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Ku Klux Klan revived
The Ku Klux Klan is revived in 1915 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and by the beginning of 1919 operates in 27 states. Eighty-three African Americans are lynched during the year of their revival, among them a number of returning soldiers still in uniform. -
WW1 ends
WW1 ended after four year of fighting. WW1 had directly impacted many African American people as the war years were some of the most dynamic. They began to contest the boundaries of American democracy and demanding rights as American citizens in many ways both subtle and dramatic. This time was extremely important in the development in black history. -
Red Summer
In the early autumn and late summer of 1919 many riots occurred as a result of post power social tensions, the demobilization of WW1 veterans and fights for housing and jobs between black and white people. These riots were known as the 'Red Summer' occurring in more than three dozen cities and resulting hundred of deaths across the states. As many as 200 African Americans were killed during these riots many being dumped into the Mississippi river. -
Voting rights for black and white woman
On the 26 of August, 1920, woman are finally given the right to vote. Nonetheless, African American women, like African American men, are denied the right in most Southern states. -
Tulsa Race Riot
At least 60 blacks and 21 whites are killed in the Tulsa Race Riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The violence destroys a thriving African American neighborhood and business district called Deep Greenwood. -
First course in African American history
The first course in African American history is taught by William Leo Hansberry at Howard University -
Supreme Court finds Racial Segregation Laws unconstitutional
The Supreme Court finds that laws segregating white and black people as unconstitutional as they violate the fourteenth Amendment guaranteeing equal civil rights to persons of all races. They decide to drop segregation laws yet races are still segregated. -
U.S armed forces are integrated
President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order that integrated the U.S armed forces for the first time.African Americans had participated in every major U.S. war, but it was not until after the end of WW2 that the two races were united. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till, a young black boy, was brutally murdered by two white men after whistling at a white woman. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river. His corpse was found three days later and an open casket funeral allowed the world to see what had been done to him. -
Interstate transport no longer segregated
The U.S. Supreme Court in Gayle v. Browder bans segregation in interstate travel, effectively giving a victory to those supporting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Marian Anderson and Ralph Bunche are the first black winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. -
"I Have a Dream"
Over 200,000 people gather in Washington, D.C. on August 28 as part of the March on Washington, to demand civil rights and equal opportunity for African Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech here. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress and bans discrimination in all public accommodations and by employers. It also establishes the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to monitor compliance with the law. -
African American students
College and university enrollment for African American students rises sharply from 282,000 in 1966 to 1,062,000. -
President's Commission on Race
President Bill Clinton appoints prominent historian John Hope Franklin to lead the President's Commission on Race to promote a national dialogue on issues affecting African Americans in the United States, and to ease racial tensions.
