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14th amendment
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States including former enslaved people and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” -
The 1st Women’s Suffrage Amendment was introduced in Congress, but was defeated
In 1878 the first federal women's suffrage amendment was introduced but was soundly defeated later in the first full Senate vote in 1887 -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Ferguson ruled that separate-but-equal facilities were constitutional. The Plessy v. Ferguson decision upheld the principle of racial segregation over the next half-century. The ruling provided legal justification for segregation on trains and buses, and in public facilities such as hotels, theaters, and schools. -
19th Amendment
Today in Civil Rights History: 19th Amendment Gives Women the Right to Vote. ... Ratified in 1920, the amendment gave women the right to vote. Women had been gaining suffrage, or the right to vote, on a state-by-state basis throughout the early 20th century, but the amendment granted all U.S. women full voting rights. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Board of Education: The First Step in the Desegregation of America's Schools. The upshot: Students of color in America would no longer be forced by law to attend traditionally under-resourced Black-only schools. -
NAACP is founded
The NAACP played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. One of the organization's key victories was the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed segregation in public schools -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat
Called "the mother of the civil rights movement," Rosa Parks invigorated the struggle for racial equality when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. ... A Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later. -
Congress passes the 1st civil rights act
In 1964, Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. -
15th amendment
The 15th Amendment was a milestone for civil rights. However, it was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress that the majority of African Americans would be truly free to register and vote in large numbers. The United States' 15th Amendment made voting legal for African-American men. -
NOW (National Organization of Women) formed
As representatives at the Third National Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women, these women were disgruntled by the lack of commitment to the convention's theme, “Targets for Action.” Inspired by the Civil Rights movement and historic marches such as in Selma, the women founded a parallel effort to ensure -
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
County School Board of New Kent County, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on May 27, 1968, ruled (9–0) that a “freedom-of-choice” provision in a Virginia school board's desegregation plan was unacceptable because there were available alternatives that promised a quicker and more-effective conversion to a school -
Shelly v. Kramer
Supreme Court, in the case Shelley v. Kraemer, ruled that courts could not enforce racially restrictive practices. In 1968 the Federal Fair Housing Act forbade discrimination against minorities by real estate brokers, property owners, and landlords. -
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, case in which, on April 20, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously upheld busing programs that aimed to speed up the racial integration of public schools in the United States. Indeed, busing was used by white officials to maintain segregation. -
Proposition 209 – California
Proposition 209 (also known as the California Civil Rights Initiative or CCRI) is a California ballot proposition which, upon approval in November 1996, amended the state constitution to prohibit state governmental institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity, specifically in the areas of public employment.