People, Locations, Episodes

“Sit-In” Protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Occurs

*On this date in 1960, a ‘Sit In’ occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Nine Black Southern University students were arrested for “disturbing the peace.” This was after sitting at the “white only” segregated lunch counters in downtown Baton Rouge. The locations were a Kress Department store and the local Greyhound bus station. Despite the peaceful […]

South Africa Bans the African National Congress

*On this date in 1960, the South African Nationalist Government banned the African National Congress (ANC).

The ANC continued to operate underground in South Africa. Outside the country the ANC started to establish itself as the official voice of South Africa’s vote-less people. By the 1970s recognition of the ANC’s legitimacy was growing, not only amongst the multiplicity of non-governmental anti-apartheid organizations, but also among foreign governments. By 1980, the ANC had offices and representatives in 32 countries.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is Signed

On this date in 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

This was the first civil rights bill to be approved by Congress since Reconstruction. Though Eisenhower is not routinely linked to the civil rights issue, his contribution, including the 1957 Act, was important as it pushed the whole civil rights issue into the White House. At the time, politicians from the South were angry over what they saw as federal interference in state affairs. This bill became an act where as both parties were fighting for the “Black Vote.”

Senegal Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Senegal and French Sudan merged to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent.    Senegal was first colonized during the 15th century by major European powers: the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and British.  It is also the location of Goree Island, one of the first ports of departure for the Middle Passage of slavery to […]

Madagascar Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Madagascar became an independent country from France, and Philibert Tsiranana became its first president. Seventy-six years after the Berlin Conference, the high point of white European competition for African territory was a process commonly known as the Scramble for Africa.   The Malagasy Republic, proclaimed on October 14, 1958, became an autonomous state […]

Benin Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, The Republic of Dahomey (Benin) became independent of France. In the words of the historian Martin Meredith, the young country “was encumbered with every imaginable difficulty: a small strip of territory jutting inland from the coast, it was crowded, insolvent and beset by tribal divisions, huge debts, unemployment, frequent strikes and an […]

Burkina Faso Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Burkina Faso gained independence from France. Starting in the early 1890s, during the white-European Berlin Conference, many white military officers attempted to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. These colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples; sometimes, they forged alliances with them and made treaties. The colonialist officers […]

The Ivory Coast Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Ivory Coast achieved full independence from France, and Félix Houphouët-Boigny became the first president after the independence.  Leading to the transfer of power, the Ivory Coast became a member state within the French Community on December 4, 1958. Students in the 1960s and 1970s began to organize into student activist groups, some of which opposed the Houphouet-Boigny regime.  In […]

The Central African Republic Gains Independence From France

*The Central African Republic gained independence from France on this date in 1960. They are a landlocked country in Central Africa. Its bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the Congo to the southwest, and Cameroon to the west. Approximately 10,000 years ago, desertification forced hunter-gatherer societies south into the Sahel […]

The Republic of the Congo Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, the Republic of the Congo received full independence from France.  They had been colonized as a result of the 1884 Berlin Conference. It marked the high point of white European competition for African territory, commonly known as the Scramble for Africa. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the country’s first president until labor […]

Gabon Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Gabon gained its independence from France. Officially the Gabonese Republic they are a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Originally settled by Pygmy peoples, they were absorbed into the Bantu tribes as they migrated. By the 18th century, a Myeni-speaking kingdom known as the Kingdom of Orungu formed […]

‘Ax Handle Saturday,’ a story

*On this date in 1960, “Ax Handle Saturday” occurred.  This was a racially motivated attack that took place in Hemming Park in Jacksonville, Florida. A group of white men attacked blacks engaging in sit-in protests opposing Jim Crow segregation. The attack took its name from the ax handles used by the attackers.  Earlier that month (August 13), black sit-ins began when students asked to […]

Mali Gains Independence From France

*On this date in 1960, Mali, Africa, gained independence from France. Following Senegal’s withdrawal from the federation in August 1960, the former Sudanese Republic became the Republic of Mali, with Modibo Keïta as president.   Keïta (named after Sundiata Keita), whose Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally (US/RDA) party had dominated pre-independence politics (as a member of the African Democratic Rally), […]

Nigeria Gains Independence From Britain

*On this date in 1960, The Federation of Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom.  The UK retained the British monarch, Elizabeth II, as nominal head of state and Queen of Nigeria. This liberation was an effort that began in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference in 1884 Nigeria’s government was a coalition of conservative parties: the Nigerian People’s Congress (NPC), a party dominated […]

Gomillion v. Lightfoot is heard at The Supreme Court

*On this date in 1960, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960), was argued at the United States Supreme Court.  This decision found an electoral district with boundaries created to disenfranchise blacks violated the Fifteenth Amendment.   In Tuskegee, Alabama, after the Civil Rights Act of 1957, activists had been slowly making progress in registering black voters, whose numbers on the rolls […]