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Jim Crow Laws and Segregation
The Jim Crow Laws were laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877, and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s. -
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The Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generation refers to a period in time in Australian history where Aboriginal children were removed from their homes through government policies. They were denied the culture and were not allowed to speak their language. -
The Early Years - Policy of Protectionism
In the name of "protection", Indigenous Australians were made wards of the state and subjected to policies that gave the government the power to determine where Indigenous people could live, who they could marry, and where they could work. -
Day of Mourning and 10 Point Plan
The Day of Mourning was a unique event in Aboriginal history. It was the first Aboriginal civil rights gathering. It represents the identifiable beginning of the contemporary Aboriginal political movement. -
Strikes and Walkouts
Australian Aboriginals go on strike for fair wages and equality. Their goals were to raise the weekly wage minimum to 30 shillings per week. The right to elect representatives that spoke for the Aboriginals, and also the right to freedom of movement within Australia. -
Policy of Assimilation
The Policy of Assimilation means that Aborigines or mixed are expected to attain the same manner of living as other Australians and to live as members of a single Australian community, enjoying the same rights and privileges, accepting the same customs and being influenced by the same beliefs as other Australians. -
Brown VS Board of Education
Brown vs the Board of Education was a decision that the Supreme court made that meant that separating children in public schools based on race was unconstitutional. It signalled the end of legalised racial segregation in schools of the U.S. -
Rosa Parks and Montgomery bus boycott
In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus for a white man, a violation of the city's racial segregation laws. Her actions inspired the leaders of the Black community to organise the Montgomery bus boycott. -
Litlle Rock Nine
On September 4, 1957, the first day of classes at Central High, Governor Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to block the black student's entry into the school. -
Greensboro sit-ins
Dining places across the south were being integrated and in July of 1960, the lunch counter at the Greensboro Woolworth's was serving Black patrons. The sit-in provided a template for nonviolent resistance and marked an early success for the civil rights movement. -
Electoral Act Amendment
The Commonwealth Eleocrtal Act granted all Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander people the option to enrol and vote in federal elections. -
Yirrkala petition
The Yirrkala bark petitions were the first example of a native title ligation in Australia. They paved the way for the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission and the Aboriginal Land Right Act 1976. -
Martin Luther King arrested and jailed - letter from Birmingham jail
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr was jailed because he and others were protesting the treatment of blacks outside Birmingham, Alabama. While in jail, Martin Luther King Jr wrote a letter, which was a full-throated defence of the Birmingham protest campaign that is now regarded as one of the greatest texts in the civil rights movement. -
March on Washington (I have a dream speech)
More than 200,000 demonstrators took part march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in the nation's capital. The march was successful in pressuring John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill in congress. Martin Luther King Jr also made his "I have a dream" speech. -
President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, calling on U.S citizens to "eliminate the last vestiges of injustice America." The Act prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. -
Freedom Rides
Surged by racial segregation in the U.S, a group of Uni students from Sydney formed the Student Action For Aborginines (SAFA). Their mission was to shine the light on the marginalisation of Aboriginal people in New South Wales. -
Wave hill cattle station strike - Gurindji people
The strike took place 80 years after the British invaded Gurindji, bringing cattle and farming that destroyed Aboriginal water and food sources, and livelihoods. The strike heightened the understanding of Indigenous land ownership in Australia and was a catalyst for the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. -
Referendum
The 1967 Referendum was the most successful in our history winning 93 per cent of the votes cast. This heavily empowered the government to make laws in respect of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that could assist in addressing inequalities. -
Land Rights - Eddie Mabo
On the 3rd of June 1992, the High Court ruled by a majority of six to one that the Meriam people were "entitled as against the whole world to possession, occupation, use and the enjoyment of the lands of Murray Islands." The High Courts decision in the Mabo case resulted in the introduction of the doctrine of native title in Australian Law, removing the myth of terra nullius and establishing a legal framework for native titles for Idenginous Australians. -
Redfern Speech
The Redfern Speech said by Paul Keating was to shift the focus of Australian identity away from a British-centred past to a history grounded in the Australian experience. The aim was to cut all ties with Britain. -
Kevin Rudd's Apology to the Stolen Generation
The apology by Kevin Rudd was important to build a better connection between Aborignal and non-Aboriginal people. Many of the stolen generations felt that their pain was acknowledged and that the nation understood that they need to right the wrongs of the past.
