annonJan. 15, 1929 – Dr. King is born – Born on Jan.
15, 1929, inAtlanta, Ga. , he was thesecond of three children of the Rev. Michael (later Martin) andAlbertaWilliams King. Sept. 1, 1954 – Dr.
King becomes pastor – In 1954, King accepted hisfirst pastorate–theDexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. He and his wife,Coretta Scott King, whom he had met and married (June 1953) while atBoston University. Dec. 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks defies city segregation – Often called”the mother of the civilrights movement,” Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, b.
Tuskegee, Ala. , Feb. 4,1913, sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott that led to a 1956Supreme Court order outlawing discriminatory practices on Montgomerybuses. In December 1955, returning home from her assistant tailor jobinMontgomery, Parks refused a bus driver’s order to surrender her seatto awhite man. She was jailed and fined $14.
Dec. 5, 1955 – Montgomery bus boycott- Although precipitated by thearrest of RosaParks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 was actually acollectiveresponse to decades of intimidation, harassment and discriminationofAlabama’s African American population. By 1955, judicial decisionswerestill the principal means of struggle for civil rights, even thoughpicketing,marches and boycotts sometimes punctuated the litigation. The boycott,which lasted for more than a year, was almost 100 percent effective.
Dec. 21, 1956 – Bus segregation declared illegal – The boycott’ssucceeded indesegregating public facilities in the South and also in obtainingcivil rightslegislation from Congress. Civil Rights TimelineSept. 24, 1957 – May 2, 1963Sept. 24, 1957 – School integration – In September 1957 the statereceived nationalattention when Gov.
Orval E. Faubus (in office 1955-67) tried topreventthe integration of Little Rock Central High School. President DwightD. Eisenhower quickly intervened, in part by sending federal troops toLittleRock, and several black students were enrolled at Central High School. Aug. 19, 1958 – Student sit-ins – In spite of the events in LittleRock or Montgomery, orSupreme Court decisions, segregation still pervaded American societyby1960.
While protests and boycotts achieved moderate successes indesegregating aspects of education and transportation, otherfacilities suchas restaurants, theaters, libraries, amusement parks and churcheseitherbarred or limited access to African Americans, or maintained separate,invariably inferior, facilities for black patrons. Nowhere was thecontradiction of accepting money with one hand while withholdingservicewith the other so glaring as the lunch counters of five-and-ten centstoresand department stores. This situation coincided with a growing dissatisfaction among theyoungblack population. Although many of them enjoyed political, educationandeconomic rights undreamed of by their elders, the remaining barriersseemed as high as ever. Often violence, threats and politicalmachinations,such as token integration maintained the status quo. This exhibitfeatures arestored dime store lunch counter, populated with student protesters,andincludes audio visual segments of the events.
May 3, 1961 – “Freedom Riders” – The Congress of Racial Equalityorganizes the”Freedom Riders. “Sept. 30, 1962 – University Riot – During the 1960s, Mississippi wasa center of the CivilRights movement. Despite the 1954 Supreme Court decision makingsegregated schools illegal, the state did not quickly instituteracialintegration. In 1962 a black student, James Meredith, attempted toattendthe University of Mississippi law school.
His admission was blocked,andduring the subsequent violence, federal troops were sent to restoreorder toa 15 hour riot. Violent incidents against blacks took place as thestrugglefor integration continued. May 2, 1963 – Youth Marches – Youth Marches occur at City Hall. Civil Rights TimelineAug.
28, 1963 – May 7, 1965Aug. 28, 1963 – King delivers his “I have a dream” speech – Kingorganized the massiveMarch on Washington (Aug. 28, 1963) where, in his brilliant “I HaveaDream” speech, he “subpoenaed the conscience of the nation beforethejudgment seat of morality. “Jan.
23, 1964 – 24th Amendment ratified – The 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, proposed by Congress on Aug. 27, 1962, and ratifiedJan. 23, 1964, bans the use of poll taxes in federal elections (a deviceimposedby some states to circumvent the 15th Amendment’s guarantee of equalvoting rights). Intended to alleviate the burdens of black and poorcitizens,it states that in any presidential or congressional election, nocitizen can bedenied, by the state or federal government, the right to vote becauseoffailure to pay either a poll tax or any other tax.
Jul. 2, 1964 – Civil Rights Act – Congress enacted new legislation inan attempt toovercome local and state obstruction to the exercise of citizenshiprights byblacks. These efforts culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964,whichprohibited discrimination in employment and established the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission. This major piece of
