Black veteran James Meredith arrived to begin classes at the University of Mississippi. Thousands of whites rioted, resulting in two deaths and 160 injuries. US troops were sent in to suppress the violence. Despite threats on his life, Meredith graduated in 1963. He had originally been rejected from the university because of his race.
In Boynton v. Virginia, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s conviction of an African American man who refused to leave a whites-only bus terminal restaurant. The Court ruled that the arrest violated the Interstate Commerce Act, which “forbids any interstate common carrier by motor vehicle to subject any person to unjust discrimination.”
President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president upon Kennedy’s death.
In a close election, Democrat John F. Kennedy edged out Republican Richard Nixon to win the presidency. Kennedy won by fewer than 117,000 popular votes.
Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was easily elected over Republican Barry Goldwater by more than fifteen million popular votes.
Lyndon Johnson announced his “Great Society” plan in his first State of the Union message. The program called for a “war on poverty,” with social welfare legislation and increased federal support for education, health care, and voting rights.
President Lyndon Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Marshall was the first African American justice to serve on the Court.
The United States, in concert with twenty-two Latin American countries, established the Alliance for Progress. The program provided more than $20 billion in aid from the US and international and private sources in exchange for Latin American commitment to democracy, economic reforms, and education and standard-of-living improvements.
In an invasion planned by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and approved by the Kennedy administration, US-backed Cuban anti-Castro forces landed at the Bay of Pigs but were overcome by Castro’s troops. More than 1100 men were captured in an embarrassing defeat. The prisoners were eventually ransomed back to the US in exchange for food and medicine.
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged students by providing federal funding for public schools.