CORE Events 1940-1970

1942: Founding of CORE War Without Violence served as the inspiration behind the founding of The Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago. James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, and Bernice Fisher felt Civil disobedience could be used to combat racial segregation in a similar to Gandhis nonviolent resistance.

April 10, 1947: Journey of Reconciliation- CORE sent 8 white men and 8 black men on a 2-week trip through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky in an effort to stop interstate segregation.

1956: Montgomery Bus BoycottCORE activists sent field workers to support the movement in the South. During the boycott, CORE publicized M. L. King's work in pamphlets. King agreed to serve on CORE's Advisory Committee in 1957.

1960: Sit-Ins- The protest by four black college students was the beginning of a movement led by CORE against segregating public spaces of the South. "Black or racially integrated students and CORE organizers would sit down in white-only spaces and refuse to move until they were served or forcibly removed." CORE. At the end of 1960, about 70,000 black students had participated in a sit-in or marched in support of the demonstrators.

1961: Freedom Rides - Student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibited segregation in interstate travel facilities, including bus and railway stations. They are attacked by angry mobs along the way. Sponsored by CORE and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) it involved more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white.

August 28, 1963:March on Washington CORE was influential in organizing the March on Washington. More than 250,000 people marched peacefully up to the Lincoln Memorial and demanded equal justice for all citizens under the law. Here, M.L.K. made his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Summer of 1964: Freedom SchoolsCORE, SNCC and NAACP established 30 Freedom Schools throughout Mississippi. Volunteers taught in the schools where curriculum now included black history. Over the summer of 1964 greater than 3,000 students attended these schools, which provided a model for future educational programs such as Head Start.

Summer of 1964: Freedom Summer- A widely publicisezed campaign in the South that aimed to register blacks to vote. Three CORE members were murdered, provoking huge national support for the Civil Rights Movement.

1965: Voting Rights ActGrown out of public protest and private political negotiation, this act was passed by President Johnson to eradicate poll taxes and ban discriminatory literacy tests. In marches prior to this act, blacks were brutally assualted by racists with fire hoses, clubs, attack dogs, and nightsticks.

American History 1940-1970

1941: WWIIThe Attack on pearl Harbor brings the U.S. into World War II.

1945: HiroshimaThe U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1946: U.N.The United Nations holds its first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

1947: African American Integration in Sports- Jackie Robinson becomes the first AfricanAmerican to sign with a major league baseball club.

1951: T.V.Color Televisions are first made available in the United States.

1960: Presidentia l ElectionJohn F. Kennedy is elected 35th President of the U.S.

1962: CRISIS!The Cuban Missile Crisis thrusts fear in American hearts, citizens and officials "holding their breath."

1964: Nobel Prize- Martin Luther Hing Jr. wins the nobel Peace Prize for his "nonviolent resistance of racial prejudice."

1965: The BeatlesThe band comes to America and the "Beatles Craze" sweeps the nation.

1969: Moonward Bound- Apollo 11 successfully lands on the surface of the moon and Neil Armstrong takes the first step on the moon.