Timeline 1960-1969
1960
January
2nd—John F Kennedy announces his campaign for presidency against Richard Nixon.
February
1st—The Greensboro Sit-Ins
In Greensboro, NC four Black men from NCA&T — Ezell Blair Jr, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond — sit down at Woolworth's "whites only" lunch counter and ask to be served coffee and doughnuts. They are refused but stay until the store closes and refusing to leave their seats until they are served. The next day they return, now joined by Billy Smith, Clarence Henderson, and others. They sit from 11am to 3pm but again are not served. While they wait, they study and do their schoolwork.
Sit-ins became a popular form of non-violent protest that was used mostly be college age activists.
March
5th/12th –Tallahassee students are performing sit-ins and the police respond violently by arresting approximately 250 students. After the arrests on the 12th, close to 1,000 — mostly Black, some white — march to protest the arrests. The cops attack them with teargas.
April
15th—The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded to organize, educate, and empower student leaders in the civil rights movement.
May
2nd—Dwight D Eisenhower signs The Civil Rights Act of 1960. This act protected voter rights and established penalties for impeding a person’s right to vote. The act extended the activation of the Civil Rights Commission to oversee voter registration and practices as a well as seal loopholes in the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
November
9th—John F Kennedy wins the Presidential Election.
15th/16th—Riots over the racial integration of public schools explode in New Orleans.
December
5th—Boynton v. Virginia, the supreme court rules that segregation in bus facilities is against the Interstate Commerce Act.
1961
January
20th—John F. Kennedy is sworn into office as the 35th President.
1962
January
23rd—The 24th Amendment is ratified by the states. The amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax
November
20th--Kennedy issues Executive Order 11063, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally owned housing, in public housing built with federal funds, and in new housing built with loans from federal agencies.
1963
August
28th—King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speechMartin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” was written for the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom organized by A. Phillip Randolph and The Executive Secretary for the NAACP, Roy Wilkins. On August 28th Washington was visited by 260,000 people marching towards the Lincoln Memorial for a series speeches on Civil Rights in America. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech would become the capstone speech of the Civil Rights Movement.
September
15th—Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins are murdered when a bomb detonated inside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 1963. The Birmingham Bombing on September 15th resulted in string of riots, bombings, and attacks. Roy Wilkins responded to the outbreak of violence, telling the president that unless they are allowed more than the “‘picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of bestiality’ Negroes will ‘employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the’ lives of our people” (Washington Post, 1963). Three hundred State Troopers, 500 National Guardsmen and the entire police force were assembled to re-establish order after the bombing. After an FBI investigation Robert Chambliss, a notorious racist, was charged with murder and the possession of dynamite only to be acquitted of the murder charges.
November
22nd—President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; Lyndon Johnson becomes President.
1964
January
23rd—The 24th Amendment is ratified by the states. The amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax
May
7th—President Johnson proposes the Great Society, whose social reforms were aimed at the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched later in the 1960s.
June
21st—The Klu Klux Klan murders Michael Schwerner, aged 24, Andrew Goodman, 20, both from New York and James Chaney, 22, from Meridian, Mississippi. All members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) The young men were in Miss. working to advance voting rights in the south. The men went missing for six weeks before the FBI found their bodies in Philadelphia Mississippi. Originally 19 men were arrested and charged with murder
July
2nd—The Civil Rights Act of 1964, inspired by The March for Jobs and Freedom, Johnson used his conservative connections and the mourning of Kennedy to ensure The Civil Right Act of 1964 became law.
“Provisions of the legislation included: (1) protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests; (2) outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; (3) authorizing the U.S. Attorney General's Office to file legal suits to enforce desegregation in public schools; (4) authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination; and (5) outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding 25 people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints” (J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museum).
October
14th--Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
November
3rd—Lyndon B Johnson defeats Berry Goldwater in the Presidential Election.
1965
March
8th--Lyndon B. Johnson escalates the United States military involvement in the Vietnam War.
April
17—The SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and the SNCC lead the first of several anti-war marches in Washington, D.C.
February
21st-- Malcolm X was standing in Audobaun Ballroom in Harlem about to address the Afro-American Unity when he was shot several times by men who identified as Black Muslims. A week before his death his home in Queens, NY, was burnt down and he had been receiving death threats from Nation of Islam members. On February 18th Malcolm X explained in an interview “no one can get out with out trouble, and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence.”
March
7th-25th—The DCVL (Dallas County Voters League) and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organized marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the states capital.
August
11th-17th—Watts Riots, in Watts a neighborhood in Los Angeles, were a reaction to segregation and police violence in Los Angeles. The 6 day riot consisted of bombings, looting, and protesting.
1966
October
15th—The Black Panthers are formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA.
July
28th—Stokely Carmichael coins the phrase “Black Power”. After being arrested for the 27th time Carmichael exclaims “'Freedom' for six years…'What we are going to start saying now is 'Black Power!’”
1967
The "Summer of Love" embodies the growing counterculture, with the Monterey Pop Festival and Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" among the highlights.
July
23rd—Detroit Race Riots begin and riots erupt in 159 cities nationwide.
1968
April
4th—Martin Luther King was assassinated at the age of 39 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. King was there to aid the black Sanitation workers in their strike. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary
11th-Civil Rights Act (or Fair Housing Act) is enacted. The act provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin.
June
5th—Robert F. Kennedy is Assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian Palestinian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime.
October
16th—Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics:
Smith told the media that he raised his right, black-glove-covered fist in the air to represent black power in America while Carlos' left, black-covered fist represented unity in black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around Smith's neck stood for black pride and their black socks (and no shoes) represented black poverty in racist America.
November
5th—Shirley Chisholm is the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress.
5th—Richard Nixon wins the Presidential Election
1969
January
20th –Richard Nixon is sworn in to office as the 37th president.
February
9th— The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight
24th—The Mariner 6 Mars probe is launched.
March
3rd—In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
3rd--Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the lunar module.
10th—In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea).
13th--Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
28th—Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C..
May
15th—A teenager known as 'Robert R.' dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984 it will be identified as the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.
20th— United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.
26th—Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming
June
27th—The Philadelphia Plan is announced by the Depart of Labor, the plan required federal building contractors to meet specific goals for minority employment.
July
8th—First American Soldiers withdraw from Vietnam
20th –Moon Landing
January
2nd—John F Kennedy announces his campaign for presidency against Richard Nixon.
February
1st—The Greensboro Sit-Ins
In Greensboro, NC four Black men from NCA&T — Ezell Blair Jr, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond — sit down at Woolworth's "whites only" lunch counter and ask to be served coffee and doughnuts. They are refused but stay until the store closes and refusing to leave their seats until they are served. The next day they return, now joined by Billy Smith, Clarence Henderson, and others. They sit from 11am to 3pm but again are not served. While they wait, they study and do their schoolwork.
Sit-ins became a popular form of non-violent protest that was used mostly be college age activists.
March
5th/12th –Tallahassee students are performing sit-ins and the police respond violently by arresting approximately 250 students. After the arrests on the 12th, close to 1,000 — mostly Black, some white — march to protest the arrests. The cops attack them with teargas.
April
15th—The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded to organize, educate, and empower student leaders in the civil rights movement.
May
2nd—Dwight D Eisenhower signs The Civil Rights Act of 1960. This act protected voter rights and established penalties for impeding a person’s right to vote. The act extended the activation of the Civil Rights Commission to oversee voter registration and practices as a well as seal loopholes in the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
November
9th—John F Kennedy wins the Presidential Election.
15th/16th—Riots over the racial integration of public schools explode in New Orleans.
December
5th—Boynton v. Virginia, the supreme court rules that segregation in bus facilities is against the Interstate Commerce Act.
1961
January
20th—John F. Kennedy is sworn into office as the 35th President.
1962
January
23rd—The 24th Amendment is ratified by the states. The amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax
November
20th--Kennedy issues Executive Order 11063, prohibiting racial discrimination in federally owned housing, in public housing built with federal funds, and in new housing built with loans from federal agencies.
1963
August
28th—King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speechMartin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” was written for the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom organized by A. Phillip Randolph and The Executive Secretary for the NAACP, Roy Wilkins. On August 28th Washington was visited by 260,000 people marching towards the Lincoln Memorial for a series speeches on Civil Rights in America. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech would become the capstone speech of the Civil Rights Movement.
September
15th—Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins are murdered when a bomb detonated inside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 1963. The Birmingham Bombing on September 15th resulted in string of riots, bombings, and attacks. Roy Wilkins responded to the outbreak of violence, telling the president that unless they are allowed more than the “‘picayune and piecemeal aid against this type of bestiality’ Negroes will ‘employ such methods as our desperation may dictate in defense of the’ lives of our people” (Washington Post, 1963). Three hundred State Troopers, 500 National Guardsmen and the entire police force were assembled to re-establish order after the bombing. After an FBI investigation Robert Chambliss, a notorious racist, was charged with murder and the possession of dynamite only to be acquitted of the murder charges.
November
22nd—President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas; Lyndon Johnson becomes President.
1964
January
23rd—The 24th Amendment is ratified by the states. The amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax
May
7th—President Johnson proposes the Great Society, whose social reforms were aimed at the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched later in the 1960s.
June
21st—The Klu Klux Klan murders Michael Schwerner, aged 24, Andrew Goodman, 20, both from New York and James Chaney, 22, from Meridian, Mississippi. All members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) The young men were in Miss. working to advance voting rights in the south. The men went missing for six weeks before the FBI found their bodies in Philadelphia Mississippi. Originally 19 men were arrested and charged with murder
July
2nd—The Civil Rights Act of 1964, inspired by The March for Jobs and Freedom, Johnson used his conservative connections and the mourning of Kennedy to ensure The Civil Right Act of 1964 became law.
“Provisions of the legislation included: (1) protecting African Americans against discrimination in voter qualification tests; (2) outlawing discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; (3) authorizing the U.S. Attorney General's Office to file legal suits to enforce desegregation in public schools; (4) authorizing the withdrawal of federal funds from programs practicing discrimination; and (5) outlawing discrimination in employment in any business exceeding 25 people and creating an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review complaints” (J.F.K. Presidential Library and Museum).
October
14th--Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
November
3rd—Lyndon B Johnson defeats Berry Goldwater in the Presidential Election.
1965
March
8th--Lyndon B. Johnson escalates the United States military involvement in the Vietnam War.
April
17—The SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) and the SNCC lead the first of several anti-war marches in Washington, D.C.
February
21st-- Malcolm X was standing in Audobaun Ballroom in Harlem about to address the Afro-American Unity when he was shot several times by men who identified as Black Muslims. A week before his death his home in Queens, NY, was burnt down and he had been receiving death threats from Nation of Islam members. On February 18th Malcolm X explained in an interview “no one can get out with out trouble, and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence.”
March
7th-25th—The DCVL (Dallas County Voters League) and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organized marches from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, the states capital.
August
11th-17th—Watts Riots, in Watts a neighborhood in Los Angeles, were a reaction to segregation and police violence in Los Angeles. The 6 day riot consisted of bombings, looting, and protesting.
1966
October
15th—The Black Panthers are formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA.
July
28th—Stokely Carmichael coins the phrase “Black Power”. After being arrested for the 27th time Carmichael exclaims “'Freedom' for six years…'What we are going to start saying now is 'Black Power!’”
1967
The "Summer of Love" embodies the growing counterculture, with the Monterey Pop Festival and Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" among the highlights.
July
23rd—Detroit Race Riots begin and riots erupt in 159 cities nationwide.
1968
April
4th—Martin Luther King was assassinated at the age of 39 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05PM that evening. King was there to aid the black Sanitation workers in their strike. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary
11th-Civil Rights Act (or Fair Housing Act) is enacted. The act provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin.
June
5th—Robert F. Kennedy is Assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Jordanian Palestinian immigrant, was convicted of Kennedy's murder and is serving a life sentence for the crime.
October
16th—Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics:
Smith told the media that he raised his right, black-glove-covered fist in the air to represent black power in America while Carlos' left, black-covered fist represented unity in black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around Smith's neck stood for black pride and their black socks (and no shoes) represented black poverty in racist America.
November
5th—Shirley Chisholm is the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress.
5th—Richard Nixon wins the Presidential Election
1969
January
20th –Richard Nixon is sworn in to office as the 37th president.
February
9th— The Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight
24th—The Mariner 6 Mars probe is launched.
March
3rd—In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
3rd--Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 (James McDivitt, David Scott, Rusty Schweickart) to test the lunar module.
10th—In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. (he later retracts his guilty plea).
13th--Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
28th—Former United States General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies after a long illness in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C..
May
15th—A teenager known as 'Robert R.' dies in St. Louis, Missouri, of a baffling medical condition. In 1984 it will be identified as the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in North America.
20th— United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.
26th—Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to Earth, after a successful 8-day test of all the components needed for the upcoming
June
27th—The Philadelphia Plan is announced by the Depart of Labor, the plan required federal building contractors to meet specific goals for minority employment.
July
8th—First American Soldiers withdraw from Vietnam
20th –Moon Landing