Civil Rights Movement

  • Truman signs Executive Order 9981

    This stated that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for people of all races in the armed services
  • Emmitt Till is murdered

    Emmitt Till was kidnapped, beaten, shot, and dumped into the Tallahatchie river for allegedly whistling at a white woman
  • Rosa Parks is arrested

    Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger and is therefore arrested.
  • Period: to

    The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is established

    Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttleworth founded the SCLC. This was to promote equality.
  • Little Rock Nine

    Nine black students are blocked from entering a formerly all white school on the order of the governor.
  • James Meredith becomes the first black student at the University of Mississippi

    Riots cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops
  • Martin Luther King is arrested

    He is arrested during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, AL
  • Martin Luther King delivers his famous speech, I Have A Dream

  • Four girls are killed at a church

    Four girls at Sunday School were killed by a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church, which was a popular location for civil rights meetings
  • President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964

    This prohibits discrimination of people of all race, color, religion, or national origin
  • The KKK murders three civil rights workers

    Two were white, one was black