Civil Rights Timeline by 2026Mary Suozzo

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

9960253 — 2024-02-22 19:00:21 UTC

As the Civil War ended, the Southern States had to reconstruct the 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.

1919 - Chicago Race Riot

9960253 — 2024-02-22 19:11:30 UTC

The race riots started when a police officer arrested a black man instead of a white man for the killing of a black kid at the beach. It lasted 8 days and 500 people were wounded. Out of the 38 dead, 23 were black. This event led to the Black Summer.

1921 - Tulsa Race Massacre

9960253 — 2024-02-22 19:22:03 UTC

A white woman was in an elevator and a black man whistled at her or stepped on her foot and he was arrested for rape. Black people came outside the courthouse with guns and a led massacre to occur. Black Wall Street lay in ruins by the end of it.

1955 - Emmett Till

9960253 — 2024-03-06 19:12:46 UTC

Emmett Till was a 14 year old black boy who gets 'dared' by his cousins to whistle at a white woman in a store in Money Mississippi. he is from the north and does not know any better as his girlfriend was white. The woman and her husband later shows up at his house and takes him and brutally kills hims after beating and shooting him. His body is found and they do not try to hide the fact they killed him because their friends on the jury say they are not guilty.

1954 - Brown vs. Board of Education

9960253 — 2024-03-15 18:24:59 UTC

NAACP sent Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown, sued the Topeka Board of Education and argued that his daughter should be able to attend the local all white school. Chief Justice of Supreme Court Earl Warren delivered the unanimous verdict of court that schools should be desegregated could occur calling all deliberate speed in the process.

1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott

9960253 — 2024-03-16 19:11:55 UTC

The boycott of the Montgomery busses began December 5th, 1955, the day of Rosa Parks trial, and lasted 381 days. Organized community efforts like night meetings and Black taxi service helped. Thurgood Marshall helped bring the case to the Supreme Court where bus segregation was deemed unconstitutional in December 1956.

1969 - The Stonewall Riots

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:30:53 UTC

At the Stonewall Inn, a mafia owned bar that exploited LGBTQ+ community, the Public Moral Squad police raided it in the middle of the night. They were doing gender checks and arrests and things got heated (the building caught on fire too). There was a full beat down until 4:00 am with up to 1000 people in assembly.

1892 - Plessy v Ferguson

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:31:06 UTC

Homer Plessy was arrested because he broke the Louisiana Separate Car act on purpose to show a point. The Plessy v Ferguson case declared segregation was okay under the idea of "separate but equal".

1895-1915 Booker T. Washington

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:31:21 UTC

Washington thought that problem of discrimination was that whites weren't impressed by blacks. He believed that the solution was that blacks should improve themselves. DuBois criticized this view and said that Washington was basically educating black people to be servants.

1865 - 13th Amendement

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:31:35 UTC

This amendment of the constitution meant that African Americans were emancipated and that it was not legal to own slaves anymore. It meant that legally, African Americans had to be payed to work.

1870 - 15th Amendment

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:31:42 UTC

This amendment to the constitution made it so that legally, African Americans had the right to vote. There were many unfair procedures that they would have to go through in order to actually vote, such as the grandfather laws, but the amendment said that voting was their constitutional right.

1957 - Little Rock 9

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:32:00 UTC

9 African Americans were enrolled in Little Rock Central High School. The morning of September 2, Governor Faubus of Arkansas ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent them from entering. It took them until September 23rd to finally get in the building and they still were treated awfully.

1960 - Greensboro 4

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:32:07 UTC

4 African Americans sat down at Woolworth's lunch counter, where they were not allowed to sit. They refused to get up and sat there all day. The next day they came back along with more African Americans in support of them and because of what had happened to Emmett Till. It was a defining moment for desegregation in public businesses.

1929-1968 MLK Jr.

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:32:22 UTC

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian minister that stood for equality from all. He believed in non violent protests and was a huge leader for racial equality. He led numerous marches and gave inspirational speeches that are famous today. MLK Jr. was assassinated at age 39.

1964 - Civil Rights Act

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:32:36 UTC

Alabama was the only state without desegregated school system but every state still held discrimination against people of color. LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which prohibited discrimination based on race.

1965 - Selma Bloody Sunday

9960253 — 2024-04-01 17:32:47 UTC

Bloody Sunday was a 50 mile march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama and the goal was to protest for voting rights for full voting rights. The people marching never got out of city limits and were viciously beaten by the police, some like James Reeb were even clubbed to death.

1965 - Voting Rights Act

9960253 — 2024-04-05 14:05:06 UTC

The law was passed the year after the march of Selma to Montgomery and Bloody Sunday. It eliminated illegal literacy tests and other rules that prevented black people from registering to vote. 9,000 blacks registered to vote that year.

1868-1963 W. E. B. DuBois

9960253 — 2024-04-05 14:13:38 UTC

DuBois believed that the problem at the base of discrimination is capitalism and government that caused that racial discrimination. He thought the solution was to develop a very talented 10% of blacks that would fight for the rights of the other 90%. Many believed that DuBois was arrogant and out of touch though. He left the US so he never even got to experience the movement.

1887-1940 Marcus Garvey

9960253 — 2024-04-05 14:16:03 UTC

Garvey believed that the problem of discrimination was that whites and blacks couldn't and wouldn't ever get along. His solution was to dorm separate communities. Garvey self declared himself "Provisional Resident of Africa" and stood by the expression of "Africa for Africans".

1868 - 14th Amendment

9960253 — 2024-04-05 14:37:26 UTC

This amendment to the constitution gave African Americans equal civil and legal rights and citizenship to the United States. This included slaves that had been freed and other African Americans.

1925-1965 Malcolm X

9960253 — 2024-04-05 14:48:03 UTC

Malcolm X was a Muslim minister that preached black civil rights by "any means necessary". He believed in violence if necessary and was very anti white. After spending time in jail his views changed and he believed more in integration and brotherhood. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965.