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13th Amendement Ratified
-officially and permanently ended slavery in the United States -
14th Amendment Ratified
-made African Americans US citizens
-granted African Americans all the civil liberties and rights guaranteed to American Citizens http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_14th.html -
15th Amendment Ratified
-Guaranteed African American men the right to vote
-African Americans were still regularly denied the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html -
Plessy vs. Feguson
-The Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's Jim Crow segregation laws were constitutional, as long as the accommodations were "separate but equal."
-Allowed legal segregation (which always meant inferior conditions for African Americans) to continue in South until the 1960's http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html -
Mendez vs. Westminster School District of Orange County
-United States Court of Appeals ruled that segregated schools in California were illegal
-gave valuable precedent and experience to the Brown vs. Board of Education decision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendez_v._Westminster -
Executive Order 9981
-Truman integrated the military, allowing all races to serve in the same units
-lead to greater rights and responsibilities for minorities in the military https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981 -
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
-overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, making racially segregated schools illegal
-a year later the Court demanded states integrate their school systems -
Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins
-African Americans boycott the Montgomery Bus system in order to protest segregated seating and bad treatment
-first large protest against Jim Crow laws
-Martin Luther King became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott -
101st Airbone Troops Guard Little Rock 9
-Eisenhower uses the 101st Airborne Division to escort the Little Rock 9 to school for a year (at Little Rock Hight in Arkansas)
-Began the integration process of southern schools -
March on Birmingham
-in Birmingham, Alabama police attacked student marchers with dogs and fire hoses, leading to nationwide outrage
-outrage gained much needed Congressional support for the Civil Rights Act -
Civil Rights Act of 1964 Passed
-offical congressional legislation that made segregation and employment discrimination illegal in the United States
-brought a legal end to Jim Crow laws and helped African Americans get jobs -
Freedom Summer
-activists came to Mississippi register African Americans for voting
-created 50 Freedom Schools,but failed to register all that many voters
-helped divide nonviolent protesters from more extreme groups -
Selma to Montgomery March
-police forces attacked peaceful protesters trying to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to draw attention to discrimination faced by African American voters
-drew attention to this discrimination and gained support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/selma-montgomery-march -
Voting Rights Act Passed
-ended impossible literacy tests and other law based forms of voting discrimination
-allowed many more African Americans to vote -
Assassination of MLK
-Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennesse
-lead to nationwide protests and the fragmentation of the Civil Rights Movement -
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 is Passed
-banned discrimination with any aspect of property sale or renting, including who is rented to, the cost of housing, and the interest rates of housing loans
-housing continued to be segregated thoughout the nation
-last major legislation of the Civil Rights Era http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fair-housing-act