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14th Amendment Ratified
The 15th Amendment granted citizenship and equal civil/legal rights to African Americans; it gave African Americans protection under the law. -
World War II and Civil Rights
President Roosevelt opened national defense jobs for all Americans no matter race or color. -
Brown V board of education (supreme court case)
This was the case that resulted in the outlawing of segregation in public schools, which went on to spark progression in schools, such as The Little Rock Nine. -
Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat
Rosa Parks was on a bus after work, when a white man couldn't find a seat on the bus rosa and 3 other black passengers were told to move, and she refused to do so, and she was arrested. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law which allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud. -
March on Washington
200,000+ people consisting of all races gathered in Washington D.C. to peacefully protest for equality; this is where MLK gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. - “King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom." -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The act gave the federal government more power to protect citizens against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex and national origin. It was signed by Lyndon Johnson and before was given 70% of African American vote when Kennedy passed new civil rights legislation as part of his presidential campaign platform. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The act wanted to end the barriers the nation had with Black/African Americans voting. Black/African Americans exercised their right to vote given by the 15th amendment. Black people serving in Congress grew from 6 to 40 and 70 served as elected officials in the South. -
MLK is Assassinated
MLK was Shot and killed on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, the world was shocked and sad about the assassination. Black Americans saw the killing as a rejection of their vigorous pursuit of equality through the nonviolent resistance he had championed. -
Fair Housing Act
Prevented housing discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, and sex, this allowed the housing market to be open to all. -
Shirley Chisholm Runs for President
Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York became a national symbol of both movements as the first major party African American candidate and the first female candidate for president of the United States. -
The Bakke Decision and Affirmative Action
an executive order calling on the federal government to hire more African Americans. By the mid 1970s, many universities were seeking to increase the presence of minority and female faculty and students on their campuses. -
Oprah Winfrey Launches Syndicated Talk Show
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the success of the long-running sitcom The Cosby Show—featuring popular comedian Bill Cosby as the doctor patriarch of a close-knit middle-class African American family—helped redefine the image of Black characters on mainstream American television. -
Los Angeles Riots
A year after the arrest and assault of a black man named Rodney King, a group of white officers were found not guilty after a Jury excused them from the fray. Hell broke loose on the streets of L.A. when riots began to invade for 4 days straight due to the unjustified decision. Many were killed and the riots came to a halt in early April. -
Mae Jemison
Mae Jemison was a physician and scientist and in 1992, she became the first black woman to fly in space. -
Million Man March
Hundreds of thousands of Black men gathered in Washington, D.C. for the Million Man March, one of the largest demonstrations of its kind in the capital’s history. Minister Louis Farrakhan, had called for “a million sober, disciplined, committed, dedicated, inspired Black men to meet in Washington on a day of atonement.” -
Colin Powell Becomes Secretary of State
Army general Colin Powell played an integral role in planning and executing the first Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush. After his retirement from the military in 1993, many people began floating his name as a possible presidential candidate. In 2001, George W. Bush appointed Powell as secretary of state -
Barack Obama Becomes 44th President
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States; he was the first African American to hold that office. Obama grew up in Hawaii but discovered his civic calling in Chicago, where he worked for several years as a community organizer on the city’s largely Black South Side. -
Barack Obama Becomes 44th President (Primary Source Quote)
“I chose to run for President at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.” - Obama -
George Floyd Protests
Protestors in Minneapolis took to the streets to protest Floyd’s killing. Police cars were set on fire and officers released tear gas to disperse crowds. After months of quarantine and isolation during a global pandemic, protests mounted, spreading across the country in the following days and weeks. -
Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman and Black US Vice President
In the 2020 election, Kamala Harris initially ran but did not end up progressing but then she began running with Joe Biden who won the presidency in 2021 and Kamala is now the vice president of the USA.