Timeline of The Civil Rights Movement in the USA

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA: A Timeline

This timeline of the Civil Rights Movement highlights key dates and events that shaped this Movement in the United States.

1565

• The colony of St. Augustine in Florida establishes the first permanent European settlement in what would become the US, including an unknown number of African slaves.

1619

• The first record of African slavery in English Colonial America is documented.

1654

• John Casor, a black man, becomes the first legally-recognized slave-for-life in the Virginia colony.

1662

• Virginia law decrees that children of enslaved mothers inherit their mothers’ status and are considered slaves, regardless of their father’s status.

1705

• The Virginia Slave Codes define as slaves all servants brought into the colony who were not Christian in their original countries, as well as Indians sold to colonists by other Indians.

1780

• Pennsylvania becomes the first then-U.S.-state to abolish slavery.

1807

• Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves is enacted.

1808

• The importation of slaves into the United States is banned, marking the earliest day under the United States Constitution that an amendment could restrict slavery.

1861

• The American Civil War begins, leading to mass escapes of enslaved African Americans to Union lines for freedom.

1866

• The Civil Rights Act of 1866 is passed, granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States.

1914

• President Woodrow Wilson orders the physical re-segregation of federal workplaces and employment.

1925

• The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, emerges.

1934

• Wallace D. Fard, leader of the Nation of Islam, mysteriously disappears, succeeded by Elijah Muhammad.

1940s to 1970

• The Second Great Migration sees over 5 million African Americans move from the South to northern, midwestern, and California cities.

1955

• Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1962

• President Kennedy sends federal troops to integrate the University of Mississippi, allowing James Meredith to attend.

1963

• The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom takes place, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

1964

• Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, outlawing racial discrimination.

1965

• The Selma to Montgomery march demands protection for voting rights.
• The Voting Rights Act is signed into law, prohibiting voter discrimination.

1968

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, banning housing discrimination.

1983

• The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday is established.

Comprehension

Read the text above and say whether these statements are true or false:

1. The first permanent European settlement in the US included African slaves. (…)
2. Pennsylvania was the last US state to abolish slavery. (…)
3. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made racial discrimination illegal. (…)
4. The Selma to Montgomery march aimed to demand protection for voting rights. (…)
5. President Kennedy ordered the re-segregation of federal workplaces. (…)
6. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday was established in 1975. (…)