1960s Timeline

Sept. 25, 1961 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said today that a campaign to double the number of Negro voters in the South this fall...

Sept. 23, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said today the Justice Department "will cooperate fully" in enforcing the new...

Sept. 23, 1961 - More than 200 representatives of organizations affiliated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference will gather...

Sept. 20, 1961 - A storm of protest arose in Shreveport, Louisiana, today over "Walk in My Shoes," a documentary on the plight of the...

Sept. 20, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has resigned from the Metropolitan Club because of its segregation policy. Assistant...

Sept. 13, 1961 - Thurgood Marshall (pictured right with Roy Wilkins), chief counsel to the NAACP, is slated for appointment to one of...

Sept. 9, 1961 - The Houston Oilers set a scoring record today while opening the defense of their American Football League championship by...

Sept. 8, 1961 - An official of the NAACP said today that Negroes playing with the Oakland Raiders would be asked not to cross picket...

Sept. 6, 1961 - President Kennedy today called the peaceful integration of many schools in the South a "dramatic demonstration of...

Sept. 1, 1961 - Nine men accused of bombing the first "freedom rider" bus to enter Alabama have been indicted by a Federal grand jury....

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...