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Passage of 13th Amendment
The U.S. abolished slavery -
Civil Rights Act
enacted April 9, 1866, is a United States federal law that was mainly intended to protect the civil rights of African-Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War. -
Passage of 14th Amendment
African Americans were given U.S. Citizenship -
Hiram Revels elected to U.S. Senate
He was the first person of color to serve in the United States Senate, and in the U.S. Congress overall -
Passage of 15th Amendment
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Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court Ruling
It was a landmark for the United States Supreme Court decisions on the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal" -
Jeannette Rankin elected to Congress
Was the first woman in the United States Congress, elected in Montana in 1916 and again in 1940. -
Passage of 19th Amendment
prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. -
Integration of the Military
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 integrating the military and mandating equality of treatment and opportunity. It also made it illegal, per military law, to make a racist remark. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
It was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
Rosa Parks and Bus Boycott
Social protest campaign against racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign lasted from December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a white person, to December 20, 1956 -
Little Rock 9
A group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957, The students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower. -
Sit Ins Begin
Nonviolent strategy of civil disobedience and mass protests that eventually led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which ended legally-sanctioned racial segregation in the United States and also passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -
MLK's "I Have A Dream" Speech
It was delivered by King on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. -
Passage of 24th Amendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27, 1962, and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964. -
Malcom X Assassinated
as Malcolm X prepared to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, a disturbance broke out in the 400-person audience. As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance a man seated in the front row rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun. -
Voting Rights Act
A landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. -
Edward Brooke elected to U.S. Senate
Brooke was the first African American popularly elected to the Senate and would remain the only person of African heritage sent to the Senate in the 20th century until Democrat Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois in 1993. -
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American Supreme Court Justice
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court saying that this was the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place. He was the 96th person to hold the position, and the first African American. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
At 6:01 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, 1968, while he was standing on the motel's second floor balcony, King was struck by a single .30 bullet fired from a Remington 760 Gamemaster. Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw James Earl Ray fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel where he was renting a room. -
Obama becomes President
Obama was the 44th and current President of the United States, in office since 2009. He is the first African American to hold the office.
