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Three-Fifths Compromise
It was decided that slaves would count as 3/5 of a person when determinig representation based on population. -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin intensified the South's reliance on slave labor to work plantations. -
Ban on Slave Trade
The United States banned the slave trade, meaning slaves could no longer be imported into the country from Africa. However, slaves in the states were still slaves, and slaveholders could still buy and sell slaves to other slaveholders within America, -
The Gag Rule
Congress had been recieving increasing amounts of anti-slavery petitions, so the House of Representitives passed a resolution automatically tabling all petitions about slavery without reading them. -
Gag Rule Repealed
The House of Representitives repealed the Gag Rule. -
Frederick Douglas publishes his Autobiography
Frederick Douglas, an ex-slave, published his autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave." This book advocated abolintion. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was part of the Compromise of 1850. It said that all escaped slaves must be returned to their owners, even if they get to the North. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was an anti-slavery book that became a best-seller of the 19th century. It fueled northern abolitionists and helped spark the Civil War. -
Dred Scott v. Sanford
The Supreme Court's ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford said that slaves could not be citizens, and therefore were not protected under the Constitution. It also stated that salves were property and could not be removed without due process of law. -
Emanicipation Proclamation
Declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate States of America. -
First Black Code Laws
The first black code law was passed in Mississippi, and was followed by many southern states.
Black codes restricted the rights and freedoms of freed slaves in the south. -
Freedmen's Bureau Bill
The Freemen's Bureau Bill created the Freedmen's Bureau, which helped freed slaves who were unskilled, uneducated, did not own any property, and had no money or means of supporting themsleves.
The Buraeu provided aid with food, housing, medical care, and employment. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The 13th Amendment prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. -
KKK Founded
The KKK prevented black Americans from gaining social or political equality by lynvhing, burning houses, etc. -
Civil Rights Act
Granted citizenship to all people born in the United States, regardless of race or previous condition of slavery.
*All former slaves guaranteed all the rights of a US citizen. -
14th Amendment
Guaranteed citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the US.
*All former slaves are citizens. -
15th Amendment
Prevented anyone from being denied the right to vote based on color.
*All freedmen guaranteed the right to vote. -
United States v. Reese
The decision made in this case said that poll taxes, literacy tests, the grandfather clause, and other forms of keeping blacks from voting did not violate the 15th amendment bacause they were not directly related to race. -
Colored Farmer's National Alliance
This organization was created for black farmers who were not allowed to be part of the Farmer's Alliance. IT became very popular, but there were clear tensions between the two organizations. -
Tukegee Institute
Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as a way for blacks to recieve a higher education in practical skills. -
Highest Lynching Rates
The year 1892 had the highest recorded number of lynchings in US history. Most of these lynchings were of blacks in the rural south. These blacks did not recieve any form of trial, or due process of law. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Upheld the "seperate but equal" doctrine, promoting racial segregation. -
NAACP
The National Association or the Advancement of Colored People is an organization that still exists today, and was created to help achieve equality for blacks. -
Universal Negro Improvement Association
Marcus Garvey, a popular, charismatic, black politician, founded the UNIA. -
World War I
African Americans were able to serve in World War I. However, they served in all black regiments, and recieved very little respect for their sacrifices when they returned to the USA. -
The Harlem Renaissance
During the 1920s, African American culture exploded in Harlem, one of the largest black ethnic communities. This time period pruduced huge amounts of literature and music from famous African Americans like Langston Hughes and Louis Armstrong. -
Black Migration
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, many southern black migrated out of the South, and into the North, where they lived and worked in cities. -
Federal Council of Negro Affairs
The Federal Council of Negro Affairs, or the "Black Cabinet," was an informal group of African Americans that provided advice to President Roosevelt about how to aid blacks in the Great Depression. They were supported by Eleanor Roosevelt, and held many federal offices in New Deal agencies. -
Tuskeegee Airmen
The Tuskeegee Airmen were the first African American military pilots in the US armed forces. They served in the Air Force in WWII. -
World War II
Nearly 1 million African americans served in WWII. Although they still served in segreagated units, for the first time ever, they were allowed to serve in battle. All-black units were used in combat. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
The Supreme Court case that ruled that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The decision overturns Plessy v Ferguson of 1896, and led way for more desegregation. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
THe night Rosa Parks was arrested, the SCLC, led by Martin Luther King Jr. decided Parks was the one to start the boycott. The majority of Montgomery was rallied to avoid public transportation and only resort to walking, biking, and carpooling. Montgomery was pressured as they lost money and jobs, so the Supreme Court finally outlawed segregation on buses. -
Emmett Till's death
A fourteen year old Chicagoen black boy, Emmett Till, visited his family in Money, Mississippi. He allegedly whistled at a white woman, Caroline Brant, who was so offended that her husband and his friend kidnapped Till, brutally mutilated Till's body and dropped the body to the bottom of a river. Till's mother publicized her son's death with an open casket funeral horrifying people across people of the extreme segregation in the south that killed this innocent teenage boy. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a seamstress and member of the NAACP. She refused to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying the southern custom then, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott to desegregate public transportation. In truth, leaders of SNCC were waiting for an iconic person to start the boycott and Parks, who was tired of the segregation, had the perfect image to start it. -
Little Rock, Arkansas integration
Formerly all white Central High School blocked nine black students from entering the school. The integration required President Eisenhower to send in federal troops to protect the "Little Rock nine." -
Freedom Riders
Over the spring and summer, CORE and SNCC student volunteers took bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, including bus and railway stations. They were called freedom riders, and wanted protection from the governemnt, but did not receive it, and were attacked by mobs on the way. -
Birmingham Campaign
Boycott on chain stores and King is arrested and jailed during an ti-segregationprotests in Birmingham, Alabama. He wrote his influential "Letters from Birmingham Jail" arguing for individuals rights to disobbey unjust laws. A children's crusade was held too to bring attention to the chaos of Birmingham. -
James Meredith
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots broke out and President had to send in 5,000 federal troops. -
March on DC
200,000 to 300,000 protestors of CORE, SNCC, NAACP, and SCLC led nonviolent marches to Washington DC bringing the issue of racial injustice to the doorstep of the President and congress. This is where MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech was given. -
Bombing 16th Street Baptist Church
Southern whites new that the chruch was very important to blacks, and blacks met at church often. Therefore, whites bombed four little black girls in Birmingham, Alabama. Four innocent lives were lost to racial discrimination. -
Selma marches
Blacks marched to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped by a police brigade. This incident is known as "Bloody Sunday" due to the clubs, tear gas, and whips the police used on the protestors. It pushed the voting rights act/ -
Civil Rights Act 1964
Segregation is banned in public places eleiminating the Jim Crow laws. -
Blacks in Vietnam
Blacks were drafted in high numbers into the Vietnam war. The poor were more likely to be sent to war, so the blacks especially felt it unfair. As MLK said, "America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor as long as Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube." -
Freedom Summer
Black and white college students went to the very racist Mississippi to register voters there. SNCC and other groups prepared these students to resist the KKK and other racists. Still, three civil rights workers, two whites and a black workers, were lynched. -
Malcom X
Malcom X belonged to the Nation of Islam by Elijah Muhammed believing that the blacks were chosen by God, so integration should not exist. When he broke off from the Nationi of Islam, he was assasinated on February 21, 1965 by the Nation of Islam. He was a great, radical orator and captivated many younger blacks. -
Voting Rights Act 1965
Congress passed this legislation to make it easier for southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other requirements that were sued to restrict black voting were made illegal. -
Black Panthers
The militant Black Panthers are founded by huey Newton and Bobby Seale. This group exuted as Stokley Camichael would say, black pride, as they proudly displayed afros and african clothing. They were more violent and wanted the Ten Point Plan for redistributoin to blacks. -
Assasination of MLK
King is shot at age 39 by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennesse in the balcony outside his hotel room. -
Resurrection City
After King's death, his associates wanted to march to DC again. It was unplanned, and as many blacks camped out in the mall, poor sanitiation became an issue along with crime. It was the fall of the civil rights movement.
