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This law classifies people into three racial groups: white, colored (mixed race or Asian), and native (African/black). Marriages between races are outlawed in order to maintain racial purity.
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It sets aside specific communities for each of the races (white, colored (mixed race or Indian), and native (African/black)). The best areas and the majority of the land are reserved for whites. Non-whites are relocated into "reserves." Mixed-race families are forced to live separately.
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Through this law, the white government declares that the lands reserved for black Africans are independent nations. In this way, the government strips millions of blacks of their South African citizenship and forces them to become residents of their new "homelands." Blacks are now considered foreigners in white-controlled South Africa, and need passports to enter. Blacks only enter to serve whites in menial jobs.
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This misleadingly-named law requires all Africans to carry identification booklets with their names, addresses, fingerprints, and other information. Africans are frequently stopped and harassed for their passes. Between 1948-1973, over ten million Africans were arrested because their passes were "not in order." Burning pass books becomes a common form of protest.
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This act establishes "separate but not necessarily equal" parks, beaches, post offices, and other public places for whites and non-whites.
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hrough this law, the white government supervises the education of all blacks. Schools condition blacks to accept white domination. Non-whites cannot attend white universities.
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A non-racial organisation which mobilised women in protest against Apartheid in general, and the introduction of passes for women in particular. It was formed in 1954 by women within the Congress Alliance, in particular Helen Joseph and Lilian Ngoyi. One of its main aims was to combat sexism within the various Congress Alliance organisations.
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A document ratified at the Congress of the People, held at Kliptown, Soweto, in June 1955, by the various member bodies of the Congress Alliance. The policies set out in the Charter included a demand for a multi-racial, democratically elected government, equal opportunities, the nationalisation of banks, mines and heavy industries, and a redistribution of land. Africanist members of the ANC rejected the Freedom Charter and broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress.
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In response to the adoption of the Freedom Charter, the Apartheid government in South Africa arrested a total 156 people. This was almost the entire executive of the African National Congress (ANC), Congress of Democrats, South African Indian Congress, Coloured People's Congress, and the Congress Alliance. They were charged with "high treason (death) and a countrywide conspiracy to use violence to overthrow the present government and replace it with a communist state."
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Creates the Civil Rights Commission and authorizes the Justice Department to investigate cases of African Americans being denied voting rights in the South
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The Supreme Court ruled that the state of Arkansas could not pass legislation undermining the Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. In establishing that the states were bound by its rulings, the Supreme Court affirmed that its interpretation of the Constitution was the "supreme law of the land."
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This law allowed for the transformation of reserves into "fully-fledged independent Bantustans" which would also divide Blacks into 'ethnically' discrete groups. It also resulted in the abolition of parliamentary representation for Blacks.
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A large group of blacks in the town of Sharpeville refused to carry their passes. The government declares a state of emergency and responds with fines, imprisonment, and whippings. In all, 69 people die and 187 people are wounded. The African political organizations, the African National Congress and the Pan-African Congress, are banned.
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Four young African-American male students go to a Woolworth, and sit down at a whites-only lunch counter. They order coffee. Despite being denied service, they sit silently and politely at the lunch counter until closing time. This action started the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
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Origin: Greensboro Sit-In
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After 6 months, the restaurant Woolsworth desegegrates its lunch counters.
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The Supreme Court ruled that segregation on vehicles traveling between states is unlawful, because it violates the Interstate Commerce Act.
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Civil rights activists participated in a series of protests, marches and meetings in Albany, Georgia.
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The United Nations establishes the Special Committee Against Apartheid to support a political process of peaceful change. The Special Committee observes the International Day Against Racism to mark the anniversary of the people who died in the Sharpeville protest.
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Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress, is jailed.
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Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress, is jailed.
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A letter in which King responds to eight white Alabama ministers who urged him to end the protests and be patient with the judicial process of overturning segregation.
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Medgar Evers: the first field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Mississippi
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Delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C.
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held in D.C.; around 250,000 people participate
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His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, uses the nation's anger to push through civil rights legislation in Kennedy's memory.
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Its aim is to unite all Americans of African descent against discrimination. John Henrik Clarke is the other founder.
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bans discrimination in employment and in public places
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On June 21, three civil rights workers--Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman--disappeared. The bodies of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman are found in a dam. All three had been shot, and the African-American activist, Chaney, had also been badly beaten.
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in Harlem at the Audubon Ballroom
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illegalizes discriminatory voting requirements, like requiring a literacy test before registering to vote, that white Southerners had used to deprive black Southerners of the vote
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From Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, he encourages black Mississippians to register to vote. Near Hernando, Mississippi, Meredith is shot. Others take up the march, joined on occasion by King.
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In Oakland, California, they want to create a new political organization to better the conditions of African Americans; their goals include better employment and educational opportunities as well as improved housing.
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The Supreme Court strike down laws against interracial marriage as unconstitutional.
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the first African-American to be elected mayor of a major American city
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As he stands on the balcony outside his motel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
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AKA Fair Housing Act; prohibits discrimination by sellers or renters of property
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Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther party at the time. A federal grand jury refutes the police's assertion that they fired upon Hampton only in self defense, but no one is ever indicted for Hampton's killing.
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The Supreme Court upholds 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 continue until the late 1990s.
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People in Soweto riot and demonstrate against discrimination and instruction in Afrikaans, the language of whites descended from the Dutch. The police react with gunfire. 575 people are killed and thousands are injured and arrested. Steven Biko is beaten and left in jail to die from his injuries. Protesters against apartheid link arms in a show of resistance.
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Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes this act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.
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South Africa President F.W. de Klerk repeals the rest of the apartheid laws and calls for the drafting of a new constitution.
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After two years of debates, vetoes, and threatened vetoes, President Bush reverses himself and signs the act, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.
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The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King.
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A multiracial, multiparty transitional government is approved.
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Elections are held. The United Nations sends 2,120 international observers to ensure the fairness of the elections. The African National Congress, representing South Africa's majority black population. Nelson Mandela, the African resistance leader who had been jailed for 27 years, is elected President.
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The supreme law of the country of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the government. It will later repeal many Apartheid acts. It will also be amended sixteen times since then.
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The ringleader of the Mississippi civil rights murders (see Aug. 4, 1964), Edgar Ray Killen, is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes.
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Some of the proposed provisions include ensuring that federal funds are not used to subsidize discrimination, holding employers accountable for age discrimination, and improving accountability for other violations of civil rights and workers' rights.
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A lawsuit brought against the city of New Haven, 18 plaintiffs—17 white people and one Hispanic—argued that results of the 2003 lieutenant and captain exams were thrown out when it was determined that few minority firefighters qualified for advancement. The Supreme Court ruled (5–4) in favor of the firefighters, saying New Haven's "action in discarding the tests was a violation of Title VII."
