human Rights.
of Mississippi.
- NY state investigates charges of blockbusting.
1963- Anti-discrimination campaign in
1963- NAACP charges urban renewal used to
Birmingham, Alabama.
drive out Black families.
- Medgar Evers killed in Mississippi.
- CORE campaigns for job opportunties for
- 250,000 people March on Washington, DC.
African Americans.
- Alabama churches bombed.
- State orders Malverne school integration.
- Boycott forces integration of Chicago schools.
- Hempstead calls for regional school
1964- "Mississippi Summer" campaign
integration plan.
registers southern Black voters. Three civil
- Struggle for school integration in Amityville.
rights workers murdered.
- Cross burning in Amityville
- Southern Blacks demand seats at 1964
1964- State Senator Lent introduces bill
Democratic National Convention
to block busing for integration.
- Congress passes civil rights legislation.
1964-66- White parents in Malverne defy
- Martin Luther King, Jr. awarded Nobel Prize.
integration plan.
1965- Malcolm X assassinated in Harlem.
1966- Opponents of school integration win
- Alabama police attack Selma civil rights
control over Malverne school board.
marchers demanding voting rights.
1967- Protests against white-only volunteer
- Congress approves voting rights law.
fire departments.
- Six day race riot in Watts, California. 34 die.
- School integration plan implemented in
1966- Marchers demand "Black power".
Malverne.
Militants and nationalists gain prominence.
- Proposal to bus NYC children to Great Neck
1967- Race riots in northern cities.
schools.
1968- Kerner Commission report describes
1968- Racial tension in Westbury schools.
racial divisions in the United States.
- Long Island mourns Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Lyndon Johnson will not seek reelection.
1969-70- Students demand King birthday
- Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated.
observance.
- Wave of race riots in Black communities.
- NAACP challenges unfair zoning practices.
- Poor People's campaign in Washington, DC.
- Great Neck school integration plan defeated in
- George Wallace and southern whites bolt
advisory referendum.
Democratic Party.
- Richard Nixon elected President.
- Racial incidents in Freeport, Roosevelt,
- New York City racially divided over plan for community control
Central
over Islip, Amityville, Bellport, Hempstead,
public schools.
and Glen Cove.
Questions:
1- Select three events from the civil rights movement that you consider most important.
Explain your choices.
2- In your opinion, how did national events influence events on Long Island?
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