-
Plessy v . Ferguson
Landmark decision of Supreme court ruled "Separate but Equal" Upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as they were equal in quality -
Integration of Major League Baseball
debut day of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball. Integrated baseball broke a 60 year ban -
Integration of the Armed Forces
President Truman signed this executive order establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrating the segregated military. -
Sweatt v. Painter
Sweatt was denied admission to the state supported University of Texas Law School at UT of Austin, solely because he is a Negro and state law forbids the admission of Negroes to that Law School. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Turning point for the Civil Rights Movement. The court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional -
Bus Boycott of Montgomery, Alabama
After Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man all blacks decided to boycott riding buses. This was lead by MLK -
Integration of Little Rock High School
9 African American students ready to begin their senior year were denied from entering the school -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
This law gave federal courts the power to register African-American voters. -
Freedom Rides of 1960
Inter-racial groups rode buses in Freedom Rides in the South. The Freedom Riders sought to overturn racial segregation on public transportation. -
Greensboro Four
African-American students held a sit-in at a “Whites Only” lunch counter. The first ones were called the Greensboro Four. -
24th Amendment
Prohibited states from requiring payment of a poll tax as a condition for voting in federal elections -
Integration of the University of Mississippi
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school. -
Integration of the University of Alabama
When African American students attempted to desegregate the University of Alabama in June 1963, Alabama’s new governor, flanked by state troopers, literally blocked the door of the enrollment office. -
March on Washington
A massive protest march, the event aimed to draw attention to continuing challenges and inequalities faced by African Americans a century after emancipation. It was also the occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s now-iconic “I Have A Dream” speech. -
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza. Bullets struck the president's neck. In Dallas, Texas -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, or ethnic origin in hotels, restaurants, and all places of employment doing business with the federal government or engaged in interstate commerce. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. -
March on Selma, Alabama
The Selma to Montgomery march was part of a series of civil-rights protests that occurred in 1965 in Alabama, a Southern state with deeply entrenched racist policies. In March of that year, in an effort to register black voters in the South, protesters marching the 54-mile route -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Just after 6 p.m. the following day, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his associates were staying, when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at the age of 39 -
Passage of Title IX
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving any type of federal financial aid. Allowed women to play sports -
Appointment of the First Woman Justice of the Supreme Court
Female Justices on the Supreme Court. Since its beginnings, only four women have served as Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States. Sandra Day O'Conner was the first female justice on the Supreme Court. -
Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama
On a freezing day in Washington, D.C., Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, Obama had become the first African American to win election to the nation’s highest office the previous November. -
Elimination of Combat Restriction for Women
The elimination of any law saying women aren't to serve in any branch of services for the U.S. Allowing women to now serve and protect our country like the men do. -
Democratic Party Nomination of Hillary Clinton
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chosen as the party's nominee for president by a 54% majority of delegates present at the convention roll call, defeating primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 46% of votes from delegates, and becoming the first female candidate to be formally nominated for president by a major political party in the United States.