In my lifetime

I was born in 1952.
I don't remember much of this... but I was alive.

Government-enforced racial segregation of public schools.
[Brown v. Board of Education, ruling against "separate but equal" decided in 1954;
Eisenhower deploys National Guard to forceably de-segregate Little Rock High School, 1957;
Alabama Governor George Wallace in his inaugural address pronounces

"In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

... and stood in front of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963 to prevent the desegregation of the University of Alabama.]

"White" & "Colored" waiting rooms, drinking fountains, and other public facilities.
[Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus, 1955;
Civil Rights activists stage lunch-counter sit-ins, 1960;
Boynton v. Virginia Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation in public transportation was illegal because such segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act.]

Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other blatantly discriminatory "qualifications" effectively disenfranchise southern blacks.
[Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the United States.]

Martin Luther King assassinated, 1968.

Sen. Barack Hussein Obama elected 44th U.S. President, 2008.