| 1954 (May) | Brown v. Board of Education ; Supreme Court rules that "separate but equal" in education is unconstitutional; encourages those trying to end segregation in all institutions |
| 1954 (August) | Two white Mississippi men are acquitted by an all-white jury after killing black teenager Emmett Till after he whistles at a white woman; sparks anger among black Americans across the nation |
| 1955 (December) | Montgomery bus boycott begins, sparked by Rosa Parks, and led by Martin Luther King |
| 1957 (February) | King and others form Southern Christian Leadership Conference to encourage non-violent, civil disobedience |
| 1957 (September) | White mobs try to prevent court-ordered integration of Little Rock, Arkansas schools; federal troops intervene |
| 1960 (February) | College student sit-in at segregated lunch counter at Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C; sit-ins sweep through the South |
| 1960 (April) | Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded to fight segregation and register black voters |
| 1961 |
| (May) | CORE "freedom riders" begin to ride interstate buses in the South to press for integration of public transportation; often are met by mobs and beaten |
| 1961-1964 | Non-violent demonstrations for integration throughout the South and border states |
| 1962 (October) | Black student James Meredith enrolls at the all-white University of Mississippi; violence erupts and federal troops are mobilized to quell it |
| 1963 |
| (April) | Martin Luther King writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to explain non-violent civil disobedience to clergy who feel he has been encouraging social disorder |
| 1963 |
| (May) | Police chief "Bull Connor" uses fire hoses and dogs against young, non-violent demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama |
| 1963 |
| (summer) | Freedom summer is launched by CORE and SNCC to register black voters in the most segregated counties in the South; four civil rights workers are murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi by the KKK |
| 1963 |
| (August) | An estimated 500,000 people converge on the nation's capital at the "March on Washington" to demand passage of a civil rights bill; King delivers the "I have a dream" speech. |
| 1964 |
| (July) | President Lyndon Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act; ends segregation in all public accommodations |
| 1965 |
| (March) | Voting rights march in Selma, Alabama is met with police violence; publicity outrages the nation and creates momentum for passage of Voting Rights Act |
| 1965 |
| (August) | Voting Rights Act passed; creates federal government oversight of voting registration and the ballot process; gives federal government powerful tools to protect black voting rights |
| 1965 |
| (August) | Watts riot in Los Angeles |
| 1965 |
| (October) | Black Panther Party founded in Oakland by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; Party rejects non-violence as the basis for the struggle for equality |
| 1966 |
| (April) | SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael declares for "black power" by any means necessary |
| 1967 |
| (July) | Race riots in Newark and Detroit |
| 1968 (April) | Martin Luther King assassinated; riots break out in many large cities across the U.S., including Washington, D.C.; non-violent protest continues to be used after this, but other strategies gain favor among black and white civil rights activists |
