Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project

Civil Rights Time Line

National Civil Rights Time Line		Durham Civil Rights Time Line
Supreme Court validates separate-but-equal principle in Plessy v. Ferguson	1896
Niagara Movement, forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), formed for school integration, voting rights, and assisting black political candidates	1905
Greensburg, Indiana, race riot in reaction to black migration north	1906
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed	1909
Movie Birth of a Nation released; though a smash hit, its blatant racism provokes opposition from the newly formed NAACP and other black organizations Ku Klux Klan revived	1915
	1927	Louis Austin buys Standard Advertiser newspaper, changes name to Carolina Times
	1933	Thomas Hocutt challenges white-only admissions at University of North Carolina pharmacy school
	1935	Durham Committee on Negro Affairs formed
	1939	68% of eligible black voters are registered in Durham County
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded	1942	Black intellectuals meeting at North Carolina College draft Durham Manifesto for civil rights, leading to formation of Southern Regional Council in 1943
	1943	Confrontation between black GI and white ABC officer leads to race riot in the African-American neighborhood of Hayti Doris Lyons, 16, fined five dollars for refusing bus driver's order to "get in the back"
	1944	Bus driver Herman Lee Council acquitted of murdering black GI for disobeying seat rules Biracial ministers' committee formed to improve "racial cooperation" Clyde Cox and Allen Samuel become Durham's first black police officers
	1946	Durham Committee on Negro Affairs joins organized labor and white liberals in new political bloc formed by Democratic Party activist Les Atkins
U.S. military desegregated	1948	Motion picture Negro Durham Marches On produced
	1949	Ebony magazine features Durham's Parrish Street as "Negro Wall Street of America"
	1953	Rencher N. Harris becomes first black elected to Durham City Council
Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision overturns separate-but-equal principle	1954
Montgomery Bus Boycott brings Martin Luther King, Jr., to prominence 14-year-old Emmett Till murdered for whistling at a white woman	1955
	1956	Martin Luther King, Jr., attends Durham Business and Professional Chain Trade Week, speaks at Hillside High School
U.S. Army troops sent to enforce school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) founded with King as president	1957	Durham Bulls have first black players; demonstrators attempt to integrate Durham Athletic Park seating on opening night Durham Interdenominational Ministers Alliance passes a resolution for "a community free of discrimination and segregation" Sit-in occurs at Royal Ice Cream parlor Black teachers admitted to summer institute at Duke University Parents of Joycelyn McKissick and Elaine Richardson sue for their daughters' reassignment to Durham High School Mayor E. J. (Mutt) Evans forms Committee on Human Relations to address strained race relations City tennis courts integrated
	1958	Rencher N. Harris becomes first black on Durham city Board of Education
	1959	City school board allows reassignment of eight black pupils to previously all-white schools; Anita Brame and Lucy Jones are first to integrate, at Brogden Junior High
Sit-in at Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina sets off sit-in movement Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded at Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina	1960	Sit-ins occur at downtown lunch counters Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy visit, speak at White Rock Baptist Church
CORE sends integrated Freedom Rider groups to protest segregation on southern buses; white mob burns bus in Birmingham, Alabama	1961	Picketing begins at Durham movie theaters Duke University desegretates graduate and professional schools
U.S. troops deployed to Oxford, Mississippi, after rioting follows James Meredith's matriculation at University of Mississippi law school	1962	Demonstrations begin at Chapel Hill Boulevard Howard Johnson's Restaurant Attorney Floyd McKissick organizes Congress of Racial Equality chapter NAACP head Roy Wilkins and CORE head James Farmer visit, speak at St. Joseph's AME Church Durham movie theaters agree to integration Duke University desegregates undergraduate schools
Police dogs, fire hoses turned on demonstrators in Birmingham NAACP Mississippi field secretary Medgar Evers murdered March on Washington draws 200,000; King "I Have a Dream" speech Four girls killed by bomb at Birmingham church; rioting follows	1963	30-day mass-demonstration campaign for integrating public facilities; 130 arrests on first night Mayor Wense Grabarek meets protest rally, forms Durham Interim Committee on race relations Most hotels and restaurants integrate Public swimming pools and libraries integrate Industrial Education Center integrates programs in retail distribution and marketing Chamber of Commerce and Jaycees open membership to blacks Federal court orders Durham city schools to adopt freedom-of-choice desegregation plan; pace of school integration accelerates Black leaders petition Durham County schools to accept pupil reassignments Durham County Citizens Council formed to oppose integration
24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes for national elections Freedom Summer voter registration drive Freedom Summer volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in public accommodations and by employers Organization for Afro-American Unity formed to promote ties between U.S. blacks and Africa	1964	Durham Interim Committee replaced by Committee on Community Relations
"Bloody Sunday" begins Selma-Montgomery, Alabama, voting rights march Voting Rights Act abolishes literacy tests and other practices to obstruct minority voting Malcolm X assassinated Watts riots Executive Order 11246 enforces affirmative action in federal contracting	1965	Durham County schools begin desegregation under freedom-of-choice plan
SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael coins phrase "black power" Black Panthers founded in Oakland, California	1966	Activist Howard Fuller forms United Organizations for Community Improvement to encourage black political participation Demonstrations held for city schools to begin Headstart and Youth Corps
Laws banning interracial marriage ruled unconstitutional Race riots in Newark, Detroit	1967	Asa Spaulding becomes first black on Durham Board of County Commissioners Demonstrations over housing conditions turn violent; Grabarek summons National Guard to enforce order Headstart and Youth Corps instituted in city schools
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in the sale or rental of housing	1968	Arson, curfew follow Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination Elna Spaulding forms biracial Women in Action for the Prevention of Violence Howard Clement forms Black Solidarity Committee for Community Improvement Solidarity Committee begins selective merchant boycott, lasting through Christmas season Duke silent vigil for nonacademic employees
	1969	Activist Howard Fuller opens Malcolm X Liberation University, demands donations from white churches Black students take over Duke administration building
Voting Rights Act of 1965 renewed	1970	Federal court orders immediate racial balancing in Durham city schools
Supreme Court upholds busing for integration in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board	1971	Black activist Ann Atwater and Ku Klux leader C. P. Ellis chair two-week Save Our Schools series
	1989	Chester Jenkins becomes first black mayor of Durham

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