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1865

Description:
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery within the United States. This amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall exist within the United States. Prior to the ratification of this amendment, Lincoln recognized that the Emancipation Proclamation passed during the civil war (declared that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the states currently engaged in rebellion against the Union would be forever free) would have to be followed by a constitutional amendment in order to guarantee the abolishment of slavery. The North fought to preserve the union as well as end slavery. Although the 13th amendment did not end discrimination against those who had been enslaved, it did end slavery and began the long term goal of achieving equality for all Americans, which started the civil rights movement.

Key People:
President Lincoln is responsible for passing the 13th amendment which ended slavery.

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1868

Description:
The 14th amendment granted citizenship and equal civil rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the Civil War. The Civil War ended on May 9, 1865, but this did not stop southern states from passing laws that restricted the rights of former slaves. Congress responded with the 14th amendment which was designed to place limits on the power of states as well as protect civil rights. The 14th amendment impacted the civil rights movement because it was the first step taken to ensure that states guaranteed all people born or naturalized in the United States the rights granted by the Bill of Rights. If a state did not follow this amendment, that state would be punished by the federal government. This gave African Americans the courage to stand up for their rights.

Key People:
President Lincoln is responsible for passing the 14th amendment. Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio was the primary author of the first section of the 14th amendment.

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1870

Description:
The 15th amendment states that "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State." The 15th amendment would guarantee protection against racial discrimination in voting. Before the ratification of this amendment, poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud, and intimidation all turned African Americans away from the polls. African Americans were discriminated against and not allowed to vote even after the passage of the 14th amendment. The 15th amendment impacted the civil rights movement because it gave African Americans a voice in politics and empowered them to start speaking out against discrimination.

Key People:
President Grant was responsible for proposing the 15th amendment.

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1896

Description:
Plessy v. Ferguson was a  decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities. The decision was justified by explaining the facilities would be "separate but equal." This case was caused by an incident in 1892 in which African American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for Black people. Rather than make a court decision to desegregate public facilities, Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation by saying the separate facilities needed to be equal for whites and blacks. After this decision, however, the facilities remained unequal. Plessy v. Ferguson impacted the civil rights movement because The NAACP fought to end legal segregation since 1909 after the Plessey ruling legalized the separation of races.

Key People:
Homer Plessy caused the case by refusing to move his spot on a train for a white man. John Howard Ferguson was a lawyer who was a defendant in the case.

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1948

Description:
Executive Order 9981 was issued by President Truman. This executive order abolished discrimination "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin" in the United States Armed Forces, and led to the end of segregation in the services during the Korean War. Executive order 9981 was passed because the beatings and murders of recently returned African American World War 2 veterans in the South captured Truman's attention. This was a major achievement of the post-war civil rights movement because the event marked the first time a U.S. commander in chief had used an executive order to implement a civil rights policy. It became a crucial step toward inspiring other parts of American society to accept desegregation.

Key People:
President Truman is responsible for passing executive order 9981 to end segregation in the United States armed forces.

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1954

Description:
Sixty years after Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal" was unconstitutional under the equal Protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case was caused by an incident in 1951 when the public schools in Topeka, Kansas, refused to enroll the daughter of Oliver Brown at the school closest to their home. Instead it was required that she  ride a bus to a segregated black elementary school farther away. Striking down segregation in the nation's public schools provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement, making  advances in desegregating housing, public accommodations, and institutions of higher education.

Key People:
Oliver Brown and his daughter caused this case by being discriminated against and forced to go to a segregated school. Justice Earl Warren made ":Separate but Equal" unconstitutional.

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1955-1957

Description:
Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a public bus created the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which ultimately ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and a social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was an important event in the civil rights movement in the United States because it marked the primary action of African Americans fighting for equal rights.

Key People:
Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on the bus sparked the formation of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama.

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1957

Description:
The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. These students walked to school one day and caused the Little Rock Crisis, in which the nine students were prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. In response, Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the little rock nine into the school. The incident in little rock high school impacted the civil rights movement because it started the desegregation of public schools.

Key People:
Orval Faubus was the governor of Arkansas that that prevented the little rock nine from entering the school. President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to escort the little rock nine into school.

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1960-1965

Description:
The 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. The freedom rides were to test a 1960 Supreme Court decision that declared segregated facilities for interstate passengers illegal. The freedom rides and the violent reactions they provoked, impacted the civil rights movement by bringing to people's attention the problems with segregation and how it was not equal.

Key People:
James Farmer, John Lewis, Genevieve Hughes, Mae Frances Moultrie, Joseph Perkins, Charles Person, Ivor Moore, William E. Harbour, Joan Trumpauer Mullholland, and Ed Blankenheim were freedom riders.

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1963

Description:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remained committed to nonviolent protests against segregation. In 1963, he and some followers were jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for what local authorities judged to be an illegal march. The jailing of King, however, proved to be a milestone in the civil rights movement because most Americans believed King to have been jailed unjustly.

Key People:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed unjustly for what authorities judged to be an illegal march.

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1963

Description:
The purpose of the March on Washington  was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. About 200,000 blacks and whites took part in the peaceful march in Washington in support of the civil rights bill. The highlight of the demonstration was King's impassioned "I have a dream" speech which impacted the civil rights movement by appealing for the end of racial prejudice and ended with everyone in the crowd singing "We shall overcome."

Key People:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the March on Washington.

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1964

Description:
The civil rights act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote. The act also created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to prevent discrimination in the work place. This impacted the civil rights movement because the act was the strongest civil rights legislation since Reconstruction and invalidated the Southern Caste System.

Key People:
The act was first  proposed by President John  F. Kennedy. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the civil rights act of 1964

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1965

Description:
A voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol of Montgomery was met with beatings and tear gas in what became known as "bloody Sunday." Televised pictures of the violence proved a turning point in the civil rights movement. The national outrage moved President Johnson to send federal troops to protect king and other marchers in another attempt to petition the state government. As a result, congress passed the voting rights act in 1965.

Key People:
The march was led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams. The march was to bring attention to the injustice of Jimmie Lee Jackson's death due to the second degree manslaughter.

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1965

Description:
The voting Rights Act outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a necessity to vote. The murder of voting-rights activists in Mississippi and the attack by state troopers on peaceful marchers in Selma, Alabama, gained national attention and persuaded President Johnson and Congress to initiate meaningful and effective national voting rights legislation. One of the major goals of the Civil Rights Movement was to register voters across the South in order for African Americans to gain political power. The voting rights act of 1965 made this possible by breaking the barriers to allow African Americans to vote.

Key People:
President Johnson is responsible for signing the voting rights act of 1965.

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1965-1968

Description:
Shortly after the voting rights act of 1965, the arrest of a young black motorist by a white police in a black neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles sparked a 6 day race riot that killed 34 people and destroyed over 700 buildings. In spite of the protest, the race riot did not significantly improve the lives of the community's black population. While the revolt impacted the civil rights movement because it inspired the federal government to implement programs to address unemployment, education, healthcare, and housing under Lyndon B.

Key People:
Marquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white police, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

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1965/1968

Description:
The black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad preached black nationalism, separatism, and self-improvement. The movement had attracted thousands of followers by the time a young man became a convert while serving in prison. Leaving the prison in 1952, Malcom X criticized King as an Uncle Tom and advocated using violence. He was assassinated by black opponents in 1965. Malcom X wanted to go in the opposite direction of the civil rights movement by advocating the complete separation of African Americans from whites. He proposed that African Americans should return to Africa.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. broke with President Johnson over the Vietnam war because the war was beginning to drain money from social programs. In April 1968, King had been shot and killed by a white man in Memphis Tennessee. Massive riots erupted in 168 cities leaving at least 46 people dead. This impacted the civil rights movement by taking a step back in progress because the murder demonstrated growing white backlash among blue collar voters.

Key People:
Thomas Hagen is one of the assassins who killed Malcom X. James Earl Ray was convicted of assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.