For a list of sources used, see the final slide on this timeline. Links to photo sources are provided beneath each image.
On this date, the foundation for our nations’ civil rights was laid. Abraham Lincoln, the United States of America’s 16th president, declared the Emancipation Proclamation and turned the Civil War into a battle, one not only concerned with nationalism and states' rights, but with liberty and freedom for all.
Today birthed the 13th amendment which declared that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Formally and legally abolishing slavery, this amendment was passed by Congress in 1865 and ratified by the states later on in the same year.
Proven to be the intellectual backbone of the early Civil Rights Movement, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois drew his first breath on this day. With a life span spanning from Reconstruction to the well-known march on Washington, Du Bois spent significant time engraving his work into the Civil Rights Movement. Following his three basic needs for African-Americans: the right to vote, civic equality, and education of the youth according to ability, he worked inside of the NAACP for over 25 years, shaping the public digestion of African-American literature, politics, and art.
This amendment states that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” A momentous step in African-American rights, the right to vote was then harshly limited by Jim Crow laws at Reconstruction’s end. Not till The Voting Rights Act of 1965 did these rights come return.
During the Reconstruction era, the South was divided into its 5 districts that were controlled by the nations military. This control gave rights to African-Americans and allowed the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. It even led to the outlawing of the infamous KKK. Yet this military occupation was both expensive and unwanted by many in the South. As agreed in the Compromise of 1877, the federal troops were recalled. Unfortunately, so were the newly gained rights of African-Americans as they were left in the vengeful hands of the South.
23 years after the 13th amendment, Brazil finally abolished slavery, becoming the last country in the Western hemisphere to do so. Even so, Brazil still suffers from one of the greatest economic disparities in this world. Forced labor much similar to the indentured servitude practice is still implemented today.
This day marks the true beginning of a very influential man whose life is intertwined with the Civil Rights Movement. He formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, an all black union, and he soon became an ambassador for labor and civil rights causes. He also was named president of the National Negro Congress and took part in many plans and acts like the desegregation of the armed forces. He even acted well into his old age, receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and participating in the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965, even though he was well into his 70s.
With the stated goal of facilitating equality for people of color in America, The AAL was formed thanks to the work of one of its co-founders Timothy Thomas Fortune. This group challenged the many common assumptions about race and equality for the black cause.
Following the court case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the ANA was formed in a reaction against the deteriorating conditions for many African-Americans. This group strove to counter the dark trends in American politics and letters by telling the truth from an African American experience. Its members included Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Alain Locke, and Archibald Grumke.
Founded by Robert S. Abbot, The Chicago Defender grew into one of the most influential black newspapers of its time. This paper attacked lynching and many other injustices along the way. Beginning in the 1920s, this paper began to call for many African americans to move north and gave its push in what is now called the Great Migration. By 1918, the African American population had tripled.
Following the Niagara Movement, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded on this day. Called to order by W.E.B. Du Bois after learning of the race riot in Atlanta, his call was met by a biracial group that consisted of writers, scholars, and philanthropists. Where the SNCC and SCLC were doing their best to help by creating protests and assisting in civil disobedience, the NAACP took its fight to the courts and thus began shaping the legal side of the Civil Rights Movement. The NAACP still stands as a social and political organization for many African Americans in the United states.
Born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, the beginning of life of John Hope Franklin was marked with the secondhand status of African Americans and threatened by the terrible race riots in the nearby town of Tulsa. Franklin has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Negro History and has received honorary degrees from over 100 different universities. He was even named the successor of W.E.B. Du Bois after the publication of his wildly famous book From Slavery To Freedom. In 1963, he took part in the March on Washington and recieved the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995.
Organized by the NAACP, a silent parade containing over 10,000 protestors trekked through Fifth Avenue in New York. This quiet and stunning protest was in response to the shadow that plagued the city a few months before. As white union members walked the streets, they came upon many African-Americans and beat them. Using Stones, Metal pipes, guns and fists, African-Americans were pulled from streetcars, homes, and randomly off the streets to face the injustice that was rained down upon them. With more than 200 casualties and 40 recorded official deaths, this protest was to bring attention to the violence brought upon America's front lawn, yet at this time still no work was done to stop it.
On this day, Dorothy Lavinia Brown was born. This women was the first African American female surgeon in the south and also the first African American to serve in the Tennessee legislature. Achieving surgical residency in 1954, she then moved on to become chief of surgery and a professor of surgery at the Meharry Medical college.
Though mostly unknown, this day is a fatal reminder to many of the cruelties of racism. Leaving hundreds dead and a whole community in flames it ended as the most violent United States race riot. After the false accusation and attempted lynching of an innocent African-American male, small wars frequented the town. Militarily disciplined African American WWI veterans began to mobilize and built trenches to protect themselves, but they were soon outnumbered by the white police and kkk members. With makeshift bombs and machine gun fire, they soon razed the defending community to the ground. Then any African American survivors were rounded up by the Oklahoma National Guard and swept away into the local baseball stadium until the riots end. Many truths about this riot were not released until the year 2001.
This highly influential civil rights leader was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King graduated from Morehouse College and entered the post-graduate theological program at Boston University. It was here that he learned the nonviolent philosophy of the Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi and met his wife, Coretta Scott. Throughout his adult life he had been harrassed. Yet after being threatened by the police, KKK, street thugs, the FBI, as well as being stabbed, shot at, jailed, beaten, and having his house explode, he never backed down and kept fighting for civil rights. Once segregation was finally lifted he began to turn his efforts toward stopping poverty and war before being assassinated in 1968.
The only thing that this trial was able to confirm was the extreme racial prejudice of its era. After being accused of rape on a train, 9 african american men were given trial and sentenced to death. Yet after intervention from the Communist Party’s International Labor Defense arm and the NAACP, the boys received an appeal and were given a retrial. Now being represented by Samuel Liebowitz and Joseph Brodsky, they were able to dismantle the testimony of the alleged victims and even getting a statement that the rapes were never even committed. Yet still the boys were convicted guilty and sentenced to death, but that verdict was immediately appealed.
A founding member of the SNCC, Diana Nash has worked hard to ensure civil rights for African Americans. She is responsible for helping organize and participating in the Nashville Sit-ins and played a huge role in getting Nashville to desegregate its many dining facilities. Along with the SNCC, she has also worked as a organizer under the SCLC and helped start important campaigns like in Birmingham, Selma, and Mississippi. Receiving presidential recognition, she was also given the honor of helping to draft the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Now, introducing the 332nd Fighter group into the U.S. Armed forces! The Tuskegee Airmen were established on this day. Not only are they recognized as the first African American Fighter Group, they also would later on show of their extreme skill and bravery, giving a top grade example of equality for all other races.As their fame grew, they took and destroyed more than 400 enemy planes and destroyed Axis supply trains, naval units, and fuel dumps. All together they were honored with more than 800 combat medals. To highlight their skill: not a single bomber that was escorted by these brave individuals was shot down. The Tuskegee Airmen not only won the 1949 national gunnery competition, but they were also the most sought-after units in the entire U.S. Air force.
One of Chicago's most influential politicians, William Levi Dawson, was also the first black to head a congressional committee. In the year of 1949 he made history by becoming the chairman of the house committee on government operations. Dawson also helped in defeating the Winstead Amendment, which would allow service men and women to choose if they could serve in integrated military units, and campaigned against poll taxation. Born on April 26, 1886, he lived a long life and retired, only to later pass away, in 1970.
Finally disrupting the false belief “separate but equal” that was established during the Plessy v. Ferguson case, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka legally desegregated public schooling. Though this set the precedent that segregation was unconstitutional, It would take further battles to finally set it into practice.
Starting with the arrest of Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a huge nonviolent protest that stimulated activism and participation from the south in the many civil rights movements and brought Martin Luther King Jr. the attention so rightfully granted to him today.
Though the acts and protests were peaceful, violence soon followed. Extreme segregationists shot at the newly desegregated buses and threats from the KKK and the local police force threatened many African Americans. On this day, in the early morning hours, 6 bombs exploded, destroying 4 black churches and the home of MIA leader Ralph Abernathy and MIA board member Robert Graetz.
With influential members like its president Martin Luther King Jr and other founding members Fred Shuttlesworth, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Young, and Ralph Abernathy, the SCLC (originally the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) was founded to ride the growing wave of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Functioning under the Gandhian non-violent principles combined with the tenets of New Testament Christianity, this group has enacted and funded many of the famous events that highlights the fight for our civil rights.
As local white power structures failed to suppress the surge of activism in the student sit-ins, the enhanced self-confidence of many student activists swelled and allowed this to be such a monumental piece in our Civil Rights History. Starting on this on February 1, 1960, 4 African American Students from the all-black NC A&T college decided to do a protest in the currently whites-only Woolworth store in Greensboro NC. this and the formation of the SNCC gave new life to the Civil rights movement, which was beginning to grow stale after the receding highs of the Montgomery bus boycott and the Brown v. Topeka judgments were put slowly put into memory.
After being sued by the NAACP and losing, PGA (the Professional Golfers Association) was forced to allow African Americans onto its courses. Because of this we have the many pro black players like Charlei Sifford, Calvin Peete, and Tiger Woods.
Poll taxes in the south were abolished on this day as the 24th amendment was ratified. This poll tax was just another method to disenfranchise generations of African Americans. This tax made any new voters pay a large fee to an undisclosed location to be able to vote. Though this was made out for white men to pay also, they were saved by the Grandfather clause. The second method of disenfranchisement was the “Understanding Clause”, which required voters to pass literacy tests to qualify to vote. Yet any African American that was able to pay the poll tax and pass the literacy test found that his vote still meant nothing as the votes were counted in the preliminaries, and that was for whites only.
As President Lyndon Johnson placed down his final pen stroke on the parchment, so came into existence the Civil rights act of 1964. This Bill, which was held back by an 80 day filibuster, was finally pushed through and accepted by both parties of congress. Legally ending Jim Crow segregation and creating country wide integration, the Civil Rights Movement could now focus on voting rights and economic empowerment.
Revealing itself as one of darker moments in civil rights history, the Orangeburg massacre showed many how much is still needed to be attained for the rights of the many. Looking 4 years past the Civil rights act of 1964, we find that many places in the South still practice that which was banned, racial discrimination. In protest, many African American students from South Carolina State and Chaflin College began to rally in front of one of these discriminating buildings. As encounters between the Students and police increased, so did the rising tension until finally one side snapped. Shots were fired upon the peaceful students and as the last bullet flew, 3 students lay dead while 27 others were injured. For any type of reconciliation, later in the month of February, All Star Bowling Lanes (the above said building) finally began to admit black customers.
(1.)Williams, Randall. Beard, Ben. This Day in Civil Rights History. Montgomery, AL: NewSouth, 2009. Print (2.)Morgan, Iwan W., and Philip Davies. From Sit-ins to SNCC: The Student Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Gainesville: University of Florida, 2012. Print. (3).Jaynes, Gerald David. Encyclopedia of African American Society. Brown v. Board of Education,149-150. Sage Publications, 2005/01/01. Print (4.)"Primary Documents in American History." 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress). N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. (5)“Civil Rights Timeline." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. (6.)"15th Amendment." LII. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
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