1962- (Oct. 1) James Meredith: The first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.
1963- (April 16) MLK: Wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail after being arrested during an anti- segregation protest in Birmingham, Alabama.
(June 12) Medgar Evers: NAACP field secretary is murdered and Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both times resulted in hung juries. He is finally convicted of murder thirty years later.
(Aug. 28) "I have a dream" Speech: MLK deilvers his famous speech to over 200,000 people during the March on Washthington protest at the Lincoln Memorial.
(Sept. 15) Sixteenth Street Baptist Church: Four girls are murdered are murdered when attending Sunday school when a car explodes outside of the church. This incident is followed by riots which result in more young deaths.
1964- (Aug. 4) Neshoba Country, Miss.: The bodies of three civil-rights workers—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who then murdered them.
1965- (Feb. 21) Malcolm X: Black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death.
(March 7) "Bloody Sunday": Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a blockade. Fifty protesters are hospitalized due to police tear gas, whips, and clubs.
(Sept. 24, 1965) Affirmative Action: President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, and enforces affirmative action for the first time.
1968- (April 4) Memphis, Tenn: Martin Luther King, just shy of 40, is shot on the balcony of his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime.
"Civil Rights Timeline." Infoplease. 8 Apr. 2007 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html.
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