American Civil Rights Movement Timeline – 1862-2008

American Civil Rights Movement Timeline – 1862-2008

Alternative American Black Civil Rights Movement Video

Major Events Related to Civil Rights Movement:

1862 – Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln (Freed Blacks in Southern states)

1865-1870 – 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (Abolished slavery; Citizenship; Right to vote)

1866 – Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Illegal to discriminate based on race)

1875 – Civil Rights Act of 1875 (Struck down by US Supreme Court in 1883; Guaranteed that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in “public accommodations”)

1876 – Jim Crow Laws (Mandated racial segregation)

1883 – Civil Rights Cases (US Supreme Court held that Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the enforcement provisions of the 14th Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations)

1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson (Separate but Equal Clause)

1906 – Susan B Anthony dies (Important person in getting voting rights for women)

1920 – 19th Amendment passed giving women right to vote

1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross elected first female governor of US state (Wyoming)

1947 – Jackie Robinson first Black to play major league baseball

1948 – President Harry S Truman desegregates US armed forces

1954 – Brown v Board of Education (Removed Separate but Equal Clause causing desegregation)

1955 – Rosa Parks incites Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957 – Civil Rights Act of 1957 (Act was to ensure that all African Americans could exercise their right to vote but ineffective results)

1957 – Little Rock, Arkansas, school desegregated by military force

1960 – Greensboro sit-in (Black students sat at a segregated lunch counter)

1960 – Civil Rights Act of 1960 (Established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone’s attempt to register to vote or actually vote)

1960 – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS was organized for participatory democracy, direct action, radicalism, student power, and shoestring budgets)

1963 – Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream Speech” (Largest political non-violent march on Washington DC)

1964 – Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public)

1965 – National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Reinforces 15th Amendment)

1965, 1967 – Watts Riot; Detroit race riot; “long hot summer” (Multiple race riots)

1966 – Feminist National Organization for Women group formed

1968 – Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assassinated

1968 – Fair Housing Act (Prevented discrimination in housing)

1968 – Shirley Chisholm (First Black woman elected to congress – New York 12th Congressional District)

1969 – Stonewall Riots (Gays and Lesbians riot against police)

1973 – Roe v Wade (US Supreme Court decision allows abortion)

1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes first female US Supreme Court Justice

2008 – Barack H Obama becomes first Black President of the United States

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history