A TIMELINE OF THE CIVIL
RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The Civil Rights Movement 1954-1968
Voting Black
SCLC Freedom Rights Act Panthers
Establishe Rides
Founded
d Malcolm Executive
Montgomery
Little X Order
Bus Boycott Murdered 11246 “Blac
Rock k
Nine March On Power
Washingto
n
James
Meredit
SNCC h Civil
Brown v.
Board of Founded Rights
Education Sit-Ins Act
24th Martin
Amendment Luther King
Jr. Shot
May th
17 , 1954
Brown v. Board of Education
üConcerning Segregation in
Schools in Topeka, Kansas.
üLinda Brown had to walk
6 blocks just to catch the
bus for her segregated
black school. The white
school was only a total of
7 blocks from her house.
üOverturned Plessy v.
Ferguson, which had stated
that “separate but equal”
was legal.
December st
1 , 1955
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refused
to give up her seat to
a white man.
Her arrest caused
others to boycott the
bus systems by
walking, car-pooling,
and bicycling
wherever they went.
February th
14 , 1957
SCLC Established
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Creation was
triggered by the
bus boycotts
Nonviolent
Open to all races,
religions and
backgrounds
Martin Luther King
Jr. was the first
President.
September th
24 , 1957
Little Rock Nine
üLittle Rock
Central High
School in Arkansas.
üGovernor had the
National Guard
surrounding the
school.
üEisenhower
ordered troops to
help the nine
students enter the
February 1 st 1960
Sit-ins
üWoolworth’s lunch
üFour students
counter in
ordered
Greensboro, North
doughnuts and
Carolina
coffee and were
refused service so
they refused to
get up.
üThe next day,
30 students
joined them and
this continued the
April 15 th 1960
SNCC Founded
(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
ü Originally created at
Shaw University to
help stage sit-ins
like those in
Greensboro.
ü Because of white
violence, the non-
violence approach
changed.
May th
4 , 1961
Freedom Rides
üJames Farmer of CORE organized these rides
to test to see if the Supreme Court legislation
that banned segregation of buses would hold
up.
ü13 people
started in
Washington D.C.
expecting
extreme violence
üAlabama caused
problems
October st
1 , 1962
James Meredith
üTroops and federal
marshals were sent in
to assure that James
Meredith was
registered and could
attend class
üCrowds taunted the
marshals and it ended
in a confrontation
üUniversity of where things were
Mississippi thrown, smashed and
August th
28 , 1963
March on Washington
üMLK Jr. gave
his “I Have a
Dream”
speech here.
üOrganized by the “Big ü Started in Birmingham
Six.” The influential and went to the
civil rights leaders of Washington Monument.
the time. Had entertainment and
January rd
23 , 1964
24th Amendment
Prohibits poll tax in
federal elections.
This did not
eliminate poll tax in
state and local
elections.
African Americans
still had to partake
in literacy tests.
July nd
2 , 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ø Outlawed
discrimination in the
work field
Ø Equal access to
public places
Ø Federal Government
had power to enforce
this law.
February st
21 , 1965
Malcolm X Murdered
The biggest convert of
African Americans to join
the Black Muslim
congregation.
For black pride and
nationality. Spoke mostly
militant about whites until
his trip to Mecca.
August th
6 , 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Ø Eliminated illegal barriers
to the right to vote
Ø Absolutely ended the Jim
Crow laws
Ø Against voter
examinations
September th
24 , 1965
Executive Order 11246
Ø Introduced affirmative
action for equal rights in the
workplace and the learning
environment.
June 10th and October 1st,
Black Panthers1966
Founded and “Black
Power” is coined.
Founded for self-defense
because of all of the violence
seen in the previous fights for
equality.
Black power came from Stokley
Carmichael’s speech vocalizing
his anger with the little progress
and arrests.
April th
4 , 1968
MLK Jr. Shot
Ø 39 years old
Ø Killed by James Earl
Ray on the balcony
of the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis.
Ø The movement
declined but did not
end.
Works Cited
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html
http://www.sclcnational.org/
http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_polltax_1.html
Dierenfield, Bruce J. Civil Rights Movement. Harlow, England: Pearson
Longman, 2004.
Kasher, Steven. Civil Rights Movement a Photographic History, 1954-68. New
York: Abbeville P, 1996.
Levy, Peter B., ed. Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. New
York: Greenwood P, 1992.
