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The American Civil War was a war fought between the Union (North) and the Confederacy (South). It started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.  In the end it was the Union, led by Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S Grant, that triumphed.  The conclusion of the war not only resulted in the freedom of 4 million slaves, but also initiated new changes throughout America.  For example, the first three of these postwar amendments accomplished the most radical and rapid social and political change in American history: the abolition of slavery (13th) and the granting of equal citizenship (14th) and voting rights (15th) to former slaves, all within a period of five years. (American Battlefield Trust, 2008)

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Plessy v. Ferguson was a U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding a case between Plessy, a mixed-race man who boarded a whites-only train car, and Ferguson. The case originated in 1892 as a challenge to Louisiana’s Separate Car Act (1890). The law required that all railroads operating in the state provide “equal but separate accommodations” for white and African American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the constitution. As a result, racial segregation became widespread in America under the guise of ‘equal but separate' facilities for whites and blacks.

Plessy argued that this act violated the Thirteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibited slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted full and equal rights of citizenship to African Americans (Duignan, 2022).

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(Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2014)

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Brown v. Board of Education was a case where the Supreme Court decided that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. This helped end racial segregation in public schools and establish the notion that ‘equal but separate’ facilities were not equal at all.Following Brown, many decisions were made by the supreme court to go against the ‘equal but separate’ doctrine that Plessy had established, unofficially overruling Plessy. (History.com Editors, 2009a)

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The March on Washington was a massive protest march for fair treatment and equal opportunity for Black Americans. Around 250,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Other than raising awareness about racial inequality in the states, the March on Washington was also where the major historical event of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” took place. The March on Washington successfully pressured then-president John F. Kennedy to propose the Civil Rights Bill that outlawed discrimination, including racism, in the States, which was approved in 1964. (History.com Editors, 2009b)

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The voting rights act of 1965 was a piece of federal legislation in the United States that enacted new policy and laws that prohibited the blatant racial discrimination policy at the time, that discouraged Black people to vote.  These racially charged acts included the mandatory literacy test that was a prerequisite to voting.  The 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson. The federal legislation outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War.  These included the literacy tests that were supposed to be a prerequisite to voting, but were acts of racial discrimination.

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2009 | Barack Obama is inaugurated as president

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2009 | Barack Obama is inaugurated as president

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On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the president of the United States. He is the first Black president in American history, marking a historical moment in the fight for Black Civil Rights in the States. At his inauguration ceremony, Obama remarked: “We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names”. (whitehouse.gov, 2013)

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American Battlefield Trust. (2008). A Brief Overview of the American Civil War. [online] Available at: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/brief-overview-american-civil-war#:~:text=The%20Civil%20War%20started%20because,had%20not%20yet%20become%20states.  [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

Duignan, B. Plessy v. Ferguson | Summary, Ruling, Background, & Impact | Britannica, (2022), viewed 9 Dec 2022.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Plessy-v-Ferguson-1896.

Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2014). Brown at 60 and Milliken at 40. [online] Available at: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/14/06/brown-60-milliken-40 [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

History.com Editors (2009a). Brown v. Board of Education. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

History.com Editors (2009b). March on Washington. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/march-on-washington [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

Mizelle, S. (2021). 56 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, lawmakers struggle to find common ground. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/06/politics/voting-rights-act-anniversary/index.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

NPR.org. (2009). Presidential Inauguration Of Barack Obama. [online] Available at: https://www.npr.org/series/99286923/presidential-inauguration-of-barack-obama [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

Nps.gov. (2015). Consequences - The Civil War (U.S. National Park Service). [online] Available at: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/consequences.htm#:~:text=The%20Civil%20War%20confirmed%20the,power%20in%20the%2020th%20century.  [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

Pruitt, S. (2018). Why the Civil War Actually Ended 16 Months After Lee Surrendered. [online] HISTORY. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].

‌whitehouse.gov. (2013). Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama. [online] Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/21/inaugural-address-president-barack-obama [Accessed 9 Dec. 2022].