The Road to the March
For many, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom symbolizes the pinnacle of the modern civil rights movement. Events that led to this historical protest include:
| 1954 | May 17 The Supreme Court issues its decision on Brown v. Board of Education, overturning the "separate but equal" ruling in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson court case. The case paves the way for nationwide school desegregation and opens up educational opportunities for African-Americans. |
| 1955 | August 27 The bloody and beaten body of 14-year-old Chicago native Emmett Till is found in Money, Miss. Till was kidnapped, shot and dumped in a river for allegedly making a pass at a white woman. The national media coverage created by the case led to increased attention to race relations, especially in the South. December 1Rosa Parks, a black bus passenger in Montgomery, Ala., refuses to give her seat to a white passenger and is promptly arrested and jailed. In response, black community leaders organize a year-long bus boycott that finally desegregates the city bus system. |
| 1957 | January - February The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is established by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth. With King as leader, the SCLC becomes instrumental in both the civil rights movement and the March on Washington. September 3School desegregation is protested as nine black students are integrated into Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. National Guardsmen are called to protect the students, who became known as the "Little Rock Nine." |
| 1960 | February 1 The first civil rights sit-in is staged in Greensboro, N.C. by four N.C. A&T State University students. Within two months sit-ins are organized in 54 cities within nine states in order to promote desegregation and protest southern Jim Crow laws. |
| 1961 | May 4 Student volunteers, known as "Freedom Riders" travel into the South to test laws banning segregation in interstate facilities, including buses and trains. Angry mobs and protesters often attacked the students along their stops. The "Freedom Rides" were sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), both of whom were involved in the March on Washington. |
| 1962 | October 1 James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. President John F. Kennedy sends in federal troops as fighting and rioting erupts. |
| 1963 | May Fire hose and dogs are used to control marchers and protesters during a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Al. The televised images of violence and brutality gain international attention and sympathy for the movement. August 28The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held. More than 200,000 marchers descended on the Lincoln Memorial to protest racial inequality. |