Civil rights

  • 13th Amendment

    The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
  • 14th Amendment

    Rights of citizenship, due process of law, and equal protection of the law. The 14th amendment has become one of the most used amendments in court to date regarding the equal protection clause.
  • 15th Amendment

    The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
  • Tuskegee Institute created

    Tuskegee Institute was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 under a charter from the Alabama legislature for the purpose of training teachers in Alabama.
  • NAACP created

    The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells.
  • 19th Amendment

    The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.
  • Executive Order 9981

    Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. It abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces. The executive order led to the end of segregation in the services during the Korean War.
  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott

    The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a seminal event in the civil rights movement.
  • Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) formed

    The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC, which is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., had a large role in the American civil rights movement.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1957

    The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was passed by the 85th United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on September 9, 1957
  • Little Rock 9

    The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas
  • Greensboro, NC Sit-ins

    The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in February to July 1960, primarily in the Woolworth store, now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, in Greensboro, North Carolina,
  • Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed

    The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s.
  • Chicano Movement (Mural Movement)

    CHICANO MURAL MOVEMENT. The Chicano mural movement began in the 1960s in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture.
  • Freedom Riders

    Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses ...
  • Cesar Chavez

    Cesar Chavez was an American labor leader, community organizer, and Latino American civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later merged to become the United Farm Workers union.
  • Dr. King’s: “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

    The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism.
  • March on Washington: “I have a dream” speech

    The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the March on Washington, or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.
  • 24th Amendment

    The Twenty-fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations.
  • March from Selma, Alabama

    The Selma to Montgomery marches were three protest marches, held in 1965, along the 54-mile highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery.
  • 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.
  • Black Panthers

    The Black Panther Party, originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a revolutionary political organization founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California.
  • Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court

    Thurgood Marshall - Appointed to the Supreme Court. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.
  • MLK assassinated

    MLK was assassinated
  • American Indian Movement (AIM)

    The American Indian Movement is a Native American grassroots movement that was founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A.I.M. was initially formed in urban areas to address systemic issues of poverty and police brutality against Native Americans.
  • Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) proposed

    the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was or is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.
  • Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to the Supreme Court

    Sandra Day O'Connor is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who served from her 1981 appointment by President Ronald Reagan until her retirement in 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Court.
  • Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court

    Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009 and confirmed that in August. She was the first Hispanic and Latina Justice.