Timeline of Key Events

• 1948


  0.4% households owned a TV. Segregation ends in US military
• 1949


  China became Communist increasing USA's fear of Communism spreading throughout the world: heightening the Red Scare
• February 1950


  Senator McCarthy delivered his "enemies within" speech alleging communist infiltration of the state department, many were put on trial and found guilty without much proof
• November 1952


  General Dwight D Eisenhower (Republican) is elected President
• 1954


  55% households own a TV
• May 1954


  Brown vs Topeka board of Education - Supreme Court declares racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional
• December 1955


  Rosa parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus to a white man and so the Montgomery Bus Boycott begins
• December 1956


  Supreme Court declared segregation on buses unconstitutional and Montgomery Bus Boycott ends
• 1957


  Little Rock Protest Arkansas - showed extent of racism in the south despite Brown v Topeka ruling
• 1958


  83.2% households own a TV
• November 1960


  John F Kennedy (Democrat) elected President
• 1961


  Greensboro sit-in
• 1962


  Freedom Rides
• August 1963


  March on Washington and Martin Luther King delivers his "I have a dream speech"
• November 1963


  President Kennedy assassinated and succeeded by Lyndon B Johnson
• 1964


  Civil Rights Act passed ending the Jim Crow Laws. Economic Oppurtunity Act passed providing training to disadvantaged youths aged 16-21. The Development Act passed providing money for replacing inner city slums with new homes
• 1965


  Voting Rights Act and Malcolm X assassinated. Race riots in Watts, Los Angeles. Medicare and Medicaid introduced providing medical insurance for over 65's and hospital care for the poor
• 1968


  Martin Luther King assassinated and Civil Rights Act passed which ended discrimination in housing
• 1966


  National Organisation of Women (NOW) set up
• 1972


  Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress but it failed to get ratification from 1/4 states necessary to become part of the Constitution
• January 1973


  US Supreme Court rules in Roe v Wade that women have a right to an abortion