Major Events in the Civil Rights Movement 1955-1968

Summers 1966 and 1967

Riots and violent demonstrations occur in cities across the nation.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event May 1961

"Freedom rides" begin as African Americans try to occupy "whites only" sections of interstate buses. U.S. marshals ultimately are called in to settle violent reaction to black efforts.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event December 1955

African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, begin boycott of city buses in protest of segregated seating.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event June 1964

Three civil rights workers, two white and one black, working to register black voters are killed in Mississippi. Murderers include sheriff's deputies.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event February 1960

Wave of "sit-ins" touched off across the South by four students in Greensboro, North Carolina, who are refused service at a segregated lunch counter.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event September 1957

Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, engulfed in turmoil as the governor calls out Arkansas Nat'l Guard to prevent enrollment of nine black students. President Dwight Eisenhower forced to send in federal troops to restore order.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event April 1963

Demonstrations begin in Birmingham, Alabama. Local authorities use fire hoses and police dogs to disperse demonstrators.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event September 1963

Demonstrators begin in St. Augustine, Florida, to protest the arrest and detention of seven students. African Americans boycott several northern schools in protest of de facto segregation. Four black children are killed in bombing of Birmingham, Alabama, church.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event September 1962

Federal troops are used to quell a fifteen-hour uprising by University of Mississippi students protesting the enrollment of a single black student, James Meredith. Two students are killed (televised live across the nation).

Civil Rights Movement Major Event July 1964

First in a wave of ghetto riots breaks out in NYC's Harlem.

August 1965

Ghetto riots erupt in Watts sections of Los Angeles. Four thousand rioters are arrested; thirty four are killed.

June 1966

James Meredith suffers gunshot wound in march across Mississippi.

January 1965

King organizes protest marches in Selma, Alabama. Marches end in violent attacks by the police.

Civil Rights Movement Major Event August 28, 1963

March on Washington by more than two hundred thousand African Americans and whites.Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech, and "We Shall Overcome" becomes the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

April 4th 1968

Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.