1964

Civil rights workers James Chaney (21, Black), Andrew Goodman (20, white), and Michael Schwerner (24, white) were abducted and murdered by KKK members with Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price's complicity. Bodies were found buried in an earthen dam August 4. No murder conviction came until Edgar Ray Killen in 2005.

CORE workers James Chaney (Black, 21), Andrew Goodman (white, 20), and Michael Schwerner (white, 24) were abducted and murdered by Klan members with the involvement of the Neshoba County Sheriff's Department during Freedom Summer in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam. Edgar Ray Killen was not convicted until 2005.

Civil rights workers James Chaney (21, Black), Andrew Goodman (20, white), and Michael Schwerner (24, white) were abducted and murdered by Klan members in Neshoba County, Mississippi, with the complicity of Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price. Their bodies were found buried in an earthen dam August 4. No one was convicted of murder until Edgar Ray Killen in 2005.

President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. Title VII created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Act passed the Senate 73-27 after the defeat of the Southern filibuster.

The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO program, mailed Martin Luther King Jr. an anonymous letter containing a recording of alleged extramarital activity and a message reading: 'You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation.' King received it 34 days before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

The FBI mailed MLK an anonymous letter with a recording of alleged extramarital activity and a message reading: 'You are done. There is but one way out for you.' King received it 34 days before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. The letter was authorized by FBI Assistant Director William Sullivan under Hoover's COINTELPRO program.

Throughout Freedom Summer 1964, Mississippi white employers and landlords systematically fired, evicted, and cut off credit to Black residents who attempted voter registration. In Ruleville, Fannie Lou Hamer was evicted from the plantation where she had worked for 18 years within hours of attempting to register. SNCC documented hundreds of such cases of economic coercion.

Following J. Edgar Hoover's declaration that MLK was 'the most dangerous Negro in America,' a January 6, 1964 FBI memo outlined plans to 'neutralize King as an effective Negro leader' and elevate a more compliant figure. The FBI used surveillance recordings to attempt to pressure King's associates, donors, and the SCLC board to remove him from leadership.

Southern Democratic senators launched the longest filibuster in U.S. Senate history against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, speaking for 60 days beginning in late March. Led by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, 18 Southern senators delivered over 10 million words of floor speeches. Cloture was finally invoked on June 10, 1964 — the first successful cloture vote on a civil rights bill.

During 1964 Freedom Summer, Mississippi law enforcement arrested over 1,000 civil rights workers, beat volunteers in jail cells, and fired into homes where workers stayed. In Hattiesburg, police used electric cattle prods on Black residents attempting to register to vote. The Council of Federated Organizations documented over 450 separate incidents of racial violence that summer.

SNCC and CORE organized Freedom Summer, sending approximately 700 mostly white Northern volunteers to Mississippi to register Black voters and establish Freedom Schools. More than 1,200 volunteers were trained at Western College for Women in Ohio. Despite violence and arrests, Freedom Schools taught 3,000 students and the project exposed the depth of Mississippi's terror system.

After civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner disappeared June 21, the FBI took 44 days to find their bodies — after a paid informant led agents to the earthen dam on August 4. During the search, FBI agents found the bodies of seven other unidentified Black men in Mississippi waterways, evidence of a broader pattern of racial murder that was never investigated.

After the three workers disappeared June 21, the FBI took 44 days to locate their bodies via a paid informant. During the search, agents found seven other unidentified Black men in Mississippi waterways, evidence of broader racial murder never investigated.

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, formed to challenge the all-white regular Mississippi delegation, sent 68 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. Fannie Lou Hamer delivered televised testimony before the credentials committee describing beatings and economic reprisals against Black voters. President Johnson arranged behind-the-scenes pressure to deny the MFDP's challenge.

The FBI's COINTELPRO program placed SNCC under intensive surveillance from 1964, planting informants, intercepting communications, and attempting to discredit leaders including John Lewis and Stokely Carmichael. Internal FBI memos described SNCC as a 'Black nationalist hate group' requiring neutralization. The program disrupted fundraising, leaked damaging information to employers and media, and manufactured intra-organization conflict.

The 24th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, abolishing the poll tax as a requirement for voting in federal elections. Poll taxes had been used since Reconstruction to disenfranchise Black voters across the South. The amendment passed Congress in 1962 after decades of failed attempts; the Voting Rights Act of 1965 later extended the prohibition to state elections.

Louis Allen, a Black logger in Liberty, Mississippi, who had witnessed the 1961 murder of Herbert Lee and faced years of harassment for it, was shot dead in his driveway. Allen had been beaten, had his jaw broken by a deputy sheriff, and had applied for FBI protection before his murder. No one was ever charged.

During and after Freedom Summer 1964, the KKK burned 37 Black churches used for voter registration. Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County was burned June 16, 1964, the event that brought Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner to investigate before their murder.

During and after Freedom Summer 1964, the Ku Klux Klan burned 37 Black churches in Mississippi that had been used for voter registration meetings or civil rights organizing. Mt. Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County was burned June 16, 1964 — the event that brought Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner to investigate before they were murdered.

Despite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting employment discrimination, the EEOC was underfunded and had no enforcement power — it could only investigate and attempt conciliation. Black unemployment remained twice the white rate throughout the decade. AFL-CIO construction unions in Northern cities actively excluded Black workers from apprenticeship programs through racially restrictive practices.

Despite Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOC had no enforcement power and could only investigate and attempt conciliation. Black unemployment remained twice the white rate. Northern AFL-CIO construction unions actively excluded Black workers from apprenticeship programs.

Off-duty NYPD Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan shot and killed 15-year-old James Powell in Harlem. Six nights of unrest followed in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant: 1 death, 144 injuries, 519 arrests. A grand jury cleared Gilligan. The event began a pattern of urban rebellions across the decade.

Off-duty NYPD Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan shot and killed 15-year-old James Powell in Harlem. Six nights of uprisings followed across Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant, resulting in 1 death, 144 injuries, and 519 arrests. A grand jury cleared Gilligan. The event marked the beginning of a pattern of urban rebellions across the decade.

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruling that Congress's commerce power authorized the ban on racial discrimination in businesses serving interstate travelers. The ruling foreclosed constitutional challenges to the Act's core provisions.

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruling that Congress's commerce power authorized the ban on racial discrimination in businesses serving interstate travelers.

Landmark law outlawing segregation and employment discrimination.

Volunteers register Black voters in Mississippi; three are murdered by the Klan.

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the all-white delegation at the Democratic convention; Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony electrifies the country.

The poll tax in federal elections is abolished.