KEY DATES in THE MOVEMENT
April 16: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the classic documents on civil rights and civil disobedience. It is written in response to eight white clergymen who urged King to end the protests.
June 12: Medgar Evers, civil rights activist and NAACP field organizer, is gunned down outside his Jackson, Miss., home.
Aug. 28: More than 200,000 people gather for the March on Washington, D.C. The march for jobs and freedom results in the initiation of federal civil rights legislation in Congress. It is where King delivers his memorable I Have a Dream speech.
Sept. 15: Four girls (ages 11-14) are killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, in the days after a federal court orders the integration of Alabama’s school system.
Nov. 22: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.