Synopsis of the Civil Rights movement in USA to 1965

1. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that
all men are created equal. (1776)

2. President Abraham Lincoln at
Gettysburg, PA (1863) Fourscore and seven
years ago our fathers
brought forth, upon
this continent, a new
nation, conceived in
liberty and dedicated
to the proposition
that "all men are
created equal."

3. Throughout the Jim Crow
South (1890-1960), state
laws required blacks and
whites to use separate
facilities, attend different
schools, sit in different
places in theaters and
buses, and even to be
buried in different areas in
cemeteries—(http://www.northcarolinahistory.
org/encyclopedia/322/entry/
Laws separated people by the
color of their skin.

4. The Supreme Court rules on the
landmark case Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka, Kans.,
unanimously agreeing that
segregation in public schools is
unconstitutional.
...ruling that "separate educational
facilities are inherently unequal."
Read more: Civil Rights Timeline http://www.infoplease.
com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#ixzz3OXAS8xBE
Read more: Civil Rights Timeline http://www.infoplease.
com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#ixzz3OXAA4Qz
Supreme Court Ruling (1954)

5. NAACP member Rosa Parks
refuses to give up her seat at
the front of the "colored
section" of a bus to a white
passenger, defying a southern
custom of the time. In response
to her arrest the Montgomery
black community launches a
bus boycott, which will last for
more than a year, until the
buses are desegregated Dec.
21, 1956.
Read more: Civil Rights Timeline
http://www.infoplease.
com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.
html#ixzz3OXBSovfm
Civil Rights Movement
(1955)

6. “Our internal aim is to become immediately involved in a mass
voter registration drive. But we don't believe in voter registration
without voter education. We believe that our people should be
educated into the science of politics, so that they will know what
a vote is for, and what a vote is supposed to produce, and also
how to utilize this united voting power so that you can control
the politics of your own community, and the politicians that
represent that community. We're for that.
And in that line we will work with all others, even civil rights
groups, who are dedicated to increase the number of Black
registered voters in the South. The only area in which we differ
with them is this: we don't believe that young students should
be sent into Mississippi, Alabama, and these other places
without some kind of protection. So we will join in with them in
their voter registration [Applause] and help to train brothers in
the arts that are necessary in this day and age to enable one to
continue his existence upon this earth.”
Source: http://www.malcolm-x.org/speeches/spc_021465.htm
Malcolm X

7. (Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College
begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch
counter. Although they are refused service, they
are allowed to stay at the counter. The event
triggers many similar nonviolent protests
throughout the South. Six months later the
original four protesters are served lunch at the
same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would
be effective throughout the Deep South in
integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters,
libraries, and other public facilities.
April (Raleigh, N.C.) The Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at
Shaw University, providing young blacks with a
place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later
grows into a more radical organization, especially
under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael
(1966–1967).
North Carolina,
1960

8. Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to
register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to
restrict black voting are made illegal.
Read more: Civil Rights Timeline http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html#ixzz3OXEQxHNF
An Important Year: 1965
(Watts, Calif.) Race riots erupt in a black section of
Los Angeles.
Sept. 24, 1965
Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough
to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues
Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative
action for the first time. It requires government
contractors to "take affirmative action" toward
prospective minority employees in all aspects of
hiring and employment.

9. http://www.schooltube.
com/video/9cc180776a0ae7c28129/Let%
20Freedom%20Ring%20-%20MLK%20Rap%
20Song
Let Freedom Ring Rap