1700 - 1860 | 1861 - 1900 | 1901 - 1965 | 1966 - present

1901 - 1965

1905 - The Niagara Movement

W.E.B. du Bois organized a meeting of black intellectuals to discuss ways of combating racism, promising "organized, determined, and aggressive action" towards equality. They met in Niagara Falls, Canada, when hotels in Buffalo, New York, refused to serve them. Many attendees later joined the NAACP.

1910 - The NAACP

In New York City, a group of 60 black intellectuals and sympathetic whites met on Abraham Lincoln's 100th birthday to form a committee that became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

They fought racial prejudice by educating the public with pamphlets and speeches, and through lawsuits aimed at Jim Crow laws.

1915 - U.S. Supreme Court Voids Grandfather Clauses

Seven southern states had adopted a voting provision allowing persons who were eligible to vote in 1867 and their descendants to vote without taking a strict literacy test. This effectively excluded blacks (most of whose grandparents were slaves) from the polls.

Through the efforts of the NAACP, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled "grandfather clauses" unconstitutional.

1921 - "Queen Bessie"

Bessie Coleman was turned away from every flight school she applied to in America because of her sex and her race. At the suggestion of a friend, she studied French, and enrolled at the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. On June 15, she became the first black woman to earn a pilot's license, and the first person to receive an international pilot's license.

1936 - The Olympic Games in Berlin

Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler was certain the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, would showcase the superiority of the German athletes, legitimizing his claim of Aryan supremacy to the world.

Instead, Jesse Owens, an African-American track star from Ohio State University, won four gold medals in the 100-meter, 200-meter, the running broad jump, and the 400-meter-relay track events.

By the end of the Berlin games, ten African-Americans had won 13 medals, eight of them gold.

Click here to learn more about Jesse Owens.

1941 - The Fair Employment Practices Committee

A. Philip Randolph, civil rights leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, threatened to organize 50,000 protesters (on what would have been the first civil rights march on Washington, D.C.) unless job discrimination in the war industry ended.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, encouraged by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, ordered the integration of defense plants on June 25th, and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee to oversee color-blind hiring efforts.

1947 - Jackie Robinson Breaks the Baseball "Color Line"

Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed Jackie Robinson to a $600-a-month salary, making Robinson the first African-American player to integrate major-league baseball.

That same year, Robinson was named National League Rookie of the Year, and led the Dodgers to the World Series.

Click here to learn more about Jackie Robinson.

1950 - Pulitzer Prize Awarded to the First African-American Writer

Gwendolyn Brooks received a Pulitzer Prize for her second book of poetry, "Annie Allen." She lived on the South Side of Chicago and wrote about the day-to-day struggles of ordinary life in Chicago's black community.

Click here to read her poetry at www.poets.org.

1954 - Brown vs. The Board of Education

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that racial segregation in the public schools is unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote:

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott

Montgomery, Alabama had an ordinance that barred blacks (who accounted for 75% of the city's bus ridership) from riding in the front of public buses, and required them to give up their seat to any white left standing.

On December 1st, a seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white man. Local leaders in the black community organized a boycott of the public buses on the day of Mrs. Parks' trial to send a message to white officials and businessmen. The boycott lasted a year with almost all of Montgomery's 48,000 black citizens participating despite police harassment, conspiracy trials, and firebombings.

The Supreme Court ended the strike a year later when they ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

1957 - School Integration Crisis
in Little Rock

On September 1st, the day before nine black students were to attend the all-white Central High School in Arkansas for the first time, Governor Orval Faubus announced that he would not provide them with protection from segregationist mobs. The next day, the "Little Rock Nine" stayed home from school. When they tried to attend the following day, the Arkansas National Guard, armed with bayonets, turned them away.

On September 23rd, they were finally admitted, then sent home when riots broke. The police remained indifferent. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in federal troops to quell the violence.

After a year of integration, the city's schools were closed by Governor Faubus in another attempt to prevent integration, then re-opened in 1959 by court order.

Click here to learn more about the Little Rock Nine from the Knowledge Network Explorer website.

1960 - Lunch Counter Sit-Ins

On February 1st, Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Ezell Blair, Jr., four black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, sat at the lunch counter of the F.W. Woolworth Company store in Greensboro, and asked to be served. They were never served, although they sat and waited until closing time.

In two weeks' time, sit-ins were held in eleven cities. The strategy of the sit-ins was to remain non-violent and repectful, but not to move until they had been served. If they were arrested, another group of students would take their place. If they were served, they would move on to another lunch counter.

Students in the North began picketing local branches of the chain stores that were segregated in the South.

On February 27th, students at a Nashville, Tennessee, lunch counter were attacked by a group of white teenagers. When police arrived, the teenagers were let go while the protesters were arrested for "disorderly conduct."

On May 10th, Nashville began desegregating its public facilities.

1961 - Freedom Rides

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized an interracial group of bus riders to travel from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, Louisiana, with whites sitting in the back and blacks sitting in the front.

On May 14th, one bus met an angry mob of about 200 in Anniston, Alabama. The bus was stoned and their tires were slashed. While stopping to change tires six miles outside of town, the bus was firebombed.

The second group of Riders was severely beaten when they reached Birmingham, Alabama. The bus company, unwilling to risk any more of their buses or drivers, refused to drive them further. The Freedom Riders eventually flew the rest of the way to New Orleans.

On May 20th, after Attorney General Robert Kennedy pressured the Greyhound Bus Company to carry the Riders, another group of Freedom Riders left Birmingham, Alabama. They had the protection of the State Highway Patrol up until they reached the Birmingham city limits. At the Birmingham bus terminal a mob was waiting. Several Riders were severely beaten, including Justice Department official John Seigenthaler. Attorney General Kennedy sent Federal Marshals to the city.

When the Riders arrived in Jackson, Mississippi, they were immediately arrested. On May 25th, the local judge sentenced the Riders to 60 days in the state penitentiary.

The Riders were never able to complete the trip to New Orleans.

1962 - Integration of the University of Mississippi

Armed U.S. Marshals escorted James H. Meredith, the first black student enrolled at the University of Mississippi, to his dorm. This occurred after three previous attempts by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett and the State Legislature to deny his admission. The event sparked riots on the university's Oxford campus, and left two people dead.

In 1966, James Meredith wrote of the experience in his book, Three Years in Mississippi.

1963

Integration of Alabama Public Schools

Governor George Wallace attempted to prevent enrollment of black students at the University of Alabama by standing in the schoolhouse door and barring entry to the students. President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to allow the students to safely enter the school.

The March on Washington

On August 28th, 200,000 people marched on Washington, D.C. It was the first large-scale integrated civil rights march. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

1964 - Civil Rights Act Passed

In July, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination in public acommodations, unions, public schools, and by voting registrars and employers.

Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, who was a longtime opponent of integration, cosponsored the bill. When asked about his change in policy, he quoted author Victor Hugo, "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."

Click here to read the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1965

The March From Selma to Montgomery

On Sunday, March 7th, marchers organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference began a 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. When they reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, state troopers, under the order of Governor George Wallace to stop the march, attacked the crowd using tear gas and batons. Television stations nationwide interrupted normal programming to show clips of the violence.

On Tuesday, March 9th, hundreds who had seen the televised violence arrived in Selma to participate. Since they were unable to get a federal court order prohibiting the police from stopping the march, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stopped the marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, led them in prayer, then turned back to Selma.

On March 21st, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and continued on to Montgomery. President Lyndon Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect the marchers. The march took five days and it was 25,000 marchers strong when it concluded.

The Voting Rights Act

Five months after sending his voting rights proposal to Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act on August 6th. One of its measures ended the use of literacy tests for voting in six southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia) and in many counties of North Carolina.

The Watts Riots

Provoked by the arrest of a black motorist, nearly 10,000 people in the inner-city neighborhood of Watts in Los Angeles, California, rioted. For six days, stores were looted, cars and buildings were burned, and riot police were attacked with stones, knives, and guns. 20,000 National Guardsmen were called in. In the end, 34 people were dead, hundreds were injured, and more than 4,000 people were arrested.