CIVIL RIGHTS TIMELINE
Important milestones towards justice
17 May 1954 BROWN VS BOARD OF EDUCATION
The United States Supreme Court makes the landmark ruling that segregation of students on the basis of race is unconstitutional, essentially ending all-white school policies and the ‘separate but equal’ rules of Jim Crow.
1 December 1955 ROSA PARKS
As part of an ongoing and organised protest against the segregation of buses in Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat when the driver moves the dividing line of the bus back, sparking a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and focusing national attention on the issue.
September 1957 THE LITTLE ROCK NINE
Nine African American students attend Little Rock Central High School for the first time; a school that had been all-white up until that point. A large mob and members of the Arkansas National Guard block their path to the school, ultimately requiring the students to have military protection to enter after weeks of protest.
1 February 1960 THE GREENSBORO FOUR
Four students begin a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter of Woolworth department store. Denied service, they refuse to leave when asked and remain seated until closing. They return again the next day with 20 more students, with the sit-in growing in the following weeks to take up every seat.
14 November 1960 RUBY BRIDGES
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges hopes to attend the previously allwhite school of William Frantz Elementary in New Orleans. She requires an armed escort by federal marshals to navigate the angry mob leading up to and outside the school. This continues every day of the school year and she is taught alone in an empty classroom by her teacher, Barbara Henry.
4 May 1961 THE FREEDOM RIDES
Following the protests of the bus boycott started by Rosa Parks, the Freedom Rides are intended to test new rulings banning segregation on interstate travel. Seven African American and six white protesters board two buses and face violence in South Carolina on 14 May when a bus is forced to stop to change a tyre.
3 April 1963 BIRMINGHAM
The Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrations against segregation encompass sit-ins, boycotts, mass protests and marches to City Hall. Martin Luther King is arrested on 12 April for violating anti-protest rules. The authorities use fire hoses and dogs against protesters, causing national outrage and prompting JFK to propose a Civil Rights Bill.
28 August 1963 MARCH ON WASHINGTON
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is the culmination of protests throughout 1963. An estimated 250,000 people gather peacefully on the National Mall in Washington DC, where they hear speeches from Civil Rights leaders like a young John Lewis and, famously, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
2 July 1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
Picking up and strengthening the proposal by President Kennedy before his assassination, Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law.
It is intended to end racial discrimination in the workplace and in finding employment, end voter discrimination and end segregation of public facilities.
7 March 1965 THE SELMA MARCH
A march from Selma in Alabama to Montgomery is organised to protest against voting discrimination and to advocate for a federal voting law. The attempt is met with vicious violence by state troopers. A second attempt led by King is stopped short when troopers appear to make way to them. A final attempt on 21 March is completed, with 25,000 in attendance.