ghts Act, the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The act created the Civil Rights Commission, established the Civil Right Division of the Justice Department, and empowered the federal government to seek court injunctions against obstruction of voting rights.The same month, President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalizes the Arkansas National Guard to escort nine black students to Little Rock Central High, a previously all-white high school. A thousand para-troopers are sent to restore order, and troops remain on campus for an entire school year. When the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to delay desegregation, Little Rock schools are closed for the 1958-59 school year. When they reopen, they are integrated.Martin Luther III, the King's second child and first son is born in Montgomery on October 23.1958On June 23, King, along with Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and A. Philip Randolph of the AFL-CIO, meets with President Eisenhower.King is arrested on September 3 in front of the Montgomery Recorder's Court and charged with loitering. The charge is later changed to "failure to obey an officer". The following day, he is convicted. He decides to go to jail rather than pay the fine. Over King's objection, the fine is paid by Montgomery Police Commissioner Clyde C. Sellers.On September 20, King is stabbed in the chest by Mrs. Izola Curry in a Harlem department store while autographing his newly published book, STRIDE TOWARD FREEDOM: THE MONTGOMERY STORY.1959In early February, Dr. and Mrs. King depart for a monthlong trip to India, where, as the guests of Prime Minister Nehru, they study Gandhi's techniques of nonviolence.King submits his resignation as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on November 29. He will join his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the SCLC has its headquarters.1960The sit-in movement begins on February 1 at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. In an effort to desegre...
