Mauritius becomes independent from Britain

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously for Mildred and Richard Loving, invalidating state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Their challenge confronted the state’s authority to police intimate life...

A police raid on an unlicensed club sparked confrontations that developed into a major uprising. The crisis unfolded amid longstanding grievances over policing and racial inequality. It was not a...

An FBI directive launched a counterintelligence programme against organizations it labelled Black nationalist hate groups. Its purpose included disrupting and discrediting groups and leaders, not...

Black sanitation workers stopped work after years of unsafe conditions, low pay and unequal treatment. The deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker earlier that month intensified their grievances....

Students at several East Los Angeles high schools joined walkouts demanding better education and respect for Mexican American students. Earlier action at Wilson High School had begun on 1 March. The...

Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had come to support striking sanitation workers. His final campaigns connected racial equality with economic justice. His...

Coretta Scott King and other family members marched with thousands in Memphis, honouring King and supporting sanitation workers. The demonstration sustained the workers’ demands after his...

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited specified discrimination in housing sales, rentals and financing. The law addressed institutions that restricted residential access by race and...

The sanitation strike ended with an agreement providing union recognition and wage improvements. Workers’ sustained action and community solidarity had challenged the city’s treatment of Black...

Coretta Scott King led women in a Washington march that opened the campaign’s major public demonstrations. The coalition brought people from different racial and regional backgrounds together around...