1960 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded to coordinate student-led efforts to end segregation.
1960 Hundreds of university students stage a sit-in at downtown stores in Nashville, Tennessee, to protest segregated lunch counters.
1960 Civil Rights Act reaffirms voting rights for all Americans.
1961 Integrated groups of protesters join Freedom Rides on buses across the South to protest segregation.
1963 Hundreds of thousands of Americans take part in the March on Washington to call for racial equality.
1963 (August 28) Martin Luther King Jr. leads 200,000 Americans to march on Washington D.C. for civil rights.
1963 (November 22) President Kennedy is assassinated.
1964 24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes for national elections
1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination on the basis of race,
color, religion or national origin. It gave the attorney general the power to guarantee voting rights and end school segregation. This Act is the culmination of a long struggle by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, among others, to change the segregation and discrimination that exist in the United States.
1965 Congress passes Elementary & Secondary Education Act.
1965 Voting Rights Act nullifies local laws and practices that prevent minorities from voting.
1965 Malcolm X assassinated.
1965-1968 Riots erupts in Watts, Detroit, Tucson, New York and many other cities across the United States.
1965, 1967 The protests occurring in the United States are also against the war in Vietnam. Antiwar protesters march on the White House in April of 1965 and in October of 1967. The March on the Pentagon is 100,000 people strong. The concerns about the war eventually turn the focus away from the nation, which causes the War on Poverty programs to never fully flourish.
The free speech movement begins at the University of California at Berkeley. The movement is an attempt to change the power structure of the university. It results in many disruptions and protests that eventually spread to campuses throughout the nation.
1968 Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy are assassinated.
Changes are occurring in the United States from many different sides. Women and gays join African Americans and students in seeking to improve life for all in the United States.
1969 (July 20) American astronauts, led by Neil Armstrong land on the moon.
1969 Woodstock concert in upstate New York.
Contributors: Analee Haro, Mark H. Davis, & Jenny Lee (UCLA)
