| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed
in New Orleans race riot. |
|
August 12 |
Whites attach blacks in New York |
|
November 6 |
William McKinley reelected President;
Theodore Roosevelt elected Vice-President. |
| 1901 |
March 4 |
North Carolina's George H. White
leaves Congress; last black member for more than 25 years. |
| |
September 6 |
President McKinley assassinated.
Roosevelt succeeds him. |
|
October 16 |
Booker T. Washington (BTW) dines
with President Roosevelt at the White House, creating an uproar. |
| 1903 |
|
W.E.B. DuBois' (WEBD's) Souls
of Black Folk is published, helping to organize criticism of
BTW. |
| 1904 |
August 16 |
Paul Reed and Willis Cato seized
from jailers at their murder trial in Statesboro, Ga., and burned
alive. |
| 1905 |
July 11-13 |
A group of black intellectuals meets
near Niagra Falls and adopts resolutions demanding racial equality. |
| 1906 |
April 13 |
Clashes erupt after white civilians
taunt black soldiers in Brownsville, Tx.; three white men die. President
Roosevely dishonorably discharges the soldiers. |
|
Sept. 22-24 |
Twenty-one die in Atlanta race riot. |
| 1908 |
|
White anti-black riot in Abraham
Lincoln's hometown, Springfield, Il., prompts concerned whites to
call for a conference which leads to founding of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. |
|
November 3 |
William Howard Taft elected President. |
| 1909 |
February 12 |
White liberals and black intellectuals,
including Jane Addams, Mary White Ovington, WEBD, Oswald Garrison
Villard, and John Dewey form the NAACP. |
|
March 31 |
U.S. occupation of Cuba ends. |
|
November 18 |
U.S. warships ordered to Nicaragua. |
| 1910 |
April |
The National Urban League (NUL) is
formed in New York. |
| 1911 |
March 7 |
Twenty thousand U.S. troops dispatched
to Mexican border. |
| 1912 |
November 5 |
Woodrow Wilson elected president. |
| 1914 |
April 21 |
U.S. forces seize customs house at
Vera Cruz, Mexico; Marines occupy the city. |
|
June 28 |
Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdidnand
assassinated. |
| 1915 |
January 14 |
Two hundred whites storm jail in
Monticello, Ga. and lynch four blacks, members of the Daniel Barber
family. |
|
June 21 |
Supreme Court outlaws "grandfather
clauses" used to deny blacks the franchise in Guinn v. United
States. |
|
December 4 |
Dormant Klu Klux Klan revived under new charter
granted by Georgia. |
| 1916 |
March |
U.S. troops enter Mexico in search of Pancho
Villa |
|
May |
U.S. Marines land in Santa Domingo, remain until
1924. |
|
November |
Woodrow Wilson reelected President. |
| 1917 |
April 2 |
Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes first woman
seated in the House of Representatives. |
|
April 16 |
United States enters World War I. Three hundred
thousand blacks will serve in the way; 1,400 will be commissioned
as officers. |
|
July 1-3 |
At least 40 blacks killed in East St. Louis,
Il. race riot. |
|
July 28 |
NAACP organizes a silent march of 10,000 down
Fifth Avenue to protest racism. |
|
August 23 |
Black soldiers and white civilians clash in Houston,
Tx.; 17 whites, two blacks are killed. Thirteen blacks are later executed. |
| 1918 |
Feb. 19-21 |
Organized by WEBD, the first Pan-African Congress
meets in Paris, concurrently with Paris Peace Conference. |
|
July 13-Oct. 1 |
More than 25 race riots occur across U.S., leaving
over 100 dead and thousands wounded. Eighty-three lynchings reported
in 1918. |
|
November 11 |
World War I ends. |
| 1920 |
August 1-2 |
Marcus Garvey's (MG's) Universal Negro Improvement
Association's (UNIA's) National Convention meets in New York; MG speaks
to 25,000 at Madison Square Garden. |
|
November 2 |
Warren G. Harding elected President. |
| 1922-23 |
Oct.-Oct. |
An estimated 500,000 blacks leave the South.
Klan violence increases. Oklahoma placed under martial law because
of terrorist activity by the Klan. |
| 1925 |
May 8 |
A. Philip Randolph (APR) organizes the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters. |
|
August 8 |
Forty thousand Klu Klux Klansmen march down Washington's
Pennsylvania Avenue. |
| 1926 |
May 10 |
U.S. Marines land in Nicaragua. |
| 1927 |
March 7 |
In Nixon v. Herndon, the Supreme Court
strikes down a Texas law excluding blacks from Democratic primaries. |
|
December |
MG, convicted in 1925 for mail fraud, released
from federal prison and deported. |
| 1928 |
November 6 |
Herbert Hoover elected president. Illinois Republican
Congressman Oscar DePriest elected, first black since 1901. |
| 1929 |
January 15 |
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) born in Atlanta. |
|
October 29 |
Stock market crashes, beginning the Great Depression.
Ten lynchings recorded in 1929. |
| 1930 |
March 31 |
After President Hoover nominates North Carolina
Judge John J. Parker to the Supreme Court, the NAACP leads a successful
campaign against his nomination. |
|
June 7 |
The New York Times announces that the
word "Negro" will be spelled with a capital "N." |
| 1931 |
April 6 |
Nine black youths accused of raping two white
women go on trial in Scottsboro, Al. |
| 1932 |
November 8 |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) is elected President,
promising a "New Deal" to fight the Depression. |
| 1934 |
July |
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union organized. |
|
November 7 |
Black Democrat Arthur Mitchell defeats Rep. DePriest
in Chicago. |
| 1934 |
|
Elijah Muhammad--born Elijah Poole in Georgia
in 1897--succeeds W.D. Fard as leader of the Nation of Islam. |
| 1935 |
June 25 |
Joe Louis defeats Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium. |
| 1936 |
August 9 |
American Olympian Jesse Owens wins four Gold
medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, embarrassing Adolph Hitler. |
|
December 8 |
NAACP successfully files Gibbs v. Board of
Education in Montgomery County, Md., equalizing white and black
teachers' salaries. |
|
November 3 |
FDR reelected. |
| 1937 |
March 26 |
William H. Hastie becomes the first black federal
judge. |
|
June 22 |
Joe Louis becomes the heavyweight champion by
defeating James J. Braddock. |
| 1938 |
December 12 |
In Missouri v. ex rel. Gaines, the Supreme
Court rules states must provide equal, if seperate, facilities within
their boundaries. |
| 1939 |
March |
Daughters of the American Revolution refuses
Marian Anderson permission to sing at Washington's Constitution Hall;
Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes arranges her appearance on
Easter Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial, where 75,000 gather to hear
her. |
| 1940 |
February |
Richard Wright's Native Son becomes
a best seller. |
|
March |
Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black to receive
an Oscar for her role as "Mammy" in "Gone with the
Wind." |
|
April |
Virginia legislature adopts black composer James
A. Bland's "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" as the state
song. |
|
May 26-June 4 |
British Expeditionary Forces retreat from Dunkirk. |
|
June 10 |
MG dies in London. |
|
September 27 |
FDR meets with black leaders to discuss discrimination
in the military. |
|
October 8 |
Senate kills anti-lynching bill. |
|
October 9 |
White House declares War Department policy is
"not to intermingle colored and white enlisted personnel in the
same regimental organizations." |
|
October 16 |
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. makes Brigadier General,
becoming the highest ranking black in the armed services. |
|
October 25 |
FDR meets with Committee on Participation of
Negroes in the National Defense Program. |
|
November 5 |
FDR reelected; Henry Wallace elected Vice-President. |
| 1941 |
April 12 |
APR announces "plans for an all-out March
of ten-thousand Negroes on Washington are in the making" to protest
discrimination in defense industries and the military. |
|
April 28 |
Supreme Court rules that seperate railroad facilities
must be substantially equal. |
|
May 1 |
March on Washington (MOW) Committee issues a
formal call for a July 1 march. |
|
June 13 |
New York Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia and Eleanor
Roosevelt met with APR and MOW leadership |
|
June 15 |
FDR issues a memorandum saying "I shall
expect the Office of Production Management to take immediate steps
to facilitate the full utilization of our productive manpower." |
|
June 18 |
FDR FDR meets with MOW Committee leaders. |
|
June 22 |
Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union. |
|
June 25 |
FDR issues Executive Order 8802 establishing
the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) |
| |
June 28 |
APR announces MOW will be postponed. |
|
Oct. 20-21 |
FEPC holds its first hearings in Los Angeles. |
|
December 7 |
Japanese attach Pearl Harbor; U.S. enters World
War II December 8. |
| 1942 |
March |
Fify black organizations declare "that the
Negro people were cool to the war effort because of continued racial
discrimination." |
|
June 16 |
Eighteen thousand blacks pack a New York MOW
rally. |
|
June 26 |
Twenty-six thousand overflow Chicago MOW rally.; |
|
June |
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is organized
by an interracial group in Chicago. |
|
November 3 |
Democrat William L. Dawson elected to Congress
from Chicago. |
| 1943 |
May 12-Aug 2 |
Forty killed in race riots; troops called out
in Mobile and Detroit. |
| 1944 |
April 3 |
In Smith v. Allwright the Supreme Court
rules the white-only primary unconstitutional. |
|
August 1 |
New York Democrat Adam Clayton Powell elected
to Congress. |
|
November 7 |
FDR reelected President. |
|
December 13 |
Black women permitted to enter the Women's Naval
Corps (WAVES). |
| 1945 |
March 12 |
New York establishes the first state FEPC. |
|
April 12 |
FDR dies; Harry S. Truman (HST) succeeds him. |
|
May 7 |
Germany surrenders. |
|
June |
United Nations Charter approved. |
|
July 16 |
First atomic bomb exploded. |
|
August 6 |
Hiroshima destroyed by U.S. atomic bomb. |
|
September 2 |
Japan surrenders; World War II ends. More than
one million blacks served. |
| 1946 |
February 7 |
Senate filibuster kills bill for permanent FEPC. |
|
February |
Malcolm Little sentences to ten years in Massachusetts
prison for burglary. |
|
June 3 |
In Morgan v. Virginia the Supreme Court
outlaws segregation in interstate bus travel. |
|
December 5 |
HST names Committess on Civil Rights to investigate
racial justice. |
| 1947 |
April 9 |
CORE sends "Freedom Riders" on a Journey
of Reconciliation through the upper South to test Morgan v. Virginia. |
| |
April 10 |
Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers. |
|
October 29 |
HST's President Committee on Civil Rights releases
"To Secure These Rights." |
| 1948 |
January 12 |
In Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma,
the Supreme Court rules a state must provide a legal education for
blacks if it offers a legal education to whites. |
|
March 31 |
APR tells a U.S. Senate Committee he will urge
black youth to refuse induction in the armed services unless discrimination
in the Selective Service System is ended. |
|
May 3 |
In Shelley v. Kramer the Supreme Court
rules restrictive housing covenants unenforceable. |
|
June 9 |
Attorney Oliver Hall elected to the Richmond,
Va. City Council. |
|
July 14 |
Southerners walk out of the Democratic National
Convention to protest a civil rights plank. |
|
July 26 |
HST issues Executive Orders 9980 and 9981 creating
a Fair Employment Board to end racial discrimination in federal employment
and a President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity
in the Armed Services. |
|
November 2 |
HST elected President. |
| 1950 |
June 5 |
In Sweatt v. Painter the Supreme Court
rules that equality in education requires more than identical physical
facilities. In McLaurin v. Oklahoma the Court rules that,
once admitted to a previously all-white school, a black students cannot
be segregated within the school. |
|
June 27 |
U.S. enters the Korean War. |
| 1951 |
February 2 |
Martinsville Seven executed in Richmond for raping
a white woman. |
|
April 24 |
University of North Carolina admits first black
student. |
|
May 8 |
Willie McGee executed in Mississippi for raping
a white woman. |
|
May 24 |
Washington, D.C., court outlaws segregation in
District restaurants. |
|
July 12 |
Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson calls out the
National Guard to suppress a riot against a black family who moved
into an all-white neighborhood in Cicero, Il. |
|
October 1 |
The 24th Infantry, the last all-black Army unit,
deactivated. |
|
December 25 |
NAACP leaders Harry T. and Harriet Moore assassinated
in Mims, Fla. |
| 1952 |
January 12 |
University of Tennessee admits black students. |
|
August |
Malcolm Little released from Massachusetts prison. |
|
November 4 |
Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) elected President;
Richard M. Nixon (RN) elected Vice-President. |
|
December 30 |
Tuskeegee Institute reports 1952 was first lynching-free
year in 71 years. |
| 1953 |
March 5 |
Joseph Stalin dies. |
|
May 7 |
French forces surrender at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. |
|
June 8 |
In District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson
Co., Inc. the Supreme Court upholds desegregation of Washington's
restaurants. |
|
June 19 |
Bus boycott protesting unequal treatment begins
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. |
|
June 27 |
Korean armistice signed. |
|
June |
Dr. Walter Ridley becomes first black graduate
of a University of Virginia professional school. |
|
August 4 |
Riot against integrated housing begins in Chicago. |
|
August 20 |
Soviet Union announces the explosion of a hydrogen
bomb. |
| 1954 |
May 17 |
In Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme
Court rules unanimously that segregated public schools are inherently
unequal and unconstitutional, overturning 1896's Plessy v. Ferguson. |
|
June 29 |
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sponsored coup
overthrows the government of Guatemala. |
|
July |
First "White Citizens Council" organzied
in Indianola, Mississippi. |
|
July 21 |
U.S. refuses to sign Geneva Accord on Indochina. |
|
Sept. 7-8 |
Public schools in Baltimore, Md. and Washington,
D.C., desegregated. |
|
September |
Bobby Bland enters the University of Virginia
Engineering School. |
|
November 2 |
Black Detroit Democrat Charles Diggs elected
to Congress. |
|
October |
White Citizens Council chapter organized in Selma,
Alabama. |
| 1955 |
January 18 |
DDE establishes President's Committee on Government
Policy to enforce a non-discriminatory policy in federal hiring. |
|
April 11 |
Roy Wilkins becomes the NAACP's Executive Secretary. |
|
May 7 |
NAACP leader Rev. George Wesley Lee killed Belzoni,
Miss. |
|
May 31 |
In Brown II, the Supreme Court orders
schools integrated, "with all deliberate speed." |
|
July 22 |
Alabama enacts a "Pupil Placement Law"
to circumvent school desegregation. |
|
August 1 |
Georgia teachers are ordered by the State Board
of Education to resign from the NAACP or face firing. |
|
August 13 |
Political activist Lamar Smith killed in Brookhaven,
Miss. |
|
August 28 |
Fourteen-year old Emmett Till kidnapped and murdered
in Money, Miss. |
|
November 25 |
Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) prohibits
segregation in public vehicles and waiting rooms used in interstate
travel. |
|
October 10 |
Supreme Court orders Autherine Lucy admitted
to the University of Alabama. |
|
October 22 |
John Earl Reese killed in Mayflower, Tx. by nightstriders
opposed to black school improvements. |
|
December 1 |
Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her
sear to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. |
|
December 5 |
Parks convicted; a successful one-day boycott
held to protest her arrest. MLK is elected leader of boycott organization,
the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). |
| 1956 |
Januaru 30 |
MLK home bombed in Montgomery. |
|
February 1 |
MIA files lawsuit against segregation. |
|
February 3 |
Autherine Lucy admitted to the Universiy of Alabama. |
|
February 7 |
Alabama students riot; Lucy suspended. |
|
February 21 |
Montgomery grand jury indicts 115 boycott leaders.
Bayard Rustin arrives in Montgomery to advise MLK. |
|
February 28 |
Rustin, Stanley Levinson, Ella J. Baker organize
"In Friendship" in New York to assist southenr activists. |
|
February 29 |
Lucy expelled for making "false" and
"outrageous" statements about university officials. |
|
March 11 |
Nineteen senators and 81 representatives, in
Southern Manifesto, promise to use "all lawful means" to
reverse Brown v. Board of Education. |
|
March 22 |
MLK convicte3d of leading illegal boycott. |
|
April |
South Carolina State College students boycott
classes to protest official harrassment of NAACP. |
|
April 11 |
Singer Nat "King" Cole attacked on
stage in Birmingham. |
|
April 23 |
Supreme Court overturns South Carolina bus segregation
law. |
|
May 27 |
Florida A&M University students in Tallahassee
begin boycott of segregated busses. |
| |
June 1 |
Alabama outlaws NAACP. |
|
June 5 |
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and other organize the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in Birmingham. |
|
June 5 |
In Browder v. Gayle three-judge district
court rules Montgomery's bus segregation is illegal. |
|
June 30 |
Tallahassee bus serve is suspended. |
| |
October 23 |
Hungarian uprising begins. |
|
November 4 |
Soviet troops attackk Budapest and crush Hungarian
revolt. |
|
November 6 |
DDE defeats Stevenson soundly. |
|
November 13 |
Supreme Court affirms Montgomery bus segregation
ruling. |
|
December 20 |
MIA ends bus boycott. |
|
December 23 |
Tallahassee boycott ends; city continues segregation. |
|
December 25 |
Bomb destroys Shuttlesworth's home. |
|
December 26 |
Shuttlesworth, others arrested for breaking Birgmingham's
bus segregation law. |
|
December 27 |
Tallahassee bus segregation declared illegal. |
| 1957 |
January 10-11 |
Sixty meet at Atlanta's Ebeneezer Baptist Church
to form "Sourthern Leadership Conference on Transportation and
Nonviolence"; MLK is chosen chairman. |
|
January 23 |
Willie James Edwards forced by Klansmen to jump
to his death from a railroad bridge in Montgomery. |
|
February 14 |
MLK is elected President of Southern Negro Leadership
Conference in New Orleans. |
|
March |
MLK visits Ghana to attend independence ceremonies. |
|
May 17 |
MLK addresses 15,000 at Prayer Pilgrimage in
Washington at Lincoln Memorial. |
|
June |
MLK meets Vice President RN. Blacks in Tuskeegee,
Alabama, begin boycott to protest gerrymander removing nearly all
blacks from city limits. |
|
August |
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
holds first convention in Montgomery. |
|
September 9 |
1957 Civil Rights Act becomes law. |
|
Sept. 24-25 |
DDE orders federal troops into Little Rock to
halt interference with integration of Central High School. |
|
October 4 |
Soviet Union launches artificial satellite Sputnik. |
| 1958 |
January |
Baker sets up SCLC offices in Atlanta. |
|
January 31 |
U.S. launches satellite Explorer. |
|
February 12 |
SCLC begins "Crusade for Citizenship." |
|
May |
Rev. John Tilley becomes SCLC Executive Director. |
|
June 23 |
MLK, Roy Wilkins, APR and NUL's Lester Granger
meet with DDE. |
|
July 15 |
DDE sends U.S. Marines to Lebanon. |
|
August 19 |
NAACP Youth Council members in Oklahoma City
begin lunch counter sit-in demonstrations. |
|
September 3 |
MLK arrested in Montgomery. |
|
September 20 |
MLK stabbed while autographing Stride
Toward Freedom in New York.
|
|
October 12 |
Atlanta synagogue burned. |
| 1959 |
April 15 |
Tilley resigns; Baker replaces him on temporary
basis. |
|
April 25 |
Mack Charles Parker, accused of rape, is taken
from his jail cell and lynched in Poplarville, Miss. |
|
September 7 |
U.S. Civil Rights Commission asks DDE to appoint
federal registrars in areas where blacks are denied vote. |
|
December |
Fidel Castro's revolutionaries overthrow Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista. |
| 1960 |
February 1 |
Four Greensboro students stage sit-in at Woolworth's
Department store. |
|
February 17 |
Alabama grand jury indicts MLK for tax evasion. |
|
March |
National Liberation Front (NLF) steps up war
against U.S. backed Diem regime in South Vietnam. |
|
March 3 |
Vanderbilt University expels James Lawson for
sit-in participation. |
|
March 7 |
Felton Turner of Houston beaten and hung upside-down
in a tree, initials "KKK" carved into his chest. |
|
March 19 |
San Antonio becomes first city to integrate lunch
counters. |
|
March 20 |
Florida governor Leroy Collins calls lunch counter
segregation "unfair and morally wrong." |
|
April 8 |
Weak civil rights bill survives Senate filibuster. |
|
April 15-17 |
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
organized at SCLC-sponsored conference at Shaw University, Raleigh,
N.C. |
|
April 19 |
Nashvilel civil rights lawyer Z. Alexander Looby's
home bombed. |
|
April 21 |
1960 Civil Rights Act becomes law. |
|
May 5 |
Soviet Union announces it has shot down a U.S.
U-2 spy plane. |
|
May 28 |
All white Alabama jury acquits MLK. |
|
June 24 |
MLK meets Senator John F. Kennedy (JFK). |
|
June 28 |
Rustin resigns from SCLC after condemnation by
Rep. Powell. |
|
July |
SCLC volunteer Robert Moses, traveling for SNCC,
meets Amzie Moore in Mississippi Delta. |
|
July 31 |
Elijah Muhammad calls for an all-black state.
Membership in Nation of Islam estimated at 100,000. |
|
August |
Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker replaces Baker as SCLC's
Executive Director. |
|
September |
North Vietnam backs NLF against U.S. backed Diem
regime. |
|
October 19 |
MLK, fifty others arreted at sit-in at Atlanta's
Rich's Department Store. |
|
October 26 |
MLK's earlier probation revoked; transferred
to Reidsville State Prison. |
|
October 28 |
After intervention from Robert F. Kennedy (RFK),
King is freed on bond. |
|
November 8 |
JFK defeats RN, winning by 119,000 votes out
of 68,800,000 cast. |
|
December |
In Boynton v. Virginia, Supreme Court
prohibits segregation in waiting rooms and restaurants serving interstate
bus passengers. |
| 1961 |
January 11 |
Riot suspends two black students desegregating
University of Georgia. |
|
January 18 |
DDE's farewell address warns against "acquisition
of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrial complex." |
|
January 31 |
CORE's Tom Gaither, nine students arrested in
Rock Hill, South Carolina. |
|
March 13 |
CORE announces Freedom Ride. |
|
April 17 |
CIA trained Cuban exiles unsuccessfully invade
Cuba. |
|
May 4 |
CORE Freedom Ride begins from Washington, D.C.,
to New Orleans to test Boynton v. Virginia. |
|
May 14 |
Freedom Riders attacked by mobs in Anniston,
Alabama and Birmingham. |
|
May 17 |
Nashville students take up Freedom Ride. |
|
May 20 |
Riders assaulted in Montgomery. |
|
May 21-22 |
Riders beseiged in Montgomery church; RFK sends
federal marshals. |
|
June-August |
Justice Department initiates talks with civil
rights groups, foundations on beginning Voter Education Project (VEP). |
|
July |
SCLC begins citizenship classes; Andrew J. Young
hired to direct the program. Moses arrives in McComb. |
|
September |
James Forman becomes SNCC's Executive Secretary. |
|
September 23 |
ICC, at RFK's insistence, issues new rules ending
discrimination in interstate travel, effective December 1, 1961. |
|
September 25 |
Voter registration activist Herbert Lee killed
in McComb, Mississippi. |
|
October |
SNCC workers Charles Sherrod and Cordell Reagon
arrive in Albany, Ga. |
|
November 17 |
Albany Movement formed. |
|
December 1 |
Albany "Freedom Riders" arrested. |
|
Dec. 11-15 |
Five hundred arrested in Albany. |
|
December 16 |
MLK arrested in Albany. |
|
December 18 |
Albany truce; MLK leaves town. |
| 1962 |
Jan. 18-20 |
Student protests over sit-in leaders' expulsions
at Baton Rouge's Southern University, the nation's largest black school,
close it down. |
|
February 26 |
Segregated transportation facilities, both interstate
and intrastate, ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court. |
|
March |
SNCC workers sit-in RFK's office to protest jailings
in Baton Rouge. |
|
March 20 |
FBI installs wiretaps on Levison's office. |
|
April 3 |
Full racial integration of military reserve units,
except the National Guard, ordered by the Defense Department. |
|
April 9 |
Corporal Roman Duckworth shot by a police officer
in Taylorsville, Miss. |
|
June |
Leroy Willis becomes first black graduate of
the University of Virginia College or Arts & Sciences. Secretary
of Defense Robert McNamara visits South Vietnam, says "We're
winning this war." SNCC workers establish voter registration
projects in rural Southwest Ga. |
|
July 10-Aug. 28 |
SCLC renews protests in Albany; MLK in jail July
10-12 & July 27-August 10. |
|
September 9 |
Two balck churches used by SNCC for voter registration
meetings burned in Sasser, Ga. |
|
Sept. 30-Oct.1 |
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black orders James
Meredith admitted to Ole Miss. Meredith enrolls; riot ensues. French
photographer Paul Guihard and Oxford resident Ray Gunter are killed. |
|
October |
Leflore County, Miss., supervisors cut off surplus
food distribution in retaliation against voter drive. |
|
October 23 |
FBI begins Communist Infiltration (COMINFIL)
investigation of SCLC. |
|
Oct. 14-28 |
Cuban missle crisis. |
|
Nov. 7-8 |
Edward Brooke elected Massachusetts Attorney
General, Leroy Johnson Georgia State Senator, Augustus Hawkins first
black from California in Congress. |
|
November 20 |
RFK authorizes wire tap on Levison's home phone. |
|
November 20 |
JFK upholds 1960 campaign promise to eliminate
housing segregation with "stroke of a pen." |
| 1963 |
January |
SNCC's Moses, six otehrs, sue RFK and J. Edgar
Hoover, FBI Director, for failure to enforce laws demanding protection
of civil rights workers. |
|
January 9-10 |
SCLC meets in Dorchester, Ga., to plan Birmingham
campaign. |
|
January 28 |
Harvey Gantt enrolls in Clemson College. |
|
February |
SNCC workers begin project in Selma. |
|
February 6 |
MLK and Walker meet in Brimingham with ACMHR
board. |
|
February 28 |
SNCC worker Jimmy Travis shot outside Greenwood,
Miss. |
|
March 5 |
Mayoral results delay Birmingham campaign until
run-off. |
|
April 2 |
Albert Boutwell defeats Eugene "Bull"
Connor for Mayor of Birmingham. |
|
April 3 |
SCLC and ACMHR begin Birmingham protests. |
|
April 12-20 |
MLK writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail." |
|
April 23 |
Baltimore postal worker and CORE volunteer William
Moore killed in Atalla, Al., while on a march from Baltimore to Jackson,
Miss. |
|
May |
Buddhist revolt begins with Diem regime in South
Vietnam. |
|
May 2-7 |
SCLC organizes children's demonstrations in Birmingham. |
|
May 8 |
SCLC suspends demonstrations. |
|
May 10 |
ACMHR and SCLC sign Birmingham desegregation
agreement. |
|
May 31 |
Danville, Va., demonstrations begin. |
|
June 11 |
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace fails to halt
admission of black student at University of Alabama; JFK federalizes
National Guard and promises additional civil rights legislation. |
|
June 12 |
Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers
is assassinated in Jackson, Miss. |
|
June 12 |
After night rioting, SCLC suspends demonstrations
in Savannah, Ga. |
|
June 21 |
Danville grand jury indicts SNCC workers for
"inciting the colored population to acts of violence against
the white population." |
|
June-August |
Civil rights protests in almost every American
city. |
|
July 22 |
MLK adn other civil rights leaders meet JFK to
discuss March on Washington. Burke Marshall, RFK and JFK tell King
to end relationship with Jack O'Dell and Levison. |
|
July 22 |
FBI requests wiretaps on New York home of SCLC
lawyer Clarence Jones; RFK approves. |
|
August 2 |
Savannah desegregation agreement reached. |
|
August |
Three SNCC workers and CORE worker indicted for
inciting insurrection in Americus, Ga. Federal grand jury in Macon
indicts nine Albany Movement leaders and SNCC worker for conspiracy
to obstruct justice. |
|
August 28 |
Two hundred fifty thousand gather at March on
Washington as MLK gives "I Have a Dream" speech. |
|
September 15 |
Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church bombed;
four girls--Addie Mae Collins, Carole Denise McNair, Carole Rosamond
Robertson, Cynthia Diane Wesley--are killed. Later that day, a white
youth shoots and kills 13-year old Virgil Ware. |
|
October 21 |
RFK approves wiretap on MLK's home, New York
and Atlanta SCLC offices. |
|
October 22 |
Two hundred and fifty thousand school children
boycott Chicago's segregated schools. |
|
November 2 |
U.S. sanctioned coup in South Vietnam leads to
Diem's overthrow and murder. |
|
November 22 |
JFK assassinated in Dallas. |
|
December 3 |
MLK meets President Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). |
|
December 23 |
FBI holds Washington meeting to discuss discrediting
MLK. |
| 1964 |
January 5-7 |
FBI conducts microphone surveillance of MLK's
room at Washington's Willar Hotel; 14 other "bugs" are used
against him between January, 1964 and November ,1965. |
|
January 27 |
FBI installs "misur" (microphone surveillance)
at MLK's Milwaulkee hotel room. |
|
January 31 |
Louis Allen, witness to September 25, 1961 Herbert
Lee slaying, killed in McComb. |
|
Jan.-Feb. |
James Bevel and Diane Nash draft plan for massive
Alabama right-to-vote demonstrations. |
|
March 12 |
Malcolm X announces withdrawal from the Nation
of Islam. |
|
Mar. 28-Apr. 4 |
SCLC demonstrations in St. Augustine, Florida. |
|
April 26 |
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) founded
in Jackson. |
|
Spring |
Alabama Governor Wallace enters Democratic Presidential
Primaries in Maryland, Wisconsin and Indiana. |
|
June 13 |
Summer volunteers begin training in Oxford, Oh. |
|
June 21 |
CORE worker Mickey Schwermer, volunteer Andrew
Goodman & CORE volunteer James Chaney disappear near Philadelphia,
Miss. |
|
July 2 |
1964 Civil Rights Act--integrating public accomodations--becomes
law. |
|
July 7 |
FBI installs three additional "technical
surveillances" at Atlanta SCLC office. |
|
July 11 |
Klu Klux Klansmen shoot and kill Lt. Colonel
Lemeul Augustus Penn near Colbert, Georgia. |
|
July 12 |
The lower half of Charles Eddie Moore's body
and the headless body of Henry Hezekiah Dee pulled from Mississippi
River near Tallulah, La.; FBI believes they wre murdered by Klansmen
May 2. |
|
July 18-Aug. 30 |
Racial disturbances sweep urban America. |
|
July 29 |
SCLC, NAACP and NUL agree to demonstration moratorium
until after presidential election; SNCC and CORE reject moratorium. |
|
July |
Walker leaves SCLC; Young becomes Executive Director. |
|
August 2-3 |
North Vietnamese boats allegedly attack U.S.
ships in Gulf og Tonkin; LBJ orders retalitory attack. |
|
August 4 |
Bodies fo Schwermer, Goodman, and Chaney are
found in an earthen dam near Phildelphia, Miss. |
|
August 7 |
House (416-0) and Senate (88-2) pass "Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution," approving U.S. action in Southeast Asia. |
|
Aug. 22-27 |
MFDP contests seating of all-white regular Democrats
at Atlantic City Convention. |
|
August 28 |
Rioting breaks out in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
|
August 30 |
LBJ signs Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 |
|
September 6 |
14-year old Herbert Oarsby's body pulled from
the Big Black River near Canton, Miss., dressed in a CORE t-shirt. |
|
September 11 |
SNCC delegation visits Guinea, West Africa. |
|
September 25 |
LBJ says "We don't want our American boys
to do the fighting for Asian boys. We don't want to...get tied down
in a land war in Asia." |
|
Sept. 28-30 |
SCLC convention endorses LBJ |
|
October 14 |
MLK wins Nobel Peace Prize |
|
October |
SNCC's John Lewis and Don Harris meet with Malcolm
X in Nairobi. Nikita Krushchev falls from power in Soviet Union. |
|
November 3 |
LBJ defeats Barry Goldwater with 61% of the popular
vote. |
|
November 18 |
Hoover calls MLK "the most notorious liar
in America." |
| 1965 |
January 2 |
MLK, SCLC join Selma vote campaign. |
|
January 5 |
MLK discovers FBI blackmail letter and tape. |
|
Febr. 1-5 |
MLK in Selma jail. |
|
February 6 |
Viet Cong attack U.S. base at Pleiku; LBJ orders
bombing of North Vietnam. |
|
February 9 |
MLK discusses need for voting legislation with
Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, Vice President Hubert Humphrey
and LBJ. |
|
February 18 |
State troopers attack marchers to site of March
7 attack, turns around. |
|
February 26 |
Jackson dies; bevel proposes Selma to Montgomery
march. |
|
March 2 |
LBJ orders continuous bombing of North Vietnam. |
|
March 7 |
Police, troopers attack marchers at Selma's Edmund
Pettis Bridge. |
|
March 8 |
3,500 U.S. Marines land at Da Nang. |
|
March 9 |
MLK leads marchers to site of March 7 attack,
turns around. |
|
March 11 |
Rev. James Reeb dies after attack by Selma whites. |
|
March 15 |
LBJ announces voting rights legislation. |
|
March 16 |
SNCC Montgomery marchers attacked by mounted
police. |
|
March 22-25 |
Selma to Montgomery march. Detroit housewife
Viola Liuzzo murdered as she drives marchers back to Selma. |
|
April 17 |
25,000 march against war in Washington, SNCC's
Moses speaks. |
|
Spril 28 |
LBJ sends Marines to Dominican Republic. |
|
June 2 |
Black deputy sherriff Oneal Moore killed by nightriders
near Varnado, La. |
|
July 18 |
Willie Brewster killed by nightriders in Annisto,
Alabama. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
| 1900 |
July 24-27 |
Black homes and schools destroyed in New Orleans
race riot. |
|
November 6 |
DDE defeats Stevenson soundly. |
