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Events of the Civil Rights movement
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Emancipation Proclomation
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war.Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the 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." -
First Jim Crowe laws passed
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level.Some examples of Jim Crow laws were the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The Jim Crow laws were overruled by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954 in Brown v. Board. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
On June 7, 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy vs. Fergusonis a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal." -
Up from Slavery by Brooke Washington is published
Up from Slavery is the 1901 autobiography of Booker T. Washington detailing his personal experiences in working to rise from the position of a slave child during the Civil War, and the difficulties and obstacles he overcame.Washington was a somewhat controversial figure, but the book was, a best-seller, and remained the most popular African American autobiography -
NAACP is formed
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. -
Moore vs. Dempsey
The case involved twelve black farmers in Arkansas who were sentenced to death for allegedly killing whites during a riot. Five white men had been killed during the Elaine, Arkansas, riot of 1919, Over 700 blacks had been arrested, sixty-seven sent to prison, and twelve farmers tried for the murder of whites.The judge dutifully sentenced all 12 to death.Walter White of the NAACP hired local white and black lawyers to appeal the death scentance, and surpreme court agreed it was an unfair trial. -
Ku Klux Klan marches
The second Ku Klux Klan shared with its nineteenth-century namesake a deep racism, a fascination with mystical regalia, and a willingness to use violence to silence its foes. Forty thousand members of the Klan march down Pennsylvania Avenue on August 8, 1925. It succeeded in attracting national attention but also marked the peak of Klan power in the 1920s. -
Second Great Migration
The Second Great Migration was the migration of more than five million African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest and West. They made this journey because, some African Americans were still treated with discrimination in many parts of the country, and many sought to escape this. -
Brown vs. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.The decision struck down the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation. -
Shirley Chisholm is first black cannidate for President
In the 1972 U.S. presidential election, Shirley Chisholm made a bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Her campaign was poorly organized and underfunded and she was ignored by much of the Democratic political establishment and received little support from her black male colleagues.Renewed attention was paid to Chisholm during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, when Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton staged a historic battle where the victor would either be the firs -
The Color Purple wins Putzier prize
The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was later adapted into films and musicals. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.Themes of racism and sexism are prevalent in the entire novel, and many characters defy gender roles. -
Obama is the first black Presisdent
Barack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Not only did he win the 2009 election, bt he also won the 2012 election as well.The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to U.S. President Barack Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".
