1896 |
18 May
|
In Plessy
v. Ferguson the Supreme Court upholds the concept
of "separate but equal" public facilities.
|
1905
|
| |
In Buffalo, N.Y., the Niagara
Movement meetings begin.
|
1909 |
31 May
|
The first conference of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
is held in New York City with three hundred black and white
Americans in attendance.
|
1910
|
April
|
The National Urban League (NUL)
is founded to assist southern black emigrants to the North.
|
1915
|
21 June
|
In Guinn
v. the United States, the Supreme Court rules against
the "Grandfather clauses" used in southern states
to deny blacks the right to vote.
|
1918 |
13 July-1 October
|
More than twenty-five race riots occur across the country,
leaving over one hundred people dead. Harlem Renaissance author
James
Weldon Johnson calls this time the "Red Summer."
|
1925
|
8 May
|
A.
Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, an influential black labor union.
|
1927
|
27 April
|
King’s future wife, Coretta
Scott, is born in Heiberger, Alabama. Her parents are
Obie and Bernice Scott.
|
 |
1929 |
15 January
|
Michael King (later known as Martin Luther King, Jr.) is
born at 501 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta, Georgia.
|
 |
7 November
|
Elijah
Muhammad becomes the leader of the Nation
of Islam.
|
1935
|
30 January
|
Martin Luther King, Sr., stages a protest against the segregation
of elevators at the Fulton County Courthouse.
|
August - September
|
King, Sr., and the Atlanta branch of the NAACP
lead a voter registration drive in anticipation of a local
school bond referendum.
|
1936 |
26 February
|
King, Sr., is chosen to lead the NAACP
membership drive in Atlanta.
|
1939
|
8 November
|
King, Sr., as head of the Atlanta Baptist Ministers Union,
leads several hundred black Atlantans on a voter registration
march to City Hall.
|
1940
|
20 March
|
The NAACP
creates the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.,
which will become the principal legal arm of the civil rights
movement.
|
1941
|
January
|
Lester B. Granger
is named executive director of the National Urban League,
a position he will hold until 1961.
|
1 May
|
A.
Philip Randolph issues a call for one hundred thousand
blacks to march on Washington, D.C. to protest employment
discrimination in the armed forces and war industry.
|
25 June
|
Acting to avert A.
Philip Randolph’s threatened mass march on Washington,
D.C., President Franklin
D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, forbidding racial
discrimination in defense industries and in government service
and establishing the President’s Committee on Fair Employment
Practices.
|
1943
|
June
|
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
is founded.
|
