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The 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
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The 14th amendment forbids any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges and defines citizenship.
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The 15th amendment granted African American men the right to vote.
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The Supreme Court rules that separate but equal facilities for different races is legal. Gives legal approval to Jim Crow laws
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Over 25 race riots occur in the summer of 1919 with 38 killed in Chicago. 70 blacks, including 10 veterans, are lynched in the South.
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FDR sets up Fair Employment Practices Commission to assure non-discrimination policies in federal hiring
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A 1947 federal court case that challenged racial segregation in Orange County, California schools.
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Pasadena resident and UCLA alum Robinson breaks the color barrier by being the first black to play major league baseball in modern times.
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Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed"
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Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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After Little Rock school board votes to integrate schools, National Guard troops prevent black children from attending school. 1000 federal paratroopers are needed to escort black students and preserve peace.
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Blacks and whites take buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many are greeted with riots and beatings
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In response to white ministers who urge him to stop causing disturbances, MLK issues articulate statement of nonviolent resistance to wrongs of American society
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More than 200,000 blacks and whites gather before Lincoln Memorial to hear speeches (including King's "I Have a Dream") and protest racial injustice
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4 black girls are killed by bomb planted in a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Overcoming Senate filibuster, Congress passes law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools.