Civil Rights Timeline

By aliceishmael

  • The Dred Scott Case

    Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.

  • Emancipation Proclamation

    President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

  • 13th Amendment

    The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. ... The 13th Amendment was important because it created a constitutional amendment that banned slavery in ALL of the American states.

  • 14th Amendment

    The 14th Amendment to the Constitution granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.

  • 15th Amendment

    The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that 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."

  • Jim Crow Laws

    Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. All were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by white Democratic-dominated state legislatures after the Reconstruction period. The laws were enforced until 1965

  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court issued in 1896. It upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".

  • Plessy vs. Ferguson

    Plessy vs. Ferguson 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 – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".

  • Creation of the NAACP

    The NAACP was created in 1909 by an interracial group consisting of W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, Mary White Ovington, and others concerned with the challenges facing African Americans, especially in the wake of the 1908 Springfield (Illinois) Race Riot.

  • 19th Amendment

    Women's Suffrage. Scholastic.com. The 19th Amendment (1920) to the Constitution of the United States provides men and women with equal voting rights. The amendment states that the right of citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

  • Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier

    Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.

  • Brown vs The Topeka Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was a United States Supreme Court case that held that race-based segregation of children into 'separate but equal' public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and is unconstitutional.

  • The Montgomery Bus Boycott

    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's regarded as the first large-scale U.S. demonstration against segregation

  • Little Rock Nine

    The 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, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas.

  • The March on Washington

    The march was successful in pressuring the administration of John F. Kennedy to initiate a strong federal civil rights bill in Congress. During this event, Martin Luther King delivered his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech. The 1963 March on Washington had several precedents.

  • “I Have a Dream” Speech

    Martin Luther King was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, a drive to get more equal treatment for all Americans, not just white Americans. This speech was important in several ways: It brought even greater attention to the Civil Rights Movement, which had been going on for many years.

  • Freedom Summer

    Freedom Summer was a 1964 voter registration project in Mississippi, part of a larger effort by civil rights groups such as the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to expand black voting in the South.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.

  • Selma, Alabama Marches

    Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    This act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.

  • Creation of the Black Panther Party

    Originally dubbed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the organization was founded in October 1966. The Black Panthers' early activities primarily involved monitoring police activities in black communities in Oakland and other cities.

  • NOW

    In 1968 NOW issued a Bill of Rights, which they had adopted at their 1967 national conference, advocating the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, enforcement of the prohibitions against sex discrimination in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, maternity leave rights in employment

  • Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

    The Trenton Riots of 1968 were a major civil disturbance that took place during the week following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King in Memphis on April 4. Race riots broke out nationwide following the murder of the civil rights activist.

  • Title IX

    Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a 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."

  • Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

    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 terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.

  • Roe vs Wade

    Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion, effectively legalizing the procedure across the United States. ... Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion had been illegal throughout much of the country since the late 19th century.