1960s - National Events

During this turbulent decade, Charlotte's African Americans are active participants in the battle for civil rights. Urban renewal begins in earnest with the demolition of Charlotte's Ward neighborhoods. Learn about the push for desegregation in Charlotte's hotels and restaurants, as well as other public facilities. The enforcement of court-ordered school desegregation and the impact of the Swann case are predominant news.

• May 4, 1961 - The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begins Freedom Rides. Volunteers board buses to test a court ruling banning racial segregation on buses that cross state lines. Ten days later, a white mob in Alabama attacks one of the buses, beating the Freedom Riders and setting the bus on fire.
• 1962 - James Meredith desegregates University of Mississippi. President Kennedy sends federal marshals to the University of Mississippi to ensure that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can enroll.
• June 12, 1963 - Civil rights activist Medgar Evers is murdered in Mississippi.
• August 28, 1963 - The March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his moving "I Have a Dream" speech as 250,000 people participate in the March on Washington, the largest civil rights demonstration in American history.
• November 22, 1963 - President Kennedy is assassinated.
• July 2, 1964 - President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
• August 4, 1964 - The bodies of three civil rights workers, two whites and one black, are found in Mississippi. Although the state's governor refuses to bring murder charges, the FBI arrests 21 men for civil rights violations. For the first time, Ku Klux Klan members, including a deputy sheriff, are convicted.
• 1964 - Once-segregated hospitals across the state begin to open their doors to black doctors and patients.
• February 21, 1965 - Malcolm X is murdered. As a well-known speaker for the Nation of Islam, his disagreements with leader Elijah Muhammad had forced him to leave the group and found his own in 1963. Members of the Nation of Islam are held responsible for his death.
• 1965 - The Voting Rights Act is passed. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 guarantees that blacks can have access to voting without the prohibitive laws created by Southern states, such as those that allowed "poll taxes."
• August 1965 - Blacks in the Watts section of Los Angeles riot for six days.
• June 3, 1967 - Aretha Franklin records Otis Redding's song "RESPECT."
• July 20-23, 1967 - The Black Power conference is held in New Jersey and attracts a diverse group of black leaders.
• June 5, 1968 - Robert Kennedy is shot and killed in California while running for president.
• May, 1969 - A student is killed when police and National Guard fire upon North Carolina A&T students.
• July 20, 1969 - Astronauts aboard the Apollo 11 land on the moon in the lunar module the Eagle. Astronaut Neil Armstrong takes man’s first step ever onto the moon’s surface. He proclaims that it is "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Around the world, 600 million people tune in by television to witness the incredible event.