The movement had a saying, “Free in ’63.” It meant that African Americans might finally have true freedom in 1963. That was 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
But it didn’t happen. Still, in the early 1960s, the civil rights movement won big victories in the face of angry and even violent disagreement.

▲ On February 1, 1960, four college students sat at a store lunch counter for whites only in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their names were Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain. They knew they wouldn’t be served. But they came back day after day. Others, black and white, joined them. In the next two months, protests like theirs spread across nine states. They took place in over a hundred cities. These events were called sit-ins. The students’ actions gave birth to a new group. It was called the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. That’s pronounced “snick.” By May 1960, some lunch counters began serving African Americans.

▲ The Supreme Court had outlawed segregated seats on buses and trains that went between states. It also banned segregation in station waiting rooms. One civil rights group was CORE, or the Congress of Racial Equality. It wanted to test the law. On May 4, 1961, 13 black and white volunteers got together. They started a “Freedom Ride” through the South. In Alabama, their bus was bombed. Mobs attacked them. But the group got what it wanted. It made the U.S. government support the Supreme Court’s ruling.

▲ The civil rights movement was making gains. But it was also making its enemies angry. In 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace (above) said he would “stand in the schoolhouse door” to keep African Americans out of the University of Alabama. And he did. But President John F. Kennedy stood firm. He made sure the two black students who wanted to get in were protected. Wallace backed down. In later years, Wallace apologized to civil rights leaders and called segregation wrong.
Before 1963, U.S. presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy (below) only faced up to segregation when they had to. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy spoke on television. He said segregation was an issue of right and wrong. He also said he would soon ask Congress to ban it. Less than six months later, he was assassinated. But his legislation was later passed. That was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ▼



◀ On May 3, 1963, there was a protest in Birmingham, Alabama. Firefighters tried to break it up by using powerful water hoses on the demonstrators. The water was strong enough to take the bark off trees! Many of the demonstrators were young students. They were sitting in protest of the city’s segregation laws. They hoped others would follow their nonviolent lead.
▲ On August 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held. About 250,000 black and white demonstrators were there. Dozens of people gave speeches. But the last speech of the day made history. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of his dream of freedom. “I have a dream,” he said. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”

◀ Sadly, many were not ready for King’s dream. On September 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through a church in Birmingham. It killed Denise McNair, who was 11. It also killed 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. Four suspects were soon found. All were members of the Ku Klux Klan. The first suspect wasn’t tried until 1977. Two more were convicted in 2001 and 2002. The fourth died before ever being charged.