1960s Timeline

Jan. 1, 1962 - President Kennedy hailed Roy Wilkins (pictured center in 1959 with Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall) of the...

Dec. 28, 1961 - The Justice Department asked a Federal court today to strike down a Louisiana law requiring voters to pass a...

Dec. 18, 1961 - Three hundred Negroes and a few whites tried to march on the State Office Building in New Orleans today. They were...

Dec. 18, 1961 - An agreement reached in Albany, Ga., paved the way for the release of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and about 300...

Dec. 16, 1961 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 264 other Negroes, and 1 white youth were arrested today as they marched on City...

Dec. 15, 1961 - The police used tear gas to break up demonstrations today by 1,500 Negroes in the main business district of Baton Rouge,...

Dec. 15, 1961 - A 58-year-old Jackson Negro grocer said today he would oppose Representative John Bell Williams in the Fourth District...

Dec. 14, 1961 - National Guardsmen were called out today as negotiators sought to resolve a crisis over mass arrests of Negro...

Dec. 13, 1961 - In Albany Ga., the police arrested 202 Negroes this evening during a demonstration at the City Hall as racial tension...

Dec. 12, 1961 - Two hundred and sixty-seven young Negroes were arrested while marching and singing through downtown Albany, Ga., today....

Dec. 11, 1961 - Dr. Martin Luther King told organized labor today that it had “not adequately used its great power, its vision, and...

Dec. 11, 1961 - The first convictions to reach the Supreme Court from the student sit-in campaign in the South were unanimously set aside...

Dec. 9, 1961 - Hodding Carter (pictured), Pulitzer Prize newspaper man, commented today that when he was burned in effigy in Glen Allan,...

Dec. 7, 1961 - Seven Negroes were arrested today in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on charges of “withholding trade” from downtown merchants....

Dec. 1, 1961 - In McComb, Mississippi today, he police held back angry white mobs twice while six Freedom Riders achieved the first...

Nov. 29, 1961 - A mob of cursing whites, shouting “Kill ‘em! Kill ‘em!” set upon five Negro Freedom Riders today and drove them from the...

Nov. 29, 1961 - A Mississippi Citizens Council leader said today that several Southern communities were forming “minutemen” organizations...

Nov. 11, 1961 - Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara addressed a segregated audience in Atlanta this evening while Negroes and whites...

Nov. 9, 1961 - The Chicago White Sox erased any possible racial segregation problem in spring training today by purchasing the 117-room...

Nov. 9, 1961 - President Kennedy’s associates have sought quietly but without success to open the way for Negroes to attend a speech in...