1960s Timeline

Aug. 30, 1961 - Public school desegregation came peacefully today to Atlanta despite efforts by a handful of racists to disrupt the...

Aug. 25, 1961 - A County Court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted a second Freedom Rider today on appeal from a City Court conviction. The...

Aug. 21, 1961 - Louisiana District Judge John A. Dixon Jr. found six Negro Freedom Riders guilty today of having an intent to provoke a...

Aug. 16, 1961 - A program of "stand-ins" at registration points will be started soon in the South, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....

Aug. 15, 1961 - Attorneys for James H. Meredith (pictured), 28, a Negro seeking entry to the University of Mississippi, rested their case...

Aug. 13, 1961 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said in New York today that Negro integration leaders would end the Freedom Rides when...

Aug. 12, 1961 - The Alabama Senate gave swift approval today to a bill to prohibit Freedom Rides in Alabama. The House-passed bill was...

Aug. 8, 1961 - Angier Biddle Duke, the State Department's chief of protocol, has resigned from the Metropolitan Club in a dispute over...

Aug. 7, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said today at a news conference in Ivory Coast, a country on the south coast of West...

Aug. 3, 1961 - The U.S. Government filed three civil rights suits today which charged that Negroes had been denied voting rights in...

July 27, 1961 - A total of 159 Negroes dined at 36 previously all-white restaurants and cafeterias in Dallas today. The Dallas Citizens...

July 23, 1961 - Here is Vice President Johnson's speech today on civil rights at the National Governors Conference. #LBJ #civilrights...

July 23, 1961 - About 75 Negroes staged "wade-ins" at six spots on Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., beaches today, and one was arrested on a...

July 21, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy today urged the nation's clergymen, especially those in the South, to take a more...

July 17, 1961 - James B. Conlisk (pictured), Superintendent of the Police, appealed today for a sense of community responsibility to ease...

July 16, 1961 - Two hundred policemen arrested nine white men today at Rainbow Beach in Chicago. The arrests were made for refusing to...

July 12, 1961 - Members of the NAACP called on President Kennedy today to praise and criticize his actions on civil rights. Bishop...

July 7, 1961 - Eight more Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Miss., today after refusing orders to leave the white waiting room...