Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Assails Literacy Tests in South
Apr. 10, 1962 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said that literacy and similar tests were now the principal device used to keep...
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1960s Timeline
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Apr 3, 2022
Racial Turmoil in Birmingham
Apr. 3, 1962 - The city of Birmingham, Ala., withdrew its support today from the country program of surplus food for the needy. The...
Mar 28, 2022
Program to Increase Negro Voter Registration in South Announced in Atlanta
Mar. 28, 1962 - A program to increase Negro voter registration throughout the South was announced in Atlanta today. Major civil rights...
Mar 20, 2022
Attorney General Kennedy Gets Tough on Police Brutality
Mar. 20, 1962 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asked Congress today to toughen Federal statutes against police brutality. He proposed...
Mar 12, 2022
Constitutional Amendment Proposed to Outlaw Poll Tax
Mar. 12, 1962 - Mike Mansfield (pictured center), the Senate majority leader, said today that he would call up for debate this week a...
Mar 11, 2022
Mrs. Coretta Scott King Speaks at Harlem Church
Mar. 11, 1962 - Mrs. Coretta Scott King urged today that Negroes “at the bottom of the economic scale” be given “better than equal...
Mar 10, 2022
Phillies Move After Negro Players Denied Accomodations
Mar. 10, 1962 - Because local hotels in Clearwater, Fla., refused to accommodate five Negro ballplayers, the Philadelphia Phillies moved...
Feb 25, 2022
Heavyweight Champ Floyd Patterson Speaks at NAACP Conference in Mississippi
Feb. 25, 1962 - Floyd Patterson (pictured right with Eleanor Roosevelt), the heavyweight boxing champion, said today that he felt guilty...
Feb 14, 2022
Whites in Macon, Georgia Try to Offset Negro Bus Boycott
Feb. 14, 1962 - White persons living in Macon, Ga., who had done little bus riding in recent years started using city buses today in an...
Feb 6, 2022
Stores in Memphis Desegregate Lunch Counters and Dining Rooms
Feb. 6, 1962 - Twenty-nine Memphis stores desegregated dining rooms and lunch counters today. The move came quietly after meetings...
Feb 1, 2022
Martin Luther King Announces "Recruiting Tour" to Fight Segregation
Feb. 1, 1962 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, announced today a “recruiting tour”...
Jan 28, 2022
Segregation Over at Most Southern Bus and Railroad Terminals
Jan. 28, 1962 - Official segregation has virtually ended at bus and railroad terminals in the South, Justice Department sources reported...
Jan 24, 2022
James Farmer, Civil Rights Leader, Convicted of Breach of Peace in Mississippi
Jan. 24, 1962 - The national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was convicted of breach of peace in Jackson, Miss., today...
Jan 23, 2022
Video: Debate between Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin
Jan. 23, 1962 - Here is video of a debate between Black Muslim Minister Malcolm X (right) and Bayard Rustin (left) of the Southern...
Jan 23, 2022
Lunch Counters in Columbus, Georgia Desegregated with No Incidents
Jan. 23, 1962 - Lunch counters in Columbus, Ga., were quietly desegregated today. The city of 118,000, situated near Fort Benning, the...
Jan 20, 2022
NAACP Lawyer Talks Civil Rights Strategy for '62
Jan. 20, 1962 - Legal activity for civil rights this year will include an all-out desegregation drive in Mississippi, more numerous...
Jan 16, 2022
Three Negro Churches Bombed in Birmingham
Jan. 16, 1962 - Three Negro churches in Birmingham, Ala., were bombed tonight. Two were damaged severely. Two of the bombings took place...
Jan 15, 2022
Controversy over Admissions Policy of Exclusive Cosmos Club
Jan. 15, 1962 - The Cosmos Club, by a voice vote, overwhelmingly put itself on record today as opposed to racial, color, or religious...
Jan 15, 2022
Congressman Lindsay Presses Kennedy on Civil Rights
Jan. 15, 1962 - Representative John V. Lindsay, Manhattan Republican, today wrote a letter to President Kennedy deploring “abandonment of...
Jan 15, 2022
President Kennedy Addresses Delays on Negro Civil Rights
Jan. 15, 1962 - President Kennedy said today that he would act to advance Negro rights “in a way which will maintain a consensus” of...
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