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Plessy v. Ferguson decision
Supreme Court rules that separate but equal facilities for different races is legal. Gives legal approval to Jim Crow laws -
Jimmy Governor
Aboriginal man Jimmy Governor goes on a rampage killing 10 people. He was captured and hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol, NSW, on 18 January 1901. -
Niagara Movements
W.E.B. DuBois demands immediate racial equality and opposes all laws that treats blacks as different from others. Leads to creation of NAACP in 1909 -
Roper River
Aboriginal man Aya-I-Ga, known as Neighbour, is awarded the prestigious Albert Medal by King George V after he saved Constable W F Johns from drowning. It is the first time that a gallantry medal is awarded to an Aboriginal Australian. -
Aboriginal Children removed from families
Beginning of WWI. Approximately 400 to 500 Aboriginal children continue to be removed from their families during the period 1914 to 1918, including children whose fathers are overseas at war. -
Race riots and lynchings claim hundreds of lives
Over 25 race riots occur in the summer of 1919 with 38 killed in Chicago. 70 blacks, including 10 veterans, are lynched in the South -
Aborigines Act
Under the Aborigines Act, Aboriginal people can apply to ‘cease being Aboriginal’ and have access to the same rights as ‘whites’. -
Assimilation policy
Aboriginal Welfare - Conference of Commonwealth and State Authorities called by the federal government, decides that the official policy for some Aboriginal people is the assimilation policy. Aboriginal people of mixed descent are to be assimilated into white society whether they want to be or not, those not living tribally are to be educated and all others are to stay on reserves. -
Day of Mourning
150 years after European occupation the Aboriginal Progressive Association declares a Day of Mourning. An Aboriginal conference is held in Sydney. These are the first of many Aboriginal protests against inequality, injustice, dispossession of land and protectionist policies. -
Executive Order 8802 forbids race discrimination in hiring
FDR sets up Fair Employment Practices Commission to assure non-discrimination policies in federal hiring -
formal schooling for Aboriginal children
The first formal schooling for Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory is provided. Lack of facilities is rationalised by the claim that children “beyond the age of 10 couldn’t keep up with white children anyway”. -
Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines
Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines is established. The title is changed in 1964 to Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. -
Freedom riders oppose segregation
Blacks and whites take buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many are greeted with riots and beatings -
"Letter from Birmingham jail"
In response to white ministers who urge him to stop causing disturbances, King issues articulate statement of nonviolent resistance to wrongs of American society -
Medgar Evers murdered
Head of Mississippi NAACP is shot outside his home on the same night that Pres. Kennedy addresses the nation on race, asking "Are we to say to the world...that this is a land of the free except for Negroes" -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather before Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches (including King's "I Have a Dream") and protest racial injustice -
Freedom Rides for Indigenous Rights
The Freedom Ride through western New South Wales towns in February 1965 drew attention to the racism in these towns. Aboriginal student Charles Perkins was, by the end of the journey, a national figure in the fight for Aboriginal rights. -
Voting Rights Act approved
After passage, southern black voter registration grows by over 50% and black officials are elected to various positions. In Mississippi, black voter registration grew from 7% to 67% -
King assassinated
While supporting sanitation workers' strike which had been marred by violence in Memphis, King is shot by James Earl Ray. Riots result in 125 cities -
Aborigines Welfare Board in NSW is abolished
By 1969 all states have repealed the legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy of ‘protection’. In the following years, Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies (AICCAs) are set up to contest removal applications and provide alternatives to the removal of Indigenous children from their families.
