page_title: Timeline of African-American history
section_title: 1950–1959
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of African-American history / 20th century / 1950–1959
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King jr. (ca. 1955) Mrs. Rosa Parks altered the negro progress in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955, by the bus boycott she began. National Archives record ID: 306-PSD-65-1882 (Box 93). Source: Ebony Magazine Deutsch: Rosa Parks und Martin Luther King jr. (um 1955) Ελληνικά: Φωτογραφία της Rosa Parks με τον Dr. Martin Luther King jr. (περ. 1955.) Español: Fotografía de Rosa Parks con Martin Luther King jr. (aprox. 1955). Français&#160;: Photographie Rosa Parks (ca. 1955)
context_page_description: This is a timeline of the African-American history in what is now the United States, from 1565 to the present.
context_section_description: 1950
  June 5 – In McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a public institution of higher learning could not provide different treatment to a student solely because of his race.
  June 5 – In Sweatt v. Painter the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a separate-but-equal Texas law school was actually unequal, partly in that it deprived black students from the collegiality of future white lawyers.
  June 5 – In Henderson v. United States the U.S. Supreme Court abolishes segregation in railroad dining cars.
  September 15 – University of Virginia, under a federal court order, admits a black student to its law school.
  The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is created in Washington, DC to promote the enactment and enforcement of effective civil rights legislation and policy.
  Orlando, Florida, hires its first black police officers.
  Dr. Ralph Bunche wins the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize.
  Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton and Earl Lloyd break the barriers into the NBA.
  1951
  February 2 and 5 – Execution of the Martinsville Seven.
  February 15 – Maryland legislature ends segregation on trains and boats; meanwhile Georgia legislature votes to deny funds to schools that integrate.
  April 23 – High school students in Farmville, Virginia, go on strike: the case Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 as part of Brown v. Board of Education.
  June 23 – A Federal Court ruling upholds segregation in SC public schools.
  July 11 – White residents riot in Cicero, Illinois when a black family tries to move into an apartment in the all-white suburb of Chicago; National Guard disperses them July 1.
  July 26 – The United States Army high command announces it will desegregate the Army.
  December 17 – "We Charge Genocide" petition presented to United Nations by the Civil Rights Congress accuses United States of violating the Genocide Convention
  December 24 – The home of NAACP activists Harry and Harriette Moore in Mims, Florida, is bombed by KKK group; both die of injuries.
  December 28 – The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) is founded in Cleveland, Mississippi by T. R. M. Howard, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, and other civil rights activists. Assisted by member Medgar Evers, the RCNL distributed more than 50,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan, "Don't Buy Gas Where you Can't Use the Restroom."  This campaign successfully pressured many Mississippi service stations to provide restrooms for blacks.
  1952
  January 5 – Governor of Georgia Herman Talmadge criticizes television shows for depicting blacks and whites as equal.
  January 28 – Briggs v. Elliott: after a District Court had ordered separate but equal school facilities in South Carolina, the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the case as part of Brown v. Board of Education.
  March 7 – Another federal court upholds segregated education laws in Virginia.
  April 1 – Chancellor Collins J. Seitz finds for the black plaintiffs (Gebhart v. Belton, Gebhart v. Bulah) and orders the integration of Hockessin elementary and Claymont High School in Delaware based on assessment of "separate but equal" public school facilities required by the Delaware constitution.
  September 4 – Eleven black students attend the first day of school at Claymont High School, Delaware, becoming the first black students in the 17 segregated states to integrate a white public school. The day occurs without incident or notice by the community.
  September 5 – The Delaware State Attorney General informs Claymont Superintendent Stahl that the black students will have to go home because the case is being appealed. Stahl, the School Board and the faculty refuse and the students remain. The two Delaware cases are argued before the Warren U.S. Supreme Court by Redding, Greenberg and Marshall and are used as an example of how integration can be achieved peacefully. It was a primary influence in the Brown v. Board case. The students become active in sports, music and theater. The first two black students graduated in June 1954 just one month after the Brown v. Board case.
  Ralph E
caption: Rosa Parks pictured in 1955
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