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The Missouri Compromise
After months of debate, Congress agreed to let Missouri enter the Union as a slave state.This compromise stated that slavery would be prohibited forever in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase. This compromise held the Union together for more than 30 years. In 1854 it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act that said that slave or free status had to be decided by popular vote. -
The John Brown Raid
John Brown was a high supporter of the movement to put an end to slavery. Brown grew furious about slavery so he believed that voilence was necessary and justified to help put an end to slavery. In 1856 he murdered 5 slavery supporters in Kansas. Three years later he led a raid on a storage facility for weapons and ammunition in Harpers Ferry that is known "John Browns Raid". -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave who challenged slavery in court. He took a lawsuit arguing that he should be free since his owner had lived with him in a free area for numerous years. It is known as the Dred Scott vs. Sanford case. He made it all the way to the Supreme court in 1857. The majority of the court ruled against Scott. After their ruling, the former master's sons purchased Scott and his wife and set them free. -
American Civil War
The American Civil War was when the North(Union states) and the South (Confederates) went to war over slavery. This war began when Lincoln was elected President because he wanted slavery to end. It lasted from 1861 to 1865. Most of the battles took place in the south and it took many years to rebuild after the destruction. -
Resconstruction Period and the Emancipation Proclamation
During the Reconstruction Period they began the process of rebuilding the South after all of the damage from the Civil War.It lasted from 1865 to 1877.
The Emancipation Proclomation was a document from Lincoln that granted freedom to all slaves in the Confederacy area.It allowed that former slaves could be used in the army and navy. -
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow were rules that were put in place between 1874 to 1975 to seperate the white and black races in the south. They were intended so that everyone was treated "seperate but equal", but instead blacks were treated inferior to whites. The term "Jim Crow" refers to a black character in an old song. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson Decision
In 1892 Homer Plessy was a prominent business man that was a mix of both black and white who refused to sit in the Jim Crow car. He was brought before Judge Ferguson in New Orleans. He did not win his case and was put in jail. -
Date novel was set
To Kill a Mockingbird was set in Alabama in the 1930's. -
Brown vs. the Board of Education decision
Oliver Brown tried to enroll his daughter, Linda, in a white-only school. After being turned down by the school, the NAACP hired a lawyer to help fight this case. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme court and the court ruled in favor of Linda Brown and other children in her situation. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
On this day Rosa Parks was seated on a crowded bus and refused to give her seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and fined. This sparked the people in Montgomery to not ride the city buses in support of Rosa Parks. It lasted 381 days. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system ending the boycott. -
Novel was written
To Kill a Mockingbird was written on July 11, 1960. -
March on Washington
On this day over 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C. to help show the political and social injustices that were happening for African Americans at this time. The march ended with the famous Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech.
