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Jamestown, Virginia
The first African-Americans arrive in America. -
Plantation Owners
4 million black slaves exist, serving in white US residents homes' and working on plantations and farms. -
Civil War Begins
The US Civil War sparks and lasts for another four years until 1865. -
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The Civil War
The US Civil War sparks in 1861 and lasts for another four years until 1865. After the civil war, free blacks living in northern states were given the right to vote, hold office and attend school. For those living in southern states during the reconstruction, there were still black codes restricting what blacks could do. -
Civil War Ends
After the civil war, free blacks living in northern states were given the right to vote, hold office and attend school. For those living in southern states during the reconstruction, there were still black codes restricting what blacks could do. -
Montgomery Bus Boycot
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest. Martin Luther King, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader as international attention focused on Montgomery.The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. -
Segrgated Busses Become Illegal
Following the Montgomery bus boycotts, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. -
Little Rock Crisis
A group of African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The students, known as the Little Rock Nine, were recruited by president of the Arkansas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). With the help of police escorts, the students successfully entered the school through a side entrance on 23 September 1957. Fearing escalating mob violence, however, the students were rushed home soon afterward. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders movement where blacks occupied busses in the form of a peaceful portest. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
First law to outlaw racial discrimination. First leap of improvement in the government. The provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson (1908-73) on August 6, 1965, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment (1870) to the Constitution of the United States. The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassinated
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Civil Rights Act of 1968
Act that banned discrimination in housing. This prevented segregation of the population. Intended as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the bill was the subject of a contentious debate in the Senate, but was passed quickly by the House of Representatives in the days after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The act stands as the final great legislative achievement of the civil rights era.