January 8-18: Student protesters at Brandeis University take over Ford and Sydeman Halls, demanding creation of an Afro-American Department. This is approved by the University on April 24.
February 13: National Guard with teargas and riot sticks crush a pro-black student demonstration at University of Wisconsin.
February 16: After 3 days of clashes between police and Duke Universitystudents, the school agrees to establish a Black Studies program.
April 3-4: National Guard called into Chicago, and Memphis placed on curfew on anniversary of Dr. King's assassination.
April 19: Armed African-American students protesting discrimination take over Willard Straight Hall, the student union building at Cornell University. They end the seizure the following day after the University accedes to their demands, including an Afro-American studies program.
April 25-28: Activist students takeover Merrill House at Colgate Universitydemanding Afro-American studies programs.
May 8: City College of New York closed following a two-week long campus takeover demanding Afro-American and Puerto-Rican studies; riots among students break out when the school tries to reopen.
June – The second of two US federal appeals court decisions not only confirms members of the public hold legal standing to participate in broadcast station license hearings, but under the Fairness Doctrine finds the record of segregationist TV station WLBT beyond repair. The FCC is ordered to open proceedings for a new licensee.[42]
September 1-2: Race rioting in Hartford, CT and Camden, NJ.
December – Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, is shot and killed while asleep in bed during a police raid on his home.
United Citizens Party is formed in South Carolina when Democratic Party refuses to nominate African-American candidates.
W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research founded at Harvard University.
The Revised Philadelphia Plan is instituted by the Department of Labor.
The Congressional Black Caucus is formed.
[edit]1970–2000
1970
January 19 – G. Harrold Carswell's nomination to the Supreme Court rejected.
May 27 – The film Watermelon Man is released, directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge. The film is a comedy about a bigoted white man who wakes up one morning to discover that his skin pigment has changed to black.
First blaxploitation films released.
1971
April 20 – The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds desegregation busing of students to achieve integration.
June – Control of segregationist TV station WLBT given to a bi-racial foundation.
Ernest J. Gaines's Reconstruction-era novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman published.
1972
January 25 – Shirley Chisholm becomes the first major-party African-American candidate for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
November 16 – In Baton Rouge, two Southern University students are killed by white sheriff deputies during a school protest over lack of funding from the state. Today, the university’s Smith-Brown Memorial Union is named in their honor.
Unknown - The infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment ends. Begun in 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service's 40-year experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis has been described as an experiment that "used human beings as laboratory animals in a long and inefficient study of how long it takes syphilis to kill someone."
1973
February 27 – Start of 71-day standoff at Wounded Knee between federal authorities and members of the American Indian Movement.
Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist group, is established in Boston, out of New York's National Black Feminist Organization.
1974
July 25 – In Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court in a 5–4 decision holds that outlying districts could only be forced into a desegregation busing plan if there was a pattern of violation on their part. This decision reinforces the trend of white flight.
Salsa Soul Sisters, Third World Wimmin Inc Collective, the first "out" organization for lesbians, womanists and women of color formed in New York City.
1975
April 30 – In the pilot episode of Starsky and Hutch, Richard Ward plays an African-American boss of white Americans for the first time on TV.
1976
February – Black History Month is founded by Professor Carter Woodson's Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History.
The novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley is published.
1977
Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist group, publishes the Combahee River Collective Statement.
PresidentJimmy Carter appoints Andrew Young to serve as Ambassador to the United Nations, the first African-American to serve in the position.
1978
June 28 – Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars racial quotasystems in college admissions but affirms the constitutionality of affirmative action programs giving equal access to minorities.
1979
United Steelworkers of America v. Weber is a case regarding affirmative action in which the United States Supreme Court holds that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not bar employers from favoring women and minorities.
1982
Charles Fuller writes A Soldier's Play, which is later made into the film A Soldier's Story.
November 30 – Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which becomes the best-selling album of all time.
1983
May 24 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Bob Jones University did not qualify as either a tax-exempt or a charitable organization due to its racially discriminatory practices.[43]
August 30 – Guion Bluford becomes the first African-American to go into space.
November 2 - President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King.
Alice Walker receives the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Color Purple.
1984
September 13 – The film A Soldier's Story is released, dealing with racism in the U.S. military.
The Cosby Show begins, and is regarded as one of the defining television shows of the decade.
1986
January 20 – Established by legislation in 1983, Martin Luther King, Jr. Dayis first celebrated as a national holiday.
1987
The Public Broadcasting Service's six-part documentary Eyes on the Prize is first shown, covering the years 1954–1965. In 1990 it is added to by the eight-part Eyes on the Prize II covering the years 1965–1985.
1988
Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988.
December 9 – The film Mississippi Burning is released, regarding the 1964Mississippi civil rights workers murders.
1989
February 10 – Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major United Statespolitical party.
October 1 – Colin Powell becomes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
December 15 – The film Glory is released: it features African-American Civil Warsoldiers.
1990
January 13 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African Americangovernor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991
March 3 – Four white police officers are videotaped beating African-AmericanRodney King in Los Angeles.
October 15 – Senate confirms the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
November 21 – Civil Rights Act of 1991 enacted.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. becomes Harvard University's Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
1992
April 29 – 1992 Los Angeles riots erupt after officers accused of beatingRodney King are acquitted.
September 12 – Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African Americanwoman to travel in space when she goes into orbit aboard the Space ShuttleEndeavour.
November 3 – Carol Moseley Braun becomes the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Senate.
November 18 – Director Spike Lee's film Malcolm X is released. [2]
1994
March 29 – Cornel West's text Race Matters is published.
1995
June 30 – In Miller v. Johnson the Supreme Court rules that gerrymanderingbased on race is unconstitutional.
October 16 – Million Man March in Washington, D.C., co-initiated by Louis Farrakhan and James Bevel.
1997
July 9 – Director Spike Lee releases his documentary 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
October 25 – Million Woman March in Philadelphia.
1998
June 7 – James Byrd, Jr. is brutally murdered by white supremacists inJasper, Texas. The scene is reminiscent of earlier lynchings. In response, Byrd's family create the James Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing.
October 23 – The film American History X is released, powerfully highlighting the problems of urban racism.
2000
May 3 – Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist South Carolina private institution, ends its ban on interracial dating.[44]
[edit]21st century
2001
January 20 – Colin Powell becomes Secretary of State.
2003
June 23 – Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds the University of Michigan Law School's admission policy. However, in the simultaneously heard Gratz v. Bollinger the university is required to change a policy.
2005
June 21 – Edgar Ray Killen is convicted of participating in the Mississippi civil rights worker murders.
October 15 – The Millions More Movement holds a march in Washington D.C.
October 25 – Rosa Parks dies at the age of 92. She was famous for starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Her body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. before her funeral.
2007
May 10 – Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson on February 18, 1965.
June 28 – Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 decided along with Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Educationprohibits assigning students to public schools solely for the purpose of achieving racial integration and declines to recognize racial balancing as a compelling state interest.
2008
June 3 – Barack Obama receives enough delegates by the end of state primaries to be the presumptive Democratic Party of the United Statesnominee.[45]
August 28 – At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in a stadium filled with supporters, Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
November 4 – Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States of America, opening his victory speech with, "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."[citation needed]
2009
January 20 – Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, the first African-American to become president.
January 30 – Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele becomes the first African-American Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The U.S. Postal Service issues a commemorative six-stamp set portraying twelve civil rights pioneers.
October 9 – Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
2010
July 19 – Shirley Sherrod first is pressured to resign from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and immediately thereafter receives its apology after she is inaccurately accused of being racist towards white Americans.
2011
January 14 – Michael Steele, the first African-American Chairman of theRNC lost his bid for re-election; Reince Priebus was the winner of the election.
2013
January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term as president.
