Civil Rights Timeline by 2026Annie Zink

1865 - Ratification of the 13th Amendment

9961634 — 2024-03-04 17:23:29 UTC

Establishes the abolition of slavery throughout the United States and says that forced labor can only be used as a punishment for breaking the law.

1865 - End of the American Civil War/Start of Reconstruction

9961634 — 2024-03-04 17:27:38 UTC

As the Civil War ended, the Southern States had to reconstruct government and society. The political and social rights of the millions of newly freed Americans would become an important part of the post war period.

1868 - Ratification of the 14th Amendment

9961634 — 2024-03-04 17:33:29 UTC

This amendement states that every person born in the United States has the right to a US citizenship.

1870 - Ratification of the 15th amendment

9961634 — 2024-03-04 17:35:52 UTC

Establishes that everyone has the right to vote and the right cannot be denied by any state in the nation.

1955 - The Funeral of Emmett Till

9961634 — 2024-03-06 17:36:48 UTC

Emmett Till was brutally lynched while visiting his uncle in Money, Mississippi. His mother chose to show the brutality he had faced by hosting an open casket funeral. Thousands of people attended, and saw his mangled body and he became a symbol for the Civil Rights movement.

2022 - The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Law

9961634 — 2024-03-06 17:39:17 UTC

Years and years after the murder of Emmett Till, a law was passed against lynching. The law defines that lynching is a hate crime and there are specific penalties under federal law if a lynching crime is committed.

1954 - Brown vs Board Ruling

9961634 — 2024-03-13 16:43:30 UTC

After years of bringing attention to the issue of how separate but equal was not always equal, the NAACP finally won a court case. Brown vs Board ruled that the segregated schooling system was unconstitutional and not equal. This was a step in the right direction, but enforcing the ruling created backlash and also made many African American teachers and principals lose their jobs.

1957 - Little Rock Nine

9961634 — 2024-03-15 16:18:59 UTC

In 1957, nine African American students planned to attend a non-integrated school in Little Rock, Arkansas. When they arrived at Central High School, they were met with a violent mob. The governor of Little Rock called in the national guard to stop the students from entering. This went on until President Eisenhower heard of it and ordered the national guard to protect the students. Though they still faced violence and discrimination, with the protection of the guard, they were able to attend and learn at the school.

1955 - The Montgomery Bus Boycotts

9961634 — 2024-03-19 17:10:59 UTC

The Montgomery Bus Boycotts spanned 382 days and were a widely planned act of peaceful protest. African Americans who lived in Montgomery, Alabama boycotted the public bus system for over a year to show that segregation on buses was not fair and that the law should be taken away. The activists worked together to commute places and the boycott was endorsed by important leaders such a as MLK Jr. It ended with the supreme court ruling that stated that segregation on public inter-city buses was unconstitutional, but the law was not necessarily enforced right away.

1960 - The Greensboro Sit-ins

9961634 — 2024-03-19 17:13:57 UTC

The Greensboro Sit-ins originated from the actions of four individuals in Greensboro, North Carolina. They went to their local diner and sat down at the counter to be served. The diner refused service, but the individuals kept coming back and peacefully sitting at the counter while waiting for service. They were met with violence, but the publicity that spread because of the sit-ins inspired many others to take the same actions.

1961 - The Freedom Rides

9961634 — 2024-03-21 00:42:18 UTC

A Northern group of protesters called CORE organized a group of individuals from every background and religion. They walked on to the interstate buses as an integrated group to challenge the segregation on interstate buses. They were met with violent mobs, and federal guards had to fly them to New Orleans to escape the violence. Diane Nash did not want the movement to fail so she started a second round. They were once again met with violence and ended up being put in jail where they practiced non-violence to show that they were protesting peacefully and seriously.

1963 - The Children's Crusade

9961634 — 2024-03-27 16:23:11 UTC

Children gathered in mass meetings to participate in a peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. They skipped school to march together and were met with around 30 policemen who violently attacked them. Around 1500 of the children were put in jail. This event is important because it angered many people who had formerly been ignoring the civil rights movement when they saw the mistreatment of the children.

1963 - The March on Washington

9961634 — 2024-03-27 16:28:09 UTC

Hundreds of thousands of people traveled from all over to demand the rights that the constitution said they should have. Black and white civil rights activists gathered in Washington D.C. and Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream speech." This movement was streamed on television and showed the power that peaceful protesting held. It also led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

February to August 1965 - The Selma Campaign

9961634 — 2024-03-27 16:36:35 UTC

The civil rights organization SNCC arrived in Selma, Alabama in 1963. They organized small events to help African Americans register to vote. Each time African Americans protested and stood up they faced extreme violence led by Sheriff Jim Clark. The SCLC also arrived in Selma and together they devised a plan to march from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights in the state capital. On the first attempt, the marchers were brutally attacked by police and state troopers. On the second attempt, marchers turned around because MLK felt they were going to be attacked again. Finally the march was successful. The marchers made it to Montgomery and MLK gave a speech. The campaign of this march and the amount of people that participated challenged the government and led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

9961634 — 2024-03-27 16:40:47 UTC

This act stated that the Federal Government could enforce that everyone had the right to vote and the voting process could not be interfered with. This act allowed African American voting percentages to rise as much as 50% and as little as 10% in the South. It also helped eliminate voting fraud from White Americans.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

9961634 — 2024-03-28 18:29:14 UTC

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 stated that no person could be discriminated against because of their race, religion, sex, nationality, or national origin. This act was a start to end segregation and helped make violence against African Americans less approved of. It was a step in the right direction, but as shown through the Selma march, African Americans still faced a lot of violence.

February 21st 1965 - Malcom X is assassinated

9961634 — 2024-04-02 16:57:41 UTC

Malcom X was preparing to deliver a speech at the Audabon Ballroom when he was shot 21 times. He was shot on stage and his wife and daughter watched him die. It is suspected that the FBI and CIA had information that could have prevented his death but they did not take action. The murderers who were arrested were presumed members of the Nation of Islam that Malcom X had left.

April 4th 1968 - Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated

9961634 — 2024-04-02 17:01:27 UTC

MLK Jr was visiting Memphis, Tennessee to support the Memphis sanitation workers who were on strike for better working conditions and pay. He was assassinated when he was back in his hotel room. Before he died he gave a speech about how America had failed to fulfill its promises of rights for everyone. He then addressed the crowd and said that he might not make it to the end, but he had seen the prize. MLK was receiving lots of death threats and assumed that he would probably die soon. His death caused anger all around the world because the leader of the civil rights movement who had preached for peace his whole life was killed out of violence.

June 5th 1968 - Robert Kennedy was assassinated

9961634 — 2024-04-02 17:06:15 UTC

On June fifth, 1968, Robert Kennedy was at the Ambassador Hotel. He was giving a speech addressing his supporters because he had just won the California primary election and he was projected to be the presidential candidate for his party. Kennedy's death was important because Kennedy supported the civil rights movement and when Nixon was elected as a result of his death he did not support the civil rights movement very much.