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Southern Black Codes
The Southern Black Codes defined the rights of freedmen. They mainly restricted their rights, but the codes granted black people a few more civil rights than they possessed before the Civil War. South Carolina’s code declared that “persons of color” now had the right “to acquire, own and dispose of property; to make contracts; to enjoy the fruits of their labor; to sue and be sued; and to receive protection under the law in their persons and property.” -
Thirteenth Amendment
The 13th amendment was needed to put an end to slavery once and for all. Before the 13th amendment, there were many laws that protected slavery, so passing this 13th amendment instantly threw all of these old laws out. After the 13th amendment, no one could force anyone, with physical force, fraud, or threatening legal action to work against their will. -
Fourteenth Amendment
Gives individuals born in the United States, even African Americans the right to citizenship. This allows all people born in the United States to be US citizens. Although this right was enacted by the Civil Rights of 1866, this amendment made the law permanent as many feared that the law could be overturned and take away the citizenship of African Americans. Once you have American citizenship, it cannot be taken from you by Congress or other authorities. -
Fifteenth Amendment
The 15th amendment not only gave African Americans the right to vote, but also allowed African Americans to be elected into public office. Once in office, they pursued laws that provided schools for all children and allowed people of different races to be married. -
"Enforcement Act"
Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans equal rights in transportation, restaurant, theaters, and on juries. The law is then struck down in 1883 with the Court majority arguing the Constitution allows Congress to act only on discrimination by government and not that by private citizens. -
Colorado Women
Colorado is the first state to adopt an amendment granting women the right to vote. Soon after that, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Alaska, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New York, Michigan, South Dakota, and Oklahoma all granted women the right to vote -
Separate but Equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in American constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to remain equal -
The Colored Agricultural and Normal University
This was in response to the second Morrill Act in 1890 requiring states with land-grant colleges to either admit African-American students, or provide an alternative school for them to attend as a condition for continuing to receive federal funding. It was Oklahoma’s only historically Black college/university. Because African-Americans were not allowed to attend colleges/universities in the state, the Black settlers of Langston raised the money to build an place where their children could learn -
Red Summer
The Red Summer of 1919 indicates to a series of race riots which took place between May and October of 1919. Although riots occurred in more than thirty cities throughout the United States, the bloodiest events were in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Elaine, Arkansas. -
African Blood Brotherhood
The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption (ABB) was a militant black liberation group founded in 1919 by Cyril Briggs. The ABB promoted armed defense against racist assaults and was the creation of an independent black socialist commonwealth. It sought to unite black radicals around the issues of racism, colonialism, black nationalism, and anti-capitalism and, its merger of class and race consciousness, provided the primary gateway for black radicals -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic outflow that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period, Harlem was a cultural center with drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Many had come from the South, fleeing its overbearing caste system in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents. -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration, or the relegation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from 1916 to 1970, had a huge impact on urban life in the United States. During the Great Migration, African Americans began to build a new place for themselves in public life, actively confronting economic, political, and social challenges and creating a new black urban culture that would put forth colossal influence in the decades to come. -
The Tulsa Race Riot
The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was perhaps the costliest incident of racial violence in American history. A black man named Dick Rowland, stepped into an elevator in the Drexel Building operated by a woman named Sarah Page. Suddenly, a scream was heard and Rowland got nervous and ran out. Rowland was accused of a sexual attack against Page. While it is still uncertain as to precisely what happened in the Drexel Building, the most common explanation is that Rowland stepped on Page's foot. -
KKK
The Ku Klux Klan marches on Washington, D.C in its first national demonstration. -
The Supreme Court School Segregation
The Supreme court in unison held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and arouse the civil rights movement into a full revolution. -
Rosa Parks: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Rosa Parks is known today as the “mother of the civil rights movement” because her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat sparked the pivotal Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.
The arrest and brief jailing of Rosa Parks, a woman highly respected in the black community, The boycott raised to national prominence a youthful Martin Luther King Jr. Under his leadership, the boycott set a pattern for nonviolent, community-based protest that became a successful st -
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. -
"I Have a Dream"
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington -
Twenty-Fourth Amendment
This abolished the poll tax, which had been formed in the South after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. Although the poll tax wasn't much money, it was enough to stop poor African Americans & whites from voting. Though the 15th amendment protected the rights of citizens to vote in elections, it didn't stop measures against African Americans, such as literacy tests, which was an unfair burden to the poor & illiterate, who by the constitution are entitled to their vote. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. After a 54-day filibuster of the legislation, a group of Senators introduced a compromise bill. The legislation enjoyed enough Senate support to end the stalemate, and was ultimately passed on June 19, 1964, by a vote of 73 to 27.
