A Short and Incomplete  
   

CIVIL RIGHTS TIME-LINE of the 20th Century

  
   

1902-1992

  
       
1902   W.E.B. Du Bois - 1902  
       
1917   - Black soldiers are actively recruited to help fill the ranks of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) but units are kept strictly segregated, and most black troops are relegated to support functions.  
       
1920's   - Membership in the KKK (Klu Klux Klan) hits 2 million.

Black veterans who served in World War I argue that America's war to make the world "safe for democracy" should include them. They contend that they've earned a right to "equal opportunity" under the law.

 
       
1939   - The DAR , the "Daughters of the American Revolution", refuse Ms. Marian Anderson, a prominent black opera star, permission to sing at Constitution Hall. Instead, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt resigns, and arranges for Ms. Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. Some 75,000 people attend.  
       
1940   - Membership in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) reaches 50,000.  
       
1941   -  FEPC - (Fair Employment Practices Committee) - a Federal government commission is established to prevent discrimination in defense related employment because of "race, creed , color, or national origin". Committee established after Civil Rights leader A. Phillip Randolph persuades FDR to issue Executive Order #8802. Ends operation in 1945.   
       
1942   - The Congress of Racial Equality [CORE]  is formed.  
       
1943   - CORE sponsors its first sit in, in Chicago, to protest racial discrimination in public facilities.  
       
    - A race riot in Detroit, Michigan leads to the death of 25 blacks.  
       
1944   - The "Tuskeege airmen" compile an impressive record providing fighter protection for American air attacks over Germany.  
       
1945    - Truman Committee on Civil Rights - Presidential commission established to end discrimination by Federal agencies. Integration of Armed Forces begun.  
       
1947   - the NAACP numbers over one half million members, and the Truman administration issues a key study of racial prejudice titled "To Secure These Rights".

 

 

Jackie Robinson, the first black athlete in professional baseball

  
       
1948  

- The KKK  becomes more and more active in post-war America.

  
       
    - Armed Forces begin desegregation process under Presidential orders.  
       
       
    - Nervous southerners press their legislative leaders to reassert their "right" to maintain "the separation of the races"  
       
1954   - U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the doctrine of "separate but equal"

- The key case is Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas

  
       
    - Ninety six members of the Congress of the United States sign the "Southern Manifesto"  
       
1955    - Montgomery Alabama - Led by Dr. Martin Luther King a black boycott of the city's bus system forces desegregation of public transportation. The boycott lasts some 381 days and is triggered by the arrest of Ms. Rosa Parks.  
       
       
       
1956   - TIME Magazine - the Montgomery protest  
       
    - University of Alabama enrolls its first black student and violence soon follows  
       
1957  

 - Federal Courts order desegregation of Central High in Little Rock Arkansas. Governor Faubus orders the state National Guard to block the enrollment of any black students. President Eisenhower steps in sending Federal troops to enforce the court ordered desegregation of the city's high school.

                                               see data for : Scenario #1

  
       
1959   Richard Loving, a white man, and his new wife, Mildred Jared, who is black, are convicted of violating the state of Virginia's antimiscegenation laws. They are promised a one year suspended sentence if they agree not to return to the state for 25 years.    
       
       
    - The Southern Christian Leadership Council is formed. It is led by Dr. Martin Luther King.  
       
1960  

- Civil Rights Act - Establishes Federal protection of the right of American citizens to vote in local elections is passed by Congress. Critics point out that there are no provisions for enforcement.

  
       
   

 -  Greensboro, North Carolina - four students hold a "sit in" at the lunch counter of a local Woolworth department store. By week's end over 400 students were participating in the protest. One week later there were sit ins in seven cities. One month later over 100 cities had similar protests. Student protestors focused on city parks, public restaurants, public swimming pools, libraries, and theaters.

  
       
   

TIME Magazine - the "Freedom riders"

  
       
   

- SNCC is formed - the Student Non Violent Coordinating Council. The group advocates "militant direct action" rather than the doctrines of "non-violence". First major challenge to Dr. King's approach to civil rights issues.

 
       
1961  

- Anniston, Alabama - A white mob attacks a bus carrying "freedom riders", burning the bus and beating the black and white occupants who sought to force the desegregation of bus stations in a number of southern cities.

  
       
   

- By 1961 some 70,000 Americans had participated in a Civil Rights demonstration and over 3,600 had been arrested. Civil Rights activists argue that despite extensive efforts, nearly 9 out of 10 eligible black voters are registered to vote south of the "Mason Dixon" line.

 
       
1962  

- James Meredith's attempt to enroll in the University of Mississippi is blocked by governor Ross Barnett. The effort triggers massive protests and widespread violence. Federal marshals are called in but the violence continues. Eventually, it takes some 20,000 federal troops to restore order.    See Scenario #2

  
       
1960-63   - Lunch counter sit ins conducted throughout the south. 

  
       
1963   - Birmingham, Alabama - Efforts to desegregate this southern city trigger violent confrontations. Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "Letters from the Birmingham jail" are written while Dr. King is being held by local authorities.

 

 
       
       
    - James Baldwin writes "The Fire Next Time"  
       
   

- Selma, Alabama - The confrontations over voting rights continue.

 
   

 
       
    - Over 200,000 march in a civil rights protest in Detroit, Michigan  
       
    - Richard and Mildred Loving file a legal challenge to their 1959 conviction for violation of Virginia's antimiscegenation law.  
       
    - When a black former Field Secretary for the NAACP, Medgar Evers, attempts to enroll at the law school of the University of Mississippi he is turned away. Evers is later killed. Under orders from the President, Mr. Evers is buried at Arlington, Cemetery.

  
       
    - The Federal Park Service estimates that over 200,000 people participate in the "march on Washington". Dr. King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  
       
    - Four young black girls aged 12 and 14 are killed when white supremacists detonate a crude bomb just before Sunday services begin at the the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.  
       
1964   - Civil Rights Act - This legislation provides the basis for requiring the end of legislatively established dual school systems throughout the United States in 1969. 

  
       
       
       
    - Three Civil Rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, are kidnapped and killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  
       
    - Over the course of a single summer :

37 black churches are burned

30 homes are fire bombed

80 civil rights workers are beaten

1,000 protestors are arrested in Mississippi alone

80,000 blacks have joined the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

  
       
    - Dr. Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize  
       
1965   - Ms. Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a Civil Rights worker, and mother of four is shot and killed near Selma, Alabama.  
       
    - TIME Magazine - The riot in Watts, California  
       
    -TIME Magazine - The conflict in Selma Alabama continues

  
       
    - The 1965 Voting Rights Act is passed by Congress. Advocates argue that barely 50% of the eligible black voters in the south are registered to vote.  
       
       
1965 - 67  

- The Long, Hot Summers - The 1965 Watts riot - 34 killed, over 1,000 injured. In 1967 over 7,000 rioters are arrested in the City of Detroit, Michigan, and in Chicago over 500 people are arrested. In 1967 over 150 cities report incidents of "civil disorders" triggered by racial unrest. The city of Watts, in Los Angeles, again erupts. The disturbances in Newark, New Jersey are among the most violent in the nation. Over 130 people die over the course of two "long hot summers".

 
       
1966   - The Black Panther Party is organized in Oakland, California.  
       
    - TIME Magazine : School Desegregation A Decade After the Brown Decision  
       
    - Dr. King takes his campaign for equal rights to Chicago. See Scenario #3  
     
   

Dr King's approach - the explanation offered in Chicago.....

  
       
1967   - President Johnson calls for the establishment of a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. [Kerner Commission] When the group submits its final report they find that the primary cause of civil disorders is racism.  
       
    - TIME Magazine - The rioting in Watts, California  
       
    - The Supreme Court issues the famous LOVING ET UX. v. VIRGINIA decision banning  laws that forbid marriages between people of different races. Some 16 states now have to change their laws.  
       
       
1968    - Dr. Martin Luther King is killed in Memphis, Tennessee.  Over 130 U.S. cities report major civil disturbances

 
       
    - The 1968 Civil Rights Act is passed prohibiting racial discrimination in housing, and making it a Federal crime to harass Civil Rights workers.  
       
1969   - The Congressional Black Caucus is formed.  
       
1971   - Swann vs Board of Education of Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) - Supreme Court unanimously upholds busing as a proper means of overcoming deliberate segregation.  
       
1972   -  Congress passes, and the President signs, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. This legislation allows for preferential hiring and promotion of women and minorities  
       
1978   - Bakke Case - Famous so called "reverse discrimination" case. US Supreme Court held that : A) Mr. Bakke had to be admitted to the medical program of the California school he had applied to; B) Race and ethnic origins were legitimate factors to be considered in establishing admissions policies.   
       
1990   Race and Politics - in the world you were born into  
       
    Race and Housing - in the world you were born into  
       
    Race and Schooling - in the world you were born into  
       
1991   - Rodney King, a black motorist, is arrested by the Los Angeles police after a prolonged chase. His arrest, and subsequent beating, are taped and presented on national TV. The police officers involved are subsequently arrested and tried. Their eventual acquittal triggers the "LA Riots" of 1992.  
1992    

-

The death toll as reported by the LA Times

The death toll as reported by Newsweek