| 1875 | - Civil Rights Act of 1875
- Under Amendment XIV, Congress passes a law that makes racial discrimination in public accomodations illegal.
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| 1883 |
- Civil Rights Cases 109 U.S. 3
- Declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. Court ruled that XIV Amendment only applied to State actions
and did not authorize Congress to forbid private discrimination.
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| 1896 | - Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537
- Upheld a Louisiana law that required whites and blacks to occupy separate railroad cars. Established "separate but equal" doctrine.
Separation does not by itself stamp "the colored race with a badge of inferiority" unless "the colored race chooses to put that construction on it"...
"If one race be inferior to the other socially, the constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane."
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| 1950 | - Sweatt v. Painter 339 U.S. 629 &
McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents 339 U.S. 637
- Attacks on separate but unequal facilities. The Court ruled that specific separate accomodations were insufficent because they lacked
facilities, faculty, experience, alumni, traditions and prestige to make them substantially equal to the facilities of the all-white school; (Sweatt)
and simply putting a "black section" in classrooms and libraries of all white schools created handicaps to effective learning. (McLaurin)
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| 1954 | - Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483
- Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Court ruled that "separate but equal" doctrine flawed because separate accomodations are "inherently unequal."
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| 1955 | - Brown v. Board of Education 349 U.S. 294 [a.k.a. Brown II]
- Reiterated its 1954 ruling and ordered that states must desegregate their schools with "all deliberate speed."
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| 1957 | Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus orders Arkansas National Guard to block federal attempts to desegregate Little Rock Schools.
Eisenhower sends in the 101st Airborne Division and brings Arkansas National Guard troops under his own authority as Commander-in-Chief and orders them to help enforce desegregation. |
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| 1962 | Violence erupts at the Univeristy of Mississippi as U.S. Marshalls use force to assure a black student's admission. |
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| 1963 | - Birmingham Riots
- Birmingham Police Chief Eugene "Bull" Connor orders use of police attack dogs and fire hoses to put down the non-violent anti-segregation demonstration. The images of the riots are broadcast nationally.
- A month later, Alabama Governor George Wallace attempts (unsuccessfully) to block federal marshalls from enforcing the desegregation of University of Alabama
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| 1964 | - Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Congress invokes its commerce power to make discrimination in public accomodations illegal.
- Heart of Atlanta Motel v. U.S. 379 U.S. 241
Katzenbach v. McClung 379 U.S. 294
- Upheld the Civil Rights Act as a legitimate application of Congress' Commerce power because discrimination in
businesses posed significant burdens on the flow of interstate commerce.
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| 1965 | - Education and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965
- Congress passes a federal grant-in-aid law that tied federal funds to desegregation plans.
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| 1971 | - Swann v. Board of Education 402 U.S. 1
- Upheld the principle of court-ordered busing programs to eliminate "all vestiges of state imposed segregation."
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| 1972 | - Emergency School Aid Act of 1972
- Congress passes a grant-in-aid package that ties federal grant money to school integration plans, but the money could not be used for busing.
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| 1974 | - Milliken v. Bradley 418 U.S. 717 (1974)
- Struck down a busing plan that crossed city lines in metropolitan Detroit. City-suburb busing integration plan could not be ordered unless it could
be shown that the suburbs had intentially acted to contribute to segregation in the city.
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