History of the United States and the Civil Rights Movement

1638---U.S. slave trading begins in Boston, Massachusetts

1688---Quakers protest slave trading in Pennsylvania

1780---Pennsylvania is the first state to abolish slavery

1831---Nat Turner's slave revolt. At least 57 whites are killed in Virginia.

March 6, 1857---Dred Scott Decistion: Supreme Court rules that blacks cannot be citizens, and therefore have no rights.

1929---Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is born.

May 17, 1954---Brown v. Board of Education decision bans segregation in public schools. Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer for the NAACP, will eventually become the first black Supreme Court justice.

December 1, 1955---Rosa Parks defies bus segregation laws in Montgomery, Alabama. This event leads to a 381-day boycott of the bus system in Montgomery. The boycott is successful, and leads to desegregation of public facilities in the South and civil rights legislation from Congress.

September 21, 1957---School integration begins in Alabama. Governor Orville Faubus attempts to prevent integration of the high school, but President Eisenhower intervenes by dispatching one thousand paratroopers to the city. Integration succeeds.

1958---Student sit-ins begin in an attempt to achieve equal treatment in private facilities such as restaurants and churches.

1960---The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is formed.

May 3, 1961---Freedom Rides begin. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends student volunteers to test the implementation of laws prohibiting segregation of interstate travel. The first problems occur two weeks later, when an Alabama mob sets their bus on fire.

September 30, 1962---University Riots begin in Mississippi when a black student, James Meredith, is blocked from enrolling in the University of Mississippi law school despite the Supreme Court decision that integrated the schools. Federal troops are sent in to restore order, but a 15-hour riot occurs anyway.

1963---Martin Luther King, Jr. and other ministers are arrested during a march in Burmingham, Alabama. Police then use fire hoses and police dogs in an attempt to deter marchers.

June 12, 1963---Medgar Evers, the leader of the NAACP, is assassinated near his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

August 28, 1963---King gives the "I have a dream" speech and organizes a march in Washington D.C.

January 23, 1964---Corgress ratifies 24th Amendment, which bans poll taxes (used to undermine the 15th Amendment and prevent blacks from voting).

August 5, 1964---Three Mississippi civil rights workers are declared missing. Their bodies are found when President Johnson sends military personnel to assist the search. It is later discovered the that police had turned the men over to the Klu Klux Klan.

July 2, 1964---Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress. This act prohibited discrimination public facilities (e.g., restaurants and hotels).

1964---King wins Nobel Peace Prize.

February 21, 1965---Malcolm X is murdered.

August 6, 1965---Voting Rights Act is passed. This act restricts the use of literacy tests (also used to prevent blacks from voting).

1965---Riots in Los Angeles. Minor riots occur sporadically for the next three years.

June 6, 1966---James Meredith (see September, 1962) is assassinated after organizing a voting rights march.

April 4, 1968---Dr. King is assassinated by James Earl Ray; debates continue as to whether he acted alone or with help.