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1865 - 13th Amendment
Passed by congress on January 31, 1865 and ratified on December 6, 1865 the 13 amendment states the abolishment of slavery -
1868 - 14th Amendment
Passed by the Congress in July 6, 1868 the 14th amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws -
1870 - 15th Amendment
Ratified on February 3, 1870 the 15th amendment states that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race or color -
1896 - Plessey v. Ferguson
The Plessey v. Ferguson was a landmark decision of the U.S supreme court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality -
1948 - Truman desegregates the military
Executive Order 9981 was an executive order issued by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces and eventually led to the end of segregation in the services. -
1954 - Brown v. Board of Ed.
Brown v. Board of Education was another landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
1955 - Rosa Parks / Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a protest / campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, caused by Rosa Parks when she refused to move her seat for a white man. -
1957 - Little Rock Crisis
In Little Rock, Arkansas in the fall of 1957. Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling at Central High School. Central High was an all white school. -
1960 - Sit-in Movement
The Greensboro sit-ins at a Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960, launched a wave of anti-segregation sit-ins across the South and opened a national awareness of the depth of segregation in the nation. -
1961 - Freedom Riders
The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961 when seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South. They intended to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. -
1962 - James Meredith and Ole Miss
James Meredith, an African American man, attempted to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi in 1962. Chaos soon broke out on the Ole Miss campus, with riots ending in two dead, hundreds wounded and many others arrested, after the Kennedy administration called out some 31,000 National Guardsmen and other federal forces to enforce order. -
1963 - Letter From a Birmingham Jail
Letter from Birmingham City Jail, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. -
1963 - March on Washington / I have a Dream Speech
The March on Washington was a massive protest march where people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. -
1964 - Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer was a nonviolent effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi's segregated political system. They helped African-American residents try to register to vote, establish a new political party, and learn about history and politics in newly-formed Freedom Schools. -
1964 - Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. -
1965 - Selma March
The First March From Selma. When about 600 people started a planned march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday March 7, 1965. When state troopers met the demonstrators at the edge of the city by the Edmund Pettus Bridge, that day became known as "Bloody Sunday." -
1965 - Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was created to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from fighting for their right to vote.
