Event

Date

Significance

14th Amendment passed

1868

Constitutional amendment forbids any state from depriving citizens of their rights and privileges and defines citizenship

Plessy v. Ferguson decision

1896

Supreme Court rules that separate but equal facilities for different races is legal. Gives legal approval to Jim Crow laws

Booker T. Washington writes Up From Slavery

1901

Arguing that gradual progress is the best path for blacks, Washington focuses on job training and suggests that self-respect and self-help would bring opportunities

Niagara Movements

1905

W.E.B. DuBois demands immediate racial equality and opposes all laws that treats blacks as different from others. Leads to creation of NAACP in 1909

Grandfather clause outlawed by Supreme Court

1915

NAACP successfully challenges state laws that restricted black voting registration

Race riots and lynchings claim hundreds of lives

1919

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

Executive Order 8802 forbids race discrimination in hiring

June 1941

FDR sets up Fair Employment Practices Commission to assure non-discrimination policies in federal hiring

Japanese-Americans sent to concentration camps

1942

Concerned over potential disloyalty, FDR allows 110,000 to be rounded up in western states (though not in Hawaii)

Korematsu v. U.S.

1944

Supreme Court rules that concentration camps were a wartime necessity

Jackie Robinson joins Brooklyn Dodgers

1947

Pasadena resident and UCLA alum Robinson breaks the color barrier by being the first black to play major league baseball in modern times

Armed forces integrated

1948

Pres. Truman issues executive order requiring integrated units in the armed forces

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision

1954

Supreme Court reverses Plessy by stating that separate schools are by nature unequal. Schools are ordered to desegregate "with all deliberate speed"

Southern Manifesto urges resistance to desegregation efforts

1956

Over 100 southern members of Congress sign document attacking the Supreme Court decision. Only Lyndon Johnson, Estes Kefauver, and Albert Gore refuse to join protest

Little Rock Central High School desegregated

Fall 1957

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. Arkansas Gov. Faubus responds by closing schools for 1958-59 school year

Montgomery bus boycott

1955-1957

Rosa Parks ignites 381-day bus boycott organized by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom riders oppose segregation

1961

Blacks and whites take buses to the South to protest bus station segregation. Many are greeted with riots and beatings

James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi

1962

5000 federal troops are sent by Pres. Kennedy to allow Meredith to register for classes. Riots result in 2 deaths and hundreds of injuries

Desegregation drive in Birmingham

April 1963

King and SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) oppose local laws that support segregation. Riots, fire-bombing, and police are used against protestors

"Letter from Birmingham jail"

April 16, 1963

In response to white ministers who urge him to stop causing disturbances, King issues articulate statement of nonviolent resistance to wrongs of American society

Gov. Wallace stops desegregation of the University of Alabama

June 1963

Standing in the schoolhouse door and promising segregation "today, tomorrow, and forever," Wallace is forced by Pres. Kennedy to allow blacks to enroll

Medgar Evers murdered

June 11, 1963

Head of Mississippi NAACP is shot outside his home on the same night that Pres. Kennedy addresses the nation on race, asking "Are we to say to the world...that this is a land of the free except for Negroes"

March on Washington

August 28, 1963

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

Bombing of Birmingham church

September 1963

4 black girls are killed by bomb planted in church

24th Amendment passed

January 1964

Poll tax (which had been used to prevent blacks from voting) outlawed. Black voter registration increases and candidates begin to turn away from white supremacy views in attempt to attract black voters

Civil Rights Act passed

July 1964

Overcoming Senate filibuster, Congress passes law forbidding racial discrimination in many areas of life, including hotels, voting, employment, and schools

Mississippi Summer Freedom Project

Summer 1964

Civil rights workers seek to register blacks to vote. 3 are killed and many black homes and churches are burned. National outrage helps pass civil rights legislation

Selma to Montgomery march

March 1965

King leads 54-mile march to support black voter registration. Despite attacks from police and interference from Gov. Wallace, marchers reach Montgomery. Pres. Johnson addresses nation in support of marchers

Voting Rights Act approved

August 6, 1965

After passage, southern black voter registration grows by over 50% and black officials are elected to various positions. In Mississippi, black voter registration grew from 7% to 67%

Watts Riots

August 1965

In first of more than 100 riots, Los Angeles black suburb erupts in riots, burning, looting, and 34 deaths

Malcolm X assassinated

February 1965

Rejecting integration and nonviolence, Malcolm splits off from Elijah Muhammad's Black Muslims and is killed by black opponents

Race riots in Detroit and Newark

1967

Worst riots in U.S. history results in 43 deaths in Detroit and federal troops being called out to restore order

King assassinated

April 4. 1968

While supporting sanitation workers' strike which had been marred by violence in Memphis, King is shot by James Earl Ray. Riots result in 125 cities

Bakke v. Regents of University of California decision

1978

Supreme Court rules that fixed racial quotas are illegal after Allan Bakke is denied admission to UC Davis medical school even though his grades and scores were higher than most minority applicants admitted

Los Angeles riots

May 1992

Following acquittal of officers who beat Rodney King, 600 buildings are torched and 50 people killed, and $1 billion in damage recorded