Civil Rights Timeline

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    The New Negro Movement

    Promoted a renewed sense of racial pride
  • First Black General in US Army

    Benjamin O. Davis Sr. became the first black general in the US Army, and when he died, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery
  • Executive Order to End Segregation

    President Harry Truman issued an Executive Order to end segregation in the Armed Services
  • IAM US Defense Corporation Bargains

    An IAM bargaining committee, with 4 out of 7 men being black, had negotiated notable lucrative contracts for the members that included a pay raise, paid vacation, seniority protection, and generous overtime pay.
  • Brown v. Board of Education Declares Segregation Unconstitutional

    Brown v. Board of Education Declares Segregation Unconstitutional
    State segregation of public schools
  • Emmett TIll

    Emmett TIll
    14-year-old Emmett Till gets brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly “flirting” with a white woman
  • Rosa Parks

    Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus.
  • Greensboro Four Sit-Ins

    Black students sat at a “white only” lunch counter, afterwards many lunch counters were desegregated
  • MLK Jr. Speech

    MLK stood up for black people's rights and talked about his speech
  • President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol to sign the Voting Rights Act

    Allowed people the right to vote no matter race, class, or economic position
  • Shirley Chisholm

    Shirley Chisholm was the first African woman to make a serious bid for the US presidency. She is a member of the House of Representatives. She is also from New York.
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    The first National Black Political Convention takes place

    Takes place in Gary, Indiana, and over 10,000 Black people attend to discuss and advocate for black communities that undergo significant economic and social crises.
  • Civil Rights Act Signed into Law

    Title IX of the Civil Rights Act was signed into law on June 23, 1972 by President Richard M. Nixon.
  • First Black Ambassador for the United Nations

    Andrew Young is the first black ambassador for the United Nations
  • First Black American Visits Space

    A former U.S. Air Force Fighter pilot becomes the first Black American to visit space. Apart from Challenger’s space shuttle crew, Guion “Guy” Bluford Jr. becomes the first Black American to visit space.
  • First Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observed

    Observed on his birthday 18 years after he was assassinated due to persistent lobbying (for 15 years)
  • Million Man March

    Hundreds of thousands of black men demonstrated in Washington DC about black stereotypes
  • Barack Obama Becomes President

    Barack Obama Becomes President
    Obama is the first black man to become US president.
  • BLM Movement Founded

    BLM Movement Founded
    Formed in response of the murder of the unarmed 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin
  • George Floyd Protests

    George Floyd Protests
    The protests and BLM Movement revival were sparked from the unjust murder of Geroge Floyd