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Event One
Massachusetts outlaws slavery within its borders. -
Event Fifteen
The Missouri Compromise to maintain a balance of 12 slave and 12 free states. -
Event sixteen
In Virginia, Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion during which 57 whites are killed. U.S. troops kill 100 slaves. Turner is caught and hanged. -
Event Nine
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation freeing "all slaves in areas still in rebellion." -
Event Two
The Civil War ends.
The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, is ratified. -
Event Three
The Supreme Court approves the "separate but equal" segregation doctrine. -
Event Fourteen
The National Negro Committee convenes. This leads to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). -
Event Four
In its first national demonstration the Ku Klux Klan marches on Washington, D.C -
Event Eight
The Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in its ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. -
Event Five
Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. A boycott follows, and the bus segregation ordinance is declared unconstitutional. -
Event Six
Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states. Student volunteers are bused in to test new laws prohibiting segregation. -
Event Ten
President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to end riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend.
The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all transportation facilities.
The Department of Defense orders complete integration of military reserve units, excluding the National Guard. -
Event Eleven
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington, D.C.
A church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young black girls dead. -
Event Seven
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, declaring discrimination based on race illegal. -
Event Seven
Malcolm X is assassinated. Malcolm X, a longtime minister of the Nation of Islam, had rejected Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s policies of non-violence. He preached black pride and economic self-reliance for blacks. He eventually became a Muslim and broke with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad -
Event Twelve
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty of the crime in March 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. -
Event Thirteen
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday is established.