civil rights timeline

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education
    Although he raised a variety of legal issues on appeal, the most common one was that separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, and thus violate the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional.
  • First Integration of Lunch Counters

    First Integration of Lunch Counters
    The city of San Antonio, Texas was the first city to integrate lunch counters
  • Civil Rights Act of 1960

    Civil Rights Act of 1960
    The Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower established federal inspection of local voter registration rolls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote.
  • Executive Order 10925

    Executive Order 10925
    President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925, which establishes a Presidential committee that later becomes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
  • JFK's Historic Civil Rights Speech

    JFK's Historic Civil Rights Speech
    President John F. Kennedy makes his historic civil rights speech, promising a bill to Congress the next week. About civil rights for blacks, in his speech he asks for "the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves
  • Washington March

    Washington March
    The famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held, where Dr. Martin Luther King gives his memorable 'I Have a Dream' speech.
  • 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

    16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
    The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham kills four young girls. That same day, in response to the killings, James Bevel and Diane Nash begin the Alabama Project, which will later grow into the Selma Voting Rights Movement.
  • Assassination of JFK

    Assassination of JFK
    President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.
  • MLK Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

    MLK Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
    Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person to be given the award.
  • Assassination of Malcolm X

    Assassination of Malcolm X
    Malcolm X is shot to death in Manhattan, New York, probably by three members of the Nation of Islam.
  • Bloody Sunday

    Bloody Sunday
    Civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama, begin a march to Montgomery but are stopped by a massive police blockade as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many marchers are severely injured and one killed. This action, initiated and organized by James Bevel, becomes the visual symbol of the Selma Voting Rights Movement.
  • Watts Riots

    Watts Riots
    Watts Riots erupt in the Watts District, South Los Angeles, California lasting from August 11 to August 15, 1965. The 5-day riot resulted in 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries, and 3,438 arrests
  • Founding of Black Panthers Party

    Founding of Black Panthers Party
    The Black Panthers are founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seal in Oakland, California.
  • Assassination of MLK

    Assassination of MLK
    Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
  • Griggs V. Duke Power Co.

    In this case, the Court decided that certain education requirements and intelligence tests used as conditions of employment acted to exclude African-American job applicants, did not relate to job performance, and were prohibited. The outcome of this case banned these intelligence test across the U.S.
  • Lau V. Nichols

    The Court found that a city school system's failure to provide English language instruction to students of Chinese ancestry amounted to unlawful discrimination. The result of this case made it a federal to provide for schools to provide non English speaking student with instructions to learn the English language giving them and equal education
  • Cleveland Bd. of Ed. v. Lafleur

    Cleveland Bd. of Ed. v. Lafleur
    Found that Ohio public school mandatory maternity leave rules for pregnant teachers violate constitutional guarantees of due process.
  • Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp

    Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp
    In this case, the Court declared that proof of a racially discriminatory intent is required in claim that race was a motivating factor in a land zoning decision
  • University of California Regents v. Bakke

    University of California Regents v. Bakke
    University of California Regents V. Bakke was a decision by the supreme court that colleges are allowed to take race into account while accepting students into schools, because the court had no single majority position. Although Bakke was accepted immediately into the school after the hearing.
  • Jesse Jackson

    Jesse Jackson
    He established the National Rainbow Coalition, to establish equal rights for African Americans, women, and Homosexuals.
  • L. Douglas Wilder

    L. Douglas Wilder
    He was the first African American to be elected governor of any state in America and also he was the first African American to win a statewide office in Virginia
  • Martin Luther King jr. day

    Martin Luther King jr. day
    First ever Martin Luther King day was celebrated in the honor of him, for his dedication to his work for the country and his people without using any violence. He suffered a lot for the service he provided for the country but he still didn't back down. He kept fighting due to which he was assassinated in 1968, and so in 1986 President Reagan signed the Martin Luther King jr. day which would be celebrated on the 3rd Monday of January every year.
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act
    This act was passed due to a series of cases the Supreme Court took on about people suing their employers for discrimination. Their decisions made it illegal for them to vote. After this act was passed it made it legal to have a trial by jury for discrimination cases.
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    Los Angeles Riots

    A total of 63 people died during the riots, including nine shot by police and one by the National Guard. Of those killed during the riots, 2 were Asian, 28 were black, 19 were Latino, and 15 were white. No law enforcement officials died during the riots. As many as 2,383 people were reported injured. Ultimately, the riots led to the end of the LAPD's lifetime-tenure for police chiefs, the creation of a civilian oversight board,
  • Million Man March

    Million Man March
    Hundreds of thousands of black men gathered at Washington D.C. for the Million Man March, and this was the largest demonstration of its kind in the capitals history. The goal of this march was to foster a spirit of support and self-sufficiency within the black community
  • PUSH and Rainbow coalition

    PUSH and Rainbow coalition
    These two organizations united to form the PUSH/Rainbow Coalition. They decided to merge because they were promoting the same goal to get equal rights to African Americans, women, and Homosexuals.