Civil Rights Movement in Context

By pocantheses

  • PANAFRIC: 5th Pan-African Congress held in Manchester, UK

    From 15 - 21 October 1945, over 90 delegates from over 26 African countries came collectively, resulting in thecreation of the Pan-African Federation in the United Kingom. This is widely considered most important congress because the people who particcipated became majorleaders and politicians in their countries.

  • COLDWAR: Truman Speech: US involvement in Greek Civil War

    With rising Communist tennsions in Greece, Harry Truman expresses his desire for the US to become involved in the financial and logistic support for Greek democratic or anti-Communist groups.

  • LOOMTOWER: Qutb goes to America

    From 1948-1950, it is believed that Qutb traveled to America, forming the basis for anti-modernity, anti-West, and ultimately ant-American views of radical Islam.

  • APARTHEID: Afrikaner National Party Rises to Power

    The South African Afrikaner National Party, a notoriously pro-apartheid political entity, is democratically elected, signaling the beginning the implementaion of of the legalization of segregation through apartheid ('aparthood')
    policies.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Executive Order 9981 Desegregates the United States Military

    President Harry Truman signs this executive order, promoting the government's stance on equal opportunities for all Americans regardless of race within the Amred Forces. it also creates the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity which outlines and reviews this purpose.

  • LOOMTOWER: Qutb Arrives in Greeley, Colorado

    His visit to Greeley, Colorado forme dthe basis for Islamic radical's despise of American religion, culture, and influence, prompting the actions of later movements to take actions (war) against America.

  • COLDWAR: Mao Zedong establishes People's Republic of China

    After a brutal civil war, Mao Zedong, revolutionary leader and Communist, declares the creation of the new Communist state, the People's Republic of China. This adds to the rising tensions between Soviet and Amerian ideologies, effectively bringing the Cold War into Asia.

  • COLDWAR: Korean War begins

    The Korean War begins when Soviet-supported North Korea invades the US and UN supporrted South Korea. This war is important because it shows the increassing divisions and tensions between the two world powers, setting the stage for later conflicts in Asia.

  • APARTHEID: Bantu Authorities Act

    The South African government splits South Africa into ten separate 'homelands', enforcing them under a system run by whites: the act also made it illegal for blacks to enter white spaces without passes.

  • APARTHEID: Reservation of Amenities Act

    The act legalized the separation of black and white public utilities, venues, and living quaters, stripping blacks of citizenship.

  • APARTHEID: The Population Registration Act

    Officially and legally classifies the South African population into white, mixed, and black race groups, setting foundation for later series of segregation apartheid laws. Also makes separated communities for each racial group.

  • COLDWAR: Geneva Conference Divides Vietnam

    Vietnam is split into a North and a Sout portion, forming basis for the rest of the Vietnam war and deepening divide between Soviet and American ideologies and influence.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Desegregates Public Schools

    The fourth of a series of cases against various public educational organizations ends in favor of civil rights' activists; the Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are by nature unequal and therefore unconstitutional.

  • COLDWAR: Warsaw Pact formed

    Warsaw Pact is formed and signed, signifying the strengthening of Soviet influence over central and eaastern Europe and further dividing US and Soviet ideologgical and political goals. The pact further isolates the East vs. the West and also serves as a divide between the world.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott Begins

    A widespread transportation boycott sparked by racially discriminated Rosa Parks, with the aid of Dr. MLK, spreads across Montgomery, Alabama.

  • COUNTERCULT: Ginsberg's "Howl and Other Poems" Obscenity trial ends

    The trial targetting Allen Ginsberg's collection of written poems on the basis of their content ends when Judge Clayton W. Horn rules that they are not obscene, highlighting changing dynamics with the cultural aspects of literature at the time.

  • COUNTERCULT: Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) founded

    One of the earliest student activist groups associated with the counter-culture movement is founded in an attempt to bring widespread political change.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Four black students begin sit-in movement

    Four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College sit in a segregated spot at a lunch venue, starting a massive sit-in movement throughout the South.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Founded

    The SNCC is founded in the intention of promoting and actively advancing civil rights activism and movements, mainly within student bodies, through non-violent means.

  • APARTHEID: African National Congress Officially Banned

    The South African government legally and officially bans the activity, membership, and legality of the African National Congress as well as the Pan-African Congress.

  • PANAFRIC: DGICP Act signed by the United Nations

    The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples is signed by United Nations, paving way for African nations to democratically secede from their colonialist overlords. The charter highlights the rights of self-determination and rejection of colonialism.

  • COLDWAR: Cuba officially allied with Soviet Union

    Cuba declares itself an ally of the Soviet Union, aligning itself with its policies, ideologiees, and support. This creates near-boiling tension between Soviet and U.S. because Cuba, which is only a few hundred miles from U.S., has capability to be able to launch nuclear weapons.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: "Freedom Riders" Movement Begins

    Throughout spring and summer, groups of students supported by CORE and the SNCC begin riding segregated transportation systems throughout the South in an attempt to protest the rules.

  • COLDWAR: Bay of Pigs Invasion launched

    The CIA-enforced, federally supported Bay of Pigs operation is launched, leading to failure. This further divides the Soviet and US paradigms and also serves to highlight the dangers of nuclear devastation and use.

  • COUNTERCULT: Tlatelcoco Massacre begins, ending National Strike Council strikes

    A series of strikes organized by the National Strike Council fighting against the Diaz Ordaz government at the time ends in a bloody massacre of about 30-300 students and civillians.

  • COUNTERCULT: The Feminine Mystique published

    Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique is published, creating the foundations of and ultimately creating the second-wave feminism movement.

  • PANAFRIC: Organization of African Unity founded

    The OAU is funded, creating a signatory agreement between a series of African nations in an effort to emphasize African unity, progress, and to ensure human rights of all Africans. This exemplifies the growing desire and attraction towards the ursuit of an African identity.

  • APARTHEID: 19 African National Congress members arrested

    After 19 members of the ANC were found and subsequently arrested, several members are put on trial and sent to life imprisonment, including the famous Nelson Mandela. Serves as a critical point in the South African Apartheid movement with the dissolution of several key leaders.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: MLK delivers "I Have A Dream" Speech after March on Washington

    In an emotional speech in front of a crowd at Washington Monument, MLK delivers a speech calling for the end of racism within America.

  • LOOMTOWER: Ma'alim fi al-Tariq Prison Manifesto Published

    Sayyad Qutb writes his famous prison manifestos and has them printed and saturated throughout the Egyptian community.here, he uses the distinction between jahilliyah and the Islamic world as justification for the need for Islamic supremacy, heavily influencing later movements.

  • LOOMTOWER: Religious movements in Egyptian universities go into full flight

    Among the ideas created by a new wave of fundamentalist islamism and radical views is the notion of the unlitmate goal of Sharia Law as well as the restoration of the original Caliphate.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: 24th Amendment Passed

    Congress ratifies the 24th amendment on this date, prohibiting the poll tax elections imposed upon minorities.

  • PANAFRIC: US organization formed

    The US organization is formed under the 7 principles and the observance of Kwanzaa, an effort to relate back to cultural and traditional norms of African heritage.

  • LOOMTOWER: Zawahiri joins the Muslim Brotherhood

    At the age of 14, the devout Zawahiri joins Muslim Brotherhood. Over time, develops the ideas of anti-West determinacy and Supreme Goal of Islamic Sharia imposed on world.

  • COLDWAR: Operation Rolling Thunder launched

    Operation Rolling Thunder, a series of aerial bombardments over North Vietnam, fails and results in US strategic loss. This sets the stage for later parts of the war.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: The Voting Rights Act of 1965

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 strengthens the power of African American voters and prohibits all forms of racial discrimination within voting.

  • CHICANO: UFWA joins Filipino farmers in first official walk-out strike

    In one of the first main walk-out strikes of the movement, Chavez and his organization vote to join Filipino farm workers in an organized walkout strike in the middle of Delano's grape-farming center.

  • CHICANO: UFWA Delano-to-Sacramento March oficially begins

    An organized protest-march from Delano to Sacramento, in an attempt to garner California-wide support and form an appeal to the state government, begins.

  • COUNTERCULT: "Drugs: The Dangers of LSD" published

    An article written by TIME magazine warning of the overextensive use of LSD is published in response to a widespread, national wave of LSD usage, establishing historical context of the new drugs movement of counter-culture.

  • CHICANO: United Farm Workers of America officially organized

    From the merging of two separate labor unions, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and National Farm Workers Association, the UFWA was officially organized as an organization in 1966 from its creation in 1962.

  • LOOMING TOWER: Sayyid Qutb martyred in Egypt

    Refusing to be released as a prisoner, Qutb gladyly accepts his fate as a martyr, causing massive uproar in the fundamentalist/radical Islamic ommunity and prompting great strieds in these various movements. Concepts of martyrdom and sacrifice are established, important characteristics of later movements.

  • COUNTERCULT: Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom starts

    The Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom garners more than 10000 speople in Ney York, highlighting spread of hippie culture throughout all of U.S.

  • CHICANO: United Farm Workers Co-operation founded

    UFWC is founded in Toppenish, Washington, signifying the creation of one of the first Chicano movement organizations outside of California.

  • COUNTERCULT: Kommune 1 formed in West Germany

    The Kommune 1 group is formed from a gathering of students and supporters that effectively criticized and protested against the middle-class and strict contemporary society of Germany at the time.

  • CHICANO: United Mexican-American Students group founded

    In an effort to promote inter-cultural discussion, promotion, and discovery, a group of 250 Mexican-American students form UMAS.

  • COUNTERCULT: "Summer of Love" events begin being held in San francisco

    Garnering around 100000 hippies and supporters, these events in San Francisco helped to popularize hippie culture throughout the United States by massive media coverage and subsequent journalistic analysis.

  • LOOMTOWER: Six-Day War ends

    The Six-Day War ends in decisive Israeli victory, prompting rise of anti-Semitic arguments and bringing in Arab supremacy over Jewish sovereignty as excuse for violent acts; forms core of radical Islamic anti-Semitism.

  • PANAFRIC: A Black Panther kills a police officer, prompting massive police crackdown

    This single event demonstrated the evolution of the American Pan African movement from a single nonviolent branch of open discussion and protest to a violent, revolutionary-style campaign.

  • COLDWAR: Tet Offensive

    The Tet offensivee is launched by Viet Cong, scoring massive morale, troop, and logisticcs loss for the US. CHanges the way war is percieved in American history.

  • CHICANO: "L.A Blowouts" student protests started

    Around 1,000 high school students join a peaceful walk-out strike in L.A., forming one of the most influential and largest high school student protest in United States history.

  • CIVILRIGHTS: Civil Rights Act of 1968 Passed, Signed by Johnson

    The Civil Acts Right, 1968 was passed and signed by Southern president Lyndon B. Johnson. The act is a major piece of legislation that prohibits discrimination in financial and mercantile aspects of the housing industry.

  • COUNTERCULT: Sorbonne March begins in Paris

    In protest against police brutality and deployment in Sorbonne University, a coalition of 20000 students, teachers, and supporters marched towards Sorbonne University.

  • CHICANO. San Francisco State College strikes begin

    Strikes at the San Francisco State College, organized by the Third World liberation Front, start, effectively bringing about the creation of Black, Asian, and Raza American studies in the college. Chicano movement-affiliated students were heavily involved.

  • COUNTERCULT: "Days of Rage" protest movement ends in tragedy

    Counter-culture protest group Students for a Democratic Society arrange a large movement protesting the vietnam War: violent clashes with police lead to 3 deaths and 2500 National Guard deployed.

  • COLDWAR: SALT I talks begin in Helsinki, Finland

    The SALT I, a series of bilateral negotiations and agremeents, is signed into action, solidifying relations between US and Soviet/Communist nations. This woud lead on later to the noramlization of diplomatic relations with CHina, ultimately foreshadowing the end of the Soviet Era.

  • LOOMTOWER: Anwar Sadat elected Prime Minister of Egypt

    Muslim Brotherhood contentions with Sadat ultimately form justification for killing Muslims: distinction between takfiri and Muslims.