Civil Rights Timeline
NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
CORE = Congress of Racial Equality
MIA = Montgomery Improvement Association
SCLC = Southern Christian Leadership Conference
SNCC = Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee
COFO = Council of Federated Organization
1616
July 2nd 1777
1787
1793
1793
1808
March
1820
Sept.
1849
3rd
17th
April
12th
1861
July 17th 1862
1863
Jan. 31st 1865
first African slaves arrive in Virginia
Vermont is first state to abolish slavery
slavery made illegal in Northwest Territory, US Constitution states
that Congress cant ban slave trades until 1808
(Eli Whitneys) invention of cotton gin greatly increases demand
for slave labor
Federal fugitive state law is enacted, providing for return slaves,
who had escaped & crossed state lines
Congress bans importation of slaves from Africa
Slavery banned everywhere north of Missouri, but still legal in
Southern US -> The Missouri Compromise
Harriet Tubman escapes slavery in Maryland & helps more than
300 black slaves escape to free territory via the Underground
Railroad
Confederacy founded when deep South secedes & Civil War
begins
By request of President Abraham Lincoln Congress allows Blacks
to join military
Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all
persons held as slaves within the Confederate are, and
henceforward shall be free
Thirteenth Amendment is passed & slavery is officially abolished
from US
President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
April
15th
1865
July 28th 1868 Fourteenth Amendment is passed & black citizens receive full
citizenship
March
30th Right to vote granted to all American males, regardless of race,
1870
color, or previous condition of servitude
March
1st Civil Rights Act is passed, giving black citizens the right to equal
1875
treatment on public transportation & in public facilities
th
Nov.
26
US Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act to be unconstitutional
1883
& individual states once more allowed to treat and discriminate
Blacks in any ways they see fit
1917
US enters WWI, anti-black riots are held in St. Louis, Illinois ->
more than 100 Blacks either killed or injured -> more than 100
th
Dec. 8 1936
1942
June 3rd 1946
1946
1948
May 17th 1954
August 1955
Dec. 1st 1955
Jan.1957
Feb.
000 black New Yorkers hold Silent Parade to protest violence
NAACP sues government to make them pay black & white
teachers equal salaries
CORE established
US Supreme Court declares segregation on buses that cross state
borders to be illegal
President Truman (1945-1953) establishes Committee on civil
rights
Discrimination in armed forces banned
US Supreme Court declares segregation in schools to be
unconstitutional ( -> victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood
Marshall)
Emmet Till (14) is visiting family in Mississippi when he is
kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and then dumped into
Tallahatchie River by two white men: J.W. Milam & Roy Bryant
(who later boast about killing him), for allegedly whistling at a
white woman
NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white
passenger in Montgomery and is arrested -> in response to her
arrest, Montgomery Black community launches bus boycott
(Montgomery Bus Boycott), which lasts more than a year (until
buses desegregated Dec. 21st 1956), led by newly elected
president of MIA, reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK, Charles K. Steele & Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish SCLC,
which becomes major force in organizing civil rights movement &
is based on non-violence and civil disobedience
Little Rock Nine
Sept.
24th
1957
Feb. 1st 1960
Greensboro, North Carolina: 4 black college students begin first
sit-ins at lunch counter of a restaurant, where Blacks arent
served -> leads to other sit-ins throughout US to integrate parks,
theaters, libraries, swimming pools & other public facilities
April 1960
SNCC founded at Shaw University to provide young Blacks with a
voice in Civil Rights Movement
(1960
Elijah Muhammad called for creation of separate state for Blacks)
May 4th 1961
Sponsored by CORE & SNCC, more than 1 000 student volunteers,
black & white, begin taking bus trips (Freedom Rides) through
South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate
travel facilities (volunteers = Freedom Riders)
-> several of the groups are attacked by angry mobs along the
way
st
Oct. 1 1962
Violence & riots surround James Meredith, as he becomes first
black student to enroll at University of Mississippi, which causes
President Kennedy to send 5 000 federal troops
1962
US Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all
transportation facilities & Department of Defense orders full
integration of military reserve units (National Guard is excluded)
16th MLK is arrested & jailed during anti-segregation protests in
Birmingham -> he writes his seminal Letter from Birmingham
Jail, arguing that individuals have moral duty to disobey unjust
laws
May 1963
During protests in Birmingham, Alabama, Commissioner of Public
Safety, Eugene Bull Connor, uses fire hoses & police dogs on
black demonstrators -> images of brutality are televised &
published widely, which helps gain sympathy for Civil Rights
Movement
th
June
12
Mississippi NAACP field secretary, Medgar Evers (37), is murdered
1963
by snipers bullet outside his home, by Byron De La Beckwith
(convicted 1994)
Aug.
28th About 200 000 join March on Washington, where MLK delivers his
1963
world-famous I Have a Dream speech in front of Lincoln
Memorial, Washington D.C.
Sept.
15th 4 young girls attending Sunday School are killed in bombing of
1963
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church (popular location for civil rights
meetings) -> riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to deaths of 2
more black children
rd
Jan. 23 1964 24th Amendment abolishes poll tax (poll tax originally instituted in
11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for
poor Blacks to vote)
Summer 1964 Freedom Summer: COFO, a network of civil rights groups,
including CORE & SNCC, launches massive effort to register black
voters & sends delegates to Democratic National Convention to
protest & attempt to unseat official all-white Mississippi
contingent
nd
July 2 1964
President Johnson (1963 - 1969) signs Civil Rights Act of 1964 ->
most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, which
prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion
or national origin & provides federal government to enforce
desegregation
Aug. 4th 1964 3 civil rights workers 2 white, 1 black go to investigate burning
of a black church, arrested by police on speeding charges,
incarcerated for several hours & released after dark into hands of
Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them
Oct. 14th 1964 MLK is awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Feb. 21st 1965 Malcolm X is shot to death, by what is believed to be members of
Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in
favor of Orthodox Islam
March
7th Bloody Sunday: Blacks begin March to Montgomery in support of
1965
protection for voting rights, but are stopped at Pettus Bridge by
police blockade -> police use tear gas, whips & clubs against
protesters, 50 marchers hospitalized
Aug.
10th US Congress passes Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier
1965
for Blacks to register to vote
-> literacy tests, poll taxes & other such requirements that were
used to restrict black voting made illegal
April
1963
Aug. 11th -17th
1965
(1966
June
12th
1967
July 1967
April 4th 1968
April
1968
(1973
11th
1975
1978
1979
March
1988
(1989
Nov.
1991
April
1992
22nd
22nd
29th
(1996
1999
(2000
(March
2002
June
2003
4th
23rd
Violent race riot in a black section of Los Angeles, California;
leaves 34 dead
Edward Brooke elected first black US senator in 85 years)
US Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is
unconstitutional -> 16 states that still ban interracial marriage
forced to revise their laws
Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12 th- 16th) & Detroit
(July 23rd- 30th)
MLK (39) is shot as he stands on the balcony of his hotel room in
Memphis, Tennessee, by committed racist James Earl Ray ->
sentenced to 99 years in prison
President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting
discrimination in sale, rental & financing of housing
Atlanta: Maynard Jackson is first Black elected mayor of major
Southern US city)
Voting Rights Act extended
Unita Blackwell becomes first black woman mayor in Mississippi
Shoot-out in Greensboro, North Carolina -> leaves 5 anti-Klan
protesters dead & 12 Klansmen charged with murder
Congress passes Civil Rights Restoration Act over President
Reagans (1981-1989) veto -> expands reach of nondiscrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal
funds
Virginia: L. Douglas Wilder becomes first Black elected governor)
After 2 years of debates, vetoes & threatened vetoes: President
Bush (1989-1993) reverses himself & signs Civil Rights Act of
1991 -> strengthens existing civil rights laws & provides for
damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination
South-Central Los Angeles, California: first race riots in decades
after jury acquits 4 white police officers for videotaped beating of
African American, Rodney King
Supreme Court rules consideration of race in creating
congressional districts is unconstitutional)
NAACP launches campaign against TV networks to increase
number of minorities taking part in shows
Colin Powell becomes first black US Secretary of State)
Halle Berry becomes first African American woman to win Oscar
for best actress)
Supreme Court upholds University of Michigan Law Schools
policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by
colleges when selecting their students, for it furthers a
compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow
from a diverse student body
Ringleader of Mississippi civil rights murders, Edgar Ray Killen,
convicted of manslaughter on 41st anniversary of crimes)
Rosa Parks dies at age of 92)
(June
21st
2005
(Oct.
24th
2005
Nov. 4th 2008
Barack Obama is elected first black president of US
Jan. 20th 2009
Barack Obama officially president of US & living at White House (
-> today - 2015: Obama is current president of USA)
