The Gambia becomes independent from Britain

FRELIMO launched armed struggle against Portuguese colonial government. Under Eduardo Mondlane’s leadership, the movement sought national liberation from an order that denied equal political authority...

Zambia became independent, ending British rule over Northern Rhodesia, with Kenneth Kaunda as president. Nationalist organizing had challenged a colonial political and economic order. Independence...

Martin Luther King Jr. accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and associated the recognition with the broader civil rights movement. His address stressed continuing racial injustice and the...

SCLC joined the Dallas County Voters League, SNCC and local residents in an intensified voting-rights campaign. Black residents had long confronted obstruction when attempting to register. The new...

Students led by Charles Perkins began a bus tour of regional New South Wales to expose discrimination against Aboriginal people. Working with local communities, they challenged exclusion from public...

Malcolm X was murdered while preparing to address a public meeting in Manhattan. His work linked Black self-determination, cultural dignity and international human rights. His death removed a...

John Lewis and Hosea Williams led marchers out of Selma toward Montgomery. State troopers and local law-enforcement officers attacked them near the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The violence exposed the...

King led demonstrators, including religious supporters who had come to Selma, to the site of the police attack. They prayed and returned rather than continuing to Montgomery amid legal restrictions....

Demonstrators departed Selma under federal protection after earlier attempts had faced repression. Local residents and national supporters sustained a five-day march demanding voting rights. Federal...

The Selma march culminated at Alabama’s capital with a mass rally. Organizers demanded effective political participation for Black citizens rather than acceptance of constitutional promises without...