Civil Rights Timeline

By JacksonCW

  • 14th Amendment

    Granted citizenship to all people "born or naturalized in the United States," and provided all citizens with "equal protection under the laws."

  • First Civil Rights Act

    Defined citizenship and affirmed that all citizens are equally protected by law.

  • 15th Amendment

    Granted African American men the right to vote.

  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    The Court's "separate but equal" decision became the legal basis for racial segregation in the United States for the next fifty years.

  • NAACP is founded

    The National Association for the Advance of Colored People was formed as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans.

  • First Women's Suffrage Amendment

    Granted women the right to vote.

  • 19th Amendment

    Prevents any citizen of either sex to be denied the right to vote due to their sex.

  • Shelley v. Kraemer

    Supreme Court case that struck down racially restrictive housing covenants.

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Supreme Court case in which the court ruled that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

  • Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat

    Helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964

    A civil rights and labor law that that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

  • NOW is founded

    The National Organization for Women is an American feminist organization.

  • Green v County School Board

    Was a Supreme court case involving school desegregation that dealt with the freedom of choice plans created to avoid compliance with the Supreme Court's mandate.

  • Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education

    A case in which the Supreme Court unanimously upheld busing programs that aimed to speed up the racial integration of public schools.

  • Proposition 209 - California

    Prohibited the state government institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment, public contracting and public education.