Important Events in the Civil Rights Movement .
In Graduation Day, Maya Angelou speaks of her graduation in 1940 as a bittersweet day, when she realizes that her extraordinary accomplishment is insignificant because of being African - American. Since Angelou graduated in 1940 so she is at a disadvantage because soon after the civil rights movement starts making small achievements that later become amazing accomplishments. The civil rights movements contained many steps that had to be completed such as boycotts, sit - ins and the famous walk to Washington, to get where these African - Americans are today, in an equal society. .
The Montgomery Bus Boycott officially started on December 1, 1955, when the blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, instead of being relegated to the back when a white boarded. Rosa Parks, a black woman, who refused to give up her seat to a white male, started the boycott. The boycott ended a year later when the US Supreme Court declared that segregation on buses unconstitutional. .
On February 1, 1960 four black freshmen at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College were denied to purchase and eat food in a local store, so the .
men stayed in the store until they were forced to leave as the building closed. This started the first sit - in. At these sit - ins a group of students would go to a lunch counter and ask to be served. If they were, they'd move on to the next lunch counter. If they were not, they would not move until they had been. If they were arrested, a new group would take their place. By August 1961, they had attracted over 70,000 participants and generated over 3,000 arrests, however this continued in the South until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 declared segregation at lunch counters unlawful. .
In 1963, President Kennedy proposed a new civil rights bill and to show that the bill had widespread support, civil rights groups united to organize a March on Washington.