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14th Amendment is Ratified
Allows African-Americans citizenship in the US -
Civil Rights Act of 1875 Is Passed
Made discrimination in public spaces in the US unconstitutional. -
Jim Crow Laws are Legislated
State and Local laws that enforced segregation in the southern United States. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875 Is Repealed
The United States Supreme court came to the decision that the act was unconstitutional. -
Louisiana Passes Railroad Segregation
Railroad cars would now be segregated based on race, -
Homer Plessy Arrested
Homer Plessy boards a train and, upon discovery that he is 1/8 black, is asked to move to one of the train cars segregated for black people. He refuses and is then arrested. -
District Court Rules Against Plessy
The District Court feels Homer Plessy has no argument in the case and the law “implies merely a legal distinction” between races and does not go against the 13th and 14th amendments. -
Plessy Appeals and Loses
Plessy appealed his case to the Supreme Court but, the court agreed with Ferguson in that the 14th amendment was designed to create equality among the races, not get rid of segregation. (The idea of separate but equal.) -
NAACP Is Founded
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed as a biracial organization to advance justice for African Americans by W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, and Moorefield Storey. -
Ludlow Massacre
Attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ladlow, Colorado. About two dozen people, including wives and children, were killed. -
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act makes it illegal to write anything that goes against the government. -
Red Summer
Heightened racial scrutinization of African-Americans during the Red Scare prompted mass racial riots among whites in Brisbee, Arizona, Longview, Texas, Washington D.C., Chicago, Knoxville, Omaha, and Elaine, Nebraska. -
1920 Duluth Lynchings
Three black circus workers were lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota following a false rape accusation. -
The Nineteenth Amendment is Ratified
Gives (white) women the right to vote. -
Tulsa Race Riot
The Tulsa Race Riot occured, resulting in the deaths of up to 300 African-Americans and leaving more than 8,000 homeless. -
The Congress of Racial Equality was Established
The Congress of Racial Equality plays a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement. -
Japanese Internment
Internment and seizure of property began, per Executive Order 9066 issued by President Roosevelt. -
Detroit Race Riot
Came as an immediate response to police brutality, b ut had other factors fueling the anger of the rioters. It resulted in the deaths of 34 whites and African-Americans, and left 670 injured. -
Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Jackie Robinson Breaks the Colour Line in Major League Baseball
The colour line excluded black players from playing in the major league, but Jackie Robinson was signed onto the Dodgers, breaking the line. -
Brown V. Board of Education
The Supreme Court declared that the separation of black and white children in public schools was unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till Murdered
Emmett Till was murdered after allegedly flirting with a white woman. The photos of his open casket funeral and the acquittal of his attackers fueled the Civil rights Movement. -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger, which incites the 386-day Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -
Little Rock Integration Crisis
The Governor of Arkansas deploys members of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from integrating into Little Rock Central High School. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first federal civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress since the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Act was mainly to show the federal Governments support for racial equality and declare that the discrimination of Black people in America was illegal. -
Freedom Rides Begin
The Freedom Rides were a protest against the failure of enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling in the Boynton V. Virginia case (Ruled that racial segregation on public buses was illegal under the Interstate Commerce Act). The Freedom Riders rode buses into segregated states in the south which had ignored the ruling and continued to segregate buses. -
Selma to Montgomery Marches
Three protest marches were held along the highway from Salem, Alabama to the state capitol of Montgomery. The marches were supposed to be nonviolent, but state troops attacked the marchers with tear gas and clubs. The day later became known as "Bloody Sunday". -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Act prohibited racial discrimination during the voting process. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated outside of his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. His death lead to the King Assassination Riots which reached over 100 cities. -
Barack Obama Becomes the 44th President of the United States
Barack Obama is elected into office and becomes the first African-American president in the history of the United States. He later gets reelected for a second term in 2012.
