African-American Studies

In 1954-The U.S Supreme Court announces school segregation unauthorized in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.

In 1955-Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the Montgomery , Alabama , bus as required by city ordinance; boycott follows and bus segregation ordinance is announced unconstitutional. Federal Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation on interstate trains and buses.

In 1956-Coalition of Southern congressman calls for massive resistance to Supreme Court desegregation rulings.

In 1957-Arkansas Gov. Orval Rubus uses National Guard to block nine black students from attending a Little Rock High School ; following a court order, President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to ensure compliance.

In 1960-Four black college students begin sit-ins at lunch counter of a Greensboro , North Carolina , restaurant where black patrons are not served. Congress approves a watered-down voting rights act after a filibuster by Southern senators.

In 1961-Freedom Rides begin from Washington D.C. , into Southern states.

In 1962-President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend. The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all transportation facilities. The Department of Defense orders full integration of military reserve units, the National Guard excluded.

In 1963-Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers is killed by a sniper's bullet. Race riots prompt modified marital law in Cambridge , Maryland . Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his I have a Dream speech of hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington . Church bombing in Birmingham , Alabama , leaves four young black girls dead.

In 1964-Congress passes Civil Rights Act Declaring discrimination based on race illegal after 75-day long filibuster. Three civil rights workers disappear in Mississippi after being stopped for speeding; found buried six weeks later. Riots in Harlem, Philadelphia .

In 1965-March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand protection for voting rights; two civil rights workers slain earlier in the year in Selma. Malcolm X assassinated. Riots in Watts, Los Angeles . New voting rights signed.

In 1966-Edward Brooke, R-Massachusetts, elected first black U.S senator in 85 years.

In 1967-Riots in Detroit , Newark , New Jersey . Thurgood Marshall first black to be named to the Supreme Court. Carl Stokes ( Cleveland ) and Richard G. Hatcher ( Gary , Indiana ) elected first black mayors of major U.S cities.

In 1968-Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated im