Greensboro Sit-in

February 1, 1960—Four black college freshmen entered a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter and demanded service. The students were refused, but they did not leave the establishment. Instead they sat for the rest of the day in the restaurant in protest. The following day, the four students returned with 19 fellow classmates. On the third day, 85 students joined the sit-in, and by the end of the week approximately 1,000 were taking part. Although they were still denied service, the sit-in continued and stimulated new variations on peaceful disobedience; within two months 54 cities across nine states were witness to the peaceful protests.

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Freedom Rides

Spring & Summer 1961—Sponsored by CORE & SNCC after the Boynton v. Virginia, 1,000 black and white student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. Several of the groups are attacked by angry mobs along the way.

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Birmingham Campaign

Spring 1963—Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues at the SCLC launched Project Confrontation, an ambitious program that wedded economic pressure and large scale direct action protest to undermine the city's rigid system of segregation. After conducting sit-ins, hosting mass meetings, and waging an economic boycott, the campaign received national media attention on April 7th when Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor loosed police attack dogs on marchers undertaking nonviolent protest. King's decision to disregard a federal court injunction barring further demonstrations resulted in his arrest. While imprisoned, King penned "A Letter from Birmingham Jail," his eloquent response to critics of direct action protest. On May 3rd, Birmingham police used high pressure fire hoses to disrupt a peaceful demonstration composed largely of students, thereby provoking national outrage and prompting federal intervention. Despite the high cost, events in Birmingham helped galvanize national support for civil rights reform and contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. @

March on Washington

August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in for a political rally organized by a number of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations. The event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality.

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964

July 2, 1964—Segregation on the grounds of race, religion or national origin was banned at all places of public accommodation, including courthouses, parks, restaurants, theaters, sports arenas and hotels. No longer could blacks and other minorities be denied service simply based on the color of their skin. The act also barred race, religious, national origin and gender discrimination by employers and labor unions, and created an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the power to file lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved workers. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.

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Freedom Summer

Summer 1964—A voter registration drive in Mississippi spearheaded by the collaboration of civil rights groups. The campaign drew the activism of thousands of black and white civil rights workers, many of whom were students from the north, and was marred by the abduction and murder of three such workers at the hands of white racists

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Selma March

March 7, 1965—Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march, where local African Americans, the SNCC and the SCLC had been campaigning for voting rights.

On March 7, as the march began the demonstrators are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

August 6, 1965—President Johnson signed this act into law which banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50% of the nonwhite population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections (in 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal in federal elections; poll taxes in state elections were banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court).

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Watts Riot

Spurred from an incident on August 11, 1965 when a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by a white California Highway Patrolman, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. As a crowd on onlookers gathered at the scene of the arrest, strained tensions between police officers and the crowd erupted in a violent exchange. The outbreak of violence that followed the arrest immediately touched off a large-scale uprising centered in the commercial section of a deeply impoverished African American neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. For several days, protestors overturned and burned automobiles and looted and damaged grocery stores, liquor stores, department stores, and pawnshops. Over the course of the six-day riot, over 14,000 California National Guard troops were mobilized in South Los Angeles and a curfew zone encompassing over forty-five miles was established in an attempt to restore public order. All told, the rioting claimed the lives of thirty-four people, resulted in more than one thousand reported injuries, and almost four thousand arrests before order was restored on August 17. Throughout the crisis, public officials advanced the argument that the unrest was the work outside agitators; however, an official investigation, prompted by Governor Pat Brown, found that the disturbance was a result of the community's longstanding grievances and growing discontentment with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. *

Black Panther Party

An African-American organization established to promote Black Power and self-defense through acts of social agitation. It achieved national and international presence through their deep involvement in the local community. The Black Power movement was one of the most significant movements (with regards to social, political, and cultural aspects). " The movement had provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity.

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