| 1865 |
13th Amendment outlaws slavery
|
| 1865 |
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) founded to maintain white supremacy through
intimidation and violence
|
| 1865 |
Freedman's Bureau formed during Reconstruction to assist freed slaves in
the South
|
| 1866 |
Civil Rights Act grants citizenship to native-born Americans except
Indians
|
| 1868 |
14th Amendment grants equal protection of the laws to African Americans
|
| 1870 |
15th Amendment establishes the right of African American males to vote
|
| 1875 |
Civil Rights Act grants equal access to public accommodations
|
| 1883 |
Supreme Court nullifies Civil Rights Act of
|
| 1896 |
Supreme Court validates the principle of "separate but equal"
in Plessy v. Ferguson
|
| 1905 |
Niagara Movement founded to fight for school integration, voting rights,
and assist African American political candidates, forerunner of the NAACP
|
| 1906 |
Greensburg, Indiana, race riot, the first of many in reaction to African
American migration north
|
| 1909 |
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
formed to fight for civil rights through legal action and education
|
| 1915 |
Refounding of the Ku Klux Klan
|
| 1920 |
19th Amendment gives women the right to vote
|
| 1924 |
American Indians granted citizenship and the right to vote
|
| 1942 |
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded to fight for civil rights
using nonviolent, direct-action protests
|
| 1948 |
President Harry Truman ends segregation in the U.S. military
|
| 1954 |
In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court
overturns the principle of "separate but equal"
|
| 1955 |
Rosa Parks begins the Montgomery Bus Boycott
|
| 1957 |
President Dwight Eisenhower sends U.S. Army troops to Little Rock,
Arkansas, to enforce the desegregation of schools
|
| 1957 |
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) founded to coordinate
localized southern efforts to fight for civil rights
|
| 1960 |
Sit-in at the F. W. Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, February 1
|
| 1960 |
Hundreds of university students stage a sit-in at downtown stores in
Nashville, Tennessee, to protest segregated lunch counters
|
| 1960 |
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded to coordinate
student-led efforts to end segregation
|
| 1960 |
Civil Rights Act reaffirms voting rights for all Americans
|
| 1961 |
Integrated groups of protesters join Freedom Rides on buses across the
South to protest segregation
|
| 1963 |
Hundreds of thousands of Americans take part in the March on Washington
to call for racial equality
|
| 1964 |
24th Amendment outlaws poll taxes for national elections
|
| 1964 |
Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in public accommodations and by
employers
|
| 1964 |
Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAU) formed to promote closer ties
between African Americans and Africa
|
| 1965 |
Voting Rights Act nullifies local laws and practices that prevent
minorities from voting
|
| 1965 |
Malcolm X assassinated
|
| 1968 |
Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated
|
| 1968 |
Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in the sale or rental of housing
|
| 1970 |
Voting Rights Act of 1965 renewed
|
