You are not authorized to access this page.

Civil Rights Timeline

By TashT
  • Australia’s sesquicentenary

    Australia’s sesquicentenary

    1938 Australia’s sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) celebrated around Australia. Aboriginal leaders in Melbourne and Sydney hold ‘Day of Mourning’ events and call for citizenship rights.
  • UDHR

    UDHR

    1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by United Nations
  • Freedom riders

    Freedom riders

    American Freedom Riders travel on racially mixed buses in the southern United States
    to challenge segregation laws.
  • I have a dream

    I have a dream

    1963 Martin Luther King Jnr delivers his ‘I have a dream’ speech during the March on Washington
  • Australias  freedom  riders

    Australias freedom riders

    1965 Australia’s Freedom Riders discover segregation being practised in country NSW during a ‘fact finding’ tour.
  • Change in constitution

    Change in constitution

    1967 Overwhelming support for referendum to change the Constitution to allow the Commonwealth to make laws for Aborigines and to include them in the census
  • Aboriginal embassy

    Aboriginal embassy

    Aboriginal Tent Embassy established on the lawns of Parliament House in response to the McMahon Government’s refusal to accept native title
  • Whitlam Government returns land to the Gurindji people

    Whitlam Government returns land to the Gurindji people

    1975 The Whitlam Government returns 3300 square kilometres of land to the Gurindji people – a beginning to land rights for Aboriginal people in Australia
  • The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

    The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

    The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) formally established as the key representative body responsible for the implementation of self-determination policies
  • Stolen generation

    Stolen generation

    The Bringing Them Home report is tabled in Parliament. The report includes thousands of testimonies from members of the Stolen Generations.
  • Abolishment of ATSIC

    Abolishment of ATSIC

    2004 The Howard Government abolishes ATSIC
  • The intervention

    The intervention

    The National Emergency Response in the Northern Territory, known as ‘the Intervention’, begins
  • Stolen generation apology

    Stolen generation apology

    2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issues a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.