Major Events of the Civil

Rights Movement

Pasadena resident and UCLA alum Robinson broke the color barrier by being the first black to play major league baseball in modern times.

Pres. Truman issued an executive order requiring integrated units in the armed forces.

The Supreme Court reversed Plessey by stating that separate schools were by nature unequal. Schools were ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed"

Over 100 southern members of Congress signed a document attacking the Supreme Court decision. Only Lyndon Johnson, Estes Kefauver, and Albert Gore refused to join protest

After the Little Rock school board voted to integrate schools, National Guard troops prevented black children from attending school. 1000 federal paratroopers were needed to escort black students and preserve peace. Arkansas Gov. Faubus responded by closing schools for the 1958-59 school year.

Rosa Parks ignited a 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Blacks and whites took buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many were greeted with riots and beatings; some of the buses were firebombed.

5000 federal troops were sent by Pres. Kennedy to allow Meredith to register for classes. Riots resulted in two deaths and hundreds of injuries.

In response to white ministers who urged him to stop causing disturbances, King issued an articulate statement of nonviolent resistance to wrongs of American society

As he stood in the schoolhouse door, he promised segregation "today, tomorrow, and forever," Wallace was forced by Pres. Kennedy to allow blacks to enroll.

Head of the Mississippi NAACP was shot outside his home on the same night that Pres. Kennedy addressed the nation on race, asking "Are we to say to the world...that this is a land of the free except for Negroes?"

More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather before Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches (including King's "I Have a Dream") and protest racial injustice

Four black girls are killed by bomb planted in church by the KKK.

Poll tax (which had been used to prevent blacks from voting) outlawed. Black voter registration increases and candidates begin to turn away from white supremacy views in attempt to attract black voters

Overcoming a Senate filibuster, Congress passed a law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools.

Civil rights workers south to register blacks to vote. Three were killed and many black homes and churches were burned. National outrage helped pass civil rights legislation

King led a 54-mile march to support black voter registration. Despite attacks from police and interference from Gov. Wallace, marchers reached Montgomery. Pres. Johnson addressed the nation in support of marchers.

After passage, southern black voter registration grew by over 50% and black officials are elected to various positions. In Mississippi, black voter registration grew from 7% to 67%

In first of more than 100 riots, Los Angeles black suburb erupts in riots, burning, looting, and 34 deaths

Malcolm X splits off from Elijah Muhammad's Black Muslims and is killed by black opponents

Worst riots in U.S. history resulted in 43 deaths in Detroit and federal troops called out to restore order.

While supporting sanitation workers' strike which had been marred by violence in Memphis, King was shot by James Earl Ray. Riots resulted in 125 cities