Civil Rights Timeline
1619 twenty African slaves from a Dutch ship are sold into indentured servitude in Virginia
1654 John Casor becomes the first legally declared slave in the American colonies
1705 Virginia slave codes declare African, mulatto, and Native American slaves to be real estate, not human
1735 Georgia bans slavery (the law is overturned in 1750)
1787 Northwest Ordinance bans slavery in states north of the Ohio River
1800’s
August 21, 1831 Nat Turner leads a group of slaves in a violent rebellion against their owners in Virginia
1832 white schoolmistress Prudence Crandall allows African American students to attend her school in Canterbury, Connecticut
July 2, 1839 slave rebellion on the transport ship Amistad
September 18, 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress
March 6, 1857 Supreme Court Decision, Dred Scott v John F. A. Sanford
October 16, 1859 abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on a federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter fired on by Confederate forces
January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
December 1865 Ku Klux Klan organized
June 13, 1866 Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (citizenship)
February 26, 1869 Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (voting)
March 1, 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875
May 18, 1896 Supreme Court Decision, Plessy v. Ferguson
1900's
February 12, 1909 NAACP organized
April 1931 to July 1937 trials of the Scottsboro Boys
January 15, 1936 Thurgood Marshall wins his first important school integration case, Murray v. Maryland
August 1936 Four African American athletes, Jesse Owens, Cornelius Johnson, Archie Williams, and John Woodruff, win six individual gold medals at the Berlin Olympics
April 9, 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution banned her from performing at Constitution Hall, African American opera star Marian Anderson sings on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a crowd of more than 75,000
1940 Thurgood Marshall appointed chief legal counsel for the NAACP
June 25, 1941 President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, banning racial discrimination in the defense industry
April 15, 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in the Major Leagues
July 5, 1947 Larry Doby joins the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American in the American League
May 17, 1954 Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education outlaws school segregation
July 11, 1954 White Citizens' Council founded
May 7, 1955 Rev. George Lee, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered
May 31, 1955 Supreme Court issues integration implementation order: "with all deliberate speed"
August 13, 1955 Lamar Smith, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered
August 28, 1955 Emmett Till kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi
September 23, 1955 jury finds J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant not guilty of the murder of Emmett Till
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama
December 5, 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins
January 24, 1956 Look magazine publishes a confession/interview with Milam and Bryant
August 29, 1957 Civil Rights Act of 1957
September 23, 1957 nine African American students integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
February 1, 1960 Lunch counter sit-ins/protests begin in Greensboro, North Carolina
May 6, 1960 Civil Rights Act of 1960
November 14, 1960 1st grader Ruby Bridges, accompanied by US Marshals, integrates an elementary school in New Orleans
May 1961 Freedom riders enter segregated Southern states
September 1962 James Meredith’s attempt to integrate the University of Alabama triggers rioting on campus
June 12, 1963 NAACP activist Medgar Evers murdered in Jackson, Mississippi
August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” Speech in Washington, DC
September 15, 1963 Segregationists bomb the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14) and wounding 23 other people.
July 2, 1964 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964
August 6, 1965 Voters Rights Act of 1965 signed by President Johnson
June 12, 1967 Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, ends the ban on mixed-race marriages
August 31, 1967 Thurgood Marshall confirmed as the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States
April 4, 1968 civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered
1654 John Casor becomes the first legally declared slave in the American colonies
1705 Virginia slave codes declare African, mulatto, and Native American slaves to be real estate, not human
1735 Georgia bans slavery (the law is overturned in 1750)
1787 Northwest Ordinance bans slavery in states north of the Ohio River
1800’s
August 21, 1831 Nat Turner leads a group of slaves in a violent rebellion against their owners in Virginia
1832 white schoolmistress Prudence Crandall allows African American students to attend her school in Canterbury, Connecticut
July 2, 1839 slave rebellion on the transport ship Amistad
September 18, 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress
March 6, 1857 Supreme Court Decision, Dred Scott v John F. A. Sanford
October 16, 1859 abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on a federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter fired on by Confederate forces
January 1, 1863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox
December 1865 Ku Klux Klan organized
June 13, 1866 Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (citizenship)
February 26, 1869 Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (voting)
March 1, 1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875
May 18, 1896 Supreme Court Decision, Plessy v. Ferguson
1900's
February 12, 1909 NAACP organized
April 1931 to July 1937 trials of the Scottsboro Boys
January 15, 1936 Thurgood Marshall wins his first important school integration case, Murray v. Maryland
August 1936 Four African American athletes, Jesse Owens, Cornelius Johnson, Archie Williams, and John Woodruff, win six individual gold medals at the Berlin Olympics
April 9, 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution banned her from performing at Constitution Hall, African American opera star Marian Anderson sings on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before a crowd of more than 75,000
1940 Thurgood Marshall appointed chief legal counsel for the NAACP
June 25, 1941 President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, banning racial discrimination in the defense industry
April 15, 1947 the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in the Major Leagues
July 5, 1947 Larry Doby joins the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American in the American League
May 17, 1954 Supreme Court Decision, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education outlaws school segregation
July 11, 1954 White Citizens' Council founded
May 7, 1955 Rev. George Lee, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered
May 31, 1955 Supreme Court issues integration implementation order: "with all deliberate speed"
August 13, 1955 Lamar Smith, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered
August 28, 1955 Emmett Till kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi
September 23, 1955 jury finds J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant not guilty of the murder of Emmett Till
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama
December 5, 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins
January 24, 1956 Look magazine publishes a confession/interview with Milam and Bryant
August 29, 1957 Civil Rights Act of 1957
September 23, 1957 nine African American students integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
February 1, 1960 Lunch counter sit-ins/protests begin in Greensboro, North Carolina
May 6, 1960 Civil Rights Act of 1960
November 14, 1960 1st grader Ruby Bridges, accompanied by US Marshals, integrates an elementary school in New Orleans
May 1961 Freedom riders enter segregated Southern states
September 1962 James Meredith’s attempt to integrate the University of Alabama triggers rioting on campus
June 12, 1963 NAACP activist Medgar Evers murdered in Jackson, Mississippi
August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” Speech in Washington, DC
September 15, 1963 Segregationists bomb the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing Denise McNair (11), Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Cynthia Wesley (14) and wounding 23 other people.
July 2, 1964 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964
August 6, 1965 Voters Rights Act of 1965 signed by President Johnson
June 12, 1967 Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, ends the ban on mixed-race marriages
August 31, 1967 Thurgood Marshall confirmed as the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States
April 4, 1968 civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered
