Civil Rights Movement timeline
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First Installment Of Uncle Tom's Cabin Is Published
On June 5, 1851, Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly began to appear in serial form in the Washington National Era, an abolitionist weekly.... Read more
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United States Observes the First Negro History Week Later Known as Black History Month
Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 - April 3, 1950) was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association... Read more
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Coretta Scott Is Born
Coretta Scott was born April 27, 1927, in Heiberger, near Marion, Alabama. She spent her childhood on her parents' farm in Heiberger. The farm had... Read more
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Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Is Born
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., twentieth-century America's most compelling and effective civil rights leader, was born on January 15, 1929, in... Read more
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Rosa Parks first incident on segregated bus
For years, the black community had complained that the situation was unfair, and Parks was no exception: "My resisting being mistreated on the bus... Read more
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Rosa Parks joins NAACP and becomes active in Civil Rights Movement
In December 1943, Parks became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected volunteer secretary... Read more
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Jackie Robinson arrested for refusing to move to back of military bus
While awaiting results of hospital tests on his prior ankle injury from junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow black officer's... Read more
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Coretta Scott Enrolls At Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio
Wanting a better life for their children, the Scotts sent all three to college. Coretta, who graduated at the top of her high school class in 1945,... Read more
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Jackie Robinson Signs with Brooklyn Dodgers' Organization
Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers signs Jackie Robinson to a contract and assigns him to the team's... Read more
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Jackie Robinson plays first regular season game with Montreal Royals
Jackie Robinson plays his first professional baseball game for the Montreal Royals at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Montreal... Read more
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Jackie Robinson plays in first game as a major leaguer with Brooklyn Dodgers
In his first season, with Eddie Stanky entrenched at second base for the Dodgers, Robinson was forced to play first base. On April 15, 1947... Read more
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Jackie Robinson wins National League Most Valuable Player (MVP)
Jackie Robinson won the Most Valuable Player award for the National League, leading the league with a .342 batting average and 37 stolen bases. ... Read more
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Coretta Scott Meets Martin Luther King Jr.
I always believed that there was a purpose for my life, and that I had to seek that purpose, and that if I discovered that purpose, then I believed... Read more
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Coretta Scott Marries Martin Luther King Jr.
When he proposed, she deliberated for six months before saying yes, and they were married in the garden of her parents' house on June 18, 1953. The... Read more
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US Supreme Court Rules on Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier... Read more
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The Murder of Emmett Till
In August 1955, a fourteen-year-old black boy whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till, a teen from Chicago,... Read more
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All-White Jury Acquitted J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for the Murder of Emmett Till
Mrs. Bradley traveled to Mississippi to testify at the trial, staying in the home of Dr. T.R.M. Howard in the all-black town of Mound Bayou. Others... Read more
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's... Read more
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Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Seat on Bus
I did not get on the bus to get arrested; I got on the bus to go home. Read more
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Nine black students are prevented from entering formerly all-white Little Rock Central High School by the Arkansas National Guard
The Little Rock Nine was a group of African-American students who were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The ensuing Little Rock... Read more
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President Eisenhower Signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since... Read more
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Four black students sit at a segregated lunch counter in Woolworth's, sparking the Greensboro sit-ins
The sit-ins were very significant to the movement. They symbolized a change in the mood of African-American people. Up until then, we had accepted... Read more
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The first Freedom Ride leaves Washington DC for racially-segregated South
Civil Rights activists called Freedom Riders rode on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme... Read more
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Becomes Involved in the Albany Movement
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, on November 17, 1961. Local activists, the Student Nonviolent... Read more
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Jackie Robinson enshrined in Baseball Hall of Fame
In his first year of eligibility for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, Robinson encouraged voters to consider only his on-field qualifications,... Read more