-
Booker Taliaferro Washington
Born April 5, 1956, Booker T. Washington was known as one of the most influential African American intellectuals of the late 1800s. In 1881, he founded Tuskegee Institute, a school in Alabama devoted to teaching educators. -
13th Amendment
Adopted to the U.S. constitutuion January 31, 1865, the 13th amendment stated that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." aboloshing slavery in the U.S. -
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
The Ku Klux Klan are a Christian group dedicated to White Supremacy, founded in 1866 in Pulaski, Tennessee. By the 1870's, the Klan had reached almost every southern state, and had become a bandwagon for White Southerners resistance to reconstruction-era policies that were aimed at pushing equality for African Americans. -
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois
Born February 23, 1868, W.E.B. Du Bois was an African American Sociologist, writer, and Civil Rights activist. He was one of the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as the editor of their magazine. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was ratified to the constitution in 1868, and granted citizenship to all persons that were born or naturalized in the U.S., including former slaves that were recently freed. -
15th Amendment
Ratified on February 3, 1870, although not fulfilled for almost a century after, the 15th Amendment granted African American Men the right to vote. -
Frances Perkins
From 1933, to 1945, Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labor for the U.S., being the first woman appointed to the U.S. cabinet, as well as holding the longest time serving that position. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
The 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court Case upheld the constitutionallity of segreation. -
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the Peace of the Supreme Court of the United States. Before that however, he was best known for being the Lawyer who was victorious in the Brown vs. the Board of Education case, whose victory ultimately desegregated Public Schools. -
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born August 27th, 1908 in Stonewall, TX. He would later go onto become the 36th president of the United States of America. He was sworn into office 2 hours after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and was remembered as having a strong impact on the Civil Rights movements. Biography On Lyndon Baines Johnson -
NAACP
Founded February 12, 1909, NAACP stands for National Assosication for the Advancement of Colored People. The group was founded to push for the rights of African Americans. However the rights the group pushed for weren't just political, they were also economical, educational, and social. -
Orval Faubus
Born January 7, 1910, Orval Faubus served as the 36th govenor of Arkansas, holding office for Six consecutive terms, which is longer than any other person. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a Civil Rights activist, born on Feburary 4, 1913. She was best known for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger, which spurred the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This event happened on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. -
Hector Garcia
Born in January 17, 1914, Dr. Hector Garcia was a Mexian-American veteran of World War II, a surgeon, and a physician. Dr. Garcia was also a founding member of the G.I. Forum in 1948. -
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson was the first African American baseball player in the Major Leagues. He became the first in 1947, when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. -
George Wallace
Born George Corley Wallace Jr. August 25, 1919, Wallace was the 45th govenor of Alabama, serving two nonconsecutive and two consecutive terms as a democrat. -
19th Amendment
Ratified by Congress August 18th, 1920, the 19th Amendment guarantees all American Women the right to Vote in U.S. elections. -
Betty Friedan
Born February 4, 1921, Betty Friedan was an American Author who wrote "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963, helping to begin the exploration of women finding happiness and placement outside of their usual roles in society. -
American Indian Citizenship Act
With the passage of the American Indian Citizenship act of 1924, the U.S. government gave citizenship to all Native Americans born within the limits of the country. -
Phyllis Schlafley
Born 1924, Phyllis Schlafley is a former Constitutional Lawyer, as well as an activist, author, and founder of multiple organizations including Eagle Forum and the Republican National Coalition For Life. -
Malcom X.
Born May 19, 1925, was an African American Civil Rights activist who advocated the Use of Violence to achieve political goals. -
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Formed in 1929, LULAC is the Latin equivalent to the NAACP, moving towards the same political, economical, social, and educational goals as the NAACP, but for the Latin American population of the United States. -
Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born
Mini Bio On Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a baptist minister, who led the African American Civil Rigths movement in the U.S. in the 1950s. He was assassinated in 1968, at the age of 39. -
Congressional Bloc of Southern Democrats
Beginning in the 1930s in an effort to stop Roosevelt from "packing" the supreme court, southern democrats would vote with Republicans against the northern democrats. -
Sandra Day O'Connor
Born March 26, 1930 in El Paso, Texas, Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve as a justice in the entire history of the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1981. -
Cesar Chavez
Born March 31, 1931, Cesar Chaves was a union leader and labor organizer. Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, and his union had joined with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Comittee in it's first strike against Californian Grape growers. -
Indian Reorganization Act
The Indian Reorganization Act, enacted June 18, 1934, was a measure aimed at decreasing the federal control of American Indian affairs, and increasing self governing and responsibility among the American Indians. -
U.S. Department for Housing and urban Development
The US department for Housing and Urban Development began in 1937 with the passage of the Housing Act of 1937. -
Food Stamps
The first food stamp program began on May 16, 1939. -
Congress Of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.)
Founded sometime in 1942, C.O.R.E. (Congress Of Racial Equality) was a United States Civil Rights Organization, that proved a huge turning point for the African American Civil Rights movement. C.O.R.E. was one of the "Big Four" Civil Rights Groups, along with the NAACP, the SCLC, and the SNCC. -
Mendez vs. Westminster
The 1947 Mendez vs. Westminster federal court case challenged racial segreation in Orange County, California public Schools. The court ruled that the segregation of Mexican and Mexican-American students into separate schools was unconstitutional. This was also the first court desicion in favor of desegregation. -
Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD
The 1948 Delgado vs. Bastrop ISD case challenged segregation of Mexican Americans in American Public Schools. -
Executive Order 9981
On January 26, 1948, Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which established equal treatment and opportunity of everyone in the armed forces. -
Sweatt vs. Painter
The 1950 supreme court case of Sweatt vs. Painter challenged the "Separate but Equal" doctrine established by the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case. -
Hernandez vs. Texas
The Hernandez vs. Texas was the only Mexican American Civil Rights case heard and decided by the US supreme court post World War II. In the ruling, the court declared that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups had equal protection under the 14th amendment. -
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka
On May 17, 1954, the supreme court gave it's ruling on the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka court case. The decision, by unanimous vote, was that the provisions ot the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case would be overturned, also ruling that "Separate Educational Facilities are inherently unequal". This ruling would ignite the spark for the American Civil Rights Movement. -
Sonia Sotomayor
Born June 25, 1954, Sonia Sotomayor has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court since August of 2009. -
Emmett Till Killing
On August 28, 1955, 14 Year old Emmett Till is murdered brutally for flirting with a white cashier a mere four days earlier. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott began on Decmber 5, 1955, and ended December 20, 1956. The boycott was staged by the Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and was regarded as one of the first large scale demonstrations against segregation in the United States. Documentary On the Montgomery Bus Boycott -
Southern Christian Leadership Congress (S.C.L.C.)
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African American Civil Rights Organization founded in part by Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. The organization played a large role in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s, The group helped play a part in many Civil Rights Demonstrations, including the March On Washington and the Albany Movement. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Signed into law on September 9, 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice, and gave federal officials the power to prosecute any person or persons who sought to deny another person's right to vote. -
Civil Rights Division
The Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice was created the day that the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was signed into law. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comittee
Formed in 1960 by Ella Baker at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina to coordinate sit ins after a group of African American students had been denied service at a lunch counter and refused to leave. -
Sit-Ins
On February 1, 1960, 4 African American university students walked up to a whites only lunch counter in North Carolina, asking for coffee. When they were refused service, they waited. Despite threats, they still waited. This is what ignited the Civil Rights sit-ins. -
Affirmative Action
The first reference to Affirmative action was made by President Kennedy in executive order 10925 in 1961. -
Freedom Rides
On May 4, 1961, thirteen African American and White civil rights activists began the freedom rides, which was a series of bus rides through the south to protest segreation in bus terminals. -
Barack Hussein Obama
Born on August 4, 1961, Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th president of the United States Of America. Taking office January 20, 2009, President Obama is the First African American in the History of the U.S. to be president. Mini Biography- Barack Obama -
Publication of "The Feminine Mystique"
On February 17, 1963, Betty Friedan's book "The Feminine Mystique" is published. -
March On Washington
On August 23, 1963, over 200,000 people gathered in the streets of Washington D.C., in what would come to be known as the "March On Washington for Jobs and freedom". Organized in part by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as numerous other civil rights leaders, the event was intended to shed light down on the political and social challenges that the African American Population faced in the U.S. during the civil rights era. -
The Great Society
The Great Society was a set of programs launched by Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964, aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice. -
War On Poverty
The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for the legislation that President Lyndon Baines Johnson introduced during his state of the union address on January 8, 1964. -
24th Amendment
Ratified on January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ended the Poll Tax. -
Civil Rights Act 1964
Signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination in public places illegal, made employment discrimination illegal, and provided for the integration of schools. -
Head Start Program
Founded sometime in 1965, Head Start is a government funded program that provides early childhood education, health, nurition, as well as parent involement services to poorer children and their families. -
Selma March
In March of 1965, protestors marched from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to raise awareness for the difficulties faced by African American voters in the southern U.S. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by president Lyndon Baines Johnson of that year, aimed to get rid of the legal barriers that prevented African American citizens their right to vote under the 15th Amendment which had been ratified in 1870. -
Delano Grape Boycott
On September 8, 1965, Filipino American Grape workers walked out on strike against Delano-area grape growers in protest of poor working conditions and pay. -
National Organization For Women (NOW)
Founded in 1966, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was originally founded to help women adopt a role in mainstream society, during a time when women were still fighting for their civil rights. -
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (Black Panthers)
In October of 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party For Self Defense (The Black Panthers). The Group practiced armed defense of Minority groups from the United States Government, and also sought to establish Revolutionary Socialism. -
Assassination of Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
On April 4, 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot as he stood outside on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was mortally wounded, and pronounced dead at 7:05 P.M., at St. Joseph Hospital. -
American Indian Movement (AIM)
American Indian Movement is a Native American Advocacy group, founded in July of 1968 in Minnesota by Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton Banai, and George Mitchell. -
Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District
The Tinker vs. Des Moines ISD supreme court case ultimately ended in the court's desicion that defined the constitutional rights of students in United States public schools. -
Native Americans Occupy Alcatraz Island
On November 20, 1969, 89 American Indians boarded boats and made landfall on Alcatraz Island, claiming it was theirs by "right of discovery", and demanding that the U.S. government provide funding to turn it into a Native American cultural center and university. When their terms were ignored, they spend over 19 months occupying the island. -
La Raza Unida
Formed in the 1970s during the Chicano movement, La Raza Unida was a political party that focused on Chicano Nationalism. -
Wisconsin vs. Yoder
The Wisconson vs. Yoder Supreme Court Case ended with the courts desicion that Amish Children could not be placed in compulsory educaiton past 8th grade. -
Equal Rights Amendment
Passed March 22, 1972, the equal rights amendment provided legal equality between the sexes, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. -
Title IX
Title IX is a federal law signed June 23, 1972, that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity that is funded by the government. -
White vs. Regester
In this 1973 court case, the court Invalidated the use of multimember legislative districts in two counties in Texas because the redistricting plan had originally been used to cancel out the voting strength of African Americans and Mexican Americans. -
Edgewood ISD vs. Kirby
In 1984, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational fund filed a law suit against Commisioner of Education William Kirby on grounds of descrimination against studetns in poorer school districs. -
Citations
