Civil Rights Timeline

  • 15th Amendment (African Americans)

    15th Amendment (African Americans)

    gives right to vote no matter race, color, or previous condition of servitude
  • Tuskegee Institute created (African Americans)

    Tuskegee Institute created (African Americans)

    African-American leader Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881 to train African-Americans in agriculture and industry and promote the economic progress of his race.
  • Plessy v. Ferguson (African Americans)

    Plessy v. Ferguson (African Americans)

    Plessy sat in the front of a train as an eighth african american and got in trouble. Court ruled “separate but equal”. However the emphasis was on separate.
  • 19th Amendment (Women)

    19th Amendment (Women)

    Gave women right to vote
  • Equal Rights Amendment proposed (women)

    Equal Rights Amendment proposed (women)

    This would guarantee legal gender equality for men and women
  • Executive Order 9981 (African Americans)

    Executive Order 9981 (African Americans)

    Desegregation of armed forces
  • Brown v. Board of Education (African Americans)

    Brown v. Board of Education (African Americans)

    ruled that segregation of schools was violating the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional
  • Montgomery Bus Boycott (African Americans)

    Montgomery Bus Boycott (African Americans)

    civil rights protest during which african americans refused to ride the buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating. First large scale US demonstration against segregation
  • Little Rock Nine (African Americans)

    Little Rock Nine (African Americans)

    Nine African American students arrived at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas (a former white school). They made their way through a crowd shouting obscenities and even throwing objects.
  • Greensboro, NC Sit-ins (African Americans)

    Greensboro, NC Sit-ins (African Americans)

    act of nonviolent protest against a segregated lunch counter
  • Chicano Movement (Mural Movement) (Chicano)

    Chicano Movement (Mural Movement) (Chicano)

    a social and political movement inspired by prior acts of resistance among people of Mexican descent. During the Chicano Mural Movement, artists depicted Mexican-American culture art by painting on the walls of city buildings, schools, churches and housing projects.
  • Cesar Chavez

    Cesar Chavez

    best known for his efforts to gain better working conditions for the thousands of workers who labored on farms for low wages and under severe conditions. Chavez and his United Farm Workers union battled California grape growers by holding nonviolent protests.
  • Dr. King's: "Letter From Birmingham Jail" (African Americans)

    Dr. King's: "Letter From Birmingham Jail" (African Americans)

    an open letter written by mlk jr. basically saying that it is his moral responsibility to break unjust laws and take action when needed to fight for justice and equality.
  • March on Washington: “I have a dream” speech (African Americans)

    March on Washington: “I have a dream” speech (African Americans)

    about a quarter-million people participated in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom gathering near the Lincoln Memorial. MLK made his famous speech saying that he dreams of equality and freedom for all one day.
  • March from Selma, Alabama (African American)

    March from Selma, Alabama (African American)

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

    Black Panthers (African American)

    a political and social movement whose advocates believed in racial pride, self-sufficiency, and equality for all people of Black and African descent.
  • Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court (African American)

    Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court (African American)

    President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated distinguished civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States
  • American Indian Movement (AIM) (Native American)

    American Indian Movement (AIM) (Native American)

    sought to improve conditions for recently urbanized Native Americans. It grew into an international movement whose goals included the full restoration of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights.
  • Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to the Supreme Court (Women)

    Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to the Supreme Court (Women)

    O’Connor was nominated by Reagan, thus fulfilling his promise to appoint the first woman to the highest court in the US
  • Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court (Women)

    Sonia Sotomayor appointed to the Supreme Court (Women)

    Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and Latina member of the Court.