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Jim Crow Laws (American Civil Rights Movement)
The Jim Crow Laws are the laws that enforced segregation in the south in the late 19th century. These laws meant that black people weren’t allowed to use the same public facilities as the white people. Many schools were separated and the white children were given a better education. Interracial marriage became illegal and most black people weren’t allowed to vote as they were unable to pass literacy tests. -
Australian Constitution (Australia)
The Australian constitution is a set of rules that Australia run by. They were put into place on the 1st of January, 1901. The constitution has been successful so that we can live in a safe and stable system of government. -
Stolen Generation (Australia)
The first Aboriginal children were taken as part of the Stolen Generation in 1910. The stolen generation consisted of children of Australian Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander decent that were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government. -
Commonwealth Electoral Act (Australia)
The Commonwealth Electoral Act is an act of parliament that is still a core legislation when it comes to elections in Australia. It came into play in 1918. The act replaced the Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 which originally defined who could vote in Australia. In the Electoral Act, the voting system was changed to be anti-labour. This act was the one that was extended in 1962 which legally allowed Aboriginal Australians to vote. -
South African General Election (Apartheid)
The parliamentary election in South Africa represented a major turning point in the country’s history. Prime Minister Jan Smuts of the United Party was outed by the Reunited National Party for the first time since 1933. During the lead up to the election, both parties aligned with smaller parties. Very few people that weren’t white were allowed to vote and Africans had been banned from voting all together. The election marked the beginning of a 46 year nationalist ruling in South Africa. -
Mixed Marriages Act (Apartheid)
The prohibition of mixed marriages act was an act that prohibited marriages between “Europeans” and “non-Europeans”. In other words, it prohibited whites from marrying a non-whites. Everyone has to register as a member of one of four racially defined groups. Those who where in the “whites” group could not have any sort of sexual relationship with a “non-white” which consisted of blacks, people of colour and Asians. -
Coloured Vote Constitutional Crisis. (Apartheid)
The Coloured vote constitutional crisis was a constitutional crisis that occurred during the 1950’s in south africa from the attempt by the Nationalist government to remove coloured voters. This crisis is also known as the Coloured vote case. It became a dispute between the judiciary and other forms of the government over the power of parliament in the South Africa Act. -
Forced Removals (Apartheid)
The Group Areas Act was the title of three different acts of parliament enacted under the apartheid. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas. This law led to the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of colour) majority were given smaller residential areas compared to the white minority who owned most of the country. -
Bantu Education Act (Apartheid)
The Bantu education act was a segregation law which legalised aspects of the apartheid system which enforced racially separated educational facilities. Education was split between white universities which focused on studies and proper education and non-white schools which focused on teaching those how to effectively work in the labour industry in their future. Schools for white students had western standards wheres those who went to the non-white schools had lesser standards of education. -
Rosa Parks (American Civil Rights Movement)
On December 1st, 1955, a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on Montgomery bus to a white man. Segregation laws meant that whites and blacks were separated on the bus and Park had stuck to these rules. When the white section was full, the driver tried to extend the white section by a row, where Rosa was seated. She refused to move. She was later arrested. Her arrest sparked outrage and support and was one of the leading contributors to the modern day civil rights movement. -
Division among whites. (Apartheid)
Before South Africa became a republic, the division between the whites and South Africans was largely due to the events of the Boer War and Afrikaner pro-republic conservative and the English anti-republican liberal sentiments. Once South Africa became a republic, the prime minister tried to improve relations between the British and Afrikaners. Soon after the ethnic division was not because of the two groups listed above, but now between blacks and whites. -
Freedom Riders (American Civil Rights Movement)
Over several months in 1961, a group of students boarded a bus in Washington D.C to travel across the american south and protest against segregated bus terminals.The group faced violence from both the police and white protesters. In Alabama, a white mob even threw a bomb at the bus, forcing the students to escape right into the hands of an angry white mob. Although facing violence, the movement gained a lot of media attention. -
Indigenous Australians gain the right to vote (Australia)
On the 21st of May 1962, the Commonwealth Electoral Act granted all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the option to enroll to vote in federal elections. Although they had gained the right to vote, voting was still not compulsory for those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, unlike other white Australians where voting is mandatory. -
March on Washingon (American Civil Rights Movement)
On August 28th, 1963, around 250,000 people took part in the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. This march is where Martin Luther King did his famous “i have a dream” speech. In this, some of the most famous quotes are “i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” and “all men are created equal” -
Freedom Riders (Australia)
The Freedom Riders were a group of students from the University of Sydney. The group was inspired by the American Freedom Riders. The group boarded a bus on the 12th of February, 1965 and toured through many regional Australian towns to show wider Australia the experience if Aboriginal Australians. -
Voting Rights Act (American Civil Rights Movement)
On August 6th, 1965, president Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which prevented the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. This meant that it allowed federal examiners to review what the voter qualifications were. -
Martin Luther King Assassinated (American Civil Rights Movement)
On the 4th of April, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis. Tennessee. A white man by the name of James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder in 1969 -
The Mabo Decision (Australia)
The Mabo Decision challenged two perspectives of the Australian legal system. This meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had no concept of land ownership before colonisation. The British took control of the land. On the 3rd of June, 1992, The decision known as the Mabo decision recognised that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have rights to the land and that these rights existed before the British arrived and can still exist today.