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1865: Reconstruction, Emancipation and the 13th Amendment

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1865: Reconstruction, Emancipation and the 13th Amendment

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As the Civil War ended, formerly Confederate states reconstructed governments and societies while adjusting to a new ban of slavery imposed in the 13th Amendment and enforced in the Wade-Davis Bill. Emancipated slaves with newfound political and social opportunities would dramatically impact the post-war period.

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1868: Black Codes and the 14th Amendment

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1868: Black Codes and the 14th Amendment

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After the national emancipation of slaves, Southern States established Black Codes to regain control over African Americans. In response, the 14th Amendment was passed, explicitly extending citizenship to African Americans. Many Southerners passionately opposed this Amendment, and racial tension and violence increased.

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1870: 15th Amendment and the Right to Vote

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1870: 15th Amendment and the Right to Vote

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Despite having obtained complete citizenship in the 14th Amendment, black men were denied the right to vote on the grounds that, according to the Constitution, only white men reserved the privilege. Congress promptly closed this loophole in 1870 with the 15th Amendment.

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Though technically Constitutional, Jim Crow Laws allowed Southern states to manipulate federal law by enforcing separate but equal facilities for both blacks and whites, by taking advantage of a liberal interpretation of what exactly "equal" meant. Jim Crow Laws almost completely reversed the advancements of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, leaving newly emancipated slaves both disappointed and infuriated.

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The "blood fraction" laws of the early 18th century stated that anyone one eighth black or more was considered to be black. Homer Plessy, a man one eighth black and seven eighths white, and therefore legally black, was intentionally selected by the NAACP to sit in the white section of a train, receive criminal charges, and create a scandal around a law's injustice. The scheme was executed as intended, though failed to overturn the blood fraction laws.

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1909: Niagara Movement Convenes (Later NAACP)

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1909: Niagara Movement Convenes (Later NAACP)

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After a deadly race riot in the city of Springfield, a group of white liberals including Marry White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling, and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for meeting to discuss racial issues. The organization has been a prominent player in civil rights history, forcing change and justice through peaceful cooperation and non-violent civil disobedience.

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The Green Book was a travel guide published by Victor Hugo Green during the segregation era that listed a variety of businesses that would service African Americans, to make travel safe and comfortable for African Americans in this time period. Cognizant of the embarrasment of being turned away at business, and the constant danger of racial tension, this book provided African Americans with a safe alternative to spontaneous cross-country road trips.

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Backed by the NAACP and other plaintiffs, Oliver Brown sued the Topeka Kansas Board of Education, arguing that his daughter should be permitted to attend an all-white school significantly closer to his home than the all-black school across town. The Supreme Court unanimously concluded that any and all segregation is detrimental to a student's education, and to society as a whole. To note, the black and white public schools of Topeka were of almost identical quality, an anomaly of the time.

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After supposedly disrespecting a Southerner's wife while visiting his uncle, Chicago resident Emmett Till was brutally lynched in Money, Mississippi. Awareness of the horrors of lynching and corresponding outrage soon spread through the North as Emmett's mother, Mamie Till, held an open casket of her mutilated son.

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Montgomery Bus After End of Segregation in 1956

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Per Alabama state law, busses were segregated between black and white. In protest, Rosa Parks, another specially selected by the NAACP, deliberately sat in the white only section on a bus in Montgomery, and was soon arrested. The case quickly gained traction, and a boycott spearheaded by prominent civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr, eventually forced the city's bus system to desegregate their busses.

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African Americans Sit in a Previously All-White Section of a Bus

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1956: Browder v. Gayle and Appeals Rejected

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1956: Browder v. Gayle and Appeals Rejected

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Soon after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Supreme Court ruled segregated transportation illegal in the state of Alabama. Despite many appeals from Alabama and other states, the Court upheld their previous ruling.

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1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference  Formed (SCLC)

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1957: Southern Christian Leadership Conference  Formed (SCLC)

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Formed by Southern Ministers and local affiliates and spearheaded by Martin Luther King, Jr, the SCLC practiced peaceful protest and resistence to achieve their goals of racial equality and desegregation. The organization successfully organized and executed a multitude of campaigns, protests and marches, including the famous March on Washington.

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Desegregation with National Guard in Little Rock, Arkansas

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After segregation of schools was declared unconstitutional, southern states delayed the desegregation process as long as possible. Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was one of the first southern schools to desegregate, where the Little Rock Nine, nine black students, faced a month of rejection and required military support to enter the white school.

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1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Formed (SNCC)

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1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Formed (SNCC)

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In close collaboration with the SCLC, the SNCC incorporated young college students in peaceful, direct action protests. Gaining widespread support through the Greensboro Four sit in, the committee was soon established as a respectable way for young men and women to support the movement.

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The Greensboro Four Participate in a Sit-in in Greensboro, NC

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Four black college freshman sat down at a white only lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, dispite multiple attempts to remove them. Their actions gained national attention, inspiring other young men and women in southern cities to stage similar demonstrations, and jumpstarted the formation of the SNCC.

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Martin Luther King, Jr, Addresses the Crowd During the March on Washington

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In August of 1963, a quarter of a million people petitioned their duly elected government, frustrated by the inability of a gridlocked Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill. Dispite national hesitation to support the demonstration, as it may have turned violent and damaged support of the bill, the march was executed peacefully without violence and ended with Martin Luther King, Jr's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

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Participants in the Freedom Summer of 1964

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In the summer of 1964, major civil rights organizations arranged a movement regarding black voting rights. The movement was successful, and ended with a successful passing of the Civil Rights Act.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr, Shake Hands Sonn After Passing the Civil Rights Act

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The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and banned employment discrimination. The most important civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the act guaranteed equal treatment for every American regardless of race.

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Civil Rights Leaders Spearhead the March from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL

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1965: March from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL

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1965: March from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL

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A march from Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL, organized and executed by the SCLC, was intended to gain national attention and the eventual passable of a voting rights act. At first unsuccessful and violent, a third iteration of the march succeeded as participants arrived in Montgomery and prompted the passage of the eventual Voting Rights Act.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965

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The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted as a prerequisite to voting in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests, sponsorship, the grandfather clause and poll taxes. The Act ensured black voting registration and political power, rights they technically already possessed per the Fifteenth Amendment.