Chronography of Racial Equality
Page last
modified 4 October 2023
See also History of Slavery
An outrageous US (RandMcNally) road
map cover � from 1926
Source,
This Day in Automotive History, p.62, Brian Corey, 2017
General
7 October 1993, Toni Morrison became the first Black woman to
win the Nobel Prize for literature.
1958, The term Afro-Caribbean came into use as a
synonym for Black.
1935,
First known use of the pejorative term �Banana
Republic�. It denoted a small State, especially in Central America, whose
economy was dependent on fruit exports, and whose government was unstable,
undemocratic, and prone to frequent coups.
1935,
First known use of the term �affirmative
action�, to take positive steps to advantage a minority group, as opposed
to simple neutral non-discrimmination. The term did not become widely used
until the 1960s in the USA. See 1967.
21 December 1934, Josephine
Baker became the first Black woman to star in a major motion
picture, �Zouzou�, in Paris.
1905, First recorded use of the
term �colour prejudice�, by William Baucke,
to describe racial prejudice against the Maoris.
Australia
20 February 1965, In Australia, Freedom Ride participants,
including Charles
Perkins, were ejected from the municipal swimming baths at Moree,
New South Wales, after protesting against its segregationist policy of not
admitting indigenous Australians.
Bolivia
3 August 2009, Bolivia
became the first country in South America to grant self-government
to its indigenous peoples.
Canada
27 September 2005, Michaelle Jean, born in Haiti, became the 27th
Governor-General of Canada, the
first Black person to hold that position.
UK
7 June 2020, Black Lives Matter (BLM)
protestors toppled a statue of slave trader Edward Colston into Bristol Docks.
25 November 2015, The first Asian
woman to become a High Court Judge in Britain, Mrs Cheena-Grubb, 49, from Derby, was sworn
in. There were now 22 female High Court Judges, compared with just 10 in 2005.
6 October 2006, In the UK, Jack Straw MP
was accused of racism after reports that he asked Muslim women to remove their
veils at his surgery.
24 June 2004, In Thetford, Norfolk, a mob of 200 local youths laid siege
to the Portuguese
run Red Lion pub, hurling paving slabs and other missiles. 40 Portuguese
workers and their families were trapped inside for two hours until police could
bring in sufficient reinforcements to quell the disturbance. Eight people were
injured, and ten people subsequently arrested. The event was initially linked
to Portugal having beaten the English football team out of the Euro 2004
tournament. However there was also a strong racist element, with the town
having suffered major job losses to its agricultural food processing industries
and local wages being depressed.
27 September 2001. The UK Home Secretary, David Blunkett, condemned as
offensive remarks by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi
had said that Western civilisation was superior to Islamic society.
22 August 2001, Robertsons announced it
would replace its Golly logo with
drawings of Roald
Dahl characters by Quentin Blake.
7 June 1991, Bill Morris
became the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, the first Black leader of a UK trade union.
2 January 1987. The traditional golliwogs
in Enid
Blyton�s Noddy books were replaced by neutral gnomes to remove any
taint of racism.
30 April 1985, Britain�s first
Black bishop, Wilfrid Wood, was appointed.
29 November 1978, Viv Anderson, of Nottingham
Forest, became the first Black footballer to play for England.
30 January 1978, Mrs Thatcher said many in Britain feared
�being swamped� by people with a different culture.
11 November 1977, The UK�s Anti-Nazi League was formed.
8 June 1977. In Britain the Race Relations Commission began work. In 1996 it
registered 1,750 calls for assistance with racial discrimination and handled
142 court cases in this area. In 1997 asimilar Commission was established in
Northern Ireland.
1976, In Britain the Race Relations Commission was set up,
by an amendment to the 1965 Race Relations Act.
1973, In the UK, the TUC changed its traditional
pro-immigration-control stance and became very much anti-racist and
pro-equal-opportunity,
9 August 1970. Police and Black protestors clashed in Notting Hill,
London.
9 April 1969, Sikh bus drivers in Wolverhampton won the right
to wear turbans.
1 January 1969. Sir Learie
Constantine became
UK Race
Relations Acts
1976, The 1976 Race Relations Act outlawed indirect discrimination, for
example using unjustifiable criteria in adverts that would advantage or
disadvantage a certain race or religion.
26 November 1972, The Race Relations Act became UK law;
employers were now not allowed to discriminate on grounds of race.
26 November 1968, In Britain the 1968 Race Relations Act was passed/ It
extended the scope of the 1965 Act, banning
racial discrimination in employment and housing. However contravening the Act was still not a
criminal offence; cases were solved primarily hrough a
conciliation procedure.
1965, In the UK, the first Race Relations Act was passed. Modelled
on US civil rights legislation, it outlawed racial segregation in public
places, such as in restaurants or on public transport. It also outlawed racial
hatred expressed in speech or writing. However it did not cpover discrimination
in housing or employment.
7 February 1967, In Britain the Far Right anti-immigration National Front
party was formed. It was founded by A.K.Chesterton, cousin of the famous author.
14 March 1966, Britain�s first
Asian policeman, Muhammad Yusuf, was sworn in to the Coventry
force
31 May 1965. Within a day of moving into a semi detached house
on a Staffordshire housing estate a Jamaican family was approached by the
resident� association with an offer to buy them out. �We are not against coloured people� said
the chairman, �but we are concerned about maintaining the value of our house�
said the residents..
1962, Wilston Samuel Jackson became
the UK�s first Black train driver. Born in Jamaica he arrived in Britain in
1952 and initially worked in maintenance jobs. He faced an attempted boycott in
1962 by some colleagues who urged others not to work with him but went on to a
successful career, later teaching train drivers in Zambia. He died in 2018 aged
91.
18 November 1962. Birmingham Corporation, UK,� revoked a ban on turbaned Sikhs working as bus conductors and drivers.
24 May 1959, Empire day
was renamed Commonwealth Day.
8 September 1958. Race riots in Notting Hill, London.
White youths attacked five Black people, leading to 150 arrests and gang fights
involving up to 2,000 people.
31 August 1958, Fighting
between Black and White youths in Notting Hill, London.
8 March 1955, In West Bromwich, Birmingham, UK, bus drivers
re-imposed a colour bar, which had already led to strikes.
27 June 1925, Michael Dummett, British campaigner for racial
equality, was born (died 2011).
13 January 1919. Satyendra Prasano Sinha became the first Indian
peer of Britain and so the first Indian member of the House of Lords.
10 November 1913, In Battersea, London, Britain�s first Black mayor was
elected.
6 July 1892, Dadabhai Naoroji became Britain�s first non-White MP. He was elected Liberal representative
for Central Finsbury, London, by a majority of 3 votes over his Unionist rival.
30 April 1517, This evening the Evil May Day riots began in
London; one of the earliest race riots recorded. Riots were directed against
foreigners, whom they claimed were protected by their nations�s ambassadors
from punishment for crimes that English citizens would be penalised for. In
fact, London was suffering an economic downturn after a poor harvest the
previous autumn. Prices were rising and wages being cut. Hanseatic merchants
and foreign bankers were targeted, also foreign courtiers.
UN
17 December 1996, Kofi Annan
from Ghana became the first Black
African UN Secretary General.
21 December 1965, The United Nations General
Assembly voted 106 to 0 to adopt the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. After ratification by 27 nations, it would come into effect
on 4 January 1969.
USA
24 November 2014, In Missouri, the Prosecutor�s Office announced it
would not press charges against a policeman, Mr Wilson, for shooting dead a
Black teenager, Michael
Brown (see 9 August 2014). Several nights rioting followed.
9 August 2014, A Black man, Mr Brown, was shot dead by a White policeman, Mr Darren
Wilson, in the suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, USA. Several nights of racial-based
rioting followed.
24 October 2005, Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her
bus seat to a White passenger, so starting the civil rights movement, died aged
92.
26 January 2005, Condoleezza Rice was confirmed
in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 85-13 to become the first African-American woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.
24 March 2002, Halle Berry, US actress, became the first Black woman to win an Oscar.
2 January 1991, Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as Mayor of
Washington DC, becoming the first Black
woman to lead such a major US city.
24 November 1990, White extremists attacked 300 Black
children in a park in Louis Trichardt.
8 November 1989, In Virginia, Douglas Wilder became the first Black Governor in the USA.
6 November 1989, David Dinkins became the first African-American mayor of New York City.
5 May 1988, In the US, Eugene Antonio became the country�s first Black Roman Catholic Archbishop.
17 September 1983, Vanessa
Williams became the first African-American Miss America
12 April 1983. Chicago got
its first Black mayor.
27 August 1981. Moira Stuart was appointed the BBC�s first Black
female newsreader.
27 June 1979, Brian Weber lost a reverse discrimination case against
his union (US Supreme Court, United Steel Workers v Weber), which had recruited
Black and White workers in equal numbers to a training programme, although
White workers outnumbered Black ones.
1978, The
case of Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke. A Whute engineering graduate, Alan Bakke, had applied to the
American University of California (Davis)
Medical School, but was not offered a place, despite his having higher
qualifications than most of the Black students admitted. Of the 100 places
available, 16 were reserved for Black students. The US Supreme Court ruled
that, although the University had violated the 14th Amendment and Bakke had suffered
discrimination, and was entitled to a place, it was nevertheless reasonable for
the University to consider racial background in admittance decisions. This
rather confused decision opened the way to further cases over �reverse
discrimmination�.
16 October 1974, In the USA the 82nd airborne division was put on alert as race riots
in Boston continued. President
Ford was reluctant to send in troops.
10 October 1974, Widespread race rioting in Boston, USA,� in protest at the bussing of black
schoolchildren to maintain a racial balance in the city�s schools.
3 August 1971, US President
Nixon ordered that the bussing of schoolchildren, to
achieve racially desegregated schools, be limited �to the minimum required by
law�.
5 November 1968 The
first Black woman was elected to the US House of Representatives.
USA racial
conflict, riots, 1965 - 71
14 October 1971, Two killed in
Memphis, Tennessee in racial disturbances.
1970, 18 million Black
Americans, over 80% of the total Black US population, now lived in urban areas.
This was up from 4.9 million (64% urban) in 1940 and 2.6 million (27%) in 1910.
The US population as a whole was 73.5% urban in 1970 compared to 56.5% urban in
1940 and 45.6% urban in 1910. However although the Black US population had
improved their position by taking urban industrial jobs, these jobs were still
mainly at the lower pay levels.
12 May 1970. 12 Black protestors died in
race riots in
12
August 1968. Race riots in
Watts, Los Angeles.
23 August 1967, Race riots in Detroit.��
23 July 1967, Riots broke out
in Detroit after police raided a �blind pig�, an unlicensed bar, in the 12th
street area of Detroit. In 5 days of disorder, 43 people were killed and 467
injured. 7,200 were arrested and almost 3,000 buildings burnt or looted. The US
Army had to go in with tanks and machine guns. The root cause of the riots was credit discrimination by banks against
addresses in districts that were mainly Black.
15 June 1967. Race riots shook New Jersey, USA, following the arrest of a black
taxi driver for a traffic offence. The riots lasted for four nights 1,600
people were arrested, 1,100 were injured, and 22 died.
11 September 1966, Race riots in Atlanta,
Georgia, USA.
12 September 1966, In Mississippi, USA, White
parents rioted, attacking Black schoolchildren who were attending
racially-integrated schools.
31
July 1966, In the US,
there were race riots in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland.
20 July 1966. Racial unrest continued in
Brooklyn, New York, resulting in the fatal stabbing of an 11 year old boy.
There were other racial tensions across the USA.
16 July 1966. Race riots in Chicago caused Governor
Kerner to call out 3,000 men from the Illinois National Guard who
supplemented 900 police facing 5,000 rioters.
11 August 1965, Race riots in the Watts area of Los Angeles, USA. A local Black woman, Marquette Fry,
was arrested by White police officers on suspicion of drunk-driving and then
beaten up. Over the next two nights rioting in the predominantly Black area
spread to involve some 130 square kilometres, with cars and shops being looted
and burnt. On 13 August 1965 2,000 national Guardsmen arrived to support the
thousands of police in enforcing an 8.pm curfew for the next three nights. The
riots saw the deaths of 34 people, mostly Black civilians shot by National
Guards or police.
Martin Luther King 1929 - 68
10 June 1969, James Earl Ray was sentenced to
99 years in Memphis, Tennessee, for the murder of Martin Luther King in April
1968.
10 March 1969, James Ray Earl pleaded guilty to
the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. He was sentenced to 99
years.
4 April 1968. Martin Luther King, 39, was assassinated, shot
dead by James
Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in
22 January 1966, Martin Luther King moved to a tenement flat in a deprived part
ofChicago to draw attention to Black urban poverty.
15 March 1965. Doctor Martin Luther
King led a Freedom March in Selma,
Alabama, in defiance of a court ban. State police stopped the procession with
tear gas.
14 October 1964.
Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize.
28 August 1963. Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King made his
famous speech, �I have a dream�� to a rally of 200,000 people in Washington DC,
demonstrating for civil rights for Blacks. On 4 September 1963 there were
desegregation riots at Birmingham,
Alabama.
13 June 1957. US Vice-President Richard Nixon
and civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King discussed how to enforce
the racial desegregation of the southern states of the USA.
5 December 1955, Martin Luther King was elected
leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement which had started following the
arrest of Rosa
Parks on 1 December 1955.
15 January 1929, US civil rights leader Martin
Luther King was born in
1967,
The term positive discrimination was
first used, meaning to make active efforts to favour a disadvantaged group, see
affirmative action (1935).
2 October 1967, US Jurist Thurgood
Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American Justice of the
US Supreme Court.
17 August 1967, West-Indian born civil
rights activist Stokely Carmichael rejected the non-violent principles of
Martin Luther King Jr, and called on African-Americans to mount an armed
revolution.
13 June 1967, Solicitor General Thurgood
Marshall was nominated as the first Black American Justice of the US
Supreme Court, He served until 1991.
1966, The Black Power movement got underway,
campaigning for better civil rights for Black people.
1966, The Black Panther Party was founded by two
Black people from Oakland California; Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The aim of the
Party was to secure better economic and civil rights for Black people in the
USA.
8 November 1966. Edward Brooke became the USA�s first black senator.
2 September 1966, Governor George
Wallace of Georgia, USA, forbade the State�s schools from complying with Federal
US desegregation requirements.
13 January 1966, Robert C Weaver became the first
Black person selected for Cabinet office by US President Lyndon Johnson
(Housing and Urban Development)
6 December 1965.. The Governor of California received a report on
the necessity of stimulating employment and education among the Black
population as a means of avoiding race riots.
19 October 1965, In the USA, the Un-American Activities
Committee of the House of Representatives began a public hearing on the Klu Klux
Klan.
6 August 1965, US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, outlawing racial discrimination in
voting procedures. This discrimination had included literacy tests, where
Black people mhad had less educational opportunities.
7 March 1965, US State Troopers and police attacked some 600
Civil Rights marchers with clubs, whips, and tear gas on the Selma Freedom
March from Selma, Alabama, to the
State capital, Alabama. 17 marchers were hospitalised and scores more injured.
21 February 1965. American Black leader Malcolm X was shot dead whilst addressing a
meeting in New York. He was shot 15 times at point-blank range by three gunmen,
and was dead on arrival at hospital. Born on 19 May 1925 in Nebraska, Malcolm X
was the son of a Baptist minister, Earl Little, who was a supporter of the Black
Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Little received death threats
and in 1931 his body was found, mutilated. Malcolm dropped out of school and by 1942 was
involved in the criminal gangs of Harlem, New York. He was imprisoned for
burglary in 1946 and in the same year converted to an Islamic sect led by Elijah Mohammed.
Malcolm
changed his surname to X because he viewed Little as a slave name. Out on
parole in 1952, Malcolm
preached for the sect, supporting Black separatism and violence. He made a
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and then changed his views to supporting all races.
He founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity and toured many countries
before he was assassinated.
7 December 1964, The US Supreme Court struck down as
unconstitutional, a Florida law that prohibited cohabitation between a white
man and a black woman, or a black man and a white woman, noting that Florida
did not prohibit cohabitation between the same conduct by persons of the same
race. The case of McLaughlin v. Florida arose when Dewey McLaughlin, a black
man, and Connie Hoffman, a white woman, had been sentenced to 30 days in jail
after living together in Miami. The Court avoided commenting on state laws
prohibiting interracial marriage.
2 August 1964, US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act 1964.
2 July 1964. President Johnson of the USA signed the Civil
Rights Bill prohibiting racial discrimination.
15 September 1963, During race violence in the US, an
African-American church in Birmingham, Alabama,
was blown up.
27 August 1963, Du Bois, fighter for Black equality (born in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, 23 February 1868), died in Accra, Ghana. He
founded the Niagara Movement, an
association of Black intellectuals, in 1905, which became part of the National Association for the Advancement of
Coloured People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois also participated on the conferences
that led to the founding of the United Nations, moving to Ghana in 1961. During
World War Two, membership rose from 50,000 to 400,000. In 1987 the NAACP had around 500,000 members, noth
Black and White.
12 June 1963, Civil Rights lawyer Medgar Evers was murdered by
White� segregationists in Mississippi.
10 May 1963, African-Americans were finally allowed to use the shops and
public services in Birmingham, Alabama,
after the �Birmingham Campaign� led by Martin Luther King.
2 April 1963, A Black
Civil Rights campaign began in the USA.
James
Meredith, University of Mississippi
18 August 1963, James Meredith became the first
African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.
1 October 1962. The first Black student attended classes at Mississippi University, and
200 were arrested in subsequent riots. James Howard Meredith arrived at university
with a large guard of 170 Federal Marshals. After White rioting, gunfire
erupted in the evening, with two killed and over 50 injured, including a French
journalist. Under armed guard for his entire period of study, Meredith
obtained his degree.
20 September 1962, African American student James Meredith was blocked from
enrolling at the University of Mississippi by the State Governor. This resulted
in rioting and President kennedy sent in Federal troops. Four days later the US
Court of Appeals ordered the university to admit him.
13 September 1962, In the US, President Kennedy condemner the burning of
Black churches which was being done to discourage Black voter registration.
29 January 1962, The USA enacted a positive discrimination law, that firms
with large government contracts must have a 15% Black workforce. The proportion
of the US population that was Black was then 11%.
25 May 1961, Klu Klux Klan marchers clashed with civil rights �Freedom Riders� in Montgomery, Alabama.
13 November 1960, African-American entertainer and actor Sammy Davis Jr
married Swedish actress May Britt. At that time inter-racial marriage
was illegal in 31 US States and the couple became the target of racist jibes
and death threats.
8 November 1960, Former Massachusetts Attorney-General Edward Brooke
became the first Black Senator in the US. He was born in Washington DC in 1919.
13 September 1960, In Washington, D.C., charges were filed
against a Tennessee bank and 27 individuals said to have used economic pressure
to prevent black people from voting.
6 May 1960, US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, against prolonged obstruction by Senators. This
Act enabled Federal Authorities to act against any obstruction of Black voting
rights. The first Federal action under this Act was brought on 13 September 1960
in Tennessee.
25 April 1960, Race riots in Mississippi, ten Blacks were shot
dead. Extremist Whites in the State disliked the 1954 US Supreme Court ruling
that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional.���������������������������������������������� �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
10 April 1960. The US Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill.
2 February 1960. Black
protestors began a lunch-counter sit-in campaign in the USA. They were
protesting against racial segregation at the local Woolworth�s canteen, also at
other �Whites-only� restaurants in Sumter, South Carolina. Black citizens also
organised �Freedom rides� on buses that were segregated for Whites only.
10 November 1959. The UN condemned apartheid and racism.
25 May 1959, The US Supreme Court ruled that Alabama�s ban on
boxing matches between Black and White contestants was unconstitutional.
Fight against race discrimination in education,
ALABAMA,
1 February 1964. The mayor of Notasulga,
Alabama, turned away six black pupils from an all white school.
4 September 1963, Desegregation riots in
Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
2 September 1963, George Wallace, Governor of
Alabama, halted integration of Black and White students by surrounding Tuskegee
High School with state troopers. See 15 May 1972.
11 June 1963, George C Wallace, Governor of
Alabama, barred the path of two Black students, James A Hood and Vivian J
Malone, who were attempting to enrol at the University of Alabama.
6 February 1960, A bomb attack was made on
the house of Carlotta
Watts, one of five Black children who had been admitted to the
Little Rock High School 5 months earlier.
12 August 1959, Parents and children
rioted in Arkansas over racial segregation in schools.
12 September 1958. The Governor of Arkansas
closed all High Schools in Little Rock.
8 May 1958, Segregationalists caused unrest in Little
Rock, Arkansas, when Ernest Green became the first Black American
to graduate from public school. US President Eisenhower ordered the 101st
Airborne Division of the National Guard to restore civil order.
25 September 1957, 1,000 US armed
paratroopers turned out to protect 9 Black schoolchildren who were taking their
places at the all-White Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This followed a US Supreme Court ruling that
segregated schools contravened the 14th Amendment. However Arkansas
Governor Orville
Faubus flouted the court ruling and deployed armed National
Guardsmen to bar the Black children, whilst a White mob shouted �Niggers go
home�. President Eisenhower intervened and the Guardsmen were withdrawn, but a
White mob remained. In an unprecedented move, Eisenhower removed control of
the National Guard from Faubus and sent in the 101st
Airborne Division to protect the Black schoolchildren, to the fury of southern
Governors.
13 June 1957. The Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus,
said he would never permit racial integration of his schools and would use
state militia to stop Black students entering White facilities. On 25 September
1957 an angry crowd of 1,500 White demonstrators watched as 1,000 US armed
National Guardsmen, bayonets drawn, enforce the arrival of nine black students
at the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Seven protesters were
arrested as one demonstrator tried to grab a guardsman�s rifle; some shouted
�go home, niggers!
5 February 1956, The US Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in
State-run schools and colleges was illegal.
1 March 1956. The University of
Alabama expelled its first Black student. Autherine Lucy had been
suspended �for her own safety� after attacks by an angry White mob. The US
Federal Court ruled that she must be re-admitted.
17 May 1954, The US Supreme Court, in
the case of Brown v The Board of Education,�
unanimously� outlawed racial
segregation in school as unconstitutional. The principle of �separate but
equal� facilities for Black and White pupils was struck down. This ruling was
to be extended to all areas of public life.
12 January 1948. A law school in Oklahoma was ordered to
admit a Black student.
Rosa Parks, Alabama bus
segregation
21 January 1959, In the USA, bus passengers
were officially integrated (racially) but the segregationist Governor of
Georgia asked for �voluntary� bus segregation to continue. Segregation
continued on buses across much of the southern USA.
13 November 1956, The US Supreme Court ruled
that racial segregation on buses was illegal.
22 March 1956, Martin Luther King was convicted
of organising a buy boycott in Alabama.
5 December 1955, Martin Luther King was elected leader of the
Montgomery Bus Boycott movement which had started following the arrest of Rosa Parks
on 1 December 1955.
1 December 1955, In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give
up her front of bus seat for a White man and move to the rear of the bus. On 4
December 1955 she was fined US$ 14. A boycott of Montgomery City Lines buses
began by the Afro-American population, costing 65% of pre-boycott revenue. The
bus company had to end seat discrimination and hire Afro-American drivers, an outcome hailed as the start of the Black
Rights movement in the USA.
7 January 1955, Marian Anderson became the first
African-American to appear in the Metropolitan Opera�s production of Verdi�s
Masked Ball.
27 October 1954, Benjamin O Davis Jr. became the first Black
American General in the US Air Force.
8 June 1953, The US Supreme Court ruled that restaurants in the District
of Columbia could not refuse to serve African-Americans.
3 June 1949, Wesley Anthony Brown became the first
African-American to graduate from the US Naval Academy.
26 July 1948, By executive order, US President Harry S Truman ended racial
segregation in the US armed forces.
3 May 1948, The US Supreme Court ruled that private acts of
discrimination, such as refusing to sell a house to a member of a certain
racial group, could not be enforced in law.
2 January 1948, US President Truman presented a civic rights
package to Congress, calling for an end to segregated schools and workplace
discrimination. On 12 February the Southern Democrats responded calling on �all
true White Jeffersonian Democrats� to unite in opposition to Truman�s
proposals.
1942, The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was
founded in the USA.� It was involved in
campaigns against racial segregation on public transport and in increasing the registration of Black voters in the US South.
26 June 1938, James Weldon Johnson, Black civil rights
leader, died.
1 September 1933, U.S. Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes issued an
order forbidding racial discrimination in hiring on any Public Works
Administration funded projects.
19 May 1925, Malcolm X,
6 February 1924. The
Rise of the
Klu Klux Klan
8 August 1925. The first national congress of the Klu Klux Klan opened in
30 June 1923. The Klu Klux Klan claimed to have a
million members. Founded after
Black slaves gained freedom in the American Civil War, it has gradually widened
its targets to include Jews, Catholics, even foreigners; in fact anyone who is
not Protestant and White. It was disbanded in 1869 but revived in 1915, under
its �imperial wizard�, a dentist called Hiram Evans.
11 September 1921, The Klu Klux Klan took
control of a university faculty in Atlants, Georgia, for the purposes of
teaching �Americanism�.
4 December 1915. The
25 November 1915, The White supremacist society Klu Klux
Klan was revived at Stone Mountain,
Georgia, by Colonel
William Simmons. The original Klan, from Greek kuklos = circle, was
formed as a secret Confederate Army. Its �night riders� in their hooded
costumes terrorised Blacks. The new Klan
also opposed Catholics, Jews, immigration, birth control, the repeal of
Prohibition, pacifism and Darwinism, as well as Black people.
20 April 1871, In the US, the Klu Klux
Klan Act outlawed paramilitary organisations such as the Klu Klux Klan.
24 April 1866, The Klu Klux Klan was
formed by White Supremacists, in reaction to US President Andrew Johnson�s
programme of reconstruction following the American Civil War, which included
enlarging the civil rights of the Black population.
9 April 1866, In the US the Civil Rights
Act was passed by Congress. This gave full citizenship to all former slaves,
invalidating the Dredd Scott ruling of 1857.
24 December 1865, The Klu Klux Klan was
founded in the US by six men in Pulaski, Tennessee.
7 January 1923, A White mob destroyed the mainly Black
settlement of Rosewood, Florida.
31 May 1921, A mob of White thugs attacked the Black community
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a thriving Black business district existed.
9 April 1921, Mary Jackson, first female Black engineer at
NASA, was born.
27 July 1919. Large scale race riots in Chicago. Violent
interracial clashes resulted in 38 dead, 537 injured, and 1,000 rendered homeless.
The spark for these riots had been a trivial incident when a Black person swam
into a part of Lake Michigan that White people had claimed as �their� preserve.
6 October 1917, Fannie Lou Hamer, US Equal Rights activist,
chief organizer of Freedom Summer, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi
(died 1977)
2 July 1916. Hundreds died in race riots in
14 November 1915, Death of Booker T Washington, first
principal of the Tuskegee Institute (Alabama) for Blacks.
4 February 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA.
1 May 1910, The National
Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was launched. It
was an organisation of African-American Liberals; it published Crisis, edited by W E B Du Bois.
22 June 1908, Six Black people accused of murder were lynched in
the USA.
8 April 1908. In the US, President
Roosevelt issued an injunction allowing Black people to use the same
train carriages as Whites in the South.
13 July 1905, The Niagara
Movement was founded in Ontario. It was a US Black organisation calling for
more civil rights.
5 May 1905, The Chicago
Defender, the first major African-American newspaper, began publication
7 January 1905, The US Senate approved the first government appointment of a Black man, as head of South
Carolina Customs Services.
7 August 1904, Ralph Johnson Bunche, who became the first Black person to hold an important
position at the US State Department, was born. He helped found the United Nations
and won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the 1949 Arab-Israeli truce.
2 January 1903. President
Roosevelt
closed a Post Office in
28 October 1901, Race
riots in America over the Presidential dinner on 21 October 1901. The event
was condemned by racist Whites as �a breach of etiquette�. In 1900 Mr Washington
had formed the �National Negro Business
League� to promote entrepreneurialism amongst Black people.
16 October 1901, A Black teacher, Booker T Washington, dined with President
Roosevelt at the White House.�
See 28 October 1901.
25 July 1900, In New Orleans, violence that became known as the
Robert Charles riots broke out as White rioters began attacking Black residents
at random in response to the killing of two policemen by Robert Charles the
previous day
28 January 1889, Prudence Crandall,� campaigner for education for Black people in
the US, died (born 3 September 1803)
USA �
attempts to block Black people from voting, and from other Civil Rights (see
also 1942)
6 February 1904. Maryland
disenfranchised Black voters.
30 July 1901, By a vote of 109 to 23,
the Alabama constitutional
convention began the first of its measures to disenfranchise African Americans.
The �grandfather clause� limited the right to register to vote to those persons
whose ancestors were war veterans.
1898, Louisiana amended its jury system to disenfranchise Black jurors.
Having required unanimous verdicts in jury cases since the State�s inception,
Louisiana now ruled that 10:2 majority verdicts were permissible. This was so
that if two Black jurors were on a jury, their verdict could be discounted.
18 May 1896, The
US Supreme Court ruled, in Plessy v. Ferguson, that facilities for Whites and
non-Whites could be segregated if they were �equal�.
1 November 1890, The US State of Mississippi adopted a constitutional amendment designed
to exclude Black people from voting. They adopted a qualification for voting
that included being able to read a section of the constitution and explain it,
knowing that many Black people in the State had not received a basic education
and so were illiterate.
27 February 1869. The US passed the 15th Amendment, entitling
all southern Black citizens to vote. No State could be admitted to the Union
without ratifying this amendment. However poll tax and literacy qualifications
could still be used to debar Black people from voting, and the Klu Klux
Klan intimidated many Black people from claiming their rights.
20 January 1895, Frederick Douglass, US campaigner for Black
Equality, died.
1887, The USA passed the Dawes Allotment Act. It was an attempt
to �assimilate� the Indigenous Americans into the US economy by giving them
each a free 160 acres of farmland and farm equipment.
26 November 1886, Sojourner Truth, campaigner for racial
equality, died.
1885, Anti-Chinese migrant violence broke out in Rock
Springs, Wyoming. 28 Chinese were murdered.
15 June 1877, Henry Ossian Flipper became the first Black
American to graduate from the US military Academy. Four years later as a
Leiutenant he was court-martialled on embezzlement charges that were later
found to be trumped-up.
1 March 1875. The US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, giving equal rights to all races in transport,
theatres, inns, and juries.
17 June 1871, James Weldon Johnson, Black civil rights
leader, was born in Jacksonville, Florida.
12 May 1871, In the USA, the Louisville District Court ruled
that streetcars in Kentucky can no longer be segregated by race.
12 December 1870. Joseph H Rainey became the first Black member
of the House of Representatives in the USA. The Reverend Hiram H Revels became the first Black
member of the Senate in February 1871.
3 February 1870, In the
US, the Fifteenth Amendment gave
every US citizen, regardless of race, the right to vote.
9 July 1868, The US
passed the Fourteenth Amendment,
during the period of �reconstruction� following the conclusion of the Civil
War. It guaranteed equality before the law for Blacks and Whites alike,
specifically including ex-slaves here, and prohibited any State from �abridging
their privileges� or� denying them �equal
protection of the laws�. However, due to the fact that corporations are also
�persons� before the law, the 14th Amendment began to be used for
purposes it was not intended for. The 14th Amendment was used to
shield companies from government regulation, and even, before the 1950s, to
justify racial discrimination because it contained the words �separate but
equal�. Later, in the 1980s, it was still being used to block so-called
�positive discrimination in favour of racial minorities.
30 August 1866, Race
riots broke out in New Orleans following attempts to allow Black people to vote
in Louisiana elections.
10 May 1866, The American
Equal Rights Association was founded.
29 June 1864, Samuel Crowther, Bishop of Niger, became the first Black Church of England Bishop.
22 August 1848, Mathieu Louisi became the first Black MP to sit in a European Parliament when he was elected
representative for Guadeloupe to the French Parliament. His maiden speech in
November calling for more harmonious relations between the races was met with
disapproval, and he lost his seat at the next election.
1833, Boston
Abolitionist David
Lee Child and his31-year-old wife, Lydia Maria Child, proposed that
Black people should be educated. This notion caused outrage amongst many, but
the Childs also succeeded in converting many to the anti-slavery cause.
Meanwhile in Canterbuty, Connecticut, schoolmistress Prudence Crandall was imprisoned
for violating an Act of the State legislature forbidding her from admitting
Black gilrs to her school.
5/1833, The
Connecticut State Legislature passed the infamous Black Law, which prohibited the establishment of any ediucational
facility for �non-resident negroes� without the cfonsent of the local
authorities. This law was to thwart the effforts of Prudence Crandall in
proimoting education for Black children. The Black Law was rfepealed in 1838.
3 September 1803, Prudence Crandall,� campaigner for education for Black people in
the US, was born (died 28 January 1889)
5 December 1784, Phillis Wheatley, the first
published Black American poet, died in Boston, Massachusetts aged ca.31.
17 October 1711, The first widely
publoished Black American poet, Jupiter Hammon, was born in Long Island.