Timeline of African-American history

This is a timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement.

1600 - 1899

1676

unknown - Bacon's Rebellion involves some free and slave African-Americans (see also Racism in the United States).

Early 1800s

unknown - first Black Codes enacted.

1849

unknown - Roberts v. Boston seeks to end racial discrimination in Boston public schools.

1852

March 20 - The book Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.

1857

March 6 - In Dred Scott v. Sandford the Supreme Court upholds slavery. This decision is regarded as a key cause of the American Civil War.

1862

September 22 - Announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation, after the Battle of Antietam.

1863-1877 Reconstruction

1863

January 1 - The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect.
May 22 - U.S. Army recruits United States Colored Troops. One unit will be featured in the 1989 movie Glory.

1865

December 18th - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishes slavery in the U.S.
unknown - Ku Klux Klan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee

1866

April 9 - Civil Rights Act of 1866 passes over presidential veto. All persons born in the United States are now citizens.
September 21 - The U.S. Army regiment of Buffalo Soldiers formed.
unknown - The Second Freedmen's Bureau Act would have provided many additional rights to ex-slaves, but it is vetoed by President Andrew Johnson.

1868

July 9 - The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution's Section 1 requires due process and equal protection.
unknown - Through 1871, the first heavy period of lynching occurs to prevent ratification of new state constitutions.

1870

February 3 - The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right of citizens of the United States to vote.
February 25 - Hiram Rhodes Revels becomes the first black member of the Senate (see African Americans in the United States Congress).

1872

December 11 - P.B.S. Pinchback is sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1873

April 14 - In the Slaughterhouse Cases the Supreme Court votes 5-4 for a narrow reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court also discusses dual citizenship: State Citizens and U.S. Citizens.

1875

March 1 - Civil Rights Act of 1875 signed.
unknown - Mississippi Plan to intimidate Black voting.

1876

July 8 - The Hamburg Massacre occurs when local people riot against African-Americans who were trying to celebrate the Fourth of July.

1880

unknown - In Strauder v. West Virginia a federal court rules that African-Americans could not be excluded from juries.

1884

unknown - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published, written by Mark Twain.
unknown - Judy W. Reed, of Washington, DC, and Sarah E. Goode, of Chicago, were the first African American women inventors to receive patents. Reed may not have been able to sign her name, but she may be the first African American woman to receive a patent. Signed with an "X," patent no. 305,474, granted September 23, 1884, is for a dough kneader and roller. Goode's patent for a cabinet bed, patent no. 322,177, was issued on July 14, 1885. Goode, the owner of a Chicago furniture store at the time of her invention, invented a folding bed that could be formed into a desk when not in use.

1890s

varied - First Jim Crow laws.

1896

May 18 - In Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court approves de jure racial segregation (see Jim Crow laws for historical discussion).

1900 - 1949

1905

July 11 - First meeting of the Niagara Movement.

1908

December 26 - Jack Johnson won the World Heavyweight Title.

1909

February 12 - First National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) meeting scheduled.

1910

September 29 - National Urban League founded.

1915

February 8 - The Birth of a Nation is released to movie theaters.
June 21 - In Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court rules against grandfather clauses used to deny Blacks the vote.

1919

summer - Red Summer of 1919 riots.
September 28 - Omaha Race Riot of 1919.
October 1 - Elaine Race Riot: many Blacks are convicted or plead guilty, but the Supreme Court overturns six convictions in 1923 in Moore v. Dempsey.

1921

May 31 - Tulsa Race Riot

1923

February 19 - In Moore v. Dempsey, the Supreme Court holds that mob-dominated trials violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

1925

unknown - Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organized.

1929

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the first organization to fight for the civil rights of Hispanic Americans, is founded in Corpus Christi, Texas.

1931

March 25 - Scottsboro Boys arrested. All are later freed, pardoned or paroled. The film Heaven's Fall was made about the incident.

1936

unknown - Sprinter Jessie Owens wins four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in [Berlin]].

1940

February 12 - In Chambers v. Florida, the Supreme Court frees three Black men who were coerced into confessing to a murder.

1941

early 1941 - U.S. Army forms African-American air combat units, the Tuskegee Airmen
June 25 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, the "Fair Employment Act".

1943

unknown - Congress of Racial Equality founded.

1944

April 25 - United Negro College Fund incorporated.
July 17 - Port Chicago disaster, which leads to the Port Chicago Mutiny.
unknown - Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. elected to U.S. House of Representatives

1945-1975 Second Reconstruction/American Civil Rights Movement

1945

unknown - Freeman Field Mutiny, where Black officers attempt to desegregate an all-white officers club.

1946

unknown - Renowned actor/singer Paul Robeson founds the American Crusade Against Lynching

1947

April 9 - The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends 16 men on the Journey of Reconciliation.
April 15 - Jackie Robinson plays his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first black baseball player in professional baseball in 60 years.

1948

May 3 - In Shelley v. Kraemer the Supreme Court rules that the government could not enforce racial restrictive covenants, and asserts that they were in conflict with the nation's public policy.
July 12 - Hubert Humphrey makes a controversial speech in favor of American Civil rights at the Democratic National Convention
July 26 - President Harry S. Truman issues Executive Order 9981 ordering the end of segregation in the armed forces.

1950 - 1959

For more detail during this period, see Freedom Riders website chronology

1950

June 5 - In McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents the Supreme Court rules that a public institution of higher learning could not provide different treatment to a student solely because of their race.
June 5 - In Sweatt v. Painter the Supreme Court rules that a separate-but-equal Texas law school was actually unequal, partly in that it isolated the students from the majority of other future lawyers.

1951

April 23 - High school students in Farmville, Virginia go on strike: the case Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County is heard by the Supreme Court in 1954 as part of Brown v. Board of Education.
July 26 - The United States Army high command announces it will desegregate the Army.

1952

January 28 - Briggs v. Elliott: after a District Court orders separate but equal school facilities in South Carolina, the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case as part of Brown v. Board of Education.

1954

May 17 - The Supreme Court overturns the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. and in Bolling v. Sharpe, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.
July 11 - The first White Citizens' Council meeting takes place, in Mississippi.
The Supreme Court of the United States decides in Hernandez v. Texas that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the United States are entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
November - Charles Diggs of Detroit, Michigan is elected to Congress.

1955

January 15 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10590, establishing the President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce a nondiscrimination policy in federal employment.
May 7 - NAACP activist Reverend George Wesley Lee is killed in Belzoni, Mississippi.
May 31 - The Supreme Court rules in "Brown II" that desegregation must occur with "all deliberate speed".
June 29 - The NAACP wins a Supreme Court decision, ordering the University of Alabama to admit Autherine Lucy.
August 13 - Registration activist Lamar Smith is murdered in Brookhaven, Mississippi.
August 28 - Teenager Emmett Till is killed for whistling at a white woman.
December 1 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus, starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
unknown - Roy Wilkins becomes the NAACP executive secretary.
unknown - Richard J. Daley becomes the mayor of Chicago.

1956

February 3 - Autherine Lucy is admitted to the University of Alabama. Whites riot, and she is suspended. Later, she is expelled for her part in further legal action against the university.
February 24 - The policy of Massive Resistance is declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr..
March 12 - Southern Manifesto released to the press.
May 28 - The Tallahassee, Florida bus boycott begins.
November 13 - The Supreme Court strikes down Alabama laws requiring segregation of buses in Browder v. Gayle.
unknown - Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission formed.
unknown - Southern Manifesto is signed by Southern state congressmen opposing integration.
unknown - * The FBI begins the COINTELPRO program to investigate and disrupt "dissident" groups within the United States.

1957

January - Southern Christian Leadership Conference formed. Martin Luther King is named chairman of the organization.
September 4 - The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to block integration of Little Rock Central High School.
September - Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas is integrated. Federal and National Guard troops escort the Little Rock Nine.
unknown - Civil Rights Act of 1957 signed.

1958

unknown - The Supreme Court awards the NAACP the right to continue operating in Alabama under NAACP v. Alabama.

1959

April 25 - Mack Charles Parker, accused of raping a white woman, is taken from jail and lynched by a white mob in Poplarville, Mississippi.

1960 - 1969

For more detail during this period, see Freedom Riders website chronology

See also Race riot

1960

February 1 - Four Black students sit at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, sparking six months of the Greensboro Sit-Ins.
April - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is formed in Raleigh, North Carolina.
May 6 - Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Eisenhower.
May - Nashville sit-ins.
December 5 - In Boynton v. Virginia the Supreme Court holds that racial segregation in public transportation is illegal because such segregation violates the Interstate Commerce Act.
unknown - To Kill a Mockingbird published.

1961

March 6 - Kennedy issues Executive Order 10925, which establishes a Presidential committe which will later become the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
May 4 - The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends student volunteers on interstate bus trips: these are labeled the Freedom Rides. Riots ensue.
unknown - the Albany Movement begins in Albany, Georgia.
unknown - The investigative journalism book Black Like Me is published.

1962

August 31 - Fannie Lou Hamer attempts to register to vote in Indianola, Mississippi.
September 20 - James Meredith is barred from becoming the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Federal troops are sent and he enrolls.
November 20 - President Kennedy signs Executive Order 11063 banning segregation in federally funded housing.
unknown - The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) is formed.

1963

January - Incoming Alabama governor George Wallace calls for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" in his inaugural address.
April-May - The Birmingham campaign, organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights challenges city leaders and business owners in Birmingham, Alabama with daily mass demonstrations.
April 16 - Letter from Birmingham Jail written by Martin Luther King.
April 23, CORE activist William L. Moore is killed in Gadsden, Alabama.
May 2 - After images of fire hoses and police dogs turned on protestors are shown on television, the Children's Crusade impels a negotiated truce - an end to mass demonstrations in return for rolling back oppressive segregation laws and practices and the release of thousands of jailed demonstrators.
June 11 - "The Stand In The Schoolhouse Door": Alabama Governor George Wallace stands in front of a schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama in an attempt to stop desegregation of that institution by the enrollment of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood. Wallace only stands aside after being confronted by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and the Alabama National Guard. Later in life he apologizes for his opposition to racial integration at that time.
June 11 - President John F. Kennedy (JFK) makes his historic civil rights speech, promising a bill to Congress the next week. About civil rights for "Negroes," in his speech he asks for "the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves."^[1]
June 9, Fannie Lou Hamer is among a group of several SNCC workers badly beaten by police in the Winona, Mississippi jail after their bus stops there.
June 12 - NAACP worker Medgar Evers is murdered in Jackson, Mississippi. (His killer is convicted in 1994.)^[2]
June 19 - President Kennedy sends to the Congress (H. Doc. 124, 88th Cong., 1st session.) his proposed Civil Rights Act.^[3]
August 28 - March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is held. Dr. Martin Luther King gives his I have a dream speech.^[4],^[5]
September 15 - 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls.
November 22 - President Kennedy is assassinated. The new President Lyndon Johnson decides that accomplishing JFK's legislative agenda is his best strategy, which he pursues with the results below in 1964-1965.^[6]

1964

January 23 - Twenty-fourth Amendment abolishes the poll tax.
Summer - Mississippi Freedom Summer.
June 21 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders.
June 28 - Organization of Afro-American Unity is founded by Malcolm X, lasts until his death.
July 2 - Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed.^[b]
August - Congress passes the Economic Opportunity Act which, among other things, provides federal funds for legal representation of Native Americans in both civil and criminal suits. This allows the ACLU and the American Bar Association to represent Native Americans in cases that later win them additional civil rights.
December 10 - Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.^[7]
December 14 - In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States the Supreme Court upholds the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
unknown - The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the seating of all-white Mississippi representatives at the Democratic national convention.

1965

February 21 - Malcolm X is shot to death in Manhattan, New York, probably by members of the Black Muslim faith.
March 7 - "Bloody Sunday" on the Selma to Montgomery marches: civil rights workers in Selma, Alabama begin a march to Montgomery but are stopped by a massive police blockade as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Many marchers are severely injured and one killed.
March 15 - President Lyndon Johnson uses the phrase "We shall overcome" in a speech before Congress on the voting rights bill.^[8]
March 25 - white volunteer Viola Liuzzo is shot and killed by Ku Klux Klan members -- one of whom was an FBI informant.
June 2 - black deputy sheriff O'Neal Moore is murdered in Varnado, Louisiana.*July 2 - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opens.
August 6 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed.^[b]
August 11 - Watts riots erupt.^[c]
September 24 - Executive Order 11246 is signed, requiring Equal Employment Opportunity by federal contractors.
unknown - Bill Cosby co-stars in I Spy, a first for a black person on Americam television

1966

January 10 - NAACP locall chapter president Vernon Dahmer is injured by a bomb in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He dies the next day.
October - Black Panthers founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.
November - Edward Brooke is elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. He is the first Black senator since 1881.
unknown - Julian Bond is seated to the Georgia House of Representatives by order of the Supreme Court after his election.

1967

June 12 - In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional.
June 13 - Thurgood Marshall is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 2 - The movie In the Heat of the Night is released.
December 11 - The movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is released.
unknown - The trial of accused killers in the Mississippi civil rights worker murders convicts 7 of 18 accused men. Conspirator Edgar Ray Killen is convicted in 2005.

1968

February 8 - Orangeburg Massacre occurs during university protest.
April 4 - Dr. Martin Luther King is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
April 11 - Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed. The Fair Housing Act is Title VIII of this Civil Rights Act - it bans discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.
October - Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists to symbolize black power and unity after winning the gold and bronze medals, respectively, at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games.
November 22 - first interracial kiss on American television, between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner on Star Trek
unknown - On a primetime television special, Petula Clark touches Harry Belafonte's arm.
unknown - In Powe v. Miles a federal court holds that the portions of private colleges that are funded by public money are subject to the Civil Rights Act.
unknown - Poor People's Campaign marches on Washington, DC.

1969

December - Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party is shot and killed while asleep in bed during a police raid on his home.
unknown - United Citizens Party is formed in South Carolina when Democratic Party refuse to nominate African-American candidates.
unknown - Control of segregationist TV station WLBT given to a bi-racial foundation.
unknown - Congress passes the Indian Civil Rights Act, which prohibits state governments from assuming jurisdiction over Native American lands and extends to Indians the same rights that non-Native whites have had since the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.

1970 - present

1970

unknown - The film Watermelon Man released, directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge.

1971

The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds desegregation busing of students to achieve integration.

1972

In Baton Rouge, two Southern University students are killed by white Sheriff deputies during a school protest over lack of funding from the state. Today, the university’s Smith-Brown Memorial Union is named in their honor.

1973

February 27 - Start of 71-day standoff at Wounded Knee between federal authorities and members of the American Indian Movement.

1974

July 25 - In Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision holds that outlying districts could only be forced into a desegregation busing plan if there was a pattern of violation on their part. This decision reinforces the trend of white flight.

1978

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

1984

The film A Soldier's Story is released, dealing with racism in the U.S. military.

1986

Established by legislation in 1983, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is first celebrated as a national holiday.

1987

The Public Broadcasting System's six-part documentary Eyes on the Prize is first shown. In 1990 it is added to by the eight-part Eyes on the Prize II.

1988

Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988.
The movie Mississippi Burning is released, regarding the 1964 Mississippi civil rights worker murders.

1989

October 1 - Colin Powell becomes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
December 15 - The film Glory is released: it features African-American Civil War soldiers.

1991

March 3 - four white police officers are videotaped beating African-American Rodney King.
Civil Rights Act of 1991
Senate confirms the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court

1992

April 29 - 1992 Los Angeles riots erupt after officers accused of beating Rodney King are acquitted.
November 18 - Director Spike Lee's film "X" on Malcolm X is released. [9]

1995

October 16 - Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

1997

July 9 - Director Spike Lee releases his documentary 4 Little Girls about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

2001

January 20 - Colin Powell becomes Secretary of State

2003

June 23 - Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds the University of Michigan Law School's admission policy. However, in the simultaneously-heard Gratz v. Bollinger the University is required to change a policy.

2005

October 15 - the Millions More Movement holds a march in Washington D.C.
October 25 - Rosa Parks dies at the age of 92. She was famous for starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Her body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. before her funeral.
Edgar Ray Killen is convicted of participating in the Mississippi civil rights worker murders.

Footnotes

To the reader : If you arrived at a footnote by clicking on a superscript [b] (or [c]) then click on the superscript b (or c), to return:

External links

Civil Rights Timeline 1619-2000
Detailed year-by-year timeline 1951-1968
University of Southern Mississippi's Civil Rights Documentation Project, includes an extensive Timeline
Freedom Riders website chronology, extremely detailed
Civil Rights Timeline, sections on Martin Luther King, Jr.
41 Lives for Freedom
Black baseball firsts

Timeline of African-American history

1600 - 1899

1900 - 1949

1950 - 1959

1960 - 1969

1970 - present

Footnotes

See also

Other people

Other performers

Other athletes

External links