1961

Interracial groups organized by CORE boarded interstate buses into the Deep South to challenge segregation in bus terminals. Riders were beaten by mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama. The rides forced the Kennedy administration to enforce desegregation of interstate travel facilities.

Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation — founded with an $800 family loan in 1959 — had by 1961 built Hitsville USA in Detroit into a hit-making factory that challenged the major labels. Motown became the most successful Black-owned business in America and the country's best-selling independent label.

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson calculated the trajectory that put Alan Shepard into space on America's first human spaceflight, and later verified the computer calculations for John Glenn's orbital mission. Her work was central to the Mercury and Apollo programs; she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and was depicted in the 2016 film 'Hidden Figures.'

Vaughan, NASA Langley's first Black supervisor, taught herself and her team FORTRAN programming when electronic computers replaced human computers, ensuring the West Area Computing team remained essential through the space age transition.

Vaughan, who had been the first Black supervisor at NACA/NASA Langley, taught herself and her team FORTRAN programming when electronic computers replaced human computers. Her leadership ensured the West Area Computing team remained essential through the transition to the space age.

Motown's first #1 pop single, performed by the all-female group from Inkster, Michigan, 'Please Mr. Postman' launched the girl-group era at Motown and demonstrated the label's crossover commercial formula.

Whitney Young became executive director of the National Urban League in 1961 and dramatically expanded its mission and resources, forging unprecedented relationships with corporate America to drive Black economic advancement. His 'domestic Marshall Plan' proposal for compensatory programs prefigured affirmative action, and his leadership made the Urban League one of the most effective civil rights organizations of the 1960s.

Becomes the first Black college football player to win the Heisman.