Over the last several years, significant progress has been made in identifying chromatin-regulated events that govern NF-κB transcription. Using either laminin attachment or tumor necrosis factor alpha as a physiological stimulus of NF-κB activation, we demonstrate that IκB kinase α (IKKα) is recruited to chromatin in distinct phases. In the initial phase, IKKα is responsible for derepressing the silencing mediator for retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptor (SMRT)-histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) corepressor complex from the p50 homodimer. However, in the latter phase, chromatin-bound IKKα coordinates the simultaneous phosphorylation of RelA/p65 (S536) and SMRT (S2410) as detected by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays. Although phosphorylated SMRT remains bound to the active p50-RelA/p65 heterodimer of NF-κB, derepression of SMRT is evidenced by the loss of chromatin-associated HDAC3 activity. ChIP and re-ChIP analysis demonstrates that phosphorylation of RelA/p65 (S536) and SMRT (S2410) occurs prior to acetylation of RelA/p65 at K310. Moreover, IKKα-induced phosphorylation of RelA/p65 (S536) displaces corepressor activity, allowing p300-mediated acetylation of RelA/p65. Introduction of nonphosphorylatable mutants of RelA/p65 and SMRT proteins or the inhibition of IKK activity results in active repression of NF-κB promoters by tethering the SMRT-HDAC3 complex. Similar to phosphorylation within the Rel homology domain of RelA/p65, which governs an exchange of HDAC1 for CBP/p300 acetyltransferases, we demonstrate that phosphorylation within the transactivation domain of RelA/p65 (S536) displaces SMRT-HDAC3 repressor activity, allowing p300 to acetylate RelA/p65.