SS: Civil Rights Timeline

Below are notes taken from a civil rights timeline my social studies class put together.

13th, 14th, 15th Amendment

• 13th ratified December 6th, 1865\
• Illegalized slavery
• 14th ratified July 9th, 1868
• Gives equal rights to all regardless of race
• American-born slaves could get citizenship
• 15th ratified February 3rd, 1970
• Gave voting rights to all (except for women)

The Reconstruction Acts

• April 12th, 1861 - May 9, 1865
• Passed on March 2, 1867
• Called themselves the Confederate Sates of America
• Not all states were readmitted
• First state to be readmitted was Tennesse in 1866

Enforcement Acts

• Protect African-Americans from racial violence
• Restricted KKK actions
• Put harsher penalties on lawbreakers
• Illegalized night-riding

Jim Crow Laws 

• Jim Crow referred to black people
• Jim Crow Laws are laws that only apply to blacks in Southern USA
• Started in 1877
• Blacks were considered equal to dogs
• Ended in 1954
• Whites participated in Jim Crow Laws abolishment protests

Plessy v. Ferguson 

• 1896 supreme court case
• Started in 1892 when a colored passenger refused to sit in a Jim Crow seat
• Laws for both races to be equal were ineffective

Racial Violence Increases and the Great Migration Occurs

• In a span of 60 years, racial violence was at its peak
• 3,500 lynchings of blacks between 1882 to 1968
• Little Rock, Arkansas had a big case where a black was lynched
• Factors of the Great Migration: Segregation, racism, failing economics
• By 1920, 1 million blacks had migrated from the South

NAACP

• Ensure equality of rights
• Abolish race-based discrimination
• Influential in court
• Attacked segration in public transport and schools

WWII Racial Segregation

• Black soldiers were put into separate regiments
• Asa Philip Randolph was a black labor leader who planned a march on Washington
• Jim Crow Laws especially heavy during WWII with military
• Double V Campaign with victory abroad in war and victory at home with segregation
• Pittsburgh Courier was an influential black newspaper that urged blacks to work hard in war

President's Committee on Civil Rights

• Issued by Henry Truman in 1946
• Gives protection to African-Americans from racial violence
• Ensure equal opportunities for both races

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education

• Black schools not well supplied, white schools much better
• Oliver Brown brought his case of his black daughter not being able to go to school to court
• Case ended with school segregation banned

The Montgomery Bus Boycotts

• 1955 racial segregation peaked, especially in public transportations
• Blacks required to sit in the black
• Claudette Colvins refused to give up her seats to whites in March 1955
• Rosa Parks followed suit
• Law passed to integrate buses
• Spurred American Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

• Created in January, 1957 between 60 colored ministers in Atlanta, Georgia
• "Not one hair of one head of one white person should be harmed." – SCLC Motto
• Stop White Americans from abusing blacks
• Achievements include Birmingham Campaign, March on Washington, Grenada Freedom Movement

Greensboro Sit-ins

• 1960s
• Woolworth cafe refused black customers
• Students sat in the cafe in a silent, peaceful protest
• Led to Formation of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• Believed in discontinuing the violence

Freedom Riders

• Group of whites and blacks to protest against racism
• Hated by segregationists in the South
• Founded by CORE in May 4th, 1961
• Albany Freedom Ride was a disaster
• May 4th, 1961
• 200 white people besieged the car and destroyed it
• Saved by police and federal government
• Sent to jail for safety

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Uplift in women's rights
• Proposed by President John F. Kennedy
• Guaranteed no discrimination

Freedom Summer

• 1964 voter registration project in Mississippi
• For black voting rights in the South
• Proposed by Robert Moses
• 1,000 white volunteers and black Mississippians
• Faced abuse from KKK and police
• Black voters percentage increased
• 1965 Voting Act passed, enabling blacks to vote

24th Amendment (Voting Rights Act)

• Removed poll taxes
• Passed in five states in 1964
• Passed by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6th, 1965
• Allowed everyone, regardless of their race, to vote

Black Power

• Blacks wanted more political power
• Slogan for political ideologies

Martin Luther King Jr.

• Lead many movements for integration
• Icon of civil rights movements
• Assassinated in a small hotel