-
Massachusetts outlaws slavery in it's borders.
-
The importation of slaves to the United States is banned by law and takes effect.
-
The Missouri Compromise enters Maine and Missouri as states, and decided which states slavery would be allowed in.
-
Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
-
A Slave Rebellion takes place on the ship Amistead and results in a Supreme Court case.
-
The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States.
-
Harriet Tubman escapes slavery and becomes a conductor of the underground railroad. She freed more than 300 slaves.
-
The Supreme Court upholds slavery in the case Dred Scott v. Sanford. This is regarded as a key cause of the Civil War.
-
Black people are allowed to enlist in the Union. Over 186,000 served in the Civil War.
-
President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation which helped to free slaves.
-
President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which demands equal treatment and opportunity for all people in the army without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.
-
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. They unanimously agreed that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall becomes the nation's first black justice.
-
In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. The Bus Boycott is formed.
-
Martin Luther King, Charles Steele, and Fred Shuttlesworth establich the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with King being their first president. The SCLC is a major force in organizing the Civil Rights Movement.
-
At Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine black students are blocked from entering the school. Federal troops and the national guard are sent by Pres. Eisenhower to intervene. The students became known as the "Little Rock Nine".
-
In Greensburo, N.C, Four black students are refused service at Woolworth's lunch counter. Six months later, they're served lunch at the same counter. Around this time, student sit-ins took place in parks, pools, libraries, theaters, and such.
-
During the spring and summer, many groups of "freedom riders" took bus trips through the south to test the new laws that prohibited segregation. Many of them are sttacked by angry mobs along the way.
-
James Meredith is the first black student to enroll at University of Mississippi.
-
About 200,000 people march for civil rights at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Martin Luther King gives his "I Have A Dream" speech.
-
Four girls; Denise Mcnair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Roberstson and Addie Mae Collins are killed from a bomb explosion at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
-
The 24th Amendment abolishes poll taxes, which ahd been used during the Reconstruction to make it harder for blacks to vote.
-
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination of anyone based on race, color, or religion.
-
Malcolm X, a black nationalist, is shot and killed. It's believed that members of the Black Muslim faith were responsible.
-
Blacks march in Montogemry to support voting rights but are stopped by a police blockade. Fifty marchers were hospitalized . This was considered the catalyst for pushing the voting rights act through months later.
-
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made it easier for southern blacks to register to vote. It also made voting restrictions for blacks illegal such as literacy tests and poll taxes.
-
The Black Panthers are formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
-
In the case Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that banning interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned it are forced to revise their laws.
-
Martin Luther King Jr. is shot and killed on the balcony outside his hotel room. He was 39. The person covicted of the crime is said to be James Earl Ray, an escaped convict and racist.
-
Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, overriding President Reagan's veto. This expands the non-discrimination laws in private institutions that recieve federal funds.
-
President George H.W Bush signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991 despite two years of debates and vetoes.
-
The first race riots erupt in south-central LA after four white police officers are acquitted by a jury for the videotaped beating of Rodney King, an African American.
-
The Supreme Court upholds the University of Michigan Law School's policy. It rules that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students.
-
Edgar Ray Allen is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the Mississippi murder crimes.
-
Coretta Scott King dies of a stroke at age 78.
-
James Bonard Fowler, a former state trooper, is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson 40 years after his death. The 1965 killing lead to a series of historic civil rights protests in Selma, Ala.
-
Senator Edward Kennedy brings in the Civil Rights Act of 2008, which includes ensuring that federal funds aren't used to subsidize discrimination, holding employers accountable for age discrimination, and improving accountability for other violations of civil rights and workers' rights.
-
Barack Obama is elected President of the United States on Nov 4, 2008.
-
In the Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano, a lawsuit brought against New Haven, 18 plaintiffs, 17 white people and one Hispanic argued that results of the 2003 lieutenant and captain exams were thrown out when few minority firefighters qualified for advancement. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the firefighters.
