1956

December 21 - After the U.S. Supreme Court affirms the District Court’s decision that segregation on buses is unconstitutional, the Montgomery buses are desegregated.

1957

January/February - The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded by Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Bayard Rustin. The SCLC was instrumental in organizing nonviolent protests during the civil rights movement.

September 25 - President Eisenhower sends troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to protect and assist nine black students in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High.

1958

June 30 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in NAACP v. Alabama, that NAACP has the constitutional right of freedom of assembly to keep its membership a secret.

1960

February 1 - Four black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College students sit down at a segregated Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina and wait to be served. This sparks sit-ins throughout numerous other southern cities.

April - Shaw University students create the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which serves to organize sit-ins.

1961

May 4 – The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) uses “freedom riders” to protest segregation on interstate transportation.

November 1 - The SNCC tests the desegregation of the bus terminal in Albany. Once the protestors enter the white waiting room, they are ordered to leave by the police.

1962

October 1 - With the help of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, James Meredith becomes the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi.

1963

June 12 - Mississippi’s NAACP field secretary, Medgar Evers, is murdered outside of his home. Byron De La Beckwith is arrested and tried for the crime, but after two hung jury verdicts, he is not convicted until twenty years later.

August 28 - 250,000 people gather at the Lincoln Memorial to participate in the March on Washington. Martin Luther King delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

September 15 - A bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four girls.

1964

Summer - Known as Freedom Summer, the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) organizes efforts to register black voters.

June 21 – Three Mississippi Freedom Summer workers, James E. Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner are murdered.

July 2 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed by President Johnson. The Act makes it illegal to discriminate in employment and illegal to segregate public facilities.

1965

February 1 – Martin Luther King and 250 marchers are arrested after marching in Selma, Alabama for voting rights.

February 21 – Malcolm X is shot by three gunmen while on stage at the Manhattan Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

March 7 – Voting rights marchers are beaten by state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. This day became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

August 6 – The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed into law by President Johnson. The act makes literacy tests illegal.

1966

October - The Black Panther Party, a militant self-defense organization, is founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

1967

June 12 – In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court hands down the ruling that the prohibition of interracial marriage is unconstitutional.

October 2 – Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice.

1968

April 4 – Martin Luther King is shot and killed by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony outside of his motel room.

April 11 – The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is passed, which makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

  To help give our union a stronger voice in national politics, APWU's Committee on Political Action (COPA) collects donations from union members and distributes them to candidates who will stand up for postal workers and working families. With the support of tens of thousands of APWU members, COPA raised more than $1 million in 2003 and is well on its way toward doubling that goal for 2004.

Why Give?

  Much is at stake in the ongoing debate over the future of the Postal Service and how it treats its workers and customers. Simply put, postal workers need a strong voice in congressional politics. By law, union dues and general treasurey funds cannot be used to make contributions to candidates for elective office.

What's at Stake?

  The well-funded mailing industry continues to demand below-cost postage discounts that rob the Postal Service of the revenue it needs. Regardless of what becomes of efforts to pass postal reform legislation in 2004, the mailing industry and its pro-privatization allies in Congress will continue to press the same anti-worker agenda adopted by the President's Commission on the Postal Service. That agenda calls for:

• Cutting postal pay.
• Closing thousands of "low activity" post offices.
• Closing or consolidating processing and distribution plants with virtually no input from affected workers and communities.
• Making health care and retirement benefits - currently guaranteed by law - "negotiable," and cutting workers' compensation benefits.
• "Outsourcing" postal jobs to the lowest private-sector bidder.
• Eliminating no-layoff protection for APWU members.
• Rolling back collective bargaining rights.
• Below-cost discounts for the mailing industry.

How to Give    Click this Link

Disclaimer

  This COPA solicitation is paid for by the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, 1300 L St., N.W., Washington, D.C. (202) 842-4200; it is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Contributions or gifts to COPA are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. COPA will use the contributions it receives for political purposes, including making contributions to candidates for federal, state and local offices, and addressing political issues of public importance. Contributions to COPA are voluntary. More or less than the suggested amount may be given, and the amount given or the refusal to give will not benefit or disadvantage the person being solicited. Federal law requires political action committees to report the name, mailing address, occupation, and employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in a calendar year.

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