American Racial History Timeline, 1900-1960 1900

Alabama – Education [State Code]

Georgia – Miscegenation [Statute]

Georgia – Public accommodations [City Ordinance]

Florida – Education [Statute]

Florida – Race classification [Statute]

Supreme Court rules in Lum v. Rice that “separate but equal” applies to Asians and is within the discretion of the State in regulating its public schools and does not conflict with the 14th Amendment. (Brown and Stentiford, 235)

Founding of U.S. based journal, Eugenics: A Journal of Race Betterment. (Brown and Stentiford, 530)

Alabama – Miscegenation [State Code]
Miscegenation declared a felony. (Jim Crow History.org)

Alabama – Race classification [State Code]

Alabama – Public accommodations [State Code]

The Ku Klux Klan makes a large march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. (Brown and Stentiford, 445)

Anti-lynching bill dies in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 256)

American communists continue their campaign against segregation. The national platform of the CPUSA includes calls for full racial equality, the abolition of Jim Crow laws, enfranchisement of African Americans, integration of schools, juries, unions, and the military, a federal law against lynching, the end of chain gangs, and equal job opportunities and pay. (Brown and Stentiford, 177)

Louisiana – Public Carrier [Statute]
Equal but separate accommodations to be provided on all public carriers. (Jim Crow History.org)

Georgia – Miscegenation [State Code]

Georgia – Race classification [Statute]

Debut of Amos ‘n’ Andy on the radio. (Brown and Stentiford, 25)

The crash of the stock market reveals serious problems with the American economy. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

1930s

“Raciology” a vanishing vocation. (Barkan, 4)

The Hays Code prohibits depictions of miscegenation in Hollywood films. (Brown and Stentiford, 533)

Nation of Islam founded in Detroit, Michigan. (Brown and Stentiford, 566)

Mississippi – Education [State Code]

Mississippi – Miscegenation [State Code]

Georgia – Public carriers [Statute]

Scottsboro Boys trial. (Gilmore, 118)

Third International Conference on Eugenics. (Brown and Stentiford, 530)

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment lasts from 1932 to 1972. (Brown and Stentiford, 307)

First use of “racist” as a noun in the English language. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president. His promise of a New Deal and a “Black Cabinet” in 1933 attracts many negro voters to the Democratic Party. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

Louisiana – Miscegenation [State Code]

Louisiana – Residential [State Code]

South Carolina – Public accommodations [Statute]

South Carolina – Education [State Code]

South Carolina – Miscegenation [State Code]

Georgia – Education [State Code]

NAACP begins its legal campaign to desegregate education. (Gilmore, 2)

Negroes launch the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” economic campaign. (Brown and Stentiford, 246)

The act which establishes the Civilian Conservation Corps forbids discrimination on the basis of race. (Brown and Stentiford, 162)

Louisiana repeals its poll tax. (Brown and Stentiford, 632)

Indian Reorganization Act overturns the Dawes Act. (Brown and Stentiford, 209)

Tydings-McDuffie Act promises independence to the Philippines, strips Filipinos of citizenship, and caps immigration at 50 per year. (Nugent, 273)

The Nation of Islam comes under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

Costigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill defeated by Southern opposition in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 196)

A domestic ideal of racial tolerance, necessitated by the demands of fighting fascism, becomes the “American way.” (Gilmore, 3)

Arkansas – Public accommodations [Statute]

Georgia – Miscegenation [State Code]

Georgia – Health Care [State Code]

Georgia – Public Carriers [Statute]

South Carolina – Education [Statute]

Texas – Health Care [Statute]

Texas – Public carriers [State Code]

Delaware state law requires racial segregation in public education. (Brown and Stentiford, 105)

A repatriation act is passed that pays Filipinos their passage back home on condition they never return. (Nugent, 273)

Ethiopia, the last African nation under native rule, is attacked by Italy. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

The National Council of Negro Women is formed. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

W.E.B. Du Bois publishes Black Reconstruction, a book that reinterpreted Reconstruction to highlight the gains that came about for negroes. (Brown and Stentiford, 251)

Segregation of CCC camps. (Brown and Stentiford, 162)

Costigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill defeated by Southern opposition in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 196)

Opening prayer at the Democratic National Convention delivered by a negro. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 26)

Samuel Dickstein’s (Jew) House of Un-American Activities Committee becomes a permanent feature of Congress. (Gilmore, 171)

First use of “racism” in the English language (from the French term, “racisme,” in 1935). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

1937

Costigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill defeated by Southern opposition in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 196)

Florida repeals its poll tax. (Brown and Stentiford, 632)

Death of Madison Grant.

Department of the Interior under Harold Ickes produced the first of 26 episodes of American All, Immigrants All, broadcast on the CBS network, celebrating the contributions of immigrant and minority Americans. (Brown and Stentiford, 664)

The American Anthropological Association unanimously passes a resolution condemning racism. (Gilmore, 199)

The Carnegie Corporation commissions Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal to write a comprehensive study of American race relations. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 4)

Gunnar Myrdal arrives in the U.S. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 4)

First use of “racist” as an adjective in the English language. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Boxer Joe Louis defeats Max Schmeling in a rematch from a 1937 fight. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

Costigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill defeated by Southern opposition in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 196)

1939-1945, Second World War

1939

On the personal invitation of Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

Television is introduced to the American public at the New York World’s Fair. (Brown and Stentiford, 770)

Thomas Dixon, Jr. publishes his final novel, The Flaming Sword, which claims communism and miscegenation threaten to destroy America. (Brown and Stentiford, 239)

The University of Pennsylvania, the most racially egalitarian university in 1946, boasted only 40 negroes out of an institutional enrollment of 9,000. Negro enrollment in the North and the West never exceeded 5,000 negroes in the 1940s. (Brown and Stentiford, 595)

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund is chartered. (Brown and Stentiford, 554)

Nationality Act further clarifies the citizenship status of American Indians. (Brown and Stentiford, 580)

Alabama – Miscegenation [State Code]

Alabama – Prisons [State Code]

Alabama – Railroads [State Code]

Alabama – Education [State Code]

Costigan-Wagner federal anti-lynching bill defeated by Southern opposition in Congress. (Brown and Stentiford, 196)

Author Richard Wright publishes Native Son, a chilling novel about youth, poverty, and Jim Crow. It is called the “new American tragedy.” (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

President Roosevelt appoints William Hastie as his “Aide on Negro Affairs” and Benjamin O. Davis to brigadier general. (Brown and Stentiford, 247)

The United States joins the Allies and wages war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy in World War II. Negro activists call for a Double V campaignk, the defeat of enemies abroad and racism in America. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

January – The 332nd Fighter Group – Tuskegee Airmen – of the Army Air Corps forms. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

June – A. Philip Randolph threatens a March on Washington. President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802 banning racial discrimination in hiring of government of defense industry during World War II. (Schuman et al, 54)

Florida – Voting rights protected [Statute]

Mississippi – Voting rights [Constitution]

Mississippi – Miscegenation [State Code]

Mississippi – Health Care [State Code ]

Louisiana – Health Care [Statute]

South Carolina law requires racial segregation in public education. (Brown and Stentiford, 105)

President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 into law, which declared ares of the United States as military areas and allowing military leaders to exclude or remove individuals deemed to be a threat. (Brown and Stentiford, 51)

Internment of Japanese Americans from West Coast states begins, lasting until 1946. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

James Farmer founds the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). (Schuman et al, 54)

Ashley Montagu publishes Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race. (Barkan, 3)

The Marine Corps accepts its first negro recruits. (Brown and Stentiford, 247)

Popularization of the “Double V” campaign (victory against foreign and domestic racists). (Brown and Stentiford, 248)

Texas – Public carriers [State Code]

The Magnuson Act repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act and permits Chinese nationals in the U.S. to become naturalized citizens.

Beaumont, Texas race riot. (Brown and Stentiford, 67)

Major race riot in Detroit. (Schuman et al, 54)

243 instances of racial violence in 47 American cities during 1943. (Brown and Stentiford, 219)

Zoot Suit race riot in Los Angeles. (Brown and Stentiford, 372)

James Farmer of CORE leads the first successful “sit-in” protest in Chicago. (Brown and Stentiford, 288)

Florida – Miscegenation [Statute]

Harry McAlpin becomes the first negro admitted to a White House press conference. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 34)

Florida – Antidefamation [Statute]

Georgia repeals its poll tax. (Brown and Stentiford, 632)

Nat “King” Cole launches the first negro radio variety show on NBC. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

John Johnson founds Ebony magazine. (Brown and Stentiford, 423)

Georgia – Education [Constitution]
Separate schools to be provided for the white and colored races. (Jim Crow History.org)

Alabama – Public Carriers [Statute]

Alabama – Voting Rights [Constitution]

National Football League welcomes its first negro players, integrating professional football. (Brown and Stentiford, 755)

Secretary of State Dean Acheson issues a study of the damage domestic racism had on American diplomacy. (Brown and Stentiford, 164)

The Luce-Celler Act of 1946 grants naturalization rights to Indians and Filipinos and reestablishes immigration from India and the Philippines.

December 5 – President Truman issues Executive Order 9808 which establishes the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. (Brown and Stentiford, 279)

President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights issues its 178-page report, “To Secure These Rights.” The report calls for laws requiring states to end discrimination in education, mandating a ban against discrimination in the armed services, laws to guarantee fair employment practices for blacks, federal prohibition of lynching, repeal of poll taxes and other discriminatory voting restrictions, denial of federal grants when discrimination in evidence, an expanded civil rights division at the Justice Department, creation of permanent civil rights commissions at the federal and state levels, specific federal ban on police brutality, and enforcement of a Supreme Court decision against restrictive real estate covenants. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 38)

Arkansas – Public Accommodation [Statute]
A series of statutes were passed that made segregation at polling places, on motor carriers and railroad cars and within prisons mandatory. (Jim Crow History.org)

Arkansas – Public accommodation [Statute]

Arkansas – Voting rights [Statute]

Arkansas – Miscegenation [Statute]

Arkansas – Health Care [Statute]

Arkansas – Education [Statute]

82% of the American people are reportedly opposed to Truman’s civil rights program. (Brown and Stentiford, 788)

President Truman speaks at the annual meeting of the NAACP, the first chief executive to ever do so. (Brown and Stentiford, 788)

Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first negro player in Major League Baseball since 1887, breaking the color line in baseball. (Schuman et al, 54)

NAACP issues a document entitled An Appeal to the World to the United Nations. (Brown and Stentiford, 164)

William and Alfred Levitt, both Jews, pioneer the mass production of suburban housing (Levittowns). (Brown and Stentiford, 471)

February 2 – President Truman sends a special message to Congress proposing a ten-point civil rights program, including an antilynching measure, abolition of the poll tax, a permanent fair employment practices committee, a Justice Department civil rights bureau, and the abolition of segregation in interstate commerce. (Brown and Stentiford, xxv)

President Truman introduces civil rights legislation and issues Executive Orders concerning fair treatment in federal employment and desegregation of the military. (Schuman et al, 54)

President Harry S. Truman orders the desegregation of the U.S. military with Executive Order 9981. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

Larry Doby integrates the American League in Major League Baseball, playing for the Cleveland Indians. (Brown and Stentiford, xxvi)

U.N. Declaration on Human Rights declares, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all forms.” (Davis, xvi)

Democratic Party splits after the adoption of a strong civil rights plank at its national convention. (Roberts and Klibanoff, 40)

A group of Southern Democrats form the States Rights Democratic Party to oppose the reelection of Harry Truman because of his proposed civil rights program. (Brown and Stentiford, 233)

Georgia – Voting rights [Statute]

Texas – Employment [Statute]

A federal courts orders the University of Kentucky to admit negroes to its engineering, graduate, law, and pharmacy schools. (Brown and Stentiford, 438)

Essayist James Baldwin critiques Richard Wright’s depiction of negro protest to racism in his short essay, “Everybody’s Protest Novel.”

Kansas statute permits racial segregation in education in cities with over 15,000 population. (Brown and Stentiford, 105)

By 1949, at least 17 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia – and the District of Columbia had enacted laws requiring racial segregation of public school children. Four other states – Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, and Wyoming – provided for a local option in determing whether to segregate public education. Wyoming was the only state that did not exercise this option. (Brown and Stentiford, 104)

NBA welcomes three negroes players, integration of professional basketball. (Brown and Stentiford, 755)