1960
In Greensboro, N.C., four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College (Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond) begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries, and other public facilities.

College students involved in sit-in demonstrations hold a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh and form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), pronounced "SNICK." The organization adopts Gandhi's theory of nonviolent direct action. SNCC chairman John Lewis is one of the speakers at the March on Washington in 1963.

1963
Cliff MacKay of the Baltimore Afro-American, reporting on protests in Greensboro, quotes a young Jesse Jackson, student president of North Carolina A. & T.: "When a police dog bites us in Birmingham, people of color bleed all over America" ["Police Dogs in Ala. Spur N.C. Unrest," Afro-American]

1965
North Carolina institutes the freedom-of-choice plan, which allows parents to choose the public schools their children attend.

The homes of Charlotte civil rights activists Kelly Alexander Sr., Fred Alexander, Julius Chambers, and Reginald Hawkins are bombed.

1968
A federal court rules the state's freedom-of-choice plan unconstitutional.

Henry E. Frye becomes the first African American elected to the N.C. House of Representatives in the twentieth century.

Howard Lee is elected mayor of Chapel Hill, making him the first African American mayor of a predominantly white southern city.

1968-69
African American parents and students in Hyde County protest school reassignments with a yearlong boycott of public schools.

Cafeteria workers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill go on strike for better wages and opportunities. Black student activists lend their support.

1969
In Godwin v. Johnston County Board of Education, a federal court declares the Pearsall Plan unconstitutional.

Police and National Guard fire on civil rights demonstrators at N. C. A&T College in Greensboro. One student is killed, and five police officers are injured.

Durham resident Warren Wheeler founds Wheeler Flying Service, becoming the first African American to own a commercial airline.

Portions of this timeline are reprinted from the Tar Heel Junior Historian 44 (Fall 2004), © North Carolina Museum of History, Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.