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13th Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude unless its punishment for a crime. The 13th amendment became an important step for African Americans and towards their freedom and equality. -
14th Amendment
Rights of citizenship, due process of law, and equal protection of the law. The 14th amendment has become one of the most used amendments in court to date regarding the equal protection clause -
15th Amendment
Granted the African American men the right to vote. The 15th amendment was another step forward towards equality for all and freedom. -
Tuskegee Institute created
Founded by Booker T. Washington under a charter from the Alabama legislature for the purpose of training African-Americans in agriculture and industry and promoting the economic progress of the African American race. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Court case which gave legal standing to the idea of separate but equal. It required that any separate facilities had to be of equal quality. -
NAACP created
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - They were a powerful voice in the struggle to improve the legal rights of African Americans and fought to bring an end to racial violence. -
19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. -
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed
Designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American Citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters. -
Executive Order 9981
Desegregation of Armed Forces. President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The NAACP organized this bus boycott one day after the arrest of Rosa Parks. Boycott was against the city bus system. Led to forming the Montgomery improvement Association by Martin Luther King Jr. Boycott lasted one year and the supreme court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. -
Little Rock 9
1st group of black students who were able to attend an all white school because President Eisenhower used the military to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education decision. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed
MLK Jr.. was elected leader. There was commitment to mass and used nonviolent action. Had religion to Christianity but accepting of all. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
It established the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department, and empowered federal officials to prosecute individuals that conspired to deny or abridge another citizen's right to vote. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed
Sit-ins were used to help with lunch counters that were segregated. Worked out pretty well other than being under attack from white haters. -
Chicano Movement (Mural Movement)
A civil rights movement extending the Mexican-American civil rights movement of the 1960s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-ins
Four college students refused service at Woolworth’s lunch counter, but they just sat there. Event started similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating public areas. -
Freedom Riders
13 African Americans left DC on a bus to bring attention to the ruling that the supreme court had ordered that facilities and bus stations be open to all passengers. Further south mobs swarmed the bus and beat the freedom riders. -
Cesar Chavez
Union leader and labor organizer Chavez was born Cesario Estrada Chavez on March 31, 1927, near Yuma, Arizona. Chavez dedicated his life to improving the treatment, pay and working conditions for farmworkers. He knew all too well the hardships farm workers faced. -
Dr. King’s: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Martin Luther King raised funds to protest Birmingham segregation laws. He was arrested in Apr. 1963 and started writing his "Letters from a Birmingham Jail". Civil rights protesters started hurting the black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world. -
March on Washington: “I have a dream” speech
The 1963 March on Washington attracted approx. 250,000 people for a peaceful demonstration to promote Civil Rights and economic equality for African Americans. Participants walked down Constitution and Independence avenues, then gathered at the Lincoln Monument for speeches, songs, and prayer. Most memorable speech of the day was the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. -
24th Amendment
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1964) eliminated the poll tax as a prerequisite to vote in national elections. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Banned discrimination in public accommodations, prohibited discrimination in any federally assisted program, outlawed discrimination in most employment; enlarged federal powers to protect voting rights and to speed school desegregation; this and the voting rights act helped to give African-Americans equality on paper, and more federally-protected power so that social equality was a more realistic goal. -
March from Selma, Alabama
600 blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. Called "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the start for pushing through the voting rights act five months later. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Pres. Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It stated that it is deadly wrong to deny any fellow American the right to vote. making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal. -
Black Panthers
U.S. African American militant party. They were trying to achieve black liberation and called on African Americans to ams themselves for liberation struggles. -
Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court
Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice, played a vital part in ending legal segregation during the Civil Rights Movement through the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education. -
American Indian Movement (AIM)
An American Indian advocacy group organized to address issues related to sovereignty, leadership, and treaties. Particularly in its early years, AIM also protested racism and civil rights violations against Native Americans. -
MLK assassinated
Apr 4 1968, Memphis TN, committed by James Earl Ray, ironically occurred after he gave a speech about how he might not live to see the end of the Civil Rights movement the day before. -
Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to the Supreme Court
The first woman Supreme Court justice in U.S. history. A moderate conservative, she was known for her dispassionate and meticulously researched opinions. This was an important step for women in the United States as they are now able to reach higher positions in the government. -
Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court
An American lawyer and jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009 and confirmed that in August. She was the first Hispanic and Latina Justice.
