The Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago with the objective of using nonviolent civil disobedience to challenge racial segregation in the United States. James L. Farmer, Jr. served as the organization’s first leader.
President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9808, establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights. The following June, he speaks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the closing session of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) conference.
Jackie Robinson plays his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black player in professional baseball in 60 years.
President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981 ordering the end of racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Teenager Emmett Till is killed for whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. The media coverage of his brutal murder produces widespread public outrage.
The Montgomery [Alabama] Bus Boycott begins after Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on the bus. Headed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a local Baptist minister, the boycott lasts 381 days and results in the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system.
The Congressional delegations from seven Southern states sign and release their Southern Manifesto opposing any attempt to desegregate public schools.
With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its president, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is organized to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action against racial segregation in Southern states.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders federal troops to escort nine black students to enforce the integration of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.
Four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina conduct a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in a Woolworth’s department store, leading to similar nonviolent protests at public facilities throughout the South.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. John R. Lewis chairs the organization during the turbulent years of 1963 to 1966.
President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 10925 establishing a presidential committee that four years later becomes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organize more than 1,000 “Freedom Riders” to test newly enacted laws prohibiting segregation in bus and railway stations used for interstate travel.
The riots caused by James Meredith’s attempt to become the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi forces President John F. Kennedy to deploy 5,000 federal soldiers to quell the violence.
In his inaugural address, George Wallace, newly elected governor of Alabama, pledges "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arrested during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama, writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which he puts forward the idea that people have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws.
Televised footage and published images of officers, under the supervision of Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, using fire hoses and dogs on young black demonstrators of the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama helps foster wide-spread sympathy for the civil rights movement.
President John F. Kennedy delivers a televised speech on civil rights in which he promises all Americans "the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves." A week later he sends his proposed Civil Rights Act to Congress.
Prominent NAACP leader Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi. Three thousand people attend his burial in Arlington National Cemetery on June 19th.
More than 200,000 people participate in the “March on Washington” civil rights demonstration, during which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
The killing of four young girls during a bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama further galvanizes national support for desegregation.
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn-in as President of the United States.
Under the leadership of Congressmen Emanuel Celler and William McCulloch, the chairman and the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, the U.S. House of Representatives passes H.R. 7152, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by a vote of 290 to 130.
The “Southern Bloc” in the U.S. Senate, led by Richard Russell of Georgia, start a 54-day filibuster to block debate of the civil rights bill. The Senate ultimately passes the legislation without major changes on June 19, 1964 by a margin of 73 to 27.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 giving the federal government powers to enforce desegregation by prohibiting discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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