The U.S. Civil Rights Timeline Quiz
In what year was the Emancipation Proclamation issued?
- President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were free.
In what year was the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified, officially abolishing slavery?
- The 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865, eight months after the end of the Civil War.
In what year did the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas declare segregation in public schools unconstitutional?
- The Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education was delivered on May 17, 1954, and overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson.
In what year did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott?
- On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger, igniting a year-long boycott of the city's buses by African Americans.
In what year did the Civil Rights Act become law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin?
- President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law on July 2, 1964, after a lengthy and contentious debate in Congress.
In what year did the Voting Rights Act become law, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting practices?
- President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, after a series of violent confrontations between civil rights activists and law enforcement officials in the south.
In what year was Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated?
- Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was supporting a strike by black sanitation workers.
In what year did the Supreme Court case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke rule that racial quotas in college admissions were unconstitutional?
- The decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke was delivered on June 28, 1978, and established that affirmative action policies could not use strict racial quotas but could consider race as one factor among many in admissions decisions.
In what year did the first African American become president of the United States?
- Barack Obama was elected as the first African American president of the United States on November 4, 2008, and served in office from 2009 to 2017, for two terms.
In what year did the Black Lives Matter movement begin, in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin?
- The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
