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The Jim Crow Laws would form the basis of segregationist policies in the Southern United states, starting in the aftermath of the American Civil War, but truly beginning in the 1890's as codified law. These laws on paper gave 'seperate but equal' treatment for blacks, but in reality the facilities that blacks were allowed to use were inferior to ones used by whites. The laws segregated things like schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants.
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After federation in 1901, the federal government enacted a policy of forced assimilation on the first nations people of australia. This involved taking aboriginal children from their families .They were forbidden from speaking first nations languages and many of their names were changed. They were often re-educated to assimilate them into white culture. By the 1970's these policies would be phased out by state and federal governments, but the trauma and damage done remain present to this day.
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In 1936, laws were brought in place that required employers to provide housing and healthcare to their aboriginal workers, but they weren't allowed to leave the workplace without approval. This caused 800 workers to go on strike at 25 pastoral stations starting in 1946. They gained support from unions and the Communist Party of Australia in their demands for better wages and freedom of movement. Concessions were given, but wasn't until the Gurindji Strike that indigenous workers got equal pay.
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On Australia Day 1938, the 150th anniversary of the landing of the first fleet, A group of Indigenous activists gathered at Australia hall in Sydney declared a day of mourning for European treatment of their people and called for racial equality and rights to citizenship. A 10 point plan was also published in an indigenous run newspaper known as 'The Abo Call' which called for the establishment of equal rights for indigenous Australians. -
Brown Vs Board of Education was a legal case that stemmed from the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education's refusal to allow Oliver Brown's daughter to enrol at an elementary school close to their house, instead forcing her daughter to enrol at a segregated black school further away. The decision of this landmark case ruled that State-sanctioned segregation of public school was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional. -
This bus boycott was a protest by civil rights activists that lead to a 1956 court decision which declared Montgomery's segregation on buses unconstitutional. The protests were sparked by Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider when African-Americans were required by law to sit at the back if the white section of the bus became full. She was arrested and taken to jail for this. Martin Luther King would become known as a major civil rights activist after the boycott. -
The Little Rock nine were a group students who challenged the policies of many public schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. These students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School after the Brown Vs Board of Education decision in 1954 that declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. They arrived on the campus to be met with a white mob of students, who threatened to kill the group. Ultimately students were brought under military protection to prevent them being harmed at the school. -
The Greensboro sit-ins were acts of non-violent protests that took place in a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The protests were organised by African-American students at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical state University. Police were called but they stated they couldn't do anything about the sit-ins because they weren't being provocative and they were paying customers. These sit-ins inspired a wave of other sit-ins across the southern U.S. -
In 1962, Robert Menzies' Liberal-Country party coalition government amended the Electoral Act to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples the right to vote in federal elections. Unlike other Australians, enrolment was not compulsory, but if they enrolled, they would then be required to vote. Some states still took a few more years to grant first nations people the right to vote in state elections. -
The March on Washington was a peaceful mass political demonstration held in Washington D.C that was attended by around 250,000 people in protest of racial discrimination, particularly in the southern United States, and in support of civil rights legislation that was currently making it's way through congress. The protest was a result of a collaboration of the 'big six' figures of the civil rights movement and this was also where Martin Luther King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. -
In 1963, 2 bark petitions were presented to opposition Labor ministers by representatives of the Yolngu, a first nations people group in Arnhem land and tabled in parliament. These petitions were one of the first major attempts by first nations groups in asking to have their land rights recognised. -
After being arrested due to his role in the Birmingham campaign, a series of non-violent protests against segregation in Alabama, King received a smuggled copy of an open letter titled 'A Call for Unity', which was a letter written by 8 white clergymen condemning the Birmingham campaign and the civil rights movement, King wrote this letter in response. It stated that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws instead of waiting for justice to go through the courts. -
In the wake of the rise of the civil rights movement and especially the march to Washington and increased upheaval in the Southern states over segregation, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil rights act into law, prohibiting discrimination in public places, effectively outlawing segregation and making employment discrimination illegal. It was one of the most sweeping civil rights reforms in US history. -
Inspired by the freedom rides that occurred in America, a group of Sydney University students embarked on a 15 day long tour through regional NSW that drew national and international attention to the poor living conditions and racism against first nations people in the area. This journey was seen as a defining moment in the history of Australian activism. -
In August of 1966, around 200 Gurindji stockmen and workers went on strike at Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern territory. They were unhappy that they were being exploited as cheap labour on their traditional lands. This event would help pave the way for a return of a section of Gurindji land to be returned in 1974 and the passing of the first legislation that allowed indigenous communities to claim land title if they could prove a traditional relationship to the land. -
In 1967, Harold Holt's Liberal-Country Party Coalition Government oversaw a referendum that would decide whether indigenous Australians would be counted in the Census. Both major parties made a bi-partisan push in support of the yes campaign and when all was said and done, 91% of the total national population and the vast majority of people in all states said yes, meaning that indigenous Australians would now be officially counted as a part of Australia's population by the government. -
The Mabo Case is in reference to a 10 year long court battle fought between Eddie Mabo and the Meriam people against the Queensland government, over the ownership of the Murray islands located in the Torres strait. The Case overturned the idea of 'Terra Nullius' in australia, an idea that before colonisation, no one owned Australian land. The High court ruling recognised that indigenous peoples had lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years.
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The Redfern Speech was delivered by Australia's PM at the time Paul Keating, In Redfern Park, Sydney. It served as the Australian Government's first acknowledgement of the dispossession of First Nations Peoples, as well as the negative impacts of Australia's colonisation. He talked about the challenges faced by Indigenous Australians and it has been described as a defining moment in indigenous reconciliation. -
The Bringing the Home report was commissioned by Paul Keating's Labor Government in 1995 and released in 1997 under John Howard's Liberal-National Coalition Government. The report was considered a pivotal moment in government recognition of the wrongs done by the removal of aboriginal children. However John Howard was reluctant to issue an apology on behalf of the Australian Government, something that would not come for another 11 years after the report was tabled in parliament. -
After Labor's victory in the 2007 Federal election, one of Kevin Rudd's first acts as prime minister was to issue a formal apology to victims of the Stolen Generation for the harm done to them by the policy when parliament returned in 2008. Between 1997 and 2001, all state and territory governments had issued formal apologies to victims of the stolen generations, but due to John Howard's reluctance to give an apology, the federal government didn't give one after he was voted out in 2007.