- 1957
- Chicago branch of NAACP report “De Facto Segregation in the Chicago Public Schools”
- 1961
- Chatham-Avalon Park Community Council (CAPCC) filed suit to correct racial imbalance in Chicago schools
- 1962
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- Black parents on Chicago’s South Side staged “sit-in” at Burnside School to protest racial imbalance
- Formation of Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), including the Chicago Urban League, Chicago branch of the NAACP, CAPCC, The Woodlawn Organization (TWO); Al Raby, a teacher, eventually selected as convenor and predominately white groups like the American Friends Service Committee and the Chicago Catholic Interracial Council later joined
- 1963
- CCCO staged massive boycott of public schools
- 1964
- Second major boycott of schools organized by CCCO; Bernard LaFayette tapped by the American Friends Service Committee to begin organizing on Chicago’s West Side
- 1965
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- June
- Daily marches against school segregation led by CCCO
- July
- Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) toured Chicago
- August
- Watts Riot in Los Angeles
- September
- SCLC decided to target Chicago for next campaign; SCLC and CCCO formed the Chicago Freedom Movement
- Fall
- James Bevel, SCLC staffers, and Chicago civil rights activists targeted Chicago’s West Side for organizing effort
- 1966
-
- January
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- Kick-off of the Chicago Freedom Movement
- Martin Luther King moved into a decrepit flat on Chicago’s West Side to spotlight commitment to “End Slums”
- February
- Operation Breadbasket, the Chicago chapter, headed by Jesse Jackson, organized
- May
- Deep concern among civil rights leaders that the movement was floundering
- June
- March in Mississippi in response to shooting of James Meredith; “Black Power” rallying cry shouted
- July
- Major rally in Soldier Field; Uprising on the West Side; Chicago Freedom Movement leaders decided to target housing discrimination; fair-housing testing and then marches held
- August
- Fear of racial explosion as whites erupt against fair-housing marchers; negotiations to bring an end to the demonstrations convened; finally, a “Summit Agreement” reached, supported by businessmen, church leaders, Mayor Richard J. Daley and city officials
- September
- Dissatisfied activists staged demonstration through nearby Cicero
- 1967
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- January
- Another band of SCLC activists, led by Hosea Williams, sought to organize a get-out-the-vote campaign
- May
- Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, a product of the “Summit Agreement” launched “Project: Good Neighbor”; Martin Luther King declared that no more demonstrations were necessary; the Chicago Freedom Movement was over
