Chronology: Key Events in Civil Rights in the USA, 1865–1992

1865: End of US Civil War. 13th Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery. Reconstruction begins in the South. Formation of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist terror organisation.

1868: 14th Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing all Americans ‘equal protection of the law’.

1870: 15th Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing all adult male Americans the right to vote.

1875: Civil Rights Act (1).

1877: End of Reconstruction; segregation begins (2).

1887: Dawes Act attempts to integrate Native Americans into mainstream US society. Haymarket riots.

1890: Battle of Wounded Knee ends Indian Wars.

1892: Homestead Steel Strike.

1896: Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court decision (3).

1909: NAACP formed (4).

1924: All Native Americans made US citizens.

1934: Indian Reorganisation Act.

1935: Wagner Act recognises trade unions.

1941: Executive Order 8802 against discrimination in defence industries.

1942: CORE founded (5).

1946: Taft-Hartley Act limits trade union right to strike.

1948: US Armed Forces desegregated.

1954: Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court case outlaws segregation in public schooling.

1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King.

1956: Browder v Gayle (6).

1957: Central High, Little Rock episode (7).

1960: SNCC organises lunch counter sit-ins.

1961: Freedom Rides by CORE into Alabama and Mississippi.

1962: J.F. Kennedy orders the University of Mississippi to end segregation.

1964: Civil Rights Act ends segregation in the South.

1965: Voting Rights Act outlaws literacy tests and poll taxes.

1968: Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the sale or rental of housing; assassination of Martin Luther King.

1969: Alexander v Holmes Supreme Court decision (8).

1971: Swann v Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education (9).

1974: Indian Self-Development Act.

1978: Bakke Supreme Court Case (10).

1. It was the first act to protect African American civil rights.
2. It saw the beginning of an era of white supremacist governments in the South. These governments denied African Americans civil and political rights through the Jim Crow laws.
3. The Court ruled that separate but equal facilities were not against the 14th Amendment.
4. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People was led by W.E.B. du Bois. He edited its journal, Crisis, and set out to educate and liberate black Americans.
5. Founded by James Farmer, the Congress of Racial Equality began a campaign of civil disobedience and economic boycotts in Chicago.
6. In Montgomery, Alabama, the federal district court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. Later, in December, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the city commissioners and a boycott against blacks was abandoned.
7. Eisenhower sent federal troops to protect black students going to and from Central High School amid considerable local opposition. In spite of the law, only in 1960 was Central High integrated.
8. The Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unlawful.
9. The Supreme Court ruled that school desegregation must be fully implemented. President Nixon, however, declared that he was not in favour of busing children long distances.
10. Allan Bakke challenged the University of California for rejecting his application to medical school when coloured candidates with lower SAT scores had gained places. The California Supreme Court ruled in his favour but the Supreme Court agreed with the university’s affirmative action.