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Lorraine Hansberry was a playwright, an activist, and a figure in the LGBTQIA community. Her important plays are still performed.

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Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play that was influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry that follow illustrate her growth as an African American woman, activist, and writer.

Though A Raisin in the Sun is the crown jewel in Hansberry's legacy, she was also known for the plays The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and Les Blancs.

To Be Young, Gifted and Black was a posthumously produced play and collection of writings that capped a brief and brilliant career. When she died of pancreatic cancer in 1965, she was only 34 years old.

She first Black woman to have a play staged on Broadway

A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. When she was only 29 years old, Hansberry became the youngest American and the first African-American playwright to win the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

Hansberry commented on her play:

"It is a play that tells the truth about people, Negroes [in the parlance of the time], and life. The thing I tried to show was the many gradations in even one Negro family, the clash of the old and the new, but most of all the unbelievable courage of the Negro people."

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Her father was a plaintiff in a Supreme Court housing case

Lorraine Hansberry's father, Carl Augustus Hansberry, was involved in the Supreme Court case. It was previously ruled that African Americans were not allowed to purchase property in the Washington Park subdivision in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1938, after her father bought a house in the south side of Chicago, the family was subject to the wrath of their white neighbors, resulting in U.S. Supreme Court's case.
This experience is reflected in Raisin in how unwelcoming the white community was to the Younger family in Clybourne Park. Hansberry's father died in 1946 when she was only fifteen years old. She was later quoted as saying that "American racism helped kill him."

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She came from an accomplished circle of family and friends

The Hansberry family had many friends and relatives that were involved in the arts., the Civil Rights activist, author, sociologist, and historian, and , the musician and actor, were friends of the Hansberry family.

Hansberry's uncle, , founded the Howard University African Civilization section of the history department, her cousin is an actress and playwright, and her younger relatives, Taye Hansberry is an actress and Aldridge Hansberry is a composer and flutist.

Later, Hansberry would maintain her own close bonds with Du Bois, Robeson, Langston Hughes, and James Baldwin. All mourned her premature death.

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The title, A Raisin in the Sun, came from a Langston Hughes poem

The title of Hansberry's now-iconic play A Raisin In the Sun was inspired by Hughes' poem "Harlem." One could argue that the play illustrated the poem's sentiment:

like a syrupy sweet?

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

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Nina Simone dedicated a song to her

In 1969, four years after Lorraine Hansberry's death, Nina Simone wrote a song titled "Young, Gifted, and Black" after being inspired by a talk that Hansberry delivered to college students. Since that time, other artists including Aretha Franklin have covered the song, which begins:

To be young, gifted and black
Oh, what a lovely precious dream
To be young, gifted and black
Open your heart to what I mean
In the whole world you know
There are a million boys and girls
Who are young, gifted and black
And that's a fact!

Hansberry and Simone had been friends and shared a bond over their interests in social justice and radical politics. also named Lorraine Hansberry the Godmother of her daughter, Lisa Simone.

. . . . . . . . . .

Hansberry was an advocate for gay rights

Hansberry was a contributor to The Ladder, a predominantly lesbian publication, where she wrote about homophobia and feminism. She even wrote anonymous letters to the publication alluding to her own lesbian relationships.

Princeton Professor Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine, wrote that "she was a feminist before the feminist movement. She identified as a lesbian and thought about LGBT organizing before there was a gay rights movement. She was an anti-colonialist before independence had been won in Africa and the Caribbean."

Hansberry kept a low profile of her identity as a lesbian.

She addressed social issues in her writings

Not only did Hansberry address social and racial issues in her novels and plays, but she also wrote articles true to her voice and beliefs for a progressive Black journal, Hansberry was invited to meet Robert F. Kennedy (then U.S. Attorney General) in May, 1963 due to the work she had done as a Civil Rights activist, but declined the invitation. She admonished the Kennedy administration to be more active in addressing the problem of segregation in the community. Freedom, concerning governmental issues. She explored the issues of colonialism and imperialism through her own lens as well as the female perspective.

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James Baldwin was Lorraine Hansberry's close friend and confidant

Lorraine Hansberry was 28 when she met James Baldwin, 34 at the time. Lorraine believed that the artist's voice in whatever medium was to be as an agent for social change. That was what formed their bond at the time when Lorraine was developing her own Black, feminist, and queer politics.

Both of these talented writers wanted to incorporate themes of race and sexual identity into their stage work, something that was considered quite radical at the time.

James Baldwin wrote the introduction to Hansberry's biography, To Be Young, Gifted, and Black with an endearing letter to Hansberry titled "Sweet Lorraine."

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Norma Brickner is a Journalism and Digital Media major at SUNY-New Paltz.

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8 Fascinating Facts About Lorraine Hansberry | Literary Ladies Guide

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Lorraine Hansberry (1930 - 1965) was an American playwright and author best known for A Raisin in the Sun, a 1959 play that was influenced by her background and upbringing in Chicago. The fascinating facts about Lorraine Hansberry that follow illustrate her growth as an African American woman, activist, and writer.

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Notes of a native son: The world according to James Baldwin - Christina Greer

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Video: The Black Panthers, links to The Black Lives Matter Movement

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Video: The Black Panthers, links to The Black Lives Matter Movement

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Video: Before Rosa Parks was Claudette Colvin

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Video: Before Rosa Parks was Claudette Colvin

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Video: Voting Rights, Voting Suppression, and Obama's election.

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Video: Voting Rights, Voting Suppression, and Obama's election.

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A Brief History of Voter Suppression Against Black Americans | NBA 2KTV

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Video: Ella Baker (Diane Nash, John Lewis)

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Video: Ella Baker (Diane Nash, John Lewis)

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Ella Baker - 'The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement'

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Audio: Nina Simone sings 'I Wish I Knew How It Would FeelTo Be Free'

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Audio: Nina Simone sings 'I Wish I Knew How It Would FeelTo Be Free'

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Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (Official Audio)

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Article and Facts: 'Bloody Sunday', Selma, and Marches for Voting Rights

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Article and Facts: 'Bloody Sunday', Selma, and Marches for Voting Rights

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From Academic Kids

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The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement.

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Photo: Allan Baum/New York Times Co./Getty Images

Quick Facts

"I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble."

City College of New York, Cheyney State Teachers College, Wilberforce University

West Chester, Pennsylvania

Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s.

Who Was Bayard Rustin?

Bayard Rustin moved to New York in the 1930s and was involved in pacifist groups and early civil rights protests. Combining non-violent resistance with organizational skills, he was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Though he was arrested several times for his own civil disobedience and open homosexuality, he continued to fight for equality.

Early Life and Education

Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He had been raised to believe that his parents were Julia and Janifer Rustin, when in fact they were his grandparents. He discovered the truth before adolescence, that the woman he thought was his sibling, Florence, was in fact his mother, who'd had Rustin with West Indian immigrant Archie Hopkins.

Rustin attended Wilberforce University in Ohio, and Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheney University of Pennsylvania) in Pennsylvania, both historically Black schools. In 1937 he moved to New York City and studied at City College of New York. He was briefly involved with the Young Communist League in 1930s before he became disillusioned with its activities and resigned.

Political Philosophy and Civil Rights Career

In his personal philosophy, Rustin combined the pacifism of the Quaker religion, the non-violent resistance taught by Mahatma Gandhi, and the socialism espoused by African American labor leader A. Philip Randolph. During the Second World War he worked for Randolph, fighting against racial discrimination in war-related hiring. After meeting A. J. Muste, a minister and labor organizer, he also participated in several pacifist groups, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Rustin was punished several times for his beliefs. During the war, he was jailed for two years when he refused to register for the draft. When he took part in protests against the segregated public transit system in 1947, he was arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to work on a chain gang for several weeks. In 1953 he was arrested on a morals charge for publicly engaging in homosexual activity and was sent to jail for 60 days; however, he continued to live as an openly gay man.

By the 1950s, Rustin was an expert organizer of human rights protests. In 1958, he played an important role in coordinating a march in Aldermaston, England, in which 10,000 attendees demonstrated against nuclear weapons.

Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington

Rustin met the young civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and began working with King as an organizer and strategist in 1955. He taught King about Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance and advised him on the tactics of civil disobedience. He assisted King with the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. Most famously, Rustin was a key figure in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King delivered his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963.

In 1965, Rustin and his mentor Randolph co-founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a labor organization for African American trade union members. Rustin continued his work within the civil rights and peace movements, and was much in demand as a public speaker.

Later Career and Death

Rustin received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career. His writings about civil rights were published in the collection Down the Line in 1971 and in Strategies for Freedom in 1976. He continued to speak about the importance of economic equality within the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the need for social rights for gays and lesbians.

Rustin died of a ruptured appendix in New York City on August 24, 1987, at the age of 75.

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"I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble." City College of New York, Cheyney State Teachers College, Wilberforce University West Chester, Pennsylvania Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s.

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NEW York City bar Stonewall Inn is a historic landmark and its legacy is remembered.

The riots at Stonewall Inn are largely remembered as the beginning of a gay pride movement, but what exactly happened?
Read our Pride Month live blog for the very latest news and updates...
What is the Stonewall Inn?

The Stonewall Inn is a bar located in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Since its first opening in 1930, it has served as a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community.

During the 1960's and 70's, homosexual acts were illegal in every state except for Illinois.

Most gay bars including the Stonewall Inn were operated by the mafia who bribed police to look the other way.

What happened at the Stonewall riots?

On June 27, 1969, six undercover police officers entered the bar and began to arrest employees.

During this time, police targeted gay bars for illegal liquor licenses.

They also targeted drag queens because masquerading as the opposite sex was a crime at the time.

During the early hours of June 28, a riot broke out.

There are varying accounts of how the crowd became rowdy.

Many believe that lesbian activist Stormé DeLarverie was being roughed by police when onlookers exploded.

Onlookers began shouting at the cops, some even throwing bottles.

Police then barricaded themselves inside the bar while protestors tried to break down the doors.

The riots died down around 4am and luckily, no one was killed or critically injured.

The next night, the Stonewall Inn reopened, but the police arrived again and beat and tear gassed members of the crowd.

Why were the Stonewall riots important?

According to the History Channel, "With Stonewall, the spirit of '60s rebellion spread to LGBT people in New York and beyond, who for the first time found themselves part of a community."

The riots sparked an understanding and outrage for how the LGBTQ+ communities were being targted and treated.

It led to many more riots and protests, calling for equality for all people, despite sexuality or gender orientation.

On June 28, 1970, the first pride parade began at the Stonewall Inn in commemoration.

The Stonewall Inn continues to be a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and still stands in New York canonically queer Greenwich Village.

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NEW York City bar Stonewall Inn is a historic landmark and its legacy is remembered. The riots at Stonewall Inn are largely remembered as the beginning of a gay pride movement, but what exactly happened? Read our Pride Month live blog for the very latest news and updates...

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Photographs and Description: The Freedom Riders, John Lewis, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

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Photographs and Description: The Freedom Riders, John Lewis, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

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Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Riders: Rare and Classic Photos

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Five decades after the Freedom Riders put their lives on the line for equal rights, LIFE.com presents rare photos from that heady era.

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Video: The Successes of the Freedom Rides

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Video: The Successes of the Freedom Rides

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Who Were the Freedom Riders? | The Civil Rights Movement

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Article: History of Sit-Ins; Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

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Article: History of Sit-Ins; Dr Martin Luther King, Jr

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The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute

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The sit-in campaigns of 1960 and the ensuing creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) demonstrated the potential strength of grassroots militancy and enabled a new generation of young people to gain confidence in their own leadership. Martin Luther King, Jr., described the student sit-ins as an "electrifying movement of Negro students [that] shattered the placid surface of campuses and communities across the South," and he expressed pride in the new activism for being "initiated, fed and sustained by students" ( Papers 5:447; 368).

The sit-ins started on 1 February 1960, when four black students from North Carolina A & T College sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. The students-Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, and David Richmond-purchased several items in the store before sitting at the counter reserved for white customers. When a waitress asked them to leave, they politely refused; to their surprise, they were not arrested. The four students remained seated for almost an hour until the store closed.

The following morning about two dozen students arrived at Woolworth's and sat at the lunch counter. Although no confrontations occurred, the second sit-in attracted the local media. By day three of the campaign, the students formed the Student Executive Committee for Justice to coordinate protests. The Greensboro protesters eventually agreed to the mayor's request to halt protest activities while city officials sought "a just and honorable resolution," but black students in other communities launched lunch counter protests of their own (Carson, 10). By the end of the month, sit-ins had taken place at more than 30 locations in 7 states, and by the end of April over 50,000 students had participated.

The sustained student protests in Nashville, Tennessee, were particularly well organized. Vanderbilt University student James Lawson led workshops on Gandhian nonviolence that attracted a number of students from Nashville's black colleges. Many of them, including John Lewis, Diane Nash, and Marion Barry, would later become leaders of the southern civil rights struggle. The Nashville movement proved successful, and the students grew ever more confident in their ability to direct campaigns without adult leadership.

Nonviolence was a central component of the student-led demonstrations; however, many protesters were not met with peaceful responses from the public. Although protesters were routinely heckled and beaten by segregationists and arrested by police, their determination was unyielding. King wrote: "The key significance of the student movement lies in the fact that from its inception, everywhere, it has combined direct action with non-violence. This quality has given it the extraordinary power and discipline which every thinking person observes" (Papers 5:450).

Although many of the student sit-in protesters were affiliated with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) youth groups, the new student movement offered an implicit challenge to the litigation strategy of the nation's oldest civil rights group. NAACP leaders, for their part, gave public support to the sit-ins, although some privately questioned the usefulness of student-led civil disobedience.

On 15-17 April, the leaders of the various sit-in campaigns gathered at a conference called by Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) executive director Ella Baker. This meeting became the founding conference of SNCC. In a statement prior to the opening of the conference, King emphasized the "need for some type of continuing organization" and expressed his belief that "the youth must take the freedom struggle into every community in the South" (Papers 5:427). The 120 students representing 12 southern states voted to establish a youth-centered organization without formal affiliation with any other civil rights group.

In October 1960 Atlanta student leaders convinced King to participate in a sit-in at Rich's, a local department store. King and about 300 students were arrested. The students were later released, but King remained in jail while Georgia officials determined whether his sit-in arrest violated probation conditions King had received months earlier after driving with an out of state drivers license. After being sentenced to four months of hard labor at Georgia State Prison at Reidsville, presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy and his campaign manager and brother, Robert Kennedy, helped secure King's release. Their intervention in the case helped contribute to Kennedy's narrow victory over Richard Nixon in the presidential election.

By fall 1960, there were signs that the southern civil rights movement had been profoundly transformed by the fiercely independent student protest movement. Those who had participated in the sit-in campaign were determined to continue the direct action tactics that were seizing the initiative from more cautious organizations made up of older people, such as King's SCLC.

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The sit-in campaigns of 1960 and the ensuing creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) demonstrated the potential strength of grassroots militancy and enabled a new generation of young people to gain confidence in their own leadership.

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This video discusses John Lewis' role in Sit-Ins, Selma and Bloody Sunday, and his focus on Voting Rights.

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Honor John Lewis, Get in Good Trouble | RepresentUs

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Map of Segregation in the US before Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1954

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Map of Segregation in the US before Brown vs. The Board of Education in 1954

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How the first black Supreme Court justice changed children’s lives

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Audio: The Temptations "People Get Ready"

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Audio: The Temptations "People Get Ready"

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The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American's constitutional rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin.

July 26, 1948: President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education, a consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated.

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His murderers are acquitted, and the case bring international attention to the civil rights movement after Jet magazine publishes a photo of Till's beaten body at his open-casket funeral.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year-long Montgomery bus boycott.

January 10-11, 1957: Sixty black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states-including Martin Luther King, Jr.-meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation.

September 4, 1957: Nine black students known as the " Little Rock Nine" are blocked from integrating into Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students, however, they continue to be harassed.

September 9, 1957: Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another's right to vote.

February 1, 1960: Four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth's "whites only" lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four-Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil-were inspired by the nonviolent protest of Gandhi. The Greensboro Sit-In, as it came to be called, sparks similar "sit-ins" throughout the city and in other states.

November 14, 1960: Six-year-oldRuby Bridges is escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Her actions inspired Norman Rockwell's painting The Problem We All Live With (1964).

1961: Throughout 1961, black and white activists, known as freedom riders, took bus trips through the American South to protest segregated bus terminals and attempted to use "whites-only" restrooms and lunch counters. The Freedom Rides were marked by horrific violence from white protestors, they drew international attention to their cause.

June 11, 1963: Governor George C. Wallace stands in a doorway at the University of Alabama to block two black students from registering. The standoff continues until President John F. Kennedy sends the National Guard to the campus.

August 28, 1963: Approximately 250,000 people take part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his "I Have A Dream" speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, stating, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'"

September 15, 1963: A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests.

July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. Title VII of the Act establishes the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to help prevent workplace discrimination.

February 21, 1965: Black religious leader Malcolm X is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam.

March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday. In the Selma to Montgomery March, around 600 civil rights marchers walk to Selma, Alabama to Montgomery-the state's capital-in protest of black voter suppression. Local police block and brutally attack them. After successfully fighting in court for their right to march, Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lead two more marches and finally reach Montgomery on March 25.

August 6, 1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places.

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969.

April 11, 1968: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion or national origin.

Sources

Executive Order 9981. Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum.
Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library.
Governor George C. Wallace's School House Door Speech. Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Greensboro, NC, Students Sit-In for US Civil Rights, 1960. Swarthmore College Global Nonviolent Action Database.
Historical Highlights. The 24th Amendment. History, Art & Archives United States House of Representatives.
History-Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment. United States Courts.
History of Federal Voting Rights Laws. The United States Department of Justice.
"I Have a Dream," Address Delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford.
Oldest and Boldest. NAACP.
SCLC History. Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Selma to Montgomery March: National Historic Trail and All-American Road. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. National Archives.

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The civil rights movement was an organized effort by black Americans to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights under the law. It began in the late 1940s and ended in the late 1960s. Although tumultuous at times, the movement was mostly nonviolent and resulted in laws to protect every American's constitutional rights, regardless of color, race, sex or national origin.

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Facts and Details about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

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Facts and Details about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

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In 1955, he was recruited to serve as spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a campaign by the African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama to force integration of the city's bus lines. After 381 days of nearly universal participation by citizens of the black community, many of whom had to walk miles to work each day as a result, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional.

In 1957, Dr. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization designed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. He would serve as head of the SCLC until his assassination in 1968, a period during which he would emerge as the most important social leader of the modern American civil rights movement.

In 1963, he led a coalition of numerous civil rights groups in a nonviolent campaign aimed at Birmingham, Alabama, which at the time was described as the "most segregated city in America." The subsequent brutality of the city's police, illustrated most vividly by television images of young blacks being assaulted by dogs and water hoses, led to a national outrage resulting in a push for unprecedented civil rights legislation. It was during this campaign that Dr. King drafted the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," the manifesto of Dr. King's philosophy and tactics, which is today required-reading in universities worldwide.

Later in 1963, Dr. King was one of the driving forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known as the "March on Washington," which drew over a quarter-million people to the national mall. It was at this march that Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which cemented his status as a social change leader and helped inspire the nation to act on civil rights. Dr. King was later named Time magazine's "Man of the Year."

In 1964, at 35 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech in Oslo is thought by many to be among the most powerful remarks ever delivered at the event, climaxing at one point with the oft-quoted phrase "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."

Also in 1964, partly due to the March on Washington, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act, essentially eliminating legalized racial segregation in the United States. The legislation made it illegal to discriminate against blacks or other minorities in hiring, public accommodations, education or transportation, areas which at the time were still very segregated in many places.

The next year, 1965, Congress went on to pass the Voting Rights Act, which was an equally-important set of laws that eliminated the remaining barriers to voting for African-Americans, who in some locales had been almost completely disenfranchised. This legislation resulted directly from the Selma to Montgomery, AL March for Voting Rights lead by Dr. King.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years.

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Video: The Gay Rights Movement; The Stonewall Riots 1969

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Video: The Gay Rights Movement; The Stonewall Riots 1969

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How the Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement | History

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FEATURE: Malcolm X on CBC's Front Page Challenge

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Audio and Words to the Speech: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr gives the "I Have a Dream" Speech 

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Audio and Words to the Speech: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr gives the "I Have a Dream" Speech 

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Listen and Read the words he spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

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Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech - American Rhetoric

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Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech text and audio

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Freedom Rides, in U.S. history, a series of political protests against segregation by Blacks and whites who rode buses together through the American South in 1961.

In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel. A year later the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation tested the ruling by staging the Journey of Reconciliation, on which an interracial group of activists rode together on a bus through the upper South, though fearful of journeying to the Deep South. Following this example and responding to the Supreme Court's Boynton v. Virginia decision of 1960, which extended the earlier ruling to include bus terminals, restrooms, and other facilities associated with interstate travel, a group of seven African Americans and six whites left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, on a Freedom Ride in two buses bound for New Orleans. Convinced that segregationists in the South would violently protest this exercise of their constitutional right, the Freedom Riders hoped to provoke the federal government into enforcing the Boynton decision. When they stopped along the way, white riders used facilities designated for Blacks and vice versa.

The Freedom Riders encountered violence in South Carolina, but in Alabama the reaction was much more severe. On May 14, upon stopping outside Anniston to change a slashed tire, one bus was firebombed and the Freedom Riders were beaten. Arriving in Birmingham, the second bus was similarly attacked and the passengers beaten. In both cases law enforcement was suspiciously late in responding, and there were suspicions of collusion in that late response. Although the original Riders were unable to find a bus line to carry them farther, a second group of 10, originating in Nashville and partly organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), renewed the effort. Undeterred by being arrested in Birmingham and transported back to Tennessee, the new Freedom Riders returned to Birmingham and, at the behest of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, secured a bus and protection from the State Highway Patrol as they traveled to Montgomery, where, when local police failed to protect them, they were again beaten.

Thereafter National Guard support was provided when 27 Freedom Riders continued on to Jackson, Mississippi, only to be arrested and jailed. On May 29 Kennedy ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission to enforce even stricter guidelines banning segregation in interstate travel. Still, Freedom Riders continued to travel by public transportation in the South until that dictate took effect in September.

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Freedom Rides | History, Definition, Map, Facts, & Significance

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Freedom Rides, political protests against segregation by Blacks and whites who rode buses together through the U.S. South in 1961. Convinced that segregationists would violently protest this action, the Freedom Riders hoped to provoke the federal enforcement of the Supreme Court's Boynton v. Virginia decision.

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On June 3, 1943, white U.S. servicemen and police officers descended upon a majority-Mexican American neighborhood in East Los Angeles, California, and harassed, beat, and detained hundreds of Mexican American youth. The violent riot was sparked by a misunderstanding and scuffle, which occurred the day before, between a group of local Mexican American youth and white sailors, but it had been fueled by centuries of colonialism and white supremacy.

Driven by changing population demographics and racism, tensions in Los Angeles between "zoot suiters," young Mexican American youth who often wore "zoot suits" (a type of oversize suit which was tapered at the ankles and often worn by Black jazz musicians), and the more than 50,000 servicemen in Los Angeles had been high. Though the anger had initially only been at those in Zoot suits, the attacks which followed were aimed at the Mexican American community at large.

About fifty sailors left the Armory on the night of Thursday, June 3, armed with makeshift weapons. The attack on Seaman Coleman was still fresh in their minds and rumors of new attacks were swirling through the base. Their first stop was the nearby neighborhood of Alpine Street - scene of many previous confrontations. Unable to find any zoot-suiters at Alpine, they proceeded toward downtown and stopped at the Carmen Theater. After turning on the house lights, the sailors roamed the aisles looking for zoot-suiters. The first victims of the zoot suit riots - 12 and 13-year-old boys - were guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ignoring the protests of the patrons, the sailors tore the suits off their bodies and beat and clubbed the boys. The remains of their suits were then set ablaze.

As the mob of sailors moved on, reports began to reach the Armory's watch commander. Executive Officer Lieutenant Charles Bacon was sent to investigate. After failing to find any evidence of wrongdoing at numerous spots, Bacon came upon the Shore Patrol marching a group of sixty men to the Central Police Station, where they were to be placed in jail. Bacon assumed control of the situation and saw to it that no charges were recorded by the Shore Patrol.

As the second night of rioting began, Mexican American young men drove back and forth in front of the Armory, hurling epithets at the guards. Later that night sailors once again headed out in search of trouble. When the sailors could not find enough zoot-suiters, they decided to take the fight into the Mexican American neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. It was a new twist on the violence: instead of focusing their attacks in areas where sailors and civilian youth had clashed, the sailors moved into the Mexican American neighborhoods. Thus, their retaliatory strike became an assault on the Mexican American community itself. The sailors cruised the barrio, storming into bars, cafes and theaters. [Excerpted from the " American Experience " PBS Program.]

The violence had a lasting impact in Los Angeles, with many trade unionists, celebrities, communists, and even the First Lady coming to defend Los Angeles' Mexican American community.

Explore the riots through short essays and an interactive history map at Mapping LA's Zoot Suit Riots on the Curbed: Los Angeles website. Find more resources below.

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June 3, 1943: The Zoot Suit Riots - Zinn Education Project

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On June 3, 1943, white U.S. servicemen and police officers descended upon a majority-Mexican American neighborhood in East Los Angeles, California, and harassed, beat, and detained hundreds of Mexican American youth. The violent riot was sparked by a misunderstanding and scuffle, which occurred the day before, between a group of local Mexican American youth and white sailors, but it had been fueled by centuries of colonialism and white supremacy.

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Audio: Sam Cooke "A Change Gonna Come" (1963)

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Audio: Sam Cooke "A Change Gonna Come" (1963)

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Sam Cooke - A change is gonna come - 1963

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Video: Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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Video: Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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The Civil Rights Movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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Video: The Birmingham Alabama Children's Crusade

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Video: The Birmingham Alabama Children's Crusade

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Many historians consider this to be the turning point of the Civil Rights Movement. When the world saw the images of children being fire-hosed on TV things changed quickly.

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Black Children Arrested & Assaulted in Birmingham

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Facts: Obama Elected as America's First Black President

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Facts: Obama Elected as America's First Black President

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On November 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. The 47-year-old Democrat garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote, while his 72-year-old Republican challenger captured 173 electoral votes and more than 45 percent of the popular vote. Obama's vice-presidential running mate was Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, while McCain's running mate was Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, the first female Republican ever nominated for the vice presidency.

Obama, who was born in 1961 in Hawaii to a white woman from Kansas and a Black man from Kenya, graduated from Harvard Law School and was a law professor at the University of Chicago before launching his political career in 1996, when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. He was re-elected to that post in 1998 and 2000. In March 2004, he shot to national prominence by winning the U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Illinois, and that July he gained further exposure when he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, which included his eloquent call for unity among "red" (Republican) and "blue" (Democratic) states. That November, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in a landslide.

On February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois, Obama officially announced his candidacy for president. A victory in the Iowa caucuses in January 2008 made him a viable challenger to the early frontrunner, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, whom he outlasted in a grueling primary campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June 2008.

During the general-election campaign, as in the primaries, Obama's team worked to build a following at the grassroots level and used what his supporters viewed as the candidate's natural charisma, unique life story and inspiring message of hope and change to draw large crowds to his public appearances, both in the United States and on a campaign trip abroad. His team also worked to bring new voters-many of them young or Black, both demographics they believed favored Obama-to become involved in the election. Additionally, the campaign was notable for its unprecedented use of the Internet for organizing constituents and fundraising. According to The Washington Post: "3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million. Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million were in increments of $100 or less."

In terms of campaign issues, Obama pledged to get the United States out of the war in Iraq and expand health care, among other promises. A crushing national financial crisis in the months leading up to the election shifted the country's focus to the economy, and Obama and McCain each attempted to show he had the best plan for economic improvement.

On November 4, more than 69.4 million Americans cast their vote for Obama, while some 59.9 million voters chose McCain. (Obama was the first sitting U.S. senator to win the White House since John F. Kennedy in 1960.) Obama captured some traditional Republican strongholds ( Virginia, Indiana) and key battleground states ( Florida, Ohio) that had been won by Republicans in recent elections. Late that night, the president-elect appeared before a huge crowd of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park and delivered a speech in he which acknowledged the historic nature of his victory (which came 143 years after the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery): "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer...It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. On November 6, 2012, he defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term in the White House. He left office in January, 2017.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Barack Obama elected as America's first Black president | November 4, 2008 | HISTORY

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On November 4, 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. The 47-year-old Democrat garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote, while his 72-year-old Republican challenger captured 173 electoral votes [...]

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Facts about Ruby Bridges for Kids | Biography Video

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Article: George Floyd, BLM, and the Global Protests Over his Death

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Article: George Floyd, BLM, and the Global Protests Over his Death

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The global impact of George Floyd: How Black Lives Matter protests shaped movements around the world

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George Floyd’s young daughter said, “Daddy changed the world.” These global protests show how right she was.

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Transcript: President Obama speaks to the Nation about his Historic Election as President

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Transcript: President Obama speaks to the Nation about his Historic Election as President

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The President addressed the nation on the election results and the next steps we can take to come together as a country and ensure a peaceful transition of power. This is something every American should watch -- no matter his or her politics.

"We have to remember that we're actually all on one team...We're not Democrats first, we're not Republicans first, we are Americans first. We're patriots first. We all want what's best for this country."

President Obama, November 9, 2016

Read his full remarks:

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Yesterday, before votes were tallied, I shot a video that some of you may have seen in which I said to the American people: Regardless of which side you were on in the election, regardless of whether your candidate won or lost, the sun would come up in the morning.

And that is one bit of prognosticating that actually came true. The sun is up. And I know everybody had a long night. I did, as well. I had a chance to talk to President-elect Trump last night -- about 3:30 in the morning, I think it was -- to congratulate him on winning the election. And I had a chance to invite him to come to the White House tomorrow to talk about making sure that there is a successful transition between our presidencies.

Now, it is no secret that the President-elect and I have some pretty significant differences. But remember, eight years ago, President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences. But President Bush's team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition so that we could hit the ground running. And one thing you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency, and the vice presidency, is bigger than any of us.

So I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush's team set eight years ago, and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the President-elect -- because we are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country. The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. And over the next few months, we are going to show that to the world.

I also had a chance last night to speak with Secretary Clinton, and I just had a chance to hear her remarks. I could not be prouder of her. She has lived an extraordinary life of public service. She was a great First Lady. She was an outstanding senator for the state of New York. And she could not have been a better Secretary of State. I'm proud of her. A lot of Americans look up to her. Her candidacy and nomination was historic and sends a message to our daughters all across the country that they can achieve at the highest levels of politics. And I am absolutely confident that she and President Clinton will continue to do great work for people here in the United States and all around the world.

Now, everybody is sad when their side loses an election. But the day after, we have to remember that we're actually all on one team. This is an intramural scrimmage. We're not Democrats first. We're not Republicans first. We are Americans first. We're patriots first. We all want what's best for this country. That's what I heard in Mr. Trump's remarks last night. That's what I heard when I spoke to him directly. And I was heartened by that. That's what the country needs -- a sense of unity; a sense of inclusion,; a respect for our institutions, our way of life, rule of law; and a respect for each other. I hope that he maintains that spirit throughout this transition, and I certainly hope that's how his presidency has a chance to begin.

I also told my team today to keep their heads up, because the remarkable work that they have done day in, day out -- often without a lot of fanfare, often without a lot of attention -- work in agencies, work in obscure areas of policy that make government run better and make it more responsive, and make it more efficient, and make it more service-friendly so that it's actually helping more people -- that remarkable work has left the next President with a stronger, better country than the one that existed eight years ago.

So win or lose in this election, that was always our mission. That was our mission from day one. And everyone on my team should be extraordinarily proud of everything that they have done, and so should all the Americans that I've had a chance to meet all across this country who do the hard work of building on that progress every single day. Teachers in schools, doctors in the ER clinic, small businesses putting their all into starting something up, making sure they're treating their employees well. All the important work that's done by moms and dads and families and congregations in every state. The work of perfecting this union.

So this was a long and hard-fought campaign. A lot of our fellow Americans are exultant today. A lot of Americans are less so. But that's the nature of campaigns. That's the nature of democracy. It is hard, and sometimes contentious and noisy, and it's not always inspiring.

But to the young people who got into politics for the first time, and may be disappointed by the results, I just want you to know, you have to stay encouraged. Don't get cynical. Don't ever think you can't make a difference. As Secretary Clinton said this morning, fighting for what is right is worth it.

Sometimes you lose an argument. Sometimes you lose an election. The path that this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag, and sometimes we move in ways that some people think is forward and others think is moving back. And that's okay. I've lost elections before. Joe hasn't. (Laughter.) But you know.

(The Vice President blesses himself.) (Laughter.)

So I've been sort of --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Remember, you beat me badly. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: That's the way politics works sometimes. We try really hard to persuade people that we're right. And then people vote. And then if we lose, we learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena. We go at it. We try even harder the next time.

The point, though, is, is that we all go forward, with a presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens -- because that presumption of good faith is essential to a vibrant and functioning democracy. That's how this country has moved forward for 240 years. It's how we've pushed boundaries and promoted freedom around the world. That's how we've expanded the rights of our founding to reach all of our citizens. It's how we have come this far.

And that's why I'm confident that this incredible journey that we're on as Americans will go on. And I am looking forward to doing everything that I can to make sure that the next President is successful in that. I have said before, I think of this job as being a relay runner -- you take the baton, you run your best race, and hopefully, by the time you hand it off you're a little further ahead, you've made a little progress. And I can say that we've done that, and I want to make sure that handoff is well-executed, because ultimately we're all on the same team.

All right? Thank you very much, everybody. (Applause.)

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President Obama Speaks on the Results of the Election: "We Are Americans First"

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The President addressed the nation on the election results and the next steps we can take to come together as a country and ensure a peaceful transition of power. This is something every American should watch -- no matter his or her politics.

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Article: The Founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement

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Article: The Founders of the Black Lives Matter Movement

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On July 13, 2013, a jury in Sanford, Florida acquitted George Zimmerman of murder charges after he'd shot a Black teenager named Trayvon Martin as he walked home from a convenience store. His killing and subsequent verdict sparked protests and outrage across the United States.

When the verdict came out, Alicia Garza, a Black and queer political organizer based in California's Bay Area, took to Facebook to express her feelings. She wrote a series of posts titled "A Love Letter to Black People," which included her writing that "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter... stop giving up on black life." At the conclusion of her post, Garza ended with an affirmation: "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter."

Patrisse Cullors, a fellow activist who lived in Los Angeles and had met Garza at a conference for the Black Leadership for Organizing and Dignity, modified and summarized the message in the comments of the post: #BlackLivesMatter. At the time, her friend wasn't all that familiar with the platform.

"I thought it was a pound sign!" Garza later admitted. "She broke down what hashtags are to me. And that's how #BlackLivesMatter was born."

The next day, they reached out to another fellow activist, Opal Tometi, who focused on immigration issues. She was more in-tune with social media, which had become a place for activism during the Tahrir Square uprising in Egypt and Occupy Wall Street in New York several years prior. Tometi began to post #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter and Tumblr, set up accounts for the nascent movement and began to engage with the public.

Seven years later, in the summer of 2020, #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for tens of millions of Americans who broke into protests across the nation, demanding justice for the victims of police executions, an end to systemic racism and equity and equality for Black people.

Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for The New York Women's Foundation

#BlackLivesMatter didn't go viral right away

Though it's now ubiquitous, used by politicians, celebrities, TV networks and corporations alike, #BlackLivesMatter wasn't an immediate sensation or rallying cry. It was tweeted just 5,106 times during the second half of 2013, which works out to about 30 times per day.

Just over a year later, in August 2014, everything changed. A Black teenager named Michael Brown was shot and killed in the street by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Compounding the tragedy and injustice was the fact that Brown's body was left out in the street by police for hours.

Protests broke out between the local Black community and the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter began to circulate on Twitter even before its three originators arrived on the scene with the 600 activists and protestors that Cullors and fellow activist Darnell Moore organized for a bus trip to the city.

They later reflected on the ride in an article for The Guardian:

"The ride was a call to action for Black people and their allies to fight for justice - not just for Brown and his family, but for all of us. It was a tangible example of self-determination in the face of anti-Black violence on the part of Ferguson residents and those of us who traveled from across the country to join them."

Over the next few weeks, the hashtag was used 58,747 times per day, an astronomical increase and a portent of things to come.

When a grand jury opted not to press charges against Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Brown, the phrase became a rallying cry truly heard and amplified around the nation. On November 25, the day after the decision came down, #BlackLivesMatter was used over 170,000 times, then over 1.7 million over the next few weeks.

Protestors chanted "Black Lives Matter" in Ferguson as the city erupted into chaos, with even more fervent and urgent demonstrations that saw offshoots turn violent in expressions of pure despair and anger. It was a refrain heard in protests in cities nationwide, as well, both after the Ferguson decision and other attacks against Black Americans in the years that followed.

By the end of 2014, #BlackLivesMatter had hit the "mainstream," which is to say that it had gotten the attention of white leaders. Hillary Clinton cited the phrase in a speech she gave that December, it appeared in a Law & Order episode and was named "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society.

Photos; Rich Fury/Getty Images for Teen Vogue; John Lamparski/Getty Images; Sam Morris/Getty Images

Eventually, the hashtag turned into a larger movement

At that point, Black Lives Matter became more than a hashtag or rallying cry. It was really an umbrella term for a larger movement, which began to move in different directions, with different strategies. As put it in 2016, "The phrase is as much a mantra as a particular organization, with the general public lumping numerous groups under the Black Lives Matter banner, even if they are not officially connected."

"People were hungry to galvanize their communities to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people, the way Ferguson organizers and allies were doing," Cullors wrote in 2016. "Soon after [Ferguson], Opal, Alicia, Darnell and I helped create the BLM network infrastructure. It is adaptive and decentralized with a set of guiding principles. Our goal is to support the development of new Black leaders as well as create a network where Black people feel empowered to determine our destinies in our communities."

Some groups became involved in local politics, while others focused on more national campaigns and politicians. As a result, Black Lives Matter as an official organization became quite decentralized - it now has over 40 chapters across the country, each of which runs its own campaigns and focuses on local issues.

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How Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi Created the Black Lives Matter Movement

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On July 13, 2013, a jury in Sanford, Florida acquitted George Zimmerman of murder charges after he'd shot a Black teenager named Trayvon Martin as he walked home from a convenience store. His killing and subsequent verdict sparked protests and outrage across the United States.

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Facts: The Gender Wage Gap and Equal Pay

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Facts: The Gender Wage Gap and Equal Pay

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This fact sheet defines the gender wage gap, identifies what drives it, and quantifies its impact on women and their families.

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Biographies: Sports Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement

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Biographies: Sports Heroes of the Civil Rights Movement

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The Most Politically Outspoken Black Athletes of All Time

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In honor of MLK Day, take a look at how black athletes and the way they voice their political views has changed over the years.

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In the 1940's Mexican-Americans in the Los Angeles area borrowed from the fashion being worn in New York by Black musicians like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.

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Dates and Timeline of the Events in the Civil Rights Movement

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Dates and Timeline of the Events in the Civil Rights Movement

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Article: The US Women's Soccer Team and Equal Pay (Women's Rights)

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Article: The US Women's Soccer Team and Equal Pay (Women's Rights)

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​The U.S. women's national soccer team (USWNT) is known for winning games, championships and gold medals. But their greatest victory may have come off the field.

In February, the USWNT settled their class-action lawsuit over unequal pay and treatment against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) for $24 million, the two sides announced in a joint statement. Per the settlement, the players will receive a lump-sum payment of $22 million, which will be distributed among the USWNT.

An additional $2 million will be put into an account to benefit the USWNT players in their post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women's and girls' soccer. The USSF will also begin paying men and women equally in all tournaments and exhibition games.

Players view the settlement as a victory for gender equality.

"For us, this is a huge win in ensuring that we not only right the wrongs of the past but set the next generation up for something that we could only have dreamed of," Megan Rapinoe, a USWNT player, told NBC's "Today" show.

On Twitter, the USWNT Players' Association applauded the players and their litigation team "on their historic success in fighting decades of discrimination perpetuated by the US Soccer Federation."

However, The New York Times reported that the settlement is contingent on the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement for the USWNT and USSF. This process could take months, as the USSF seeks a single contract proposal that covers both the men's and women's teams.

A 'Rollercoaster' Process

The USWNT's battle for equal pay began in 2016, when multiple players filed a case with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the USSF over wage discrimination and unequal working conditions.

Their lawsuit alleged that U.S. female soccer players were paid less than male players despite superior performance on the field. For example, the women's team was paid nearly $2 million in bonuses after winning the World Cup in 2015, while the men's team was awarded more than $5 million despite being eliminated in their tournament, the lawsuit claims.

In 2020, a judge dismissed the equal pay portion of the lawsuit due to structural differences in men's and women's player contracts. The players appealed in 2021, noting that the judge had not looked at rates of pay and that receiving bonuses was tied to winning games.

In the end, the USWNT emerged victorious.

"I'm not a big fan of rollercoasters, in real life or figuratively," Rapinoe told ESPN, speaking to the highs and lows of winning the lawsuit. "I did think we would get to this point, 100 percent. I did think we would win all along in this. This is a win for us. And this is a win for the for the players for the next generation, for women's players around the world."

Addressing Equal Pay

Pay inequity has also been a problem on a different type of playing field: the workplace.

Women have long been paid less than men. In 2022, women earn 82 cents for every $1 men earn when comparing all women to all men, according to data from the software firm Payscale. For women of color, the gap is even larger.

Sixty-six percent of employers plan to address pay equity this year and over half said they plan to conduct either a gender- or race-based pay equity analysis, according to the Payscale report. But fewer than 1 in 4 companies said they are actively addressing their pay gaps.

Pay inequity can deteriorate a company's culture, creating a toxic atmosphere that makes it difficult for an organization to recruit and retain talent. It can also lead to lower lifetime pay and higher rates of poverty among women.

"Pay equity is one way that companies can demonstrate that they respect and value individuals, their skills and expertise," said Irina Konstantinovsky, executive vice president, chief human resources officer and chief diversity officer for the biopharmaceutical company Horizon Therapeutics. "And when people feel valued and respected, we have found that they bring their best thinking to everything they do."

In 2020, the Society for Human Resource Management outlined the importance of pay equity, how equal pay improves company culture and a list of best practices for fair pay. In 2021, the organization commissioned a report detailing the latest trends in pay equity.

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The Fight for Equal Pay: From Women's Soccer to Corporate America

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​The U.S. women's national soccer team (USWNT) is known for winning games, championships and gold medals. But their greatest victory may have come off the field. In February, the USWNT settled their class-action lawsuit over unequal pay and treatment against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) for $24 million, the two sides announced in a joint statement.

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News Video: Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill 

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News Video: Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill 

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Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill sparks debate over LGBTQ rights for students, parents

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Emmett Louis Till (1941-1955) [Children’s Edition] •

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BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

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Facts: Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson Confirmed

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Facts: Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson Confirmed

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Ketanji Brown Jackson ( ; born Ketanji Onyika Brown; September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer, politician and judge. She is the Associate Justice-designate of the Supreme Court of the United States since April 7, 2022.

Jackson is the Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021. She was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 until 2021. She was nominated to the court by President Barack Obama. From 2010 until 2014, Jackson was Vice Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission.

In March 2021, President Joe Biden nominated her to be a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. On June 14, 2021, the United States Senate confirmed Jackson in a 53-44 vote.

In February 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Jackson to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by a 53-47 vote in April 2022. She is the first black woman to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.

Jackson was born Ketanji Onyika Brown on September 14, 1970, in Washington, D.C. Her father, Johnny Brown, was an attorney for public schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Her mother, Ellery, was a school principal in Miami, Florida. Jackson grew up in Miami, Florida.

After high school, Jackson studied government at Harvard College. She graduated in 1992 with an A.B. She also performed improv comedy and took classes in drama while at Harvard.

Jackson worked as a staff reporter and researcher for magazine from 1992 to 1993. She graduated in 1996 from Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor cum laude.

Legal career

Jackson began working as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. She also clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1999 to 2000. Jackson worked in private legal practice from 2000 to 2003.

On July 23, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Jackson to become vice chair of the United States Sentencing Commission. The U.S. Senate confirmed Jackson on February 11, 2010. Jackson was on the Sentencing Commission until 2014. During her time, she helped reduce sentences for people charged with drug offenses.

District court (2013-2021)

On September 20, 2012, Obama nominated Jackson to be a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

On February 14, 2013, her nomination was reported to the full Senate by voice vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was confirmed by the full Senate by voice vote on March 22, 2013. Her time in this court was known for ruling against executive decision made by the Trump administration.

Court of Appeals (2021-present)

On March 30, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his plans to nominate Jackson to be a United States circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to replace Merrick Garland. On April 19, 2021, her nomination was sent to the Senate.

On April 28, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During her confirmation hearing, some senators questioned her about her rulings against former President Donald Trump. The committee supported her nomination with a 13-9 vote. On June 14, 2021, the United States Senate confirmed Jackson in a 53-44 vote.

Supreme Court (since 2022)

Nomination and confirmation

Jackson was seen as a possible Supreme Court Justice nominee since Joe Biden was elected president. On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden announced he would nominate Jackson to the United States Supreme Court, replacing retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

On February 28, 2022, her nomination was sent to the United States Senate. After the Judiciary Committee vote ended in an 11-11 vote tie, her nomination was advanced on April 4 by a 53-47 procedural vote in the Senate to discharge the committee deadlock vote. This was first time that the Senate has discharged the Judiciary Committee from consideration of a Supreme Court nomination since 1853. Jackson was confirmed by the Senate, 53-47, on April 7, 2022, to replace Breyer. She will become the first black woman on the Supreme Court. She will also be the first Supreme Court justice to have been a public defender. Jackson will be sworn-in as Associate Justice at the start of the Supreme Court's 2022-2023 term on October 3, 2022.

Personal life

In 1996, Jackson married Patrick G. Jackson. He is the twin brother of former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's brother-in-law. They have two daughters.

Images for kids

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Ketanji Brown Jackson ( ; born Ketanji Onyika Brown; September 14, 1970) is an American lawyer, politician and judge. She is the Associate Justice-designate of the Supreme Court of the United States since April 7, 2022. Jackson is the Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 2021.

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Rosa Parks' Early Life

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona McCauley, to Pine Level, Alabama, at age 2 to reside with Leona's parents. Her brother, Sylvester, was born in 1915, and shortly after that her parents separated.

Did you know? When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, it wasn't the first time she'd clashed with driver James Blake. Parks stepped onto his very crowded bus on a chilly day 12 years earlier, paid her fare at the front, then resisted the rule in place for Black people to disembark and re-enter through the back door. She stood her ground until Blake pulled her coat sleeve, enraged, to demand her cooperation. Parks left the bus rather than give in.

Rosa's mother was a teacher, and the family valued education. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11 and eventually attended high school there, a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers' College for Negroes. She left at 16, early in 11th grade, because she needed to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother. In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who worked as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP). He supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school diploma, which she ultimately did the following year.

Rosa Parks: Roots of Activism

Raymond and Rosa, who worked as a seamstress, became respected members of Montgomery's large African American community. Co-existing with white people in a city governed by " Jim Crow " (segregation) laws, however, was fraught with daily frustrations: Black people could attend only certain (inferior) schools, could drink only from specified water fountains and could borrow books only from the "Black" library, among other restrictions.

Although Raymond had previously discouraged her out of fear for her safety, in December 1943, Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and became chapter secretary. She worked closely with chapter president Edgar Daniel (E.D.) Nixon. Nixon was a railroad porter known in the city as an advocate for Black people who wanted to register to vote, and also as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Is Arrested

On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Black residents of Montgomery often avoided municipal buses if possible because they found the Negroes-in-back policy so demeaning. Nonetheless, 70 percent or more riders on a typical day were Black, and on this day Rosa Parks was one of them.

Segregation was written into law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for Black citizens. However, it was only by custom that bus drivers had the authority to ask a Black person to give up a seat for a white rider. There were contradictory Montgomery laws on the books: One said segregation must be enforced, but another, largely ignored, said no person (white or Black) could be asked to give up a seat even if there were no other seat on the bus available.

Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated "white" section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the "colored" section to stand, in effect adding another row to the "white" section. The three others obeyed. Parks did not.

"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired," wrote Parks in her autobiography, "but that isn't true. I was not tired physically... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Eventually, two police officers approached the stopped bus, assessed the situation and placed Parks in custody.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Although Parks used her one phone call to contact her husband, word of her arrest had spread quickly and E.D. Nixon was there when Parks was released on bail later that evening. Nixon had hoped for years to find a courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity to become the plaintiff in a case that might become the test of the validity of segregation laws. Sitting in Parks' home, Nixon convinced Parks-and her husband and mother-that Parks was that plaintiff. Another idea arose as well: The Black population of Montgomery would boycott the buses on the day of Parks' trial, Monday, December 5. By midnight, 35,000 flyers were being mimeographed to be sent home with Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott.

On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. Meanwhile, Black participation in the boycott was much larger than even optimists in the community had anticipated. Nixon and some ministers decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-new to Montgomery and just 26 years old-as the MIA's president.

As appeals and related lawsuits wended their way through the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Montgomery Bus Boycott engendered anger in much of Montgomery's white population as well as some violence, and Nixon's and Dr. King's homes were bombed. The violence didn't deter the boycotters or their leaders, however, and the drama in Montgomery continued to gain attention from the national and international press.

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional; the boycott ended December 20, a day after the Court's written order arrived in Montgomery. Parks-who had lost her job and experienced harassment all year-became known as "the mother of the civil rights movement."

Rosa Parks's Life After the Boycott

Facing continued harassment and threats in the wake of the boycott, Parks, along with her husband and mother, eventually decided to move to Detroit, where Parks' brother resided. Parks became an administrative aide in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. in 1965, a post she held until her 1988 retirement. Her husband, brother and mother all died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, to serve Detroit's youth.

In the years following her retirement, she traveled to lend her support to civil-rights events and causes and wrote an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story. In 1999, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian. (Other recipients have included George Washington, Thomas Edison, Betty Ford and Mother Teresa.) When she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation's history to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

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Rosa Parks: Bus Boycott, Civil Rights & Facts | HISTORY

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Rosa Parks (1913-2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

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Video: Stacey Abrams and Voting Rights Today

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Video: Stacey Abrams and Voting Rights Today

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Five things you should know about Stacey Abrams

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Civil Rights Activists Test Supreme Court Decision

The 1961 Freedom Rides, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), were modeled after the organization's 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. During the 1947 action, African American and white bus riders tested the 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Morgan v. Virginia that found segregated bus seating was unconstitutional.

The 1961 Freedom Rides sought to test a 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation of interstate transportation facilities, including bus terminals, was unconstitutional as well. A big difference between the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation and the 1961 Freedom Rides was the inclusion of women in the later initiative.

In both actions, Black riders traveled to the Jim Crow South-where segregation continued to occur-and attempted to use whites-only restrooms, lunch counters and waiting rooms.

John Lewis

The original group of 13 Freedom Riders-seven African Americans and six whites-left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961. Their plan was to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, on May 17 to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation of the nation's public schools was unconstitutional.

The group traveled through Virginia and North Carolina, drawing little public notice. The first violent incident occurred on May 12 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. John Lewis, an African American seminary student and member of the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), white Freedom Rider and World War II veteran Albert Bigelow and another Black rider were viciously attacked as they attempted to enter a whites-only waiting area.

The next day, the group reached Atlanta, Georgia, where some of the riders split off onto a Trailways bus.

Did you know? John Lewis, one of the original group of 13 Freedom Riders, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1986. Lewis, a Democrat, continued to represent Georgia's 5th Congressional District, which includes Atlanta, until his death in 2020.

Freedom Riders Face Bloodshed in Alabama

On May 14, 1961, the Greyhound bus was the first to arrive in Anniston, Alabama. There, an angry mob of about 200 white people surrounded the bus, causing the driver to continue past the bus station.

The mob followed the bus in automobiles, and when the tires on the bus blew out, someone threw a bomb into the bus. The Freedom Riders escaped the bus as it burst into flames, only to be brutally beaten by members of the surrounding mob.

The second bus, a Trailways vehicle, traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, and those riders were also beaten by an angry white mob, many of whom brandished metal pipes. Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner Bull Connor stated that, although he knew the Freedom Riders were arriving and violence awaited them, he posted no police protection at the station because it was Mother's Day.

Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied riders appeared on the front pages of newspapers throughout the country and around the world the next day, drawing international attention to the Freedom Riders' cause and the state of race relations in the United States.

Following the widespread violence, CORE officials could not find a bus driver who would agree to transport the integrated group, and they decided to abandon the Freedom Rides. However, Diane Nash, an activist from the SNCC, organized a group of 10 students from Nashville, Tennessee, to continue the rides.

U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy, began negotiating with Governor John Patterson of Alabama and the bus companies to secure a driver and state protection for the new group of Freedom Riders. The rides finally resumed, on a Greyhound bus departing Birmingham under police escort, on May 20.

Federal Marshals Called In

The violence toward the Freedom Riders was not quelled-rather, the police abandoned the Greyhound bus just before it arrived at the Montgomery, Alabama, terminal, where a white mob attacked the riders with baseball bats and clubs as they disembarked. Attorney General Kennedy sent 600 federal marshals to the city to stop the violence.

The following night, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led a service at the First Baptist Church in Montgomery, which was attended by more than one thousand supporters of the Freedom Riders. A riot ensued outside the church, and King called Robert Kennedy to ask for protection.

Kennedy summoned the federal marshals, who used tear gas to disperse the white mob. Patterson declared martial law in the city and dispatched the National Guard to restore order.

Kennedy Urges 'Cooling Off' Period

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders departed Montgomery for Jackson, Mississippi. There, several hundred supporters greeted the riders. However, those who attempted to use the whites-only facilities were arrested for trespassing and taken to the maximum-security penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi.

That same day, U.S. Attorney General Kennedy issued a statement urging a "cooling off" period in the face of the growing violence:

"A very difficult condition exists now in the states of Mississippi and Alabama. Besides the groups of 'Freedom Riders' traveling through these states, there are curiosity seekers, publicity seekers and others who are seeking to serve their own causes, as well as many persons who are traveling because they must use the interstate carriers to reach their destination.

In this confused situation, there is increasingly possibility that innocent persons may be injured. A mob asks no questions.

A cooling off period is needed. It would be wise for those traveling through these two Sites to delay their trips until the present state of confusion and danger has passed and an atmosphere of reason and normalcy has been restored."

During the Mississippi hearings, the judge turned and looked at the wall rather than listen to the Freedom Riders' defense-as had been the case when sit-in participants were arrested for protesting segregated lunch counters in Tennessee. He sentenced the riders to 30 days in jail.

Attorneys from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP), a civil rights organization, appealed the convictions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed them.

Desegregating Travel

The violence and arrests continued to garner national and international attention, and drew hundreds of new Freedom Riders to the cause.

The rides continued over the next several months, and in the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals.

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Freedom Riders - Facts, Timeline & Significance | HISTORY

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Freedom Riders were groups of white and African American civil rights activists who participated in Freedom Rides, bus trips through the American South in 1961 to protest segregated bus terminals.

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Video: Recent News About Emmet Till's Case

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Family of Emmett Till speaks out on his 1955 murder l WNT

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Nearly a century after the Confederacy's guns fell silent, the racial legacies of slavery and Reconstruction continued to reverberate loudly throughout Alabama in 1965. On March 7, 1965, when then-25-year-old activist John Lewis led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama and faced brutal attacks by oncoming state troopers, footage of the violence collectively shocked the nation and galvanized the fight against racial injustice.

The passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 months earlier had done little in some parts of the state to ensure African Americans of the basic right to vote. Perhaps no place was Jim Crow's grip tighter than in Dallas County, Alabama, where African Americans made up more than half of the population, yet accounted for just 2 percent of registered voters.
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For months, the efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to register Black voters in the county seat of Selma had been thwarted. In January 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., came to the city and gave the backing of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) to the cause. Peaceful demonstrations in Selma and surrounding communities resulted in the arrests of thousands, including King, who wrote to the New York Times, "This is Selma, Alabama. There are more negroes in jail with me than there are on the voting rolls."
READ MORE: Civil Rights Movement Timeline
The rising racial tensions finally bubbled over into bloodshed in the nearby town of Marion on February 18, 1965, when state troopers clubbed protestors and fatally shot 26-year-old Jimmie Lee Jackson, an African American demonstrator trying to protect his mother, who was being struck by police.

In response, civil rights leaders planned to take their cause directly to Alabama Governor George Wallace on a 54-mile march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery. Although Wallace ordered state troopers "to use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march," approximately 600 voting rights advocates set out from the Brown Chapel AME Church on Sunday, March 7.

King, who had met with President Lyndon Johnson two days earlier to discuss voting rights legislation, remained back in Atlanta with his own congregation and planned to join the marchers en route the following day. By a coin flip, it was determined that Hosea Williams would represent the SCLC at the head of the march along with Lewis, an SNCC chairman and future U.S. congressman from Georgia.

The demonstrators marched undisturbed through downtown Selma, where the ghosts of the past constantly permeated the present. As they began to cross the steel-arched bridge spanning the Alabama River, the marchers who gazed up could see the name of a Confederate general and reputed grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, Edmund Pettus, staring right back at them in big block letters emblazoned across the bridge's crossbeam.

Once Lewis and Williams reached the crest of the bridge, they saw trouble on the other side. A wall of state troopers, wearing white helmets and slapping billy clubs in their hands, stretched across Route 80 at the base of the span. Behind them were deputies of county sheriff Jim Clark, some on horseback, and dozens of white spectators waving Confederate flags and giddily anticipating a showdown. Knowing a confrontation awaited, the marchers pressed on in a thin column down the bridge's sidewalk until they stopped about 50 feet away from the authorities.

"It would be detrimental to your safety to continue this march," Major John Cloud called out from his bullhorn. "This is an unlawful assembly. You have to disperse, you are ordered to disperse. Go home or go to your church. This march will not continue."

"Mr. Major," replied Williams, "I would like to have a word, can we have a word?"

"I've got nothing further to say to you," Cloud answered.

Williams and Lewis stood their ground at the front of the line. After a few moments, the troopers, with gas masks affixed to their faces and clubs at the ready, advanced. They pushed back Lewis and Williams. Then the troopers' pace quickened. They knocked the marchers to the ground. They struck them with sticks. Clouds of tear gas mixed with the screams of terrified marchers and the cheers of reveling bystanders. Deputies on horseback charged ahead and chased the gasping men, women and children back over the bridge as they swung clubs, whips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire. Although forced back, the protestors did not fight back.

Lewis later testified in court that he was knocked to the ground and a state trooper then hit him in the head with a nightstick. When Lewis shielded his head with a hand, the trooper hit Lewis again as he tried to get up.

Weeks earlier, King had scolded Life magazine photographer Flip Schulke for trying to assist protestors knocked to the ground by authorities instead of snapping away. "The world doesn't know this happened because you didn't photograph it," King told Schulke, according to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Race Beat.

This time, however, television cameras captured the entire assault and transformed the local protest into a national civil rights event. It took hours for the film to be flown from Alabama to the television network headquarters in New York, but when it aired that night, Americans were appalled at the sights and sounds of " Bloody Sunday."
READ MORE: When Did African Americans Get the Right to Vote?
Around 9:30 p.m., ABC newscaster Frank Reynolds interrupted the network's broadcast of "Judgment at Nuremberg"-the star-studded movie that explored Nazi bigotry, war crimes and the moral culpability of those who followed orders and didn't speak out against the Holocaust-to air the disturbing, newly arrived footage from Selma. Nearly 50 million Americans who had tuned into the film's long-awaited television premiere couldn't escape the historical echoes of Nazi storm troopers in the scenes of the rampaging state troopers. "The juxtaposition struck like psychological lightning in American homes," wrote Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff in The Race Beat.

The connection wasn't lost in Selma, either. When his store was finally empty of customers, one local shopkeeper confided to Washington Star reporter Haynes Johnson about the city's institutional racism, "Everybody knows it's going on, but they try to pretend they don't see it. I saw 'Judgment at Nuremberg' on the Late Show the other night and I thought it fits right in; it's just like Selma."

Outrage at "Bloody Sunday" swept the country. Sympathizers staged sit-ins, traffic blockades and demonstrations in solidarity with the voting rights marchers. Some even traveled to Selma where two days later King attempted another march but, to the dismay of some demonstrators, turned back when troopers again blocked the highway at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Finally, after a federal court order permitted the protest, the voting rights marchers left Selma on March 21 under the protection of federalized National Guard troops. Four days later, they reached Montgomery with the crowd growing to 25,000 by the time they reached the capitol steps.

The events in Selma galvanized public opinion and mobilized Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, which President Johnson signed into law on August 6, 1965. Today, the bridge that served as the backdrop to "Bloody Sunday" still bears the name of a white supremacist, but now it is a symbolic civil rights landmark.
READ MORE: The MLK Graphic Novel That Inspired John Lewis and Generations of Civil Rights Activists

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How Selma's 'Bloody Sunday' Became a Turning Point in the Civil Rights Movement | HISTORY

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The assault on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama helped lead to the Voting Rights Act.

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Angel Island- Chinese and Japanese Internment and Detention Center in the SF Bay

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Angel Island- Chinese and Japanese Internment and Detention Center in the SF Bay

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Locally, segregation started as early as 1910 at Angel Island.

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Located in San Francisco Bay, the Angel Island Immigration Station served as the main immigration facility on the West Coast of the United States from 1910 to 1940. Many immigrants from China or other Asian countries were detained there for extended periods thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and other discriminatory immigration laws.

The Chinese Exclusion Era

Immigrants from China began arriving en masse in the United States in the wake of the Gold Rush. Some worked as miners; others got jobs on farms, in textile factories, or building the transcontinental railroad. At the time, the federal government did little to regulate immigration, instead leaving it up to the states. But with the growing influx of immigrants from both Europe and Asia, federal authorities decided to step in, especially after an economic downturn in the 1870s led many Americans to blame immigrant workers for their misfortunes.

Due to the growing strength of the eugenics movement-which feared the "contamination" of the white race by other races or ethnicities-Chinese immigrants were seen as a much greater threat than those from Ireland or Germany. In 1875, Congress passed the Page Act, which blocked entry to Chinese, Japanese and other Asian laborers brought involuntarily to the United States, as well as Asian women brought for the purposes of prostitution.

The Page Act was followed by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese laborers from coming to the United States, limited immigration to those who already had relatives living in the country and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.
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Angel Island: 'Ellis Island' of the West?

Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, U.S. immigration officials were required to inspect each Chinese passenger who arrived via boat in San Francisco before they could be allowed on land. As this process often took more than a single day, passengers were initially detained on steamships anchored in the harbor for that purpose. In 1892, a building near the harbor was converted into a "detention shed," which often became overcrowded and unsanitary.

When Congress finally appropriated funds for the construction of an immigration facility in San Francisco, Angel Island was considered the ideal location. Historically home to the Miwok Native Americans, the 740-acre island had since housed a large Mexican cattle ranch and a U.S. military base. After numerous delays in the construction, the immigration station was hastily completed and opened on January 21, 1910 on the northeastern edge of Angel Island.

Though known as the "Ellis Island of the West," Angel Island functioned very differently from its New York counterpart. Ellis Island served as a processing center primarily for European immigrants, who were viewed as easily assimilable into American society and faced relatively few obstacles when it came to entering the United States.

By contrast, many of the immigrants who came through Angel Island were from Asian countries, primarily China, and were subject to long interrogations and detentions to prevent illegal entry.

How Things Worked at Angel Island

From 1910-40, an estimated 500,000 immigrants from 80 countries-including Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Canada, and Central and South America-were processed through Angel Island. The great majority came from China or other Asian countries, including Japan, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, Korea and Vietnam.

On arrival in San Francisco, a ship's passengers would be separated by nationality. Europeans and first-class passengers would have their papers processed aboard ship and be able to disembark. Asian immigrants and some other groups, including Mexicans and Russians, along with those who were thought to need quarantine for medical purposes, were sent to Angel Island.

The Chinese Exclusion Act and related laws allowed entry only to a few elite occupations, as well as children of U.S. citizens. Interrogators screened potential immigrants with detailed questions, including biographical information about their families and the homes where their relatives lived. Many immigrants went to great lengths, memorizing details about false identities as skilled workers or relatives of Chinese Americans. By one estimate, some 150,000 people illegally entered the United States as "paper sons" or "paper daughters" during the Chinese Exclusion era.

Authorities at Angel Island submitted immigrants to exhaustive interrogations to try and prevent this kind of illegal entry. While processing arrivals to Ellis Island normally took a few hours or a few days at most, immigrants could spend weeks, months or even years at Angel Island. Due to its isolated location it was thought to be escape-proof, like another nearby facility: Alcatraz.

Processing Center During World War II

In August 1940, a fire destroyed the main administration building on Angel Island, and the processing of immigrants was moved to the mainland. Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943, but continued to limit immigration from China to just 105 people per year until passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965.

During World War II, the U.S. military used the immigration station on Angel Island as a processing center for prisoners of war, as well as a detention center for hundreds of Japanese immigrants from Hawaii and the mainland United States.

Angel Island Poetry

Abandoned after the war, the buildings deteriorated until the 1970s, when the discovery of more than 200 poems in Chinese etched into the walls by long-ago immigrants inspired efforts to preserve Angel Island and commemorate its role in the history of Pacific immigration. The Angel Island Immigration Station, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997, was later renovated and opened to the public as a California state park.

Sources

Erika Lee and Judy Yung, Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America(Oxford University Press, 2010)

History of Angel Island Immigration Station, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Richard Lui, "Paper Sons." CNN, November 14, 2009.

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Angel Island Immigration Station - Facts, History & Legacy

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The Angel Island Immigration Station served as the main immigration facility on the West Coast of the United States from 1910 to 1940. Many immigrants from China or other Asian countries were detained there for extended periods thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and other discriminatory immigration laws.

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A Latina baseball hero in a time of Segregation

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A Latina baseball hero in a time of Segregation

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Margaret "Marge" Villa- A Latina baseball hero in a time of Segregation

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Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

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Editor’s Note: In Spring 2022, the Smithsonian celebrates America’s favorite pastime with two major exhibitions: Baseball: America’s Homerun at the Nation

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How the Chicano Movement Championed Mexican-American Identity and Fought for Change | HISTORY

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Chicano activists took on a name that had long been a racial slur—and wore it with pride.

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In 1970, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, several hundred demonstrators marched past the Stonewall Inn. It is considered the first Gay Pride march. At first, Pride demonstrations focused only on participants being proud to declare their identity. However, by the 1980s, members of the LGBT community began to use the events to call for more rights.

Gay Pride, or Pride, is now an annual celebration of LGBT identity. In many places Pride takes place in June to remember the Stonewall riots. Pride typically involves a series of events, such as concerts and social events. It often concludes with a parade involving marchers from the LGBT community and its supporters and colorful floats. In cities such as Paris, London, and San Francisco, Pride events usually attract several hundred thousand to more than a million celebrants every year.

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In 1970, on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, several hundred demonstrators marched past the Stonewall Inn. It is considered the first Gay Pride march. At first, Pride demonstrations focused only on participants being proud to declare their identity. However, by the 1980s, members of the LGBT community began to use the events to call for more rights.

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Video: WWII Internment Camps for Japanese-Americans

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Video: WWII Internment Camps for Japanese-Americans

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The Pearl Harbor attack caused a wave of nationalist resentment that had long-reaching effects on the Japanese-American population.

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Klu Klux Klan hoods; a short description

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Klu Klux Klan hoods; a short description

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They are also known as the 'KKK' and are a hate group that are mentioned in some of your biographies.

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Description

Founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan combated post-Civil War reforms and terrorized freed African Americans in the former Confederacy. Dormant for decades, by the mid-1920s a reconstructed Klan was again a powerful political force in both the South and the North, spreading hatred against African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. Klan membership plummeted after a series of scandals involving its leadership. Although never as powerful as it was in the 1920s, Klan organizations rose to oppose the growing civil rights movements of the 1950s and '60s.

associated institution

Ku Klux Klan

place made

United States

Physical Description

cloth (overall material)

Measurements

average spatial: 27 1/2 in x 11 1/2 in; 69.85 cm x 29.21 cm

ID Number

1992.0401.02

catalog number

1992.0401.02

accession number

1992.0401

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. Hoffman

subject

Fraternal Associations

Ku Klux Klan

See more items in

Political and Military History: Political History, Civil Rights Collection

Government, Politics, and Reform

American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith

Exhibition

American Democracy

Exhibition Location

National Museum of American History

Data Source

National Museum of American History

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Founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee, the Ku Klux Klan combated post-Civil War reforms and terrorized freed African Americans in the former Confederacy. Dormant for decades, by the mid-1920s a reconstructed Klan was again a powerful political force in both the South and the North, spreading hatred against African Americans, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews.

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This racist hate group has been in American history since 1865 and still exists. It's important to be aware of this since they were threatening and harming people of color in the Civil Rights era in increasing numbers of cases.  People had(/have) to deal with their hatred and violence just because of the color of their skin. They are also known as 'White Supremacists.'

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The First KKK (article) | Reconstruction | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Details on the Sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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Details on the Sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

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The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 Explained | This Day Forward | msnbc

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Profiles of Five Civil Rights Heroes and Leaders

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Profiles of Five Civil Rights Heroes and Leaders

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This video is 34 minutes long but can be viewed as chapters if you'd like to watch just a part of it.  The order of the chapters are:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rosa Parks
Thurgood Marshall
Ruby Bridges
Jackie Robinson

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Civil Rights Heroes for Kids | Leaders Who Changed America