-
14 Amendment passed
this is known as the Reconsturcton Amendment because "it forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law." -
Niagara Movements
W.E.B. DuBois demands immediate racial equality and opposes all laws that treats blacks as different from others. Leads to creation of NAACP in 1909 -
Grandfather clause outlawed by Supreme Court
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) successfully challenges state laws that restricted black voting registration -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision
Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed" -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. -
Little Rock Central High School desegregated
After Little Rock school board votes to integrate schools, National Guard troops prevent black children from attending school. 1000 federal paratroopers are needed to escort black students and preserve peace. Arkansas Gov. Faubus responds by closing schools for 1958-59 school year -
Lunch counter protests
10 men sat at a "whites only" counter in Rock Hill, South Carolina in a protest against segregation. They were arrested and nine ("The Friendship Nine") were sentenced to 30 days labor on a chain gang. -
Freedom riders oppose segregation
Blacks and whites take buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many are greeted with riots and beatings -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather before Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches (including King's "I Have a Dream") and protest racial injustice -
Bombing of Birmingham church
4 black girls are killed by bomb planted in church -
24th Amendment passed
Poll tax (which had been used to prevent blacks from voting) outlawed. Black voter registration increases and candidates begin to turn away from white supremacy views in attempt to attract black voters -
Civil Rights Act passed
Overcoming Senate filibuster, Congress passes law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools -
Voting Rights Act approved
southern black voter registration grows by over 50% and black officials are elected to various positions. In Mississippi, black voter registration grew from 7% to 67% -
King assassinated
While supporting sanitation workers' strike which had been marred by violence in Memphis, King is shot by James Earl Ray. Riots result in 125 cities -
Los Angeles riots
Following acquittal of officers who beat Rodney King, 600 buildings are torched and 50 people killed, and $1 billion in damage recorded
