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Supreme Court Denies Black Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision to deny citizenship and constitutional rights to all black people, legally establishing the race as "subordinate, inferior beings -- whether slave or freedmen." -
Lincoln Frees Slaves in Confederacy
Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln freed slaves in the Confederacy -
Blacks Receive Right to Vote
The 15th Amendment granted blacks the right to vote, including former slaves. -
Mississippi Burning
While visiting family in Mississippi, fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till was kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boasted about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case became a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. -
Black Student enrolls at University of Mississppi
James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. President Kennedy sent 5,000 federal troops to contain the violence and riots surrounding the incident. -
Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" Speech
Public speech delivered by civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. The speech called for an end to racism in America and called upon ciliv and economic rights. The speech was executed in front of 250000 civil rights activists on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. -
Interracial Marriage Laws Were Revised
In Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting interracial marriage was unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time were forced to revise their laws. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Shot and Killed
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., at age 39, was shot as he was standing on the balcony outside his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. -
Civil Rights Act Enhanced
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing. -
Civil Rights Laws Expanded
Overriding President Ronald Reagan's veto, Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expanded the reach of nondiscrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.
