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Plessy v. Ferguson
A landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine. -
The Integration of Major League Baseball
African Americans were finally able to play in Major League Baseball. -
The Integration of the Armed Forces
It abolished discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in the United States Armed Forces. -
Sweatt v. Painter
A U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. -
Brown v. Board of Education
A decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. -
The Bus Boycott of Montgomery, Alabama
A civil rights protest during which African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery to protest segregated seating. -
The Integration of Little Rock High School
Governor Orval Faubus mobilized the Arkansas National Guard in an effort to prevent nine African American students from integrating the high school. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
Established the Civil Rights Section of the Justice Department and empowered federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. -
The Freedom Rides of 1960
Civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions. -
The Greensboro Four
David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil initiated a lunch-counter sit-in to protest segregation. -
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment
Prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax -
The Integration of the University of Mississippi
Riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford where locals, students, and committed segregationists had gathered to protest the enrollment of James Meredith, a black Air Force veteran attempting to integrate the all-white school -
The Integration of the University of Alabama
Alabama's new governor, flanked by state troopers, literally blocked the door of the enrollment office but segregation had already been declared unconstitutional. -
The March on Washington
Political demonstration was held in Washington, D.C., in 1963 by civil rights leaders to protest racial discrimination and to show support for major civil rights legislation that was pending in Congress -
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
A landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin -
The Assassination of Malcolm X
He was assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights -
The March on Selma, Alabama
African-American citizens wanted to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression -
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -
The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
An American clergyman and civil rights leader who was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee -
The Passage of Title IX
Bars sex discrimination in education programs and activities offered by entities receiving federal financial assistance -
The Appointment of the First Woman Justice of the Supreme Court
On September 21, the Senate unanimously approved her appointment to the nation's highest court, and on September 25 she was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger -
The Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, Obama had become the first African American to win election to the nation’s highest office the previous November -
The Elimination of Combat Restriction for Women
Women have long chafed under the combat restrictions, which allowed them to serve in combat zones, often under fire, but prevented them from officially holding combat positions, including in the infantry, which remain crucial to career advancement. -
The Democratic Party Nomination of Hillary Clinton
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chosen as the party's nominee for president by a 54% majority of delegates present at the convention roll call, defeating primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 46% of votes from delegates, and becoming the first female candidate to be formally nominated for president by a major political party in the United States
