-
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment was passed by Congress near the end of 1865 and ratified just prior to that. This amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude with the exception of our carceral/prison system. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
14th Amendment
When it comes to the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, one of the most commonly cited amendments is the 14th amendment as it not only sets out guidelines for the right to citizenship, but it also mandates due process of the law and equal protection of the law for all Americans. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
15th Amendment
The ratification of the 15th amendment brought many necessary protections to enfranchisement which had never previously been bestowed upon people of color in America. Going a step further, this amendment also opened up the ability to vote to every American citizen regardless of their prior condition of enslavement or servitude. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Tuskegee Institute Created
In 1881, Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute through a charter he received from the Alabama Legislature. The primary objective of this institute was to train educators and teachers, especially African American teachers and educators who would often graduate to teach students of color due to America’s racially segregated public school system. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Plessy v. Ferguson
In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered their decision on what would become a landmark case known as Plessy v. Ferguson. In their decision, the Supreme Court upheld a prior doctrine known as “separate but equal” which enforced segregation. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
NAACP Created
As the urbanization and urban sprawl/migration of African Americans steadily increased post-abolition, so did white flight and many racist practices known as redlining, blockbusting, gentrification, gerrymandering, and it’s ultimate result, suburbanization. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Proposed
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was proposed in the United States Congress in 1923, around three years after the ratification and passing of the 19th amendment. At its core, this amendment was proposed to Congress with the mission of securing full equality for women, but it failed to address racial injustice wholly. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Brown v. Board of Education I
Essentially, Brown versus Board of Education reversed the Court’s doctrine of “separate but equal” in Plessy. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that schools must integrate immediately in this landmark case. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which took place in Montgomery, Alabama, advocated against the horrible racial segregation in Montgomery’s public transportation. Rosa Parks was a central aspect of this fight to integrate public transit systems across the state of Alabama and the nation. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Little Rock 9
The Little Rock 9 is one of the strongest reasons for the Supreme Court case of Brown versus Board of Education II which formally enforced integration “with all deliberate speed.” Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Formed
The Civil Rights Movement would not be a movement without all of the young voices which lead those organizing spaces. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was a by-students, for-students organization created at a Raleigh, North Carolina conference. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Chicano Movement (Mural Movement)
In the 60s, the Chicano Movement came to life in the United States. The Chicano Movement was a series of acts of resistance and escalation by Mexican-Americans in order to further the empowerment, liberation, and progress of Mexican-Americans in the United States. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Dr. King’s: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Just after being arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes a letter to the people of the United States called “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” This letter shows people the significance of Dr. King’s arrest and detention. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
March on Washington: “I have a dream” Speech
The March on Washington was a very large rally and protest in Washington DC which was led by numerous civil rights leaders of this time period in opposition to racial discrimination and injustice. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
In the year 1964, the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which worked to prohibit racial discrimination as well as discrimination on the basis of color, ethnicity, and religion in places of employment and hiring processes across the country. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
March from Selma, Alabama
Despite the passage of the 15th amendment nearly a century ago, Black Americans continuously faced various obstacles in voting due to voter suppression. In an attempt to demonstrate the immense desire of African Americans to have access to voting, many people took to the streets in three marches to form the March from Selma, AL. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which was heavily championed by Representative John Lewis. This legislation worked to outlaw discriminatory voting practices which worked against the 15th amendment and fought rampant voter suppression. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Black Panthers
A significant Black power organization was the Black Panthers which emerged into US politics after being founded by students in university and higher education in California’s Bay Area. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall became the first African American and person of color to be appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967 when he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Thurgood Marshall’s appointment showed all of the effects of civil discourse and protest on behalf of Black Americans throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
American Indian Movement (AIM)
The American Indian Movement (AIM) was a large scale movement across the United States in 1968 which mobilized and organized Indigenous peoples to deliberate issues and grievances they have with the United States federal government, especially in regards to broken treaties between the two entities. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court
The first ever woman of color and LatinX identifying person to be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States was Sonia Sotomayor who was appointed to this office in 2009 by President Barack Obama who was the very first president of color and African American president. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Murder of George Floyd
In May of 2020, George Floyd was murdered on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota by a group of officers when Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly 10 entire minutes rendering him unconscious and then soon after dead. Read more at [https://docs.google.com/document/d/15KPLleSYua59Q-zw2FwN3TDuBMbYp2yuwv2P11foH-s/edit?usp=sharing] -
Confirmation of Deb Haaland
The confirmation of Deb Haaland as the first Indigenous Secretary was a great advancement in civil rights for Indigenous folks across North America.