Civil Rights Timeline

1948 - Truman signs law to desegregate in the armed forces 1954 - landmark case, Brown vs Board of education - unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. 1955 - NAACP member Rosa Parkes refuses to give up her seat in a bus in Montgomery, leading to a successful year long bus boycott by the black community. 1956 - Victory for the bus boycott and desegregation of buses in Montgomery 1957 - 'Little Rock Nine' students are blocked from entering a formerly 'white only' Central High School by State Troops. US president Eisenhower sends in The National Guard to support the students action. 1960 - Student sit ins at Lunch counters and public places 1961 - 'Freedom Riders', on interstate buses in the South, test out the new laws prohibiting segregation. 1963 - Protests marches against segregation in Birmingham get international attention when the police use police dogs and hoses against civil rights protesters. 1963 - March on Washington - Martin Luther King delivers 'I have a dream speech' 1964 - 'Freedom Summer' - civil rights movement to register black voters. 1964 - Civil Rights Act comes into law , prohibiting discrimination in public places.. 1965 - Selma to Montgomery March to support voting rights. Attacked by police. 'Bloody Sunday' 1965 - Voting Rights Act passed. Tests used to restrict black voting are made illegal. 1968 - Martin Luther King is shot.

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