Voices of Civil Rights Timeline

Part 1

1868 - The 14th Amendment
Three years after slavery is abolished, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified. The amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," including former slaves. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," it forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws."

1875 - Civil Rights Act of 1875
Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875, prohibiting racial discrimination in public spaces, but newly freed blacks are still denied equal treatment under the law. In state after state in the South, the political machinery institutes rules that segregate the races and prevent blacks from participating in the political process. The Civil Rights Act is rarely enforced and is overturned by a Supreme Court ruling in 1883.

1896 - Plessy v. Ferguson
For decades, Southern states enforce a policy of separate public accommodations for blacks and whites on buses and trains, and in hotels, theaters, and schools. On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that such "separate but equal" facilities are indeed constitutional. The ruling gives legal sanction to the decades of racial segregation that follow. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan had argued that segregation in public facilities marks one race as inferior to another.

1909 - The NAACP Is Founded
The organization that becomes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded after a meeting of black and white social activists in Niagara Falls, New York. By 1935, the NAACP launches campaigns against inequalities among segregated schools and files suit against certain state-run law programs. Supreme Court rulings eventually open the door to postgraduate education to blacks wishing to attend some state professional schools when "equal" education is not available.

1919 - The 19th Amendment
Beginning in the mid-19th century, several generations of women lecture, write, march, lobby, and practice civil disobedience in order to gain voting rights for women. Eventually, 20 states give women the vote, beginning with Wyoming in 1890. In 1919, Congress passes the 19th Amendment banning voting discrimination on the basis of gender. The legislation is, word for word, the same amendment activists had been submitting to Congress annually, beginning in 1878. It is known as the "Anthony Amendment," named after noted suffragette Susan B. Anthony. It is ratified in 1920.

1929 - The League of United Latin American Citizens
When the United States annexed nearly half of Mexican territory following the Mexican-American War, nearly 77,000 Mexicans became U.S. citizens. They were systematically discriminated against in jobs and education, denied voting rights, and subject to violence and "No Mexicans" signs. Several Latino service organizations meet and eventually merge in 1929 into the League of United Latin American Citizens. LULAC councils form throughout Texas and spread into 45 states across the country to fight discrimination, help educate Chicanos, and protest segregation and other abuses.

1930 - The Japanese American Citizens League
In California, where the majority of Japanese Americans reside, there are more than 100 statutes limiting the rights of people of Japanese ancestry. The Japanese American Citizens League is founded to fight for the civil rights primarily of Japanese Americans and also for the benefit of Chinese Americans and other peoples of color.

1941 - Discrimination in Federal Hiring
Noted civil rights activist and labor organizer A. Philip Randolph organizes black citizens to march on Washington in protest of the federal government's discriminatory hiring policies. On June 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt responds to public pressure from Randolph and the NAACP and issues an executive order banning discrimination in hiring in the federal government. Plans for the march are called off.

1942 - Internment of Japanese Americans
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order that results in the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent. The effort is part of national security measures during World War II. Two-thirds of those interned are U.S. citizens who have shown no disloyalty to their government. The order is rescinded in 1944 and the camps close in 1946.

1948 - Desegregation of the Armed Services
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S Truman signs Executive Order 9981, establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. It is accompanied by Executive Order 9980, which creates a Fair Employment Board to eliminate racial discrimination in federal employment. African American leaders end their calls to blacks to stop enlisting in the U.S. military if the armed forces remain segregated.

1950 - The NAACP Legal Defense Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund begins a campaign against the legal doctrine that supports "separate but equal" public schools for black and white children. In a series of cases, it demonstrates dramatic disparities among schools for black children and schools for white children. Drawing on scholarly research about the damaging social and psychological effects of segregation on black children, the NAACP sets out to prove that racially segregated facilities are unequal.

MAIN TIMELINE

1954 - Brown v. Board of Education
In December l952, the Supreme Court has on its docket cases from Kansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Virginia, all of them challenging the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools. The court consolidates the five cases under one name, Oliver Brown et al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka. In 1954, the court rules in the case that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and orders the desegregation of public schools.

1954 - White Citizens' Councils
A group comprised mainly of middle- and upper-income whites who oppose desegregation form the White Citizens' Council in Indianola, Mississippi. Soon chapters spring up throughout the South. The councils use economic and political pressure to achieve their ends. The election of Ross Barnett as governor of Mississippi, on the promise of defending the state's tradition of white supremacy, is one display of the councils' strength.

1954 - Hernandez v. Texas
The first Mexican American civil rights case heard and decided by the Supreme Court during the post-World War II period, the Hernandez decision also is the first Supreme Court ruling against discrimination targeting a group other than African Americans. In it, the Supreme Court strikes down discrimination based on class and ethnic distinctions, specifically between "white" and "Hispanic." The court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, finds that laws that produce unreasonable and different treatment on such a basis violate the constitution's guarantee of equal protection.

1955 - The Murder of Emmett Till
While visiting relatives, 14-year-old Emmett Till of Chicago is kidnapped and murdered in Money, Mississippi, for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Photos of his tortured body spark national outrage. An all-white, all-male jury acquits the defendants, who then sell their detailed account of the murder to a journalist. The murder and trial horrify the world and energize the emerging Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s.

1955 - The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress and NAACP worker in Alabama, is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person and move to the back of a city bus. The arrest sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which blacks organize their own system of public transportation and refuse to ride city buses. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gains national prominence for his role in the boycott. The Supreme Court eventually upholds a lower court ruling outlawing segregation on buses. Black citizens begin to ride Montgomery's buses again 13 months after the boycott began.

1956 - The Southern Manifesto
Members of Congress from Southern states sign the "Southern Manifesto" condemning the Brown v. Board of Education decision as part of a "states' rights" platform. South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond is one of the originators of the document.

1957 - Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to help coordinate the efforts of local civil rights organizations. SCLC organizes voter-registration drives, sit-ins, and other nonviolent demonstrations against segregation and discrimination.

1957 - The Little Rock Nine
In September 1957, nine black children in Little Rock, Arkansas, try to attend classes at Central High School. They are put off initially by legal maneuvers by the governor, and angry mobs. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends in troops to ensure the safe entry of the Little Rock Nine, and the students return to enroll at the school. One student, Elizabeth Eckford, gets separated from the others on the first day of classes and faces an angry mob alone.

1960 - Sit-in at the Woolworth Lunch Counter
Four African American students sit down at a "whites only" lunch counter in the F. W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina. When asked to leave, Ezell A. Blair, Jr., Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil, and David L. Richmond remain in their seats. The North Carolina A&T College students' "passive sit-down demand" sparks one of the first sustained sit-in demonstrations and ignites a string of youth-led sit-ins throughout the South.

1960 - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
In 1960, college students involved in sit-in demonstrations hold a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), pronounced "SNICK." The organization adopts Gandhi's theory of nonviolent direct action. SNCC chairman John Lewis is one of the speakers at the March on Washington in 1963.

1961 - Freedom Rides
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizes blacks and whites in Freedom Rides to test regulations barring segregation in interstate transportation. Freedom Riders make numerous stops along the way, often staging sit-ins at "whites only" restaurants and waiting areas. They are frequently harassed or beaten.

1962 - James Meredith and the University of Mississippi
Rioting breaks out at the news that James Meredith, an African American, will enroll at the University of Mississippi, known as "Ole Miss." Two are killed in the melee. Meredith has the support of the federal government, and U.S. marshals guard him as he eventually registers and attends his first classes.

1962 - Cesar Chavez
Under Cesar Chavez's leadership, 22 chapters of the Community Service Organization in California become the most militant and effective Latino civil rights groups of the day, addressing voter registration, police brutality, and citizenship issues. In 1962, Chavez resigns to work full-time organizing farm workers and convenes the National Farm Workers Association in Fresno, California.

1963 - The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
Alabama Governor George Wallace makes his "stand in the schoolhouse door" speech to stop the desegregation of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. President John F. Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard to escort two black students to the campus. Wallace backs down.

1963 - The Murder of Medgar Evers
The first NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, Medgar Evers is shot and killed on June 12, 1963, as he returns to his home in Jackson. Black and white leaders from around the nation attend his funeral and gather at Arlington National Cemetery for his interment. The accused killer, a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith, stands trial twice in the 1960s, but the all-white juries can not reach a verdict. In a third trial in 1994, Byron De La Beckwith is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

1963 - The March on Washington
Against a backdrop of speeches and songs, more than 250,000 people of all races and religions gather at the March on Washington, D.C., on August 28. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

1963 - Bombing of the Birmingham Church
Four girls attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Killed in the explosion at the church, the site of civil rights activities, are Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson (pictured at left), and Cynthia Wesley.

1964 - Freedom Summer
Thousands come to Mississippi to register black voters as part of Freedom Summer. Organizers focus their efforts on Mississippi because of the state's dismal voting-rights record: In 1962 only 6.7 percent of its black citizens were able to register to vote, the lowest percentage in the country. Organized by the Mississippi Council of Federated Organizations and led by James Farmer and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Freedom Summer marks the climax of intensive voter-registration activities in the South that began in 1961.

1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law outlaws discrimination and segregation in public places such as theaters, restaurants, and hotels. It also requires employers to provide equal employment opportunities regardless of race. In addition, the law outlines that projects involving federal funds are subject to being cut off if there is evidence of discrimination based on color, race, or national origin.

1964 - The Disappearance of Civil Rights Workers
Three young civil rights workers, one black and two whites, travel to Mississippi to help in Freedom Summer voter registration drives. A day after their arrival they are stopped by a deputy sheriff, taken to jail, and released later that night. They fail to contact project organizers and are reported missing. President Lyndon B. Johnson sends 200 troops to help in the search for the young men. The bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner are found two months later outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

1965 - Bloody Sunday
In Alabama, a Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights on Sunday, March 7, is interrupted when police and troopers on horseback begin to club and tear-gas the marchers. The scene is broadcast on national television and the day becomes known as "Bloody Sunday." Marchers from around the country join a second march that resumes that Tuesday, but it is aborted. A week later, the marchers finally reach the state capitol in Montgomery.

1965 - The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act is signed into law on August 6. It prohibits restrictive voting laws used to prevent black citizens from voting and opens the way for federal oversight of voter registration and elections. The law results in a dramatic rise in the number of black registered voters in the South and, eventually, the number of black elected officials.

1966 - Break from Nonviolence Philosophy
Stokely Carmichael, the charismatic chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), uses the phrase "Black Power" at a public rally. The rhetoric marks a generational break away from the philosophy of nonviolent protest preached by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

1967 - The National Organization for Women
Founded by Betty Friedan and other feminist leaders, the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) works for equality of the sexes. N.O.W. members are men and women who press for better education, employment, and political opportunities for women. The organization campaigns vigorously for the Equal Rights Amendment and works to end discrimination at both state and federal levels.

1967 - The Age Discrimination Act of 1967
Congress enacts the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, which prohibits employment discrimination against older Americans. The act is amended 12 years later to prohibit discrimination against older Americans by any housing provider who receives federal funds.

1968 - "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
On April 3, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech to striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, he is shot and killed on the balcony of a Memphis motel. Thousands of mourners pour into the streets.

1968 - American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, around a philosophy of self-determination. It begins to organize communities and create opportunities for Indian people across the Americas and Canada, bringing lawsuits against the U.S. government for the protection of the rights of Native Nations that were previously guaranteed in treaties and the U.S. Constitution.

Other Milestones

1969 - The Stonewall Riots
Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fight back during a police raid on June 27, sparking three days of riots. The Stonewall riots transform the gay rights movement from the actions of a small number of activists into widespread protests for equal rights and an end to discrimination.

1971 - School Busing Upheld
More than 15 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools, the Supreme Court rules that court-ordered busing of school children is a legitimate and even necessary tool to desegregate public schools in the South. Mrs. Coretta Scott King speaks at a rally in support of busing plans.

1972 - Gray Panthers
An advocacy group for the elderly, originally called the Consultation of Older and Younger Adults for Social Change, is given the nickname "Gray Panthers" after a televised speech by founder Maggie Kuhn.

1973 - The Vocational Rehabilitation Act
Dozens gather for a ceremony in the White House where President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1967. Six years later, in 1973, Congress passes a section of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act that bars discrimination against disabled people when federal funds are involved.

1973 - Segregration in the North Targeted
The Supreme Court addresses public school segregation in the North, finding that it is unconstitutional whether students are segregated intentionally by law or because of local customs and practices. The court concludes that the Denver public school district operates a dual system.

1982 - The Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which calls for a constitutional guarantee of equal pay for equal work, equal opportunity regardless of gender and a ban on gender discrimination, falls three states short of ratification. Leaders of the National Organization for Women attempt to extend the deadline for ratifying the amendment, but the ERA fails to go forward.

1983 - No Tax Exemption for Schools That Discriminate
In Bob Jones University v. The United States, the Supreme Court upholds the Internal Revenue Service rules that deny tax exemptions to private schools that practice racial discrimination. Bob Jones, III, president of the university, speaks to reporters about the ruling against the Christian fundamentalist school.

1990 - The Americans With Disabilities Act
Congress passes and President George Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, banning job discrimination against people with disabilities and requiring buildings, businesses and public transportation to be made handicapped-accessible.

1993 - "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
President Bill Clinton announces a "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy regarding homosexuals in the U.S. military. Marchers descend on Washington, D.C., to support civil rights legislation protecting homosexuals from discrimination and to oppose the military's policies involving gays and lesbians.

1998 - Hate Crimes
Brutal hate crimescapture the nation's attention, including the murder of African American James Byrd, Jr., in Texas and the killing of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, in Wyoming.

2003 - Supreme Court Rules on Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court rules, in a case involving affirmative action at the University of Michigan's law school, that race can be one of many factors considered in college admissions because of the educational benefits that result from a diverse student body. However, the high court strikes down the use of race in Michigan undergraduate admissions decisions, ruling that race cannot be used as an overriding factor. University president Mary Sue Coleman hails the decision.