Education

Actions Affecting Equality Broadly

Transportation

Housing

Voting

Jury Selection

Other Events

Date

Event

1501

Spain approves the importation of Africans to be enslaved in the Western Hemisphere (authority)

1502

First African slaves arrive in the Western Hemisphere on a cargo ship from Portugal (authority)

1522

African slaves revolt for the first time on a sugar mill in the Dominican Republic (authority)

1562

England enters the slave trade--Sir John Hawkins of England imports 300 slaves to Brazil (authority)

1619

Twenty slaves arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, making them the first slaves to arrive in North America (authority)

1638

First African slaves brought for sale in British Colonies

1704

1776

U.S. Declaration of Independence. Section condemning slavery (authored by Virginia slave owner Thomas Jefferson) is dropped at the insistence of Georgia and South Carolina. (authority)

1777

Vermont Constitution bans slavery(authority)

1783

U.S. Peace Treaty with England confirms independence of the U.S. (Treaty of Paris) (authority)

1787

Northwest Ordinance art. 6 abolishes slavery in the Northwest Territories

1789

U.S. Constitution 3/5's compromise (Const. art. I §2) and Fugitive Slave Act (Const. art. IV §2)

1791

Bill of Rights ratified

1793

Fugitive Slave Act adopted to enforce Constitutional provision

1808

Importation of slaves banned U.S. Constitution art. I §9, clause 1; art. 5

1820

Missouri Compromise outlaws slavery everywhere in the Louisiana Purchase north of the southern border of Missouri, but allowed Missouri to be a slave state.

1830

Indian Removal Act requiring removal of all surviving Native Americans in the eastern United States to reservations west of the Mississippi.

1832

The Cherokees challenged the Indian Removal Act in court, resulting in a decision by Chief Justice John Marshall and the Supreme Court in their favor. Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832).  Upon hearing of the Court's decision, President Jackson is reputed to have said, "John Marshall has made his decision. Let him enforce it now if he can."

1838-39

Trail of Tears: Ignoring the Supreme Court decision holding the 1830 Indian Removal Act illegal, President Jackson forcibly relocates the Cherokee Nation from Georgia to Oklahoma.

1841

The Amistad, 40 U.S. (16 Pet.) 518 (1840): Supreme Court holds that free Africans kidnapped to be sold as slaves are still free.

1842

Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 539 (1842): Supreme Court declares unconstitutional a Pennsylvania statute intended to prevent slave owners from using self-help to return fugitive slaves.

1849

Roberts v. City of Boston, 59 Mass. 198 (1849): Massachusetts Supreme Court declares separate black and white schools legal

1850

Compromise of 1850 strengthens 1793 Fugitive Slave Act

1854

Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and opens the west to slavery with each state to be permitted to choose slavery or not under the notion of "popular sovereignty." This action helped galvanize anti-slavery sentiment in the North.

1855

Massachusetts overturns the effect of Roberts v. City of Boston, 59 Mass. 198 (1849) by abolishing segregated schools legislatively. (authority)

1857

Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393, 19 How. 393 (1857): Infamous decision overturning the "Missouri Compromise" and holding that slaves and descendants of slaves are not and cannot be citizens of the United States, but rather are a form of property.

1861-1865

Civil War (online references)

Jan. 1, 1863

Emancipation Proclamation takes effect

1865

Civil War ends (online references)

1865

Black Codes begin to be enacted across the South to keep African Americans in peonage (authority)

Dec. 6, 1865

13th Amendment ratified (banning slavery)

1866

Civil Rights Act provides federal guarantee of rights to contract, to own property, and to sue

1867

Howard University Founded

1866-67

KKK founded in Nashville, Tennessee

July 9, 1868

14th Amendment ratified (requiring states to grant citizenship rights to all citizens and due process and equal protection to all persons)

1869

Howard University School of Law founded

1870

15th Amendment ratified (voting)

1872

Slaughter House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1872): Supreme Court limits the scope of federal power and reach under the 14th Amendment by ruling that the federal government cannot protect state citizens from actions by their own states

1875

Civil Rights Act of 1875

1877

End of Reconstruction (authority)

1880

Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303 (1880): Supreme Court holds that states are prohibited from excluding blacks from juries by the Fourteenth Amendment

1883

Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883): Supreme Court holds unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and holds that the 14th Amendment does not prohibit discrimination by private persons

1887

Florida passes law requiring segregation; Jim Crow laws follow throughout the South

1890

Louisiana passes a Jim Crow law mandating separate but equal accommodations on railroads for blacks and whites (leading ultimately to the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson,163 U.S. 537 (1896))

1890-1920

Between 1889 and 1920, at least 3,107 people, predominantly African Americans, are murdered by lynching

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson,163 U.S. 537 (1896): Upholds separate-but-equal law of Louisiana

1899

Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education, 175 U.S. 528 (1899): Public school education is a matter for state regulation, not federal government; local school district can close black school while keeping two white schools open on fiscal grounds

1903

Giles v. Harris, 189 U.S. 475 (1903): Supreme Court permits black disenfranchisement through state voter registration regulations

1908

Berea College v. Kentucky, 211 U.S. 45 (1908): Supreme Court rules that private schools are bound by state segregation laws

1909

NAACP Founded

1917

Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917): State-mandated residential segregation violates the 14th Amendment

1920s

KKK revives

1926

Corrigan v. Buckley, 271 U.S. 323 (1926): Private racial restrictive covenants in Washington, DC in housing upheld (case dismissed for lack of substantial federal question under federal Due Process (5th Amendment) and Equal Protection (14th Amendment) clauses)

1927

Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927): States can define racial classifications for schools; separate-but-equal logic used

1934

Charles Hamilton Houston becomes special counsel to the NAACP

1936

Pearson v. Murray,182 A. 590 (Md. 1936): Maryland Court of Appeals holds that University of Maryland law school must grant admission to African Americans (Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall win the case against the very school that had earlier refused admission to Marshall on the basis of race)

1938

Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938): Missouri must offer African-Americans substantially equal legal education which in effect requires admission of African-Americans to Missouri's all white law school

1940

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund established under leadership of Thurgood Marshall

1940

Alston v. School Board of Norfolk, Va., 112 F.2d 992 (4th Cir.), cert. denied 311 U.S. 693 (1940): African American teachers must be paid the same as white teachers

1941

Executive Order 8802: Pres. Roosevelt bars segregation by defense contractors

1947

Westminster School District v. Mendez, 161 F.2d 774 (9th Cir. 1947): Schools segregating Mexican American students from white students held unconstitutional.  Consequently, California repeals law requiring segregation of Native American and Asian American students.

1948

Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Ry. Co., 323 U.S. 192 (1944): Union representatives under federal Railway Labor Act cannot discriminate on the basis of race in representing employees.  

1948

Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631 (1948): State law schools cannot discriminate against African Americans

1948

Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948): Racial restrictive covenants in private housing violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

1948

Perez v. Lippold (aka Perez v. Sharp), 32 Cal. 2d 711, 198 P.2d 17 (1948): California's ban on interracial marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

1948

United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1948

Executive Orders 9980 & 9981:  Pres. Truman orders end of discriminatory employment practices by the federal government and orders desegregation of the military, respectively

1950

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, 339 U.S. 637 (1950): Student in graduate school of education must be treated equally; cannot have separate assigned seating in classrooms, library, etc.

1950

Henderson v. United States, 339 U.S. 816 (1950): segregation on interstate railroad dining cars violates the Interstate Commerce Act which made it unlawful for an interstate railroad to subject a passenger to undue or unreasonable disadvantage

1950

Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950): Legal education cannot be separate and equal so African American must be admitted to University of Texas law school; the separate law school was not equal

1951

Brown v. Board of Education: case decided in lower court in Arkansas which became the lead case in the four cases consolidated for appeal in Brown I

1952

Briggs v. Elliot: South Carolina case, one of the four cases consolidated for appeal in Brown I

1952

Davis v. County School Board or Prince Edward County Virginia: Virginia case, one of the four cases consolidated for appeal in Brown I

1952

Gebhart v. Belton: Delaware case, one of the four cases consolidated for appeal in Brown I

1954

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (Brown I): Plessy overturned; separate-but-equal violates the 14th Amendment guarantee of Equal Protection

1954

Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954): Separate-but-equal violates the Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process; consolidated with Brown for consideration of remedies (Brown II)

1955

Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955)(Brown II): Desegregation ordered to proceed with "all deliberate speed"

1955

Emmett Till lynched

1955-56

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott; Martin Luther King Jr. emerges as a leader

1957

President Eisenhower orders National Guard to Little Rock, Arkansas, to escort nine black students to Central H.S. to enforce Brown (authority)

1958

NAACP v. Alabama (1958): Under the right of privacy and freedom of association, the Supreme Court protects NAACP membership rolls from disclosure

1958

Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958): Reaffirms Brown as the law of the land nationwide and explicitly states the duty of state office holders to follow it.  Pres. Eisenhower, unlike Pres. Jackson with the Cherokees, followed the Supreme Court's decision in Brown.

1959

Prince Edward County, Virginia, closes all of its public schools rather than desegregate them (see Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 377 U.S. 218 (1964))

1960

Sit-ins at segregated lunch counters

1960

Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 (1960): African American has a federal statutory right to be served without discrimination at a restaurant located in an interstate bus terminal.

1961

Freedom Rides to integrate Southern bus terminals

1962

Meredith v. Fair, 298 F.2d 696 (5th Cir. 1962): Forced integration of Ole Miss

1963

Birmingham campaign to end segregation leads to police riots

1964

Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, 377 U.S. 218 (1964): The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits appropriating public money to support private, segregated education

1964

Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination in voting, places of public accommodation, schools, and employment

1965

Voting Rights Act

1967

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967): Virginia's ban on interracial marriages is unconstitutional.

1967

Thurgood Marshall appointed to the Supreme Court

1968

Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated

1968

Fair Housing Act bans discrimination in housing

1968

Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (Va.), 391 U.S. 430 (1968): Mandates the elimination of the vestiges of segregation "root and branch."

1969

Seven years after President Kennedy challenges the United States to land on the moon by the end of the decade, Neil Armstrong does so.

1969

Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, 396 U.S. 19 (1969): After fourteen years, the Brown II standard of "all deliberate speed" is held no longer constitutionally permissible. The Court wrote: "The obligation of every school district is to terminate dual school systems at once and to operate now and hereafter only unitary schools . . . [--] schools in which no person is to be effectively excluded . . . because of race or color. "

1971

Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971): Busing to achieve desegregation is permitted by the Supreme Court

1972

Wright v. City of Emporia, 407 U.S.451 (1972) and U.S. v. Scotland Neck City Bd. of Educ., 413 U.S. 455 (1972): States cannot avoid desegregation orders by school district gerrymandering.

1973

Norwood v. Harrison, 413 U.S. 455 (1973): States cannot avoid desegregation orders by providing textbooks to racially segregated private schools.

1973

San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973): Education is not a fundamental right under the Constitution and the Constitution does not require egalitarian funding of schools by the state across local school district lines

1973

Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1, 413 U.S. 921 (1973): Absent an intention to discriminate, mere de facto segregation in schools arising from uncoordinated private decisions about where to live does not violate equal protection

1974

Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974)(Milliken I): Interdistrict desegregation plans are not constitutional

1976

Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976): Equal Protection Clause limited to intentional discrimination

1976

Pasadena City Bd. of Educ. v. Spangler, 427 U.S. 424 (1976): Once a school system complies with the demands of equal protection, it does not need to annually readjust school attendance to insure a proportional racial balance at each school.

1977

Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267 (1977) (Milliken II): State can be required to fund desegregation plans

1978

Bakke v. Regents of the University of California, 438 U.S. 265 (1978): Affirmative action -- schools can take race into account in admissions, but cannot use quotas

1980

Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448 (1980): Supreme Court upholds an affirmative action program for federal contractors (pdf)

1986

Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986): Supreme Court extends to peremptory challenges the holding of the 1880 case of Strauder v. West Virginia that states are prohibited from excluding blacks from juries by the Fourteenth Amendment

1986

Riddick v. School Board of the City of Norfolk, Va. 784 F.2d 521 (4th Cir. 1986): School district declared desegregated and reverts to local control with elimination of desegregation plan (pdf)

1988

Kadrmas v. Dickinson Public Schools, 487 U.S. 450 (1988): Supreme Court reaffirms that education is not a fundamental right under the United States Constitution (pdf)

1991

Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell, 498 U.S. 237 (1991): School districts can stop busing when they become resegregated because of private housing choices and when all "practicable" steps have been taken to eliminate segregation

1992

Freeman v. Pitts, 503 U.S. 467 (1992): "Where resegregation is a product not of state action but of private choices, it does not have constitutional implications. . . .  It is beyond the authority and beyond the practical ability of the federal courts to try to counteract these kinds of continuous and massive demographic shifts."

1992

U.S. v. Fordice, 505 U.S. 717 (1992): Supreme Court requires Mississippi to dismantle its continuing dual system of colleges and universities (pdf)

1995

Missouri v. Jenkins, 515 U.S. 70 (1995) (Jenkins II): Limits the ability of urban schools to attract suburban school students (pdf)

1995

Adarand Constructors v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200 (1995): Supreme Court holds that strict scrutiny must be applied to all racial classifications by the federal government, both "benign" and "invidious." (pdf)

1996

Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996): Fifth Circuit rules affirmative action plan in Texas universities unconstitutional; Supreme Court refuses to review the case. (pdf)

1996

California adopts Proposition 209 banning all forms of affirmative action

1997

Ninth Circuit affirms constitutionality of Proposition 209; Supreme Court declines to hear the case

1999

30 years of court-supervised desegregation ends in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district

2003

Grutter v. Bollinger (pdf), 539 U.S. 306 (2003): Race may be one factor taken into account in an affirmative action program for law schools where selection is individualized on multiple criteria.

2003

Gratz v. Bollinger (pdf), 539 U.S. 244 (2003): Affirmative action program based on race for college without individualized assessment held unconstitutional.

2007

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1 (pdf), 539 U.S. 244 (2003): Affirmative action program for elementary and secondary schools based on race held unconstitutional as implemented.