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Brown v. Board of Education
Supreme Court decision declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional -
emmet till murder
14-year-old Black boy lynched in Mississippi; his killers were acquitted -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat; boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -
Little Rock Nine
Nine Black students integrated Central High School in Arkansas; met with violent resistance -
Founding of SNCC
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed to organize youth-led civil rights activism -
James Meredith at Ole Miss
First Black student to integrate the University of Mississippi, amid riots and protests -
march on Washington
Over 250,000 people rallied for civil rights; MLK delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech -
Birmingham Campaign
Peaceful protests in Birmingham met with violent police force; images shocked the nation -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Law that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin -
selma to montegamry marches
Peaceful protesters marching for voting rights were attacked in events like “Bloody Sunday” -
Brooklyn, New York on January 25, 1972.
Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn announces her entry for Democratic nomination for the presidency, at the Concord Baptist Church in Chicago -
Black History Month 1976
In 1975, President Ford issued a Message on the Observance of Black History Week urging all -
The Bakke Decision and Affirmative Action, 1978
accusing UC Davis of “reverse discrimination.” -
Harold Washington as the first Black mayor of Chicago in 1983.
Washington became the first African American to be elected as the city's mayor at the age of 60. He served as mayor from April 29, 1983, until his untimely death in 1987. -
Jesse Jackson Galvanized Black Voters, 1984
In his 1984 presidential run, Jackson sought to unite a multiracial, multicultural group of Americans. -
Barack Obama Becomes 44th US President 2008
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States; he is the first African American to hold that office. The product of an interracial marriage—his father grew up in a small village in Kenya, his mother in Kansas—Obama grew up in Hawaii but discovered his civic calling in Chicago, where he worked for several years as a community organizer on the city’s largely Black South Side. -
May 25,2020 George Floyd Protests
The movement swelled to a critical juncture on May 25, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic when 46-year-old George Floyd died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by police officer Derek Chauvin. -
Kamala Harris Becomes the First Woman and First Black US Vice President, 2021
In January 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman and first woman of color to become vice president of the United States. Then-candidate Joe Biden had nominated Harris in August 2020 during the Democratic party’s “remote” national convention. Harris, whose mother immigrated to the United States from India and whose father immigrated from Jamaica, was the first person of African or Asian descent to become a major party’s vice presidential candidate—and the first to win the office.