1960s Timeline

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Aug 30, 2021

Atlanta Public Schools Integrate Peacefully

Aug. 30, 1961 - Public school desegregation came peacefully today to Atlanta despite efforts by a handful of racists to disrupt the changeover. The violence and jeering mobs that marked compliance with the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in other Southern cities were absent in Atlanta as nine Negroes entered four white high schools. Four suburban youths and an avowed member of the American Nazi party were arrested when they appeared at two of the schools. The police said they h

Aug 25, 2021

Two Freedom Riders Convicted of Breach of Peace in Jackson, Mississippi

Aug. 25, 1961 - A County Court jury in Jackson, Miss., convicted a second Freedom Rider today on appeal from a City Court conviction. The jury deliberated less than 15 minutes. Julia Aaron, a 19-year-old Southern University Negro student from New Orleans, received a $200 fine and 4-month jail term. Henry J. Thomas, a 19-year-old former Howard University student, who was tried yesterday, received the same sentence. Both were convicted of breach of peace after they had attempte

Aug 21, 2021

First Freedom Riders Arrested in Louisiana Convicted of Breach of Peace

Aug. 21, 1961 - Louisiana District Judge John A. Dixon Jr. found six Negro Freedom Riders guilty today of having an intent to provoke a breach of the peace. The arrests Aug. 4 were the first of Freedom Riders in Louisiana. Four of the six, all Shreveport residents, were arrested by Chief Harvey Teasley as they sat in a Trailways bus station waiting room there. The other two had driven the four to the station. At the trial, the six testified that they were on the way to Jackso

Aug 16, 2021

Rev. Martin Luther King Announces "Stand-Ins" at Voter Registration Sites

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. said today. The goal will be to double in the next 2 years the 1,300,000 Southern Negroes now registered to vote. "In the not-too-distant future, there will be thousands of Negroes standing at places where the have been denied the right to register," Dr. King said. He said that there were 5 million Negroes in the South who were eligible to vot

Aug 15, 2021

James Meredith, Negro Veteran, Seeks to Enter University of Mississippi

Aug. 15, 1961 - Attorneys for James H. Meredith (pictured), 28, a Negro seeking entry to the University of Mississippi, rested their case today after Robert Ellis, the school's registrar, said the university would admit Negroes with proper applications. "I don't have any instructions to the contrary," Mr. Ellis said, "and would admit Negroes if they met all requirements." Mr. Meredith, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1960, is seeking a Federal court order to all

Aug 13, 2021

Rev. Martin Luther King Sees End to Freedom Rides Soon

Aug. 13, 1961 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said in New York today that Negro integration leaders would end the Freedom Rides when the Interstate Commerce Commission issued a blanket order against bus station segregation. He said that he believed such an order was forthcoming. "The Freedom Rides have already served a great purpose," he said. "They have done more than anything else to bring to the attention of the American public the indignities and injustices that the Neg

Aug 12, 2021

Alabama Senate Passes Bill to Prohibit Freedom Rides in Alabama

Aug. 12, 1961 - The Alabama Senate gave swift approval today to a bill to prohibit Freedom Rides in Alabama. The House-passed bill was sent to Gov. John Patterson for signature. Members of the chamber voted, 24-0, in favor of the measure, which sets a maximum penalty of $300 fine and 6 months in jail for anyone who pre-announces and carries out a challenge to Alabama's racial barriers. Specifically, the bill forbids "any act, gesture or communication which is calculated to so

Aug 8, 2021

State Department Officer Quits Metropolitan Club over Segregation Policy

Aug. 8, 1961 - Angier Biddle Duke, the State Department's chief of protocol, has resigned from the Metropolitan Club in a dispute over its policy of excluding African diplomats. He had belonged to the club more than 20 years and was among its most prominent members. The Metropolitan, founded in 1863, is the capital's oldest and most distinguished club. It's 2,000 members include Cabinet officers, Congressmen and high-ranking military and Government officials. It has no Negro

Aug 7, 2021

In Africa, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Affirms U.S. Civil Rights Goals

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 Africa, that progress for Negroes in America was like freedom for Africans - a difficult process of changing well-established customs. Paulin Joachim, African editor of a magazine called Bingo, said Africans "are deeply concerned over the inhuman and intolerable conditions of the Negro in the South." The Attorney General replied that, while th

Aug 3, 2021

U.S. Files Three Civil Rights Suits, Says Negroes Denied Voting Rights in South

Aug. 3, 1961 - The U.S. Government filed three civil rights suits today which charged that Negroes had been denied voting rights in Montgomery County, Alabama, and Walthall and Jefferson Davis Counties, Mississippi. Deputy Attorney General Byron R. White (pictured with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy) said officials in those locations had failed to end discriminatory practices. All three complaints asserted that voting officials had applied "different and more stringent st

Jul 27, 2021

Dallas Restaurants Integrated Peacefully

July 27, 1961 - A total of 159 Negroes dined at 36 previously all-white restaurants and cafeterias in Dallas today. The Dallas Citizens Council, which helped arrange the integration step, said that only four telephone calls of protest had been received. The eating places that were integrated reported three complaints from white customers. The city has a population of 850,000, of which about one-fifth are Negroes. A. Mayfield Smith, a Negro leader, said: "The experience was a

Jul 23, 2021

Vice President Johnson Speaks on Civil Rights (video)

July 23, 1961 - Here is Vice President Johnson's speech today on civil rights at the National Governors Conference. #LBJ #civilrights #civilrightsmovement #integration #jimcrow #racism #MLK #civilrightsleader #politics

Jul 23, 2021

Racial Tension on Florida Beaches

July 23, 1961 - About 75 Negroes staged "wade-ins" at six spots on Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., beaches today, and one was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. Police Sgt. John Miller said there was some "sand throwing." He identified the woman arrested as Geneva Smith, 44 years old. "At some places the whites sort of forced them off the beach by massing in numbers," Sgt. Miller reported. At other places, he said, the Negroes spread blankets on the beach and waded in. #civilrigh

Jul 21, 2021

RFK to Clergy: Help Fight Racial Discrimination

July 21, 1961 - Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy today urged the nation's clergymen, especially those in the South, to take a more active role in fighting racial discrimination. The President's brother was quoted by a delegation of clergymen as having said: "I do not see how anyone can wear a collar and not speak out against this evil." The delegation was composed of seven clergymen, white and Negro ministers of several denominations and one rabbi. The seven flew to Washing

Jul 17, 2021

Chicago Police Appeal for Calm Amidst Racial Strife

July 17, 1961 - James B. Conlisk (pictured), Superintendent of the Police, appealed today for a sense of community responsibility to ease Chicago's racial tension. At a news conference Mr. Conlisk declared: "It is the duty of Negroes and whites to foster good relations." He sent 27 more policemen to the near West Side, a predominantly Negro area. It is an area in which roving gangs of Negro teenagers beat at least 11 white persons last week in what appeared to be reprisals fo

Jul 16, 2021

Racial Tension in Chicago

July 16, 1961 - Two hundred policemen arrested nine white men today at Rainbow Beach in Chicago. The arrests were made for refusing to obey police orders. Surly groups of white men milled around an area where about 200 Negroes were staging "wade-in" demonstrations. There were 10,000 white persons at the beach when the police began making arrests. Except for the demonstrators, there were no Negroes at the beach. The Negro demonstrators dispersed quietly while the police were b

Jul 12, 2021

NAACP Has Praise and Criticism for President Kennedy

July 12, 1961 - Members of the NAACP called on President Kennedy today to praise and criticize his actions on civil rights. Bishop Stephen Spottswood (second from left), chairman of the NAACP board of directors, praised actions by the Justice Department in the Alabama bus riots and voter registration cases in Mississippi and Louisiana. "We hail these steps you have taken," the Bishop said, "but there is urgent need to buttress Executive action with legislative action in the C

Jul 7, 2021

Freedom Riders Arrested in Jackson, Mississippi

July 7, 1961 - Eight more Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Miss., today after refusing orders to leave the white waiting room of the Trailways bus station. These arrests brought to 177 the number of integrationists who have been taken into custody on breach-of-the-peace charges since late May. Last night, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. told a crowd of 2,500 integrationists that "segregation is dead." The only question remaining, Dr. King said, "is how expensive