| 1850's |
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September 18, 1850
Fugitive Slave Act |
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March 6, 1857 Supreme
Court Decision, Dred Scott v John F. A. Sanford |
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| 1860's |
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April 12, 1861 Fort
Sumter fired on by Confederate forces |
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January 1, 1863 President
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation |
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April 9, 1865 General
Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox |
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December 1865
Ku Klux Klan organized |
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June 13, 1866 Fourteenth
Amendment (citizenship) |
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February 26, 1869
Fifteenth Amendment (voting) |
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| 1870's |
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March 1, 1875 Civil
Rights Act of 1875 |
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| 1880's |
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| 1890's |
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May 18, 1896 Supreme
Court Decision, Plessy v. Ferguson |
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| 1900's |
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February 12, 1909
NAACP organized |
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| 1910's |
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| 1920's |
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| 1930's |
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April 1931 to July 1937
trials of the Scottsboro Boys |
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August 1936 Four African
American athletes, Jesse Owens, Cornelius Johnson, Archie
Williams, and John Woodruff, win six individual gold
medals at the Berlin Olympics |
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| 1940's |
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June 25, 1941 President
Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, banning racial
discrimination in the defense industry |
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July 24, 1941 Emmett
Louis Till born |
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April 15, 1947 Jackie
Robinson becomes the first African American to play
in the Major Leagues |
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| 1950's |
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May 17, 1954 Supreme
Court Decision, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education |
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July 11, 1954 White
Citizens' Council founded |
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May 7, 1955 Rev. George
Lee, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered |
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May 31, 1955 Supreme
Court issues integration implementation order: "with
all deliberate speed" |
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August 13, 1955 Lamar
Smith, Mississippi voter registration activist, murdered |
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August 21, 1955 Emmett
Till arrives in Mississippi |
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August 24, 1955 Incident
at Bryant Meat and Grocery Store |
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August 28, 1955 Emmett
Till kidnapped and murdered |
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August 29, 1955 J.
W. Milam and Roy Bryant arrested for kidnapping Emmett
Till |
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August 31, 1955 Emmett
Till's body found in the Tallahatchie River |
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September 3 to 6, 1955
open casket viewing in Chicago |
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September 6, 1955
Emmett's funeral in Chicago |
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September 6, 1955
Grand Jury indicts Milam and Bryant on kidnapping and
murder charges |
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September 9, 1955
trial date set |
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September 15, 1955
Jet Magazine publishes photo of Emmett Till's mutilated
corpse |
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September 19, 1955
trial begins |
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September 21, 1955
Mose Wright Testifies; identifies Milam and Bryant as
kidnappers |
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September 22, 1955
Emmett's mother testifies |
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September 23,
1955 jury finds Milam and Bryant not guilty |
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December 1, 1955 Rosa
Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus |
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December 5, 1955 Montgomery
Bus Boycott Begins |
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January 24, 1956 Look
Magazine publishes a confession/interview with Milam
and Bryant |
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August 29, 1957 Civil
Rights Act of 1957 |
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September 23, 1957 nine
African American students integrate Central High School
in Little Rock, Arkansas |
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| 1960's |
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May 6, 1960 Civil
Rights Act of 1960 |
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November 14, 1960
1st Grader Ruby Bridges, accompanied by US Marshals,
integrates an elementary school in New Orleans |
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August 28, 1963 Martin
Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech |
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July 2, 1964 Civil
Rights Act of 1964 |
