The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most beautiful and most painful events in the history of the United States. On the one hand, the ugliness of human nature in terms of violence and hatred was exposed, but you also have the opposite as well. Thousands of people came together under leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and even the president John F. Kennedy to fight for the rights of people they had never even met. Ordinary people like James Meredith and James E. Chaney put their lives on the line to fight for rights for everyone. Here are some of the most important events in the Civil Rights movement.
- 1868: The 14th Amendment is passed.
- 1896: The Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal” laws are legal in the Plessy v Ferguson decision.
- 1915: The Grandfather Clause, which restricted black voting registration, is repealed.
- 1919: A series of race riots occurs in Chicago that left 38 dead.
- July 28, 1948: President Truman signs Executive Order 9981.
- May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education Topeka case where the Supreme Court bans segregation in all public schools in the United States.
- August 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, is murdered for whistling at a white woman.
- December 1, 1955: In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat for a white man, causing a bus boycott by the Black community.
- February 1957: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was established by Martin Luther King, Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Charles K. Steele.
- December 21, 1956: The Montgomery bus system desegregates.
- September 1957: The Little Rock Central High school board votes on school integration.
- February 1, 1960: Four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in North Carolina stage a sit-in at a lunch counter where they are refused service.
- May 1, 1961: Student volunteers called “freedom riders” begin testing state laws prohibiting segregation on buses and railways stations.
- October 1, 1962: James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi by using the integration laws.
- April 16, 1963: Martin Luther King writes his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.
- May 3, 1963: During protests in Alabama, Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor uses police dogs and fire hoses on black protesters.
- June 11, 1963: The head of the Mississippi NAACP is murdered outside his house.
- June 12, 1963: Governor Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door of the University of Alabama before being forced by Kennedy to allow black students to enroll.
- August 28, 1963: 20,000 blacks and whites gather at the Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches against racism; among them is Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream.”
- September 15, 1963: A Birmingham black church is bombed, resulting in the deaths of 4 black girls.
- January 23, 1964: A poll tax used to prevent blacks from voting is outlawed with the 24th Amendment.
- Summer 1964: The Mississippi Summer Freedom Project begins; civil rights workers help blacks register to vote. 3 are killed and many black churches and homes are burned in retaliation.
- July 1, 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, which forbid racial discrimination.
- August 4, 1964: Civil rights workers James E. Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.
- February 21, 1965: Malcolm X splits off from Elijah Muhammad’s Black Muslims and their belief in integration and nonviolence; he is assassinated in retaliation.
- March 7, 1965: Martin Luther King Jr. leads a 54-mile march to support black voter registration. They marched from Selma to Montgomery.
- August 10, 1965: A Voting Rights Act is approved.
- August 11-17, 1965: The Watts Riots occur with more than 100 riots occurred in Los Angeles black suburbs resulting in looting, burning, and 34 deaths.
- September 24, 1965: Executive Order 11246 isseued by President Johnson to enforce affirmative action.
- October 1966: The Black Panthers are founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland, California.
- June 12, 1967: Interracial marriage is ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court.
- July 1967: More race riots occur in Detroit and New York; they are the worst riots in US history and result in 43 Detroit deaths.
- April 4, 1968: While outside his home, Martin Luther King Jr. is murdered by James Earl Ray; riots broke out in 125 cities in response.
- April 11, 1968: Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
- 1878: The Bakke v Regents of University of California decision outlaws fixed racial quotas.
- March 22, 1988: Civil Rights Restoration Act passed by Congress.
- November 21, 1991: Civil Rights Act of 1991 signed by President Bush.
- April 29, 1992: Race riots occur after police who beat Rodney King are acquitted.
- June 21, 2005: Edgar Ray Killen is finally convicted of manslaughter for the Mississippi Civil Right murders.
- January 2008: Senator Edward Kennedy introduces the Civil Rights Act of 2008.
Looking at the progression of civil rights in the US, it’s very clear that small steps can make a huge difference. Equality wasn’t established by one big event. It took hundreds of small events. The United States cannot truly become great until every person is truly treated equally.