-
Southern States Seceed
Seven Southern slave states individually declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, often simply called the South, grew to include eleven states. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In a single stroke, it changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million enslaved persons in the designated areas of the South from "slave" to "free". -
13th Amendment Ends Slavery
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
General Lee Surrenders
General Lee of the South surrenders to General Grant of the North -
Lincoln Assassinated
President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth; Andrew Johnson becomes president -
End of Civil War Declared
President Johnson officially declared a virtual end to the insurrection. -
Last Shots Fired
Cherokee leader Stand Watie became the last Confederate General to surrender his forces. -
Period: to
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws begin to take control over the rights of African Americans. Jim Crow laws mandated the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson was 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" -
World War 1 Begins
World War 1 begins with the assassination of the heir to Austria’s throne, Archduke Frans Ferdinand. -
End of World War 1
Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles and ends World War 1. -
Harper Lee Born
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, born. -
Stock Market Crashes
In the United States, people thought their country wouldn't become a victim of the Great Depression that had overtaken Europe. However, on the 29th of October, the stock market crashed sending the United States into their own Great Depression. -
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The case included a frameup, an all-white jury, rushed trials, an attempted lynching, an angry mob, and is an example of an overall miscarriage of justice. -
The Dust Bowl
Along with the Great Depression was the Dust Bowl in the middle of the country. The Dust Bowl took place in the Great Plains, which included Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado. The Dust Bowl was caused by the lack of crop rotation; it basically killed the soil, which caused it to dry up, resulting in dust storms. -
Great Depression Unemployment Peaks
At the peak of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate had reached 8.7 percent, up from about 5 percent when the Great Depression had started. Unemployment was becoming a major issue as many people were living paycheck-to-paycheck, with only their last job to keep them going. -
"To Kill a Mockingbird" Starts
The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird’s story starts in the early summer. -
Unemployed and Migrant Workers
Many workers in search of jobs often traveled by themselves, so they only had themselves to look after. They could also move easily from job-to-job. Many migrant workers were desperate for money, so the were willing to take lower paying jobs if it meant being paid at all.
-The number of unemployed workers continued to rise. People just couldn't find jobs to support their families. Factories had no work to offer due to their shortages, as well. -
Black Blizzards
The Black Blizzards were what convinced the government to take action and try to stop the Dust Bowl. One of the storms on the Great Plains was so bad that it carried dust all the way up the East Coast. When the senate looked out the window of the Capitol Building, they saw the storm coming
-The effects of the Dust Bowl were enormous. Many families and their homes were completely destroyed by the storms. People were left to fend for themselves because their farms were their only source of income -
End of To Kill a Mockingbird
The story ends in October. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US entered WWII. With the increased needs of the war came increased jobs, which provided more job opportunities for the unemployed. -
End of World War 2
Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri ending the war. -
Brown vs. Borad of Education
Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, unanimously, (completely), agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturned (reversed) the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that ruled that blacks and whites are "separate but equal." -
Rosa Parks Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white person, triggering a successful, year-long African American boycott of the bus system. -
Little Rock Nine
For the first time since Reconstruction, the federal government uses the military to uphold African Americans' civil rights, as soldiers escort nine African American students to desegregate a school in Little Rock, Arkansas. -
Greensboro Four
Four African American college students hold a sit-in to integrate a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, launching a wave of similar protests across the South. By February 7th, there were 54 sit-ins throughout the South in 15 cities in 9 states. -
To Kill a Mockingbird is Published
-
I Have a Dream
More than 200,000 people march on Washington, D.C., in the largest civil rights demonstration ever; Martin Luther King, Jr., gives his "I Have a Dream" speech. -
Civil Rights Act Signed
President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, which gives the federal government far-reaching powers to prosecute discrimination in employment, voting, and education. -
Selma March
Martin Luther King Jr. organizes a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, for African American voting rights. A shocked nation watches on television as police club and teargas protesters. -
Voting Rights Act Passed
In the wake of the Selma-Montgomery March, the Voting Rights Act is passed, outlawing the practices used in the South to disenfranchise African American voters. -
MLK Assasinated
Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated sparking a week of rioting across the country. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting
discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. -
Go Set a Watchman Published
Go Set a Watchman, was written in the mid-1950s and controversially published in July 2015 as a "sequel", though it was later confirmed to be To Kill a Mockingbird's first draft. -
Harper Lee Dies
Age 89
