1960s Timeline

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Apr 10, 2022

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...

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...