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Civil rights in the last decades
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Niagara Movement
The Niagara Movement was a black civil rights organization founded in 1905 by a group led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. -
Race Riots
During the 1920s a series of race riots broke out against African Americans and Whites. These riots broke out in Omaha, Philadelphia, and other cities. -
The Great Depression
African Americans were first to be laid off when the economy fell. By 1932 50% of African Americans were unemployed. -
The relief from Hoover
Hoover administration argued equal opportunity for both African American and Whites to be able to own land. Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to help the economy as well as African Americans. Unfortunately the efforts did not help African Americans. -
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel becames the first African American to win an Academy Award for her role as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind." -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded, which played a pivotal role in for African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. Founded in 1942, CORE was one of the "Big Four" civil rights organizations, along with the SCLC, the SNCC, and the NAACP. -
Powell Amendment
U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., (D-NY) began to attach a provision known as the “Powell Amendment” to bills, which required that federal funds be denied to any jurisdiction that maintained segregationwhich. This later became Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Journey of Reconciliation
Bayard Rustin of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and George Houser of CORE organized the Journey of Reconciliation, the first Freedom Ride into the South. The Journey of Reconciliation was a form of nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation laws on interstate buses in the Southern United States -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson became the first African American since 1880 to openly break the major league baseball color line by playing first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. -
Harry Truman addresses NAACP
President Harry Truman became the first U.S. president to address the annual convention of the NAACP. He promised African Americans that the federal government would act immediately to end discrimination, violence, and race prejudice in American life. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Segregation remained intact into the mid-1950s, when many states began to gradually integrate their schools following the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Rosa Parks
Local black leader Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955, refused to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger; she was arrested and received national publicity, hailed as the "mother of the civil rights movement." -
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. The bill authorized the Attorney General to file lawsuits to enforce the new law. The law also nullified state and local laws that required such discrimination. -
Selma to Montgomery marches
Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 were part of the Voting Rights Movement underway in Selma, Alabama. By highlighting racial injustice in the South, they contributed to passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. Activists publicized the three protest marches to walk the 54-mile highway from Selma to the Alabama state capital of Montgomery as showing the desire of African-American citizens to exercise their right. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement on August 6, 1965, and Congress later amended the Act five times to expand its protections -
Loving v. Virginia
a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court, which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage. -
Thurgood Marshall
was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the Court's 96th justice and its first African-American justice. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin. It also made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone … by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin”. -
Fair Housing Act (1968)
The Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) introduced meaningful federal enforcement mechanisms. It outlawed:
Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling.
Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education upheld busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continued until the late 1990s. -
Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado
The Supreme Court, for the first time, addresses the issue of school desegregation in northern public schools, finding segregation intentionally imposed (de jure) unconstitutional even when not accompanied by statute. The Court concludes that the Denver public school system is an unlawful "dual system" that a system wide remedy is required, and that assigning African American students to Latino schools is not an adequate desegregation plan because both groups had been subject to historic segrega -
First National Women's Conference,
First National Women's Conference, held in Houston, Texas calls for a host of reforms aimed at empowering women and providing them with equal opportunity. -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (revision)
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended and strengthened by Congress, barring laws that dilute the voting power of minorities, whether or not that is the law's intention. The amendment overturns a Supreme case, Bolden v. City of Mobile (Ala.), that required proof of intentional discrimination against minority voters in order to establish a violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Wisconsin becomes the first state to adopt a civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against gay people. -
Civil Rights Restoration Act
Overriding President Ronald Reagan's veto, Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expanded the reach of nondiscrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. -
Douglas WIlder first African American governor
Douglas Wilder became the first elected African-American governor in Virginia. -
Los Angeles Riots
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots were a series of riots, lootings, arsons, and civil disturbance that occurred after the acquittal of of four white Los Angeles Police Department officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1991.The acquittals touched off rioting and looting in Los Angeles that grew into the most destructive U.S. civil disturbance of the 20th century. The three days of disorder killed 55 people, injured almost 2,000, led to 7,000 arrests, and caused nearly $1 billion in pro -
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. -
Million Man March
THe Million Man March was a call for African American Men to gather at the National Mall in Washington D.C. to rally. The march was to address the ills of black communities and call for unity and revitalization of African American communities. -
Grutter v. Bollinger
Public universities and other public institutions of higher education across the nation are now allowed to use race as a plus factor in determining whether a student should be admitted. While race may not be the only factor, the decision allows admissions bodies to take race into consideration along with other individualized factors in reviewing a student's application. -
Barack Obama
is an American politician serving as the 44th President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. -
Black LIves Matter Movement
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence toward black people. BLM regularly organizes protests around the deaths of black people in killings by law enforcement officers, and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system.
