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Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln put the Emancipation Proclamation into effect in 1863, freeing slaves in the Southern states. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment got rid of all slavery in the U.S. and discredited any claims to slavery in the Constitution. The 13th Amendment was passed by congress in January 1865. Sadly, Lincoln was killed before the states finished ratifying it. The 13th Amendment was one of the first steps to rebuilding the U.S. after the Civil War. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment was introduced to Congress in 1866. The 14th Amendment declared that all people born in the U.S. are citizens. The 14th Amendment was meant to protect former slaves. The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868. -
Economics: Schools
The school enrollment among white children in 1870 was 54.4% and the population of black children enrolled was 9.9%. Because the blacks could not go to school they could not get a job -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment gave all men in America the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The 15th Amendment was ratified in 1870. -
Jim Crow Laws
From the 1880s to the 1950s a lot of American states enforced segregation through the Jim Crow Laws. These laws were created to keep blacks segregated from whites. Some examples of these where laws that forbid marriage between a black and a white and forced schools to stay segregated. Jim Crow was a character played by a white performer who painted his face black to make fun of former slaves. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
In May of 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. This case involved an African American man who had been forced to leave a whites only railway carriage in Louisiana. The court ruled that it was legal for blacks and whites to have separate but equal public areas. -
NAACP
NAACP stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP started in 1909. The NAACP was created to get rid of segregation, discrimination in housing, education, employment, voting,and transportation. Two of the founders were Ida B. Wells and W. E. B. Du Bois. -
Ralph David Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926 in Linden, Alabama. He lived from 1926-1990. He was an American Civil rights leader. He became a pastor at a black church. Mr. Abernathy was also was a co-founder of the SCLC. The SCLC stands for Southern Christian Leadership Conference. -
Coretta Scott King
She was born April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama. Mrs. King lived from 1927-2006. Martin Luther King Jr. was her husband. When she was young she picked cotton for her family. She had four children. She supported Dr. King in his Civil right activities. -
Julian Bond
Julian Bond was born January 14, 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee. He lived from 1940-2015. He was a politician. He was in the House of Representatives, but he was removed because he was criticizing the U.S. during the Vietnam War. He helped form the SNCC. The SNCC stands for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was also the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and the chairman of the NAACP. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v Board of Education overturned the Plessy decision. This ruling overturned the separate but equal standard. It started the path to school desegregation. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott started when a tired black woman who was named Rosa Parks was sitting on the bus and didn't want to give up her seat for a white person, but she had to because it was a law. She was arrested. From that day for 381 days no blacks went on the bus. They were boycotting because they thought it wasn't fair. Many people, blacks and whites, joined in. This effected Montgomery's economy because many people were not riding the buses. It resulted in the buses being desegregated. -
SCLC
The SCLC started on January 10, 1957. SCLC stands for Southern Christian Leadership Conference. They held peaceful rallies and protests. SCLC was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. The SCLC is still around today, but not as strong. Ralph David Abernathy was one of the co-founders. -
Economics: Poverty
In 1959 the percent of the white population living in poverty was 18.01%. In that same year the percentage of the black population living in poverty was 55.01%. -
Sit Ins
Sit Ins started when four black college freshmen sat at a segregated lunch counter of F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina. They were refused service, so they sat and waited peacefully until the store closed. Then the next day they came back with about twenty five more students. Then after that people around the world started protest like what the four freshmen did. F.W. Woolworths then integrated their stores. -
Freedom Rides
Freedom Rides started thanks to a pair of Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court decided to integrate interstate buses, along with waiting rooms. Southern states such as Georgia did not think this was right, so they did not follow this law. Blacks and whites also known as Freedom Riders tested these laws. They did this by riding a bus together through the South. As a result of this, the US passed interstate travel laws. -
March On Washington
Around 250,000 people attended the march. About a quarter of the people were white. The march was shown on international TV. At first President Kennedy didn't think it would be a good idea, because he feared that the legislator might vote against Civil Right Laws, but when they made it official he joined in. -
Civil Rights Act
In 1964 the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, it was made to end unfair treatment of people who have different religion, race, or national origin. The first title insures equal voting rights to every man.
Title two eliminated segregation everywhere. The seventh title banishes segregation in schools and businesses. The act gives the Civil Rights Commission more duties and makes sure that there is no discrimination for the distribution of money from federally supported organizations. -
Voting Rights
Although the law said that all men could vote, the state voting standards were unfair to blacks. The workers running the poles could give blacks a test that decided if they could vote or not and they could ask the blacks any question they wanted. This was stopped on August 6, 1959.
