Civil Rights Timeline

By mckenziefinch

  • Dread Scott Case

    It was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court held that the U.S. Constitution wasn't meant to include American citizenship for black people. The court decided that no black person that is free or slave, could claim United States citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom.

  • Emancipation Proclamation

    It is a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. It changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to free.

  • 14th Amendment

    All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside

  • 15th Amendment

    Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".

  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    This was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. It upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality. This can be known as "separate but equal".

  • Creation of the NAACP

    A bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans.

  • 19th Amendment

    The 19th Amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on gender.

  • Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier

    Jackie Robinson became the first African American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

  • Brown vs The Topeka Board of Education

    A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that American state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    The Montgomery bus boycott was a 13 month mass protest that ended with the U.S Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.

  • Little Rock Nine

    Was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, since the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school.

  • I Have a Dream Speech

    "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was made by Martin Luther King Jr. He called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.

  • The March on Washington

    The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.

  • Freedom Summer

    Freedom summer was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African American voters as possible in Mississippi.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

  • Jim Crow Laws

    Were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. The laws were enforced until 1965.

  • 13th Amendment

    Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.

  • Selma, Alabama Marches

    Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil-rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.

  • NOW

    NOW is the National Organization for Women. They are dedicated to its multi-issue and multi-strategy approach to women's rights.

  • Creation of the Black Panther Party

    The Black Panther Party, was a political organization founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to challenge police brutality against the African American community

  • Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

    Martin Luther king was a very known civil rights leader. He was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His death had a big impact on people because he helped society in many ways.

  • Equal Rights Amendment

    The ERA is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution made to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. The impact of this amendment was that everyone has equal rights no matter their gender,

  • Title IX

    Federal law that states, "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

  • Roe vs Wade

    Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision issued in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The impact it has was abortions in the US.