Final Timeline

  • Homestead Act

    Homestead Act

    Opened up Western lands for settlers
  • Thirteenth Amendment ratified

    Thirteenth Amendment ratified

    Slavery is abolished nationwide
  • Reconstruction Era

    Reconstruction Era

    After the Civil War, the South is rebuilt, Black Americans gain citizenship, the nation struggles with equality
  • Fourteenth Amendment ratified

    Fourteenth Amendment ratified

    Citizenship and equal protection under the law for all people born in the U.S.
  • Transcontinental Railroad completed

    Transcontinental Railroad completed

    Connects the country coast to coast boosting migration and trade
  • Fifteenth Amendment ratified

    Fifteenth Amendment ratified

    Black men the right to vote
  • Native American displacement

    Native American displacement

    Westward expansion forces Native Americans off their lands
  • End of Reconstruction

    Federal troops leave the South, allowing segregation to take hold
  • Dawes Act

    Dawes Act

    U.S. government divides Native lands into individual plots
  • Industrialization & Urbanization

    Factories, cities, and new jobs reshape American life
  • Plessy v. Ferguson

    Plessy v. Ferguson

    Supreme Court upholds segregation cementing Jim Crow laws in the South
  • Labor Movements

    Workers organize for better pay and safer conditions
  • 19th Amendment

    19th Amendment

    Women finally win the right to vote after decades of activism
  • Great Depression begin

    Great Depression begin

    Stock market crash triggers unemployment and economic hardship
  • World War II

    World War II

    The U.S. fights abroad transforming industry and society
  • Brown v. Board

    Brown v. Board

    Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
  • Civil Rights Act

    Outlaws segregation and discrimination in public spaces
  • Malcolm X assassinated

    Malcolm X assassinated

    A leader in the Black nationalist movement, shaping ideas about race and empowerment.
  • Voting Rights Act

    Voting Rights Act

    Protects voting rights for Black Americans
  • Civil Rights & Social Justice Movements

    Includes efforts for racial, gender, and economic equality