Civil Rights Timeline Essay, Research Paper

Timeline

of the

American

Civil

Rights

Movement

1954

Brown v. Board of

Education

1954

Oliver

Brown v.

Board of

Education

of Topeka,

Kansas

In the 1950s,

school

segregation

was widely

accepted

throughout the nation. In fact, it was required by law in most southern

states. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation

cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It decided

unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing

the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had set the “separate but equal”

precedent.

1955

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa Parks, a 43 year

old black seamstress,

was arrested in

Montgomery,

Alabama, for refusing

to give up her seat near

the front of a bus to a

white man. The

following night, fifty

leaders of the Negro

community met at

Dexter ave. Baptist

Church to discuss the

issue. Among them was

the young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leaders organized the

Montgomery Bus Boycott, which would deprive the bus company of 65% of

its income, and cost Dr. King a $500 fine or 386 days in jail. He paid the

fine, and eight months later, the Supreme Court decided, based on the

school segregation cases, that bus segregation violated the constitution.

1957

Desegregation at Little

Rock

Little Rock

Central High

School was to

begin the 1957

school year

desegregated.

On September 2,

the night before

the first day of

school, Governor

Faubus announced that he had ordered the Arkansas National Guard to

monitor the school the next day. When a group of nine black students arrived

at Central High on September 3, the were kept from entering by the National

Guardsmen. On September 20, judge Davies granted an injunction against

Governor Faubus and three days later the group of nine students returned to

Central High School. Although the students were not physically injured, a mob

of 1,000 townspeople prevented them from remaining at school. Finally,

President Eisenhower ordered 1,000 paratroopers and 10,000 National

Guardsmen to Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High School was

desegregated.

1960

Sit-in Campaign

After having been refused

service at the lunch

counter of a Woolworth’s

in Greensboro, North

Carolina, Joseph McNeill,

a Negro college student,

returned the next day with

three classmates to sit at

the counter until they were

served. They were not

served. The four students

returned to the lunch counter each day. When an article in the New York

Times drew attention to the students’ protest, they were joined by more

students, both black and white, and students across the nation were inspired

to launch similar protests.

1961

Freedom Rides

In 1961, bus loads of people

waged a cross-country

campaign to try to end the

segregation of bus terminals.

The nonviolent protest,

however, was brutally

received at many stops along

the way.

1962

Mississippi Riot

University of Mississippi Riot

President Kennedy ordered Federal Marshals to escort

James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the

University of Mississippi, to campus. A riot broke out and

before the National Guard could arrive to reinforce the

marshals, two students were killed.

1963

Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama was

one of the most severly

segregated cities in the 1960s.

Black men and women held

sit-ins at lunch counters

where they were refused

service, and “kneel-ins” on

church steps where they were

denied entrance. Hundreds of

demonstrators were fined and

imprisoned. In 1963, Dr. King, the Reverend Abernathy and the Reverend

Shuttlesworth lead a protest march in Birmingham. The protestors were met

with policemen and dogs. The three ministers were arrested and taken to

Southside Jail.

March on Washington

1963

March on Washington

Despite worries that few

people would attend and that

violence could erupt, A.

Philip Randolpf and Bayard

Rustin organized the historic

event that would come to

symbolize the civil rights

movement. A reporter from

theTimes wrote, “no one

could ever remember an

invading army quite as gentle

as the two hundred thousand

civil rights marchers who

occupied Washington.”

1965

Selma

1965

Bloody Sunday

Outraged over the

killing of a

demonstrator by a

state trooper in

Marion, Alabama, the

black community of

Marion decided to

hold a march. Martin

Luther King agreed to

lead the marchers on

Sunday, March 7,

from Selma to

Montgomery, the state

capital, where they

would appeal directly

to governor Wallace to

stop police brutality

and call attention to their struggle for suffrage. When Governor Wallace

refused to allow the march, Dr. King went to Washington to speak with

President Johnson, delaying the demonstration until March 8. However, the

people of Selma could not wait and they began the march on Sunday. When

the marchers reached the city line, they found a posse of state troopers

waiting for them. As the demonstrators crossed the bridge leading out of

Selma, they were ordered to disperse, but the troopers did not wait for their

warning to be headed. They immediately attacked the crowd of people who

had bowed their heads in prayer. Using tear gas and batons, the troopers

chased the demonstrators to a black housing project, where they continued

to beat the demonstrators as well as residents of the project who had not

been at the march.

Bloody Sunday received national attention, and numerous marches were

organized in response. Martin Luther King lead a march to the Selma bridge

that Tuesday, during which one protestor was killed. Finally, with President

Johnson’s permission, Dr. King led a successful march from Selma to

Montgomery on March, 25. President Johnson gave a rousing speech to

congress concerning civil rights as a result of Bloody Sunday, and passed the

Voting Rights Act within that same year.