Coming of Age in Mississippi | Civil Rights Movement Timeline

1865: The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States.

1868: The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "equal protection rights" to all citizens.

1870: The Fifteenth Amendment gives all male citizens the right to vote.

1896: The Plessy v. Ferguson case sets a precedent for racial segregation in public facilities.

1910: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

1941: A. Philip Randolph calls for a march on Washington to end discrimination in war industries and to integrate the military.

1942: The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago.

1954: The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case ends legal racial segregation in public schools.

1955: Black Chicago resident Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi after flirting with a white woman.

1955–56: Dr. King leads the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama.

1957: Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is desegregated.

February 1960: Black students participate in a Woolworth's sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina.

April 1960: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded by sit-in leaders on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

1961: The Freedom Riders travel to the South on interstate buses to protest segregation.

1964: Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner are murdered in Mississippi.

1962: The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), an umbrella of civil rights groups, is founded in Mississippi.

1962: The Bailey v. Patterson case makes segregated transportation facilities illegal.

October 1962: The University of Mississippi admits its first black student, James Meredith.

1963: Law enforcement uses violence on peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama.

May 1963: Activists participate in a Woolworth's sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi.

June 1963: Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated in Jackson, Mississippi.

August 1963: Civil rights activists gather for the March on Washington; Dr. King makes his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

September 1963: The 16th Street Baptist Church is bombed in Alabama, killing four young girls.

November 1963: Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

January 1964: The Twenty-Fourth Amendment is ratified, making poll taxes illegal.

July 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in public facilities.

Summer 1964: CORE and COFO activists gather for the Freedom Summer to increase black voter registration.

December 1964: Dr. King receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

February 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City.

August 6, 1965: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws discriminatory voting practices.

August 11–16, 1965: The Watts riots take place in Los Angeles.

1968: Dr. King is assassinated in Memphis.