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Period: to
From Civil War to Civil Rights...
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The Missouri Compromise
This compromise allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state with the condition that slavery would not be allowed in the area North of the Missouri Southern border. At the same time, Maine joined as a free state so there would still be balance between the North and South. -
Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott was a slave who lived with his slave owner in two different free states (Illinois and Wisconsin). Dred Scott sued for his freedom based on his residence in the two free states. Supreme Court decided that he could not be free based on residence since he was not considered a U.S. citizen but was the property of his owner. -
John Brown Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown who was anti-slavery attempted to start a rebellion by leading slaves to capture Harper's Ferry, Virginia by raiding the federal armory and arming the slaves so that slavery would be abolished. -
American Civil War (1861-1865)
The Civil War or War of the States began as a result of the tensions which built between the North and the South for many years over issues of slavery, expansion of the West and state versus federal authority. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War ended. This document made all slaves in slave states free. -
Reconstruction Period (1865-1877)
The Reconstruction Period was the time after the Civil War when the South was being rebuilt. Millions of slaves had won their freedom, however, southern legislatures passed the "black codes" controlling how blacks could act and how they functioned in labor. -
Jim Crow Laws (1880s)
These laws enforced racial segregation making it illegal for blacks and whites to doing any type of public activity together like siting in the same area on a bus or attending the same schools. These laws were named after a black character named Jim Crow featured in a song. -
Plessy v. Ferguson Decision
Homer A. Plessy rode on a train going to Lousiana but refused to ride in the car for colored people since he was part color. Instead, he rode in the car for white people and was arrested. Plessy was found guilty of violating the 1890 Jim Crow Laws segregating blacks to ride railroad cars separate from whites. Judge John H. Ferguson was the judge in this case. -
To Kill A Mockingbird set in 1930's in Alabama
The novel To Kill A Mockingbird is set back in the 1930's in a small town called Maycomb, Alabama. -
Brown v. Board of Education Decision
This supreme court decision made it a violation of the United States constitution to segregate schools into black and white. This case overturned the previous Plessy v. Ferguson Decision of 1896. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
This boycott began the day of Rosa Park's hearing after being arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white man. This began the boycott as African Americans refused to ride city buses protesting segregated seating. -
Novel To Kill A Mockingbird written and published.
Writer Harper Lee, pictured here, wrote the novel To Kill A Mockingbird based on her own experiences as a child growing up in a small Alabama town with her father as an attorney working on a highly controversial case. -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans came together at Washington, D.C. for a political show of support for the challenges of African Americans in the United States. The famous Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream..." speech would mark this occasion.
