The 1960s Education: Chronology
The 1960s Education: Chronology
1960: November 13 A special session of the Louisiana state legislature approves extreme measures to avert New Orleans school desegregation.
1960: December 4 Ignoring ongoing abuse, a black New Orleans minister continues escorting his five-year-old daughter to an integrated school.
1961: January 10 Two black students register at the University of Georgia. Subsequent riots lead to their suspension; however, school administrators are ordered to reinstate them.
1961: March 20 Louisiana's efforts to stop integration are judged to be unconstitutional.
1962: January 11 In his State of the Union address, President John F. Kennedy pledges to work to pass educationfunding legislation.
1962: February 6 President Kennedy presents his "Special Message on Education" to Congress, in which he proposes financial aid for handicapped children and illiterate adults and funding to upgrade teacher quality.
1962: April Years of classroom overcrowding and low pay result in a one-day strike by New York City teachers.
1962: June 25 The U.S. Supreme Court rules unconstitutional a prayer reading in New York public schools.
1962: July 8 The federal government announced it will initiate a study of the effect of television on schoolchildren.
1962: July 26 A federal judge orders schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia, to reopen, three years after they were closed in defiance of integration.
1962: August 31 Due to threats of violence, Roman Catholic Church officials close an integrated parochial school in Buras, Mississippi.
1962: September 20 In defiance of a federal court order, James Meredith, a black man, is denied admission to the University of Mississippi.
1962: September 30–October 1 James Meredith is escorted onto the "Ole Miss" campus. After fifteen hours of shooting and rioting in which two persons are killed, Meredith is enrolled.
1963: January 28 Harvey Gantt becomes the first black student at South Carolina's Clemson College.
1963: June 11 After threatening to defy a federal desegregation mandate, Governor George Wallace allows two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
1963: August 11 One of the two black students at the University of Alabama drops out.
1963: August 18 James Meredith becomes the first black Bachelor's degree candidate at the University of Mississippi.
1963: September 8 The United Federation of Teachers agrees to a new contract, preventing a New York teachers strike.
1963: December 16 President Lyndon Johnson signs into law the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963.
1964: January 8 In his State of the Union address, President Johnson asks Congress to approve additional money for education.
1964: March 12 Thousands of New Yorkers march on the city's Board of Education to protest the elimination of neighborhood schools resulting from desegregation plans.
1964: September–December University of California, Berkeley students demonstrate against a ban on on-campus free speech. The protest culminates in a student strike.
1965: March 5 The Freedom School, an integrated school in Indianola, Mississippi, is burned to the ground.
1965: April 9 The U.S. Senate passes a $1.3 billion school-aid bill.
1965: November 20 City University of New York (CUNY) administrators quit in protest over a new $400 tuition fee for city residents.
1966: March 3 President Johnson signs into law the Veteran's Readjustment Act, allowing education benefits for those who served in the military after January 31, 1955.
1966: October 20 Congress approves a $6.2 billion aid to education package.
1967: June 30 A task force appointed by President Johnson recommends that additional federal monies be spent on education programs.
1968: May–June Student demonstrators at Columbia University, protesting racism and the Vietnam war, occupy several campus buildings.
1968: November 18 The United Federation of Teachers votes to end a five-week-long New York teachers'strike.
1969: May 7 Seven are injured in a confrontation between black and white students at New York's City College.