Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

Civil Rights Act of 1964

A federal law that authorized federal action against segregation in public accommodations, public facilities, and employment. The law was passed during a period of great strength for the civil rights movement, and President Lyndon Johnson persuaded many reluctant members of Congress to support the law.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

A law designed to help end formal and informal barriers to African American suffrage. Under the law, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were registered and the number of African American elected officials increased dramatically. Encouraged greater social equality and decreased the wealth and education gap

United Farm Workers (UFW) founded, 1962

A union formed by Cesar Chavez and others who gained rights and better treatment for migrant workers(of whom, the vast majority were Latino).

Greensboro sit-ins, 1960

Civil Rights tactic of blacks sitting in segregated restaurants until being served or removed. Kicks off in Greensboro, NC at Woolworth's lunch counter (white restaurant). Each day they came back with more and more protesters until they were finally served.

Truman banned racial segregation from armed forces, 1948

Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948 by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services.

Grape workers' strike begins, 1965

Farm workers went on strike and made a consumer boycott (supermarkets ban grapes). They began to be concerned about poison again; Chavez goes on 36 day hunger strike; failed to get them to work together; he died in 1993 on a 1-2 day hunger strike.

Freedom Riders, 1961

Group of civil rights workers who took bus trips through southern states in 1961 to protest illegal bus segregation; leaders Jim Farmer and Jim Peck

Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city busses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Nonviolent leader of the civil rights movement and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Civil Rights Act of 1965

Primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation passed by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was also Congress's show of support for the Supreme Court's Brown decisions.

U.S. troops send to Little Rock, 1957

To protect the Little Nine black schoolchildren who decided to attend a previously all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas; because riots were expected and occurring, Eisenhower sent federal protection for these Little Nine. They remained in the school for the entirety of the school year.

Jim Crow Laws

southern state laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites (grandfather clause, poll tax, literacy tests, separate but equal, etc)