Timeline 1930 to 1970
1931
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black youths are indicted in Scottsboro, Ala., on charges of having raped two white
women. Although the evidence was slim, the southern jury sentenced them to death. The
Supreme Court overturns their convictions twice; each time Alabama retries them, finding them
guilty. In a third trial, four of the Scottsboro boys are freed; but five are sentenced to long
prison terms.
1947
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn
Dodgers by Branch Rickey. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919 to a
family of sharecroppers. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised Jackie and her
four other children. They were the only black family on their block, and the prejudice they
encountered only strengthened their bond. From this humble beginning would grow the first
baseball player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier that segregated the sport for
more than 50 years.
1948
WWI Black Soldiers
Although African Americans had participated in every major U.S. war, it was not until after
World War II that President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order integrating the U.S.
armed forces.
1952
Malcolm X becomes a minister of the Nation of Islam. Over the next several years his influence
increases until he is one of the two most powerful members of the Black Muslims (the other
was its leader, Elijah Muhammad). A black nationalist and separatist movement, the Nation of
Islam contends that only blacks can resolve the problems of blacks.
1954
Pictured from left to right: George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James Nabrit
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans declares that racial segregation in schools is
unconstitutional (May 17).
1955
Rosa Parks
A young black boy, Emmett Till, is brutally murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman in
Mississippi. Two white men charged with the crime are acquitted by an all-white jury. They
later boast about committing the murder. The public outrage generated by the case helps spur
the civil rights movement (Aug.).
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white
passenger (Dec.1). In response to her arrest Montgomery's black community launch a
successful year-long bus boycott. Montgomery's buses are desegregated on Dec. 21, 1956.
1957
The Little Rock Nine
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights group, is established by
Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth (Jan.-Feb.)
Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval
Faubus. (Sept. 24). Federal troops and the National Guard are called to intervene on behalf of
the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." Despite a year of violent threats,
several of the "Little Rock Nine" manage to graduate from Central High.
1960
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On February 1, four young African-American men, students at North Carolina Agriculture and
Technical College, go to a Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, and sit down at a
whites-only lunch counter. They order coffee. Despite being denied service, they sit silently
and politely at the lunch counter until closing time. Their action marks the start of the
Greensboro sit-ins, which sparks similar protests all over the South.
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On April 15, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee holds its first meeting.
On July 25, the downtown Greensboro Woolworth desegregates its lunch counter after six
months of sit-ins.
On Oct. 19, Martin Luther King, Jr., joins a student sit-in at a whites-only restaurant inside of
an Atlanta department store, Rich's. He is arrested along with 51 other protesters on the
charge of trespassing. On probation for driving without a valid Georgia license (he had an
Alabama license), a Dekalb County judge sentences MLK to four months in prison doing hard
labor. Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy phones King's wife, Coretta, to offer
encouragement while his brother, Robert Kennedy, convinces the judge to release King on
bail. This phone call convinces many African-Americans to support the Democratic ticket.
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On December 5, the Supreme Court hands down a 7-2 decision in the Boynton v. Virginia
case, ruling that segregation on vehicles traveling between states is unlawful because it
violates the Interstate Commerce Act.
1961
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On May 4, the Freedom Riders, composed of seven African-American and six white activists,
leave Washington, D.C. for the rigidly segregated Deep South. Organized by the Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE), their goal is to test Boynton v. Virginia.
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On May 14, Freedom Riders, now traveling in two separate groups, are attacked outside
Anniston, Alabama and in Birmingham, Alabama. A mob throws a firebomb onto the bus that
the group outside Anniston is riding. Members of the Ku Klux Klan attack the second group in
Birmingham after making an arrangement with the local police to allow them 15 minutes
alone with the bus.
On May 15, the Birmingham group of Freedom Riders is prepared to continue their trip down
south, but no bus will agree to take them. They fly to New Orleans instead.
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On May 17, a new group of young activists join two of the original Freedom Riders to
complete the trip. They are placed under arrest in Montgomery, Alabama.
On May 29, President Kennedy announces that he has ordered the Interstate Commerce
Commission to enact stricter regulations and fines for buses and facilities that refuse to
integrate. Young white and black activists continue to make Freedom Rides.
In November, civil rights activists participate in a series of protests, marches and meetings in
Albany, Georgia, that come to be known as the Albany Movement.
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In December, King comes to Albany and joins the protesters, staying in Albany for another
nine months.
1962
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On August 10, King announces that he is leaving Albany. The Albany Movement is generally
considered a failure in terms of effecting change, but what King learns in Albany allows him
to be successful in Birmingham, Alabama.
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On September 10, the Supreme Court rules that the University of Mississippi must admit
African-American student and veteran James Meredith.
On September 26, the governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, orders state troopers to prevent
Meredith from entering Ole Miss's campus.
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Between September 30 and October 1, riots erupt at over Meredith's enrollment at the
University of Mississippi or "Ole Miss."
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On October 1, Meredith becomes the first African-American student at Ole Miss after
President Kennedy orders U.S. marshals to Mississippi to ensure his safety.
1963
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King, SNCC and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organize a series of
demonstrations and protests to challenge segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
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On April 16, King writes his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in which he responds to
eight white Alabama ministers who urged him to end the protests and be patient with the
judicial process of overturning segregation.
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On April 12, Birmingham police arrest King for demonstrating without a city permit.
On June 11, President Kennedy delivers a speech on civil rights from the Oval Office,
specifically explaining why he sent the National Guard to allow the admittance of two
African-American students to the University of Alabama.
On June 12, Byron De La Beckwith assassinates Medgar Evers, the first field secretary for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Mississippi.
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On August 18, James Meredith graduates from Ole Miss.
On August 28, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held in D.C. Around
250,000 people participate, and King delivers his legendary "I have a dream" speech.
On September 15, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is bombed. Four young
girls are killed.
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On November 22, Kennedy is assassinated, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, uses the
nation's anger to push through civil rights legislation in Kennedy's memory.
1964
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On March 12, Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam. Among his reasons for the break is Elijah
Muhammad's ban on protesting for Nation of Islam adherents.
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Between June and August, SNCC organizes a voter registration drive in Mississippi known as
Freedom Summer.
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On June 21, three Freedom Summer workers--Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and
Andrew Goodman--disappear.
On August 4, the bodies of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman are found in a dam. All three
had been shot, and the African-American activist, Chaney, had also been badly beaten.
On June 24, Malcolm founds the Organization of Afro-American Unity along with John Henrik
Clarke. Its aim is to unite all Americans of African descent against discrimination.
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On July 2, Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination in
employment and in public places.
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In July and August, riots break out in Harlem and Rochester, New York.
On August 27, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDM), organized to challenge
the traditional state democratic party that had excluded African Americans, sends a
delegation to the national Democratic convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They ask to
represent Mississippi at the convention. Offered two seats at the convention in turn, the
MFDM delegates reject the proposal.
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On December 10, the Nobel Foundation awards MLK the Nobel Peace Prize.
1965
Malcolm X
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is
assassinated (Feb. 21).
State troopers violently attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., as
they try to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. Fifty marchers are hospitalized on "Bloody
Sunday," after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The march is considered the
catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later (March 7).
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register
to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black
voting are made illegal (Aug. 10).
In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883
injured (Aug. 11-16).
1966
Members of The Black Panthers Party: Bobby Seale and Huey Newton
The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale (Oct.).
1967
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
Stokely Carmichal, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coins
the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle (April 19).
Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12-16) and Detroit (July 23-30).
President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first
black Supreme Court Justice.
The Supreme Court rules in Loving v. Virginia that prohibiting interracial marriage is
unconstitutional. Sixteen states still have anti-miscegenation laws and are forced to revise
them. 1968
Eyewitnesses to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. (April 4).
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale,
rental, and financing of housing (April 11).
Read more: African-American History Timeline (Civil Rights Movement, Facts, Events, Leaders)
— Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html#AAH1900#ixzz1n7qjNHTe
Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till
(July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who was murdered in
Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman.
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
Freedom Riders
They were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United
States to test the United States Supreme Court decisions Boynton v. Virginia (1960) The first
Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New
Orleans on May 17.
JFK Signs Civil Rights Act
Kennedy put political realism before any form of beliefs when he voted against Eisenhower’s
1957 Civil Rights Act.
Read more: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/john_kennedy_and_civil_rights.htm
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia on 15th January, 1929. Both his father and
grandfather were Baptist preachers who had been actively involved in the civil rights
movement.
Read more: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkingML.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X
The emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a civil rights leader brought a new tactic to the
movement: nonviolent resistance. This method of peaceful protest was a combination of the
teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus. King described it as "a philosophy deeply embedded
in our religious tradition."
Malcolm X (1925-1965) stood in sharp contrast to King and his philosophy of nonviolent
resistance and racial integration. X was born Malcolm Little, the son of a Baptist preacher who
followed Marcus Garvey. When he was a boy, members of a Klan-like organization murdered
his father. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade and moved to Detroit, where he led
a life of crime. In prison, he encountered the religious teachings of Elijah Muhammad, leader of
the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, an organization known popularly as the Black Muslims. Elijah
Muhammad's message ran counter to the philosophy of integration. He argued that white men
were devils and that blacks to address their social problems alone. Malcolm Little soon became
a loyal follower and took "X" as his last name as a symbol of the identity stolen from the African
slaves. Because of a growing rivalry, Muhammad suspended X from the Black Muslims in 1963.
A few months later, X made a pilgrimage to Mecca, discovered that Islam and integration were
not incompatible, and abandoned the argument that all whites were devils. He soon took the
name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and returned to America to found the Organization of AfroAmerican Unity. On February 21, 1965, Shabazz was leading a rally of his organization when he
was assassinated by a Black Muslim.
Read more: http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture26.html