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Trail of Tears.
The forcible removal of Native Ameicans in the East to resevations in and around the Oklahoma Territory. More than 70,000 Native Americans and Blacks died on their travels. With over 400,000 Native American being forced to move. -
Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia
Nat Turner was an American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 55 white deaths. Whites responded with at least 100 black deaths. -
Seneca Falls Convention.
A convetion that was held in Seneca Falls NY to discuss and push for voting rights for women and others. -
The Dred Scott Decision.
In the Dred Scott decision, Scott, a slave who had lived in a free territory, sues for his freedom on the grounds his residence on free soil liberates him. The Supreme Court, citing historical and conventional view of African Americans, rules against him, saying African American people are regarded as "so far inferior...that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." The court also declares that slaves were not citizens and had no rights to sue, and that slave owners could tak -
The Civil War begins.
The Civil War was anything but civil. More people died in the Civil War than all the other wars America has fought in. This war was fought to end slavery and to unite the country as a "free" nation. -
Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.
President Lincoln sings into law the Emancipation Proclamation. This law frees all slaves and outlaws slavery in the United States forever. -
Women get the right to vote. 19th Amendment.
Women's suffrage in the United States was achieved gradually, at state and local levels during the late 19th century and early 20th century, culminating in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided: "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 gender." -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races,ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGHLdr-iak -
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a main cause of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.
NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott. The only tired I was, was giving in." -
Little Rock Nine
Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine." -
Freedom Riders
Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation. -
Dr. Martin Lurther King, Jr. is assassinated
Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime. -
" I Have a Dream"
About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFcbpGK9_aw
