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13th Amendment (African Americans)
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. The 13th Amendment had the immediate and powerful effect of abolishing chattel slavery in the southern United States. -
14th Amendment (African Americans)
Rights of citizenship, due process of law, and equal protection of the law. The 14th amendment has become one of the most used amendments in court to date regarding the equal protection clause. -
15th Amendment (African Americans)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The purpose of the 15th Amendment was to ensure that states or communities were not denying men the right to vote simply based on their race. -
Tuskegee Institute created (African Americans)
African-American leader Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute to train African-Americans in agriculture and industry and promote the economic progress of his race. Washington came under pressure from critics who viewed him as an accommodationist because they felt he de-emphasized racism, racial violence against blacks, and discrimination. -
Plessy v. Ferguson (African Americans)
A U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Supreme Court ruled that a law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional. -
NAACP created (African Americans)
Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. It was created to work for the abolition of segregation and discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting, and transportation; to oppose racism; and to ensure African Americans their constitutional rights. -
19th Amendment (Women)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Finally, women across the nation would have an equal voice in the laws and politics that would govern them. -
Executive Order 9981 (African Americans)
Executive Order 9981 stated that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.” This order, one of Truman's most important achievements, became a major catalyst for the civil rights movement. -
Brown v. Board of Education (African Americans)
In this milestone decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separating children in public schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional. It signaled the end of legalized racial segregation in the schools of the United States, overruling the "separate but equal" principle set forth in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott (Africans Americans)
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. It signaled that a peaceful protest could result in the changing of laws to protect the equal rights of all people regardless of race. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed (African Americans)
At its first convention in Montgomery in August 1957, the Southern Leadership Conference adopted the current name, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Basic decisions made by the founders at these early meetings included the adoption of nonviolent mass action as the cornerstone of strategy, the affiliation of local community organizations with SCLC across the South, and a determination to make the SCLC movement open to all, regardless of race, religion, or background. -
Little Rock 9 (African Americans)
The "Little Rock Nine," as the nine teens came to be known, were to be the first African American students to enter Little Rock's Central High School. Three years earlier, following the Supreme Court ruling, the Little Rock school board pledged to voluntarily desegregate its schools. This idea was explosive for the community and, like much of the South, it was fraught with anger and bitterness. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957 (African Americans)
President Eisenhower sent Congress a proposal for civil rights legislation. The new act established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
Chicano Movement (Mural Movement) (Chicanos)
In the late 1960's, this movement was for political and social equality for Mexican-Americans, largely focused on families that had been in the United States for generations. -
Greensboro, NC Sit-ins (African Americans)
Four students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, where the official policy was to refuse service to anyone but whites. Denied service, the four young men refused to give up their seats. This was a critical turning point in Black history and American history, bringing the fight for civil rights to the national stage. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed (African Americans)
SNCC sought to coordinate youth-led nonviolent, direct-action campaigns against segregation and other forms of racism. SNCC members played an integral role in sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and such voter education projects as the Mississippi Freedom Summer. -
Freedom Riders (African Americans)
The Freedom Rides brought together civil rights activists who rode interstate buses from DC into the segregated South in 1961 to challenge the non-enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The violent reactions they provoked, bolstered the credibility of the American Civil Rights Movement. -
Dr. King’s: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (African Americans)
As the events of the Birmingham Campaign intensified on the city’s streets, Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in Birmingham in response to local religious leaders’ criticisms of the campaign. The letter served as a tangible, reproducible account of the long road to freedom in a movement that was largely centered around actions and spoken words. -
Cesar Chavez (Native Americans)
Cesar Chavez is best known for his efforts to gain better working conditions for the thousands of workers who labored on farms for low wages and under severe conditions. Chavez and his United Farm Workers union battled California grape growers by holding nonviolent protests. -
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed (Women)
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in matters of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.