Civil Rights Chronology

1619: A year before the Mayflower, the first 20 African slaves are sold to settlers in
Virginia as "indentured servants."

1624: The first African American child, William Tucker is born in the colony.

1775: Abolitionist Thomas Paine's African Slavery in America published in the

Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser.

1789: Constitution adopted; slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for means of

representation.

1831: Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia.

1838: Some 18,000 Cherokees forcibly removed from their land and forced to resettle west
of the Mississippi in a trek that becomes known as the "Trail of Tears."

1848: First Women's Rights Convention meeting in Seneca Falls, N.Y., hears Elizabeth

Cady Stanton proposes a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo cedes Arizona, Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado and
parts of Utah and Nevada to the United States for $15 million. Article IX guarantees people
of Mexican origin "the enjoyment of all the rights of the citizens of the United States
according to the principles of the constitution."

1856: In early instance of gerrymandering, Democratic party bosses in Los Angeles call
special convention to consider splitting country in two to increase Anglo political influence.

1857: In the Dred Scott decision, Scott, a slave who had lived in a free territory, sues for his
freedom on the grounds his residence on free soil liberates him. The Supreme Court, citing
historical and conventional view of African Americans, rules against him, saying African
American people are regarded as "so far inferior...that they had no rights which the white
man was bound to respect." The court also declares that slaves were not citizens and had no
rights to sue, and that slave owners could take their slaves anywhere on the territory and
retain title to them.

1861: The Civil War begins.

1863: January 1, Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

1865: The Civil War ends. Lincoln assassinated (April 15). Freedman's Bureau, to help

former slaves, established. Ku Klux Klan organized in Pulaski, Tenn. The Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution is ratified stating that "neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude....shall exist" in the United States.
1867: Some 2,000 Chinese working on the Central Pacific Railroad strike for better pay.
"Mary" is burned to death for her gold by whites in Helena, Mont.

1868: Fourteenth Amendment, making African Americans full citizens of the United States
and prohibiting states from denying them equal protection or due process of law, is ratified.
Congress reports that 373 freed slaves have been killed by whites.

1869: Knights of Labor formed "to uphold the dignity of labor."

1870: The Fifteenth Amendment enacted, guaranteeing the right to vote will not be denied
or abridged on account of race. At the same time, however, the first "Jim Crow" or
segregation law is passed in Tennessee mandating the separation of African Americans
from whites on trains, in depots and wharves. In short order, the rest of the South falls into
step. By the end of the century, African Americans are banned from white hotels, barber
shops, restaurants, theaters and other public accommodations. By 1885, most southern
states also have laws requiring separate schools. 

In Wyoming Mrs. Louisa Swain becomes first woman to cast a legal ballot in the nation.
The Rev. Hiram R. Revels (R-MISS) and Joseph H. Rainey (R-S.C.) become first African
Americans to sit in Congress. Union Pacific announces it will hire Chinese laborers at
$32.50 a month rather than pay whites $52.

1873: The first community welfare organizations, or "mutualistas" spring up In the

Southwest. Primarily social organizations, they also provide decent burials for poor
Chicanos and address dealing with abusive police or politicians.

1875: Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing African Americans equal
rights in transportation, restaurant/inns, theaters and on juries. The law is struck down in
1883 with the Court majority arguing the Constitution allows Congress to act only on
discrimination by government and not that by private citizens.

1876:
Sioux and Cheyenne Indians win Battle of Little Big Horn, killing Gen. George
Custer. The battle is an outgrowth of continued U.S. violation of the 1868 Fort
Laramie Treaty as white settlers flock to the sacred Black Hills seeking gold.
1877:
With the election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President, Reconstruction is brought to
an end and most federal troops are withdrawn from the South while those remaining
do nothing to protect the rights of African Americans. The return of "home rule" to
the former secessionist states also means the restoration of white supremacy and the
beginning of the disenfranchisement and segregation of African Americans.
First national strike occurs, aimed at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and is
marked by violence; 19 workers are killed by police and troops in Chicago, nine in
Baltimore. Chief Joseph, the revered leader of the Nez Perce tribe surrenders to
federal troops and makes famous comment, "From where the sun now stands, I will
fight no more forever."
1882:
 Over the veto of President Chester Arthur, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion
Act restricting the immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years and requiring
Chinese to carry identification cards. In 1892, the act is extended for another 10
years.
1888:
Congress passes the Scott Act prohibiting resident Chinese laborers who leave the
United States from returning unless they have family in the country.
1890:
In the Battle of Wounded Knee, U.S. troops kill 200 Dakota Indian men, women,
and children in the last conflict of the so-called "Indian Wars."
In Mississippi, a state constitutional convention meets to write a suffrage
amendment, including a poll tax and a literacy test designed -successfully- to
exclude African Americans from voting. South Carolina follows suit in 1895,
Louisiana in 1898. By 1910, African Americans are effectively barred from voting
by constitutional provisions in North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, and
Oklahoma as well.
The Woman Suffrage Amendment is introduced in Congress for the first time but
defeated.
Treaty with China allows unrestricted immigration of Chinese into the country,
primarily as laborers on railroads in the West
1892:
Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibiting further Chinese immigration
into the United States for ten years.
1896:
The Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, rules that state laws requiring separation
of the races are within the bounds of the Constitution as long as equal
accommodations are made for African Americans, thus establishing the "separate
but equal" doctrine that justifies legal segregation in the South. Justice John Harlan,
in lone dissent, says Constitution is "colorblind and neither knows nor tolerates
classes among citizens."
1900:
Lynching has become virtually a fact of life as a means for intimidating African
Americans. Between 1886 and 1900, there are more than 2,500 lynchings in the
nation, the vast majority in the Deep South. In the first year of the new century,
more than 100 African Americans are lynched, and by World War I, more than
1100.
1910:
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is
founded by W.E.B Du Bois, Jane Addams, John Dewey and others.
The Mexican Revolution brings an influx of immigrants to the United States
looking for work.
1912:
The Mexican ambassador formally protests the mistreatment of Mexicans in the
United States, citing a number of brutal lynchings and murders.
1916:
Rep. Jeannette Rankin (R-Mont.) Becomes first woman elected to Congress.
1917:
 The Jones Act grants full citizenship to Puerto Ricans and gives them the right to
travel freely to the continental United States. However, because Puerto Rico is not a
state, like citizens in the District of Columbia, Puerto Ricans are represented in
Congress by a delegate with only limited powers and are unrepresented in the
Senate.
1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment gives women the right to vote and is ratified by the
required 36 states.
1922:
In Ozawa v. United States, the Supreme Court denies Japanese residents the right to
naturalization because they are "ineligible for citizenship," as are foreign-born
Chinese. In Congress, the Cable Act declares that "any woman citizen who marries
an alien ineligible to citizenship, shall cease to be a citizen."
1924:
After 10,000 Native American soldiers in World War I, Congress passes the Indian
Citizenship Act of 1924, granting American citizenship to Native Americans.
Several Indian nations, including the Hopi and the Iroquois, decline citizenship in
favor of retaining sovereign nationhood.
The Immigration Act bars any "aliens ineligible to citizenship" from entering the
United States.
1928:
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is founded to fight
discrimination, help educate Chicanos and protest segregation, killings and other
abuses.
1930:
Continuing discrimination against Japanese in the United States leads to formation
of the Japanese American Citizenship League.
Mass deportation occurs of Mexican workers during the 1930's large numbers of
whom are U.S. citizens. Over 400,000 are deported to Mexico; the deportees are
accused of usurping "Americans" from jobs during the Depression.
1939:
African American contralto, Marian Anderson, barred by the Daughters of the
American Revolution from singing in Washington D.C.'s Constitution Hall, sings
instead to a crowd of 75,000 people at Lincoln Memorial.
The Legal Defense Fund established as the legislative arm of the NAACP. A year
later the two become separate organizations.
1941:
President Roosevelt issues executive order banning discrimination against
minorities in defense contracts.
1942:
U.S. government places in barbed wire encircled "relocation camps" some 110,000
Japanese Americans. Guards are ordered to shoot anyone seeking to leave.
The Bracero Program, created under a joint U.S.-Mexico agreement, permits
Mexican nationals to work in U.S. agricultural areas on a temporary basis and at
wages lower than domestic workers.
1943:
 Congress, seeking to reward China for becoming an ally in the war against Germany
and Japan, repeals all previous Asian Exclusion Acts and establishes an annual
quota of 105 Chinese emigrants to the United States each year.
1947:
Jackie Robinson becomes first African American to play major league baseball.
1948:
Supreme Court, in Shelly v. Kramer, declares illegal the government support
enforcement of restrictive covenants under which private parties could exclude
minorities from buying homes in white neighborhoods.
Democratic party endorses civil rights platform, prompting Southern walkout and
formation of States Rights Democratic Party (better known as the Dixiecrats) and
nomination of Strom Thurmond as presidential candidate.
1952:
Tuskegee Institute reports that, for the first time in the 71 years it has been keeping
records, there were no lynchings of African Americans during the year.
1954:
In Brown v. Board of Education, the decision widely regarded as having sparked the
modern civil rights era, the Supreme Court rules deliberate public school
segregation illegal, effectively overturning "separate but equal" doctrine of Plessy v.
Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Court, notes that to
segregate children by race "generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the
community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be
undone." Thurgood Marshall heads the NAACP/Legal Defense Fund team winning
the ruling. Hernandez v. Texas becomes the first Mexican American discrimination
case to reach the Supreme Court. The case involves a murder conviction by a jury
that includes no Latinos. Chief Justice Earl Warren holds persons of Mexican
descent are "persons of a distinct class" entitled to the protection of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
1955:
On August 28, 14 year old Emmett Till is beaten, shot and lynched by whites after
allegedly saying "bye, baby" to a white woman in a store in Mississippi.
In Alabama, on December 1 Rosa Parks refuses to up her bus seat to a white man,
precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott, led byMartin Luther King, Jr.
1956:
Montgomery bus boycott ends in victory, December 21, after the city announces it
will comply with a November Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation on buses
illegal. Earlier in the year, King's home was bombed. Autherine Lucy is first
African American admitted to the University of Alabama.
1957:
Efforts to integrate Little Rock, Ark., Central High School meet with legal
resistance and violence; Gov. Orval Faubus predicts "blood will run in the streets" if
African Americans push effort to integrate. On Sept. 24, federal troops mobilize to
protect the nine African American students at the high school from white mobs
trying to block the school's integration.
1959:
 Alaska and Hawaii are admitted as states. Hawaii, the 50th state, elects Hiram
Fong (of Chinese ancestry) and Daniel Inouye (of Japanese ancestry) to represent
them in Congress, the first two Asian Americans to serve in that body.
1960:
February 1, Lunch counter sit-in by four college students in Greensboro, N.C.
begins and spreads through the South. On April 17, theStudent Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded.
John F. Kennedy elected president.
Following Sudan (1956) and Ghana (1957), 11 African nations achieve
independence.
1961:
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organizes Freedom Rides into the South to test
new Interstate Commerce Commission regulations and court orders barring
segregation in interstate transportation. Riders are beaten by mobs in several places,
including Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala.
1962:
The United Farm Workers Union , under the leadership of Cesar Chavez, organizes
to win bargaining power for Mexican Americans.
James Meredith becomes first African American student admitted to the University
of Mississippi.
1963:
June 20, President John F. Kennedy meets with civil rights leaders at the White
House in an attempt to call off the March on Washingtonscheduled for August.
Over a quarter of a million people participate in the March on Washington on
August 28, 1963, and hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream"
speech.
Medger Evers, NAACP field secretary in Jackson, Miss., murdered on June 12,
1963. A Birmingham church is bombed on Sept. 15, killing four African American
girls attending Sunday school: Denise McNair, age 11, and Cynthia Wesley, Carole
Robertson and Adie Mae Collins, all 14 years old.
1963:
In and event that traumatizes the nation, President Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas, Texas. Two days later, his alleged assailant, Lee Harvey Oswald, is also shot
and killed. Vice President Lyndon Johnson becomes president.
Martin Luther King Jr., receives the Nobel Peace Prize. The Twenty-fourth
Amendment, ending the poll tax, is ratified and becomes part of the Constitution.
Mississippi Freedom Summer, a voter education and registration project, begins.
White northern college students volunteer to run practice elections in preparation
for the Presidential election of 1964. Two white students, Andrew Goodman and
Michael Scherner, and an African American civil rights worker, James Chaney, are
murdered.
The Bracero Program is terminated.
1965:
Selma, Ala. voting rights campaign. Jimmie Lee Jackson, 26, participating in a
march led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is killed by Alabama
state troopers as he attempts to prevent the troopers from beating his mother and
grandfather.
 Selma to Montgomery march. The Voting Rights Act passes and is signed into law
on August 6, effectively ending literacy tests and a host of other obstacles used to
disenfranchise African American and other minority citizens.
Malcolm X, the fiery orator and Muslim leader, is assassinated. For some, Malcolm
X's militant rhetoric is a rival and alternative to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message of
Christian non-violence.
The Watt's section of Los Angeles erupts in five days of rioting after an African
American woman is killed by a fire truck driven by white men.
1966:
National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded to fight politically for full
equality between the sexes.
Stokely Carmichael, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, first
uses the phrase "black power" during a voter registration drive in Mississippi. The
phrase - and its many different interpretations by African Americans and whites -
divides the civil rights movement.
1967:
Sparked by a police raid on a black power hangout, Detroit erupts into the worst
race riots ever in the nation, with 43 people dead, including 33 African Americans
and 10 whites. During the nine months of the year, 164 other racial disturbances are
reported across the country, including major riots in Tampa, Cincinnati, Atlanta,
Newark, Plainfield and Brunswick, New Jersey, which kill at least 83 people.
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American justice of the Supreme
Court.
Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, is stripped of his heavyweight boxing title
for resisting military draft as a Muslim minister in the Nation of Islam.
Jose Angel Gutierrez founds the Mexican American Youth Organization in San
Antonio, Texas. The group would become over time La Rasa Unida Party, the first
Chicano political party.
Articles of incorporation are filed in San Antonio for the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Education Fund, the first national Chicano civil rights legal
organization.
Congress enacts the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 prohibiting employment
discrimination against older Americans. The act is amended 12 years later to
prohibit discrimination against older Americans by any housing provider who
receives federal funds.
1968:
March 1,The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, popularly known
as the Kerner Commission after chairman Otto Kerner, Governor of Illinois, issues
its report warning that the nation is moving toward two separate societies-one black
and poor, the other affluent and white. The commission, appointed by President
Johnson following the 1967 disorders in Detroit and other communities, calls for
major anti-poverty efforts and strengthened civil rights enforcement to eliminate the
causes of the disorders. 
April 4, Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered. The assassination sparks unrest and
civil disorders in 124 cities across the country, including the nation's capital,
Washington, D.C. On April 11, as disorders continue, President Johnson signs the
Civil Rights Act of 1968, aimed at curbing discrimination in housing.
 June 6, Sen. Robert Kennedy, campaigning for the Democratic nomination for
president, is shot and killed in a Los Angeles hotel.
Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) is the first African American woman elected to
Congress.
American Indian Movement (AIM) founded in Minneapolis.
The Supreme Court, in Green v. County School Board of New Kent
County (Virginia), rules that "actual desegregation" of schools in the South is
required, effectively ruling out so-called school "freedom of choice" plans and
requiring affirmative action to achieve integrated schools.
1969:
A June 27 police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar catering to
homosexuals, results in two nights of rioting and is the symbolic beginning of the
gay rights movement. The event is commemorated each year by Gay Pride
demonstrations across the nation.
1971:
The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education, upholds busing as a legitimate and sometimes necessary tool to achieve
desegregation and integration. But the Court does not rule on segregation in public
schools in northern states where it is not imposed by statute.
1973:
Congress passes Section 504 of the Vocation Rehabilitation Act barring
discrimination against disabled people with the use of federal funds.
1973:
Jan. 22, The Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, strikes down most states' restrictive
abortion laws, greatly expanding the right to legal abortion.
1973:
May 9, a 71-day siege by a force of more than 1,000 FBI agents, U.S. Marshals,
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police and U.S. military advisers is ended at the
symbolically important hamlet of Wounded Knee at Oglala Sioux reservation in
South Dakota. The village was occupied by the American Indian Movement (AIM)
in an effort to spur talks with the U.S. government on violated treaty rights, BIA
abuses on the reservation and civil rights concerns of Native Americans. Federal
agents surrounded the town claiming that the Indians were holding "hostages" from
the white trading post in the hamlet and demanded the surrender of all those
occupying the village. During the siege, two AIM supporters are killed in firefights.
June 21, in Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado, the Supreme Court,
for the first time, addresses the issue of school desegregation in northern public
schools, finding segregation intentionally imposed (de jure) unconstitutional even
when not accompanied by statute. The Court concludes that the Denver public
school system is an unlawful "dual system" that a system wide remedy is required,
and that assigning African American students to Latino schools is not an adequate
desegregation plan because both groups had been subject to historic segregation.
1973:
Dec.15, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association votes
unanimously to strike from its manuals the classification of homosexuality as a
mental illness.
1974:
 The Supreme Court rules that public schools must teach English to foreign language
-speaking students (Lau v. Nichols). The case involves the San Francisco school
system, which does not provide any instruction in English to some 1,800 Chinese-
speaking pupils. The court holds that, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, districts
receiving federal funds must provide either a bilingual or English as a second
language program whenever students of a non-English speaking minority are
enrolled in significant numbers.
1975:
The American Medical Association calls for the repeal of all state laws barring
homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1977:
First National Women's Conference, held in Houston, Texas calls for a host of
reforms aimed at empowering women and providing them with equal opportunity.
1978:
The Supreme Court, in the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case,
upholds the principle of affirmative action but rejects fixed racial quotas as
unconstitutional. The case involves Alan Bakke, denied a slot at the University of
California medical school at Davis. Bakke claims he is a victim of reverse
discrimination because a minority student, with lower test scores, is admitted
instead on affirmative action grounds.
1979:
The first Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights March on Washington draws more than
100,000 people on October 14.
1981:
The first news reports of what will become the AIDS epidemic are published.
1982:
The Equal Rights Amendment, which would have written into the constitution a ban
on sexual bias, equal pay for equal work, and a guarantee of equal opportunity, falls
three states short of ratification.
Supreme Court rules in Plyer v. Doe that children of illegal immigrants have a right
to free public schooling. Poverty reached its highest level - 14% - since 1967.
African American poverty rate is 34.2 percent; Latino rate is 26.2 percent.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended and strengthened by Congress, barring
laws that dilute the voting power of minorities, whether or not that is the law's
intention. The amendment overturns a Supreme case, Bolden v. City of
Mobile (Ala.), that required proof of intentional discrimination against minority
voters in order to establish a violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Wisconsin becomes the first state to adopt a civil rights law prohibiting
discrimination against gay people.
1983:
In Bob Jones University v. The United States, the Supreme Court, over the Reagan
administration's objections, upholds the Internal Revenue Service rule denying tax
exemption to private schools that practice racial discrimination.
In a report, "Personal Justice Denied," the Commission on the Wartime Relocation
and Internment of Civilians concludes that the internment of people of Japanese
ancestry during World War II was not justified by military necessity and that grave
injustice had been done.
1984:
The Supreme Court rules that states do have the right to outlaw homosexual acts
between consenting adults.
1987:
In a political struggle turning largely on the nominee's judicial and philosophical
views of race, gender and privacy, the Senate rejects President Reagan's nomination
of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.
The AIDS quilt commemorating AIDS victims is displayed for the first time during
the second march on Washington for gay and lesbian rights, a demonstration
drawing 200,000.
1988:
President Reagan vetoes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, passed by Congress to
overturn the 1984 Supreme Court ruling, Grove City College v. Bell. The act
sharply limits the remedies available to the federal government in applying anti-bias
rules to private organizations receiving federal subsidies. Congress enacts the
measure by overriding the President Reagan's veto.
1989:
The Supreme Court, in a series of rulings, severely restricts the reach of federal anti-
discrimination employment laws and remedies available to fight bias. The move
prompts congressional effort to craft new law overturning the Court decision.
1990:
Congress passes -and President Bush signs- the landmark Americans With
Disabilities Act, banning job discrimination against people with disabilities and
requiring buildings, businesses and public transportation to be accessible. Most
provisions take effect in 11992-93.
1991:
Thurgood Marshall, first African American appointed to Supreme Court, resigns for
health reasons. President Bush names Clarence Thomas, a conservative African
American with little background in constitutional issues, to the post. The Thomas
nomination brings to the fore the issue of sexual harassment, as one of Thomas'
former co-workers, law professor Anita Hill, charges Thomas sexually harassed her.
Thomas denies accusations and after bitter, televise hearings that rivet the nation, he
is confirmed, 52-48.
After two years of debate, vetoes and threatened vetoes, Bush reverses himself and
says proposed civil rights bill is not a "quota bill." On Nov. 22, he signs the
legislation at a White House ceremony. But ceremony is overshadowed by reports
that the president has proposed issuing a presidential order that would end all
government affirmative action programs and hiring guidelines that benefit women
and minorities. After sharply negative reactions from civil rights leaders and others,
the administration backs down.
1992:
Voting Rights Act bilingual provisions are extended to 2007.
1993:
Shortly after being sworn in, President Clinton affirms his campaign pledge to lift
the ban that prohibits gays from serving in the military. On April 25, at least
300,000 (the figure is hotly debated) march on Washington supporting federal civil
rights legislation protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination and opposing
 the military ban. Several months later on July 19, President Clinton, faced with
congressional opposition to removing the ban, announces a "don't ask, don't tell,
don't pursue" policy regarding homosexuals in the military that falls short of lifting
the ban. Congress moves to codify a restrictive interpretation of Clinton's executive
order.
The Supreme Court, in two rulings affecting civil rights, roils the waters for
determining proper remedies for discrimination. In St. Mary's Honor Center v.
Hicks the Court holds that even when a plaintiff shows that an employer gives a
dishonest reason for alleged discriminatory actions, the worker is still required to
present direct evidence of the employers discriminatory intent.
In Shaw v. Reno , a sharply divided High Court rules that legislative districts drawn
in a "bizarre" fashion in order to create black representation can violate the
constitutional rights of white voters to equal protection of the law. The ruling,
which invalidates North Carolina's majority African American 12th congressional
district, is seen as opening the door to challenges of other states' reapportionment
plans that are aimed at equalizing the distribution of power.
1997:
June 14, in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court upheld a court-drawn redistricting
plan that reduced the number of majority-minority Georgia congressional districts
from three to one. The cases of Abrams v. Johnson and the U.S. v. Johnson marked
the second time the Court had been asked to rule on the constitutionality of
Georgia's congressional redistricting plan drawn pursuant to the 1990 Census. A
deciding factor for the justices was the fact that Reps. Sanford Bishop Jr. and
Cynthia McKinney, both Black Democrats, were re-elected despite the fact that they
were running in districts where whites comprised the majority.
1994:
In Adarand, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote for the first time that all federal
laws creating racial classifications, regardless of an intention to burden or benefit
minorities, when challenged, must be tested by the same stringent standard. Federal
set-aside and affirmative action programs benefitting minorities then are subject to
strict scrutiny and must be narrowly tailored.
1996:
Supporters of gay workers rights forced a vote on the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act (ENDA) in the 104th Congress. ENDA, if passed, would make
it illegal to fire, or fail to hire or promote an individual on the singular factor of their
sexual orientation. The bill enjoyed wide bi- partisan support, failing in the
Republican dominated Senate by only one vote. A formal hearing for ENDA was
held in the 105th Congress on October 23, 1997.
1996:
November 5, in California, the controversial Proposition 209, also known as the
California Civil Rights Initiative, was passed by a narrow voter margin or 55-45.
The legislation of Prop. 209 effectively abolished California's affirmative action
programs in hiring, contracting, and educational admissions. Other initiatives have
spread to numerous cities and states across the United States. Legislation has been
introduced in the House and Senate with the similar agenda of wiping out all federal
affirmative action programs.
1998:
 Bragdon v. Abbott is the first ADA case to make its way to the Court, which holds,
among other things, that HIV-positive individuals are protected under the ADA.
In Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, the Court
clarifies its earlier rulings on sexual harassment, reaffirming that Title VII requires
employers to ensure a workplace free from sexual and other forms of discriminatory
harassment.
Brutal hate crimes capture the nation's attention, including the dragging death of
African American James Byrd, Jr. in Texas, and the murder of Matthew Shepard, a
young gay man in Wyoming.
1998 and 1999:
In Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District and Davis v. Monroe County
School District, the Supreme Court makes clear thatTitle IX requires schools to take
action to prevent and stop the harassment of students by teachers or other students.
Those decisions, however, also severely limit the circumstances under which
victims of such harassment may receive money damages for their injuries.
1999:
The Court reaffirms in Olmstead v. L.C. that the ADA bars the unnecessary
segregation of people with disabilities in state institutions. As the Court noted, such
segregation is often motivated by irrational fears, stereotypes, and patronizing
attitudes, and unfairly relegates individuals with disabilities to second-class status.
The Court significantly limits the ADA's reach in a trio of cases (Sutton v. United
Airlines, Murphy v. United Parcel Service, and Albertsons v. Kirkingberg). The
Court holds that any determination of whether an individual has a disability
triggering the ADA's protections must consider any mitigating measures taken to
control the effects of the individual's impairment, such as medication or therapy.
Under this decision, for example, an individual who controls the effects of
depression through medication may be unable to claim the ADA's protections when
he or she suffers discrimination because of that depression.
Heinous hate crimes continue throughout the summer, including a series of
shootings targeted at African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jew in the Midwest,
and the shooting of children at a Jewish child care center in Los Angeles, followed
by the murder of Filipino American postal worker Joseph Ileto.
2000:
The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) is enacted.
Providing important new protections for religious freedom without the potential for
undermining state and local civil rights laws, RLUIPA focuses on land use for
churches, synagogues, and other religious groups, and religious freedom of those in
government-run institutions such as hospitals, prisons, and group homes.
The November 2000 elections raise yet a new set of concerns about minority voting
rights as voters across America -- especially minority voters -- report that they had
been effectively denied the franchise in a variety of ways. These included
allegations that minority voters faced a significantly greater risk that their votes
would not be counted accurately, due to disproportionate use of outdated and
inaccurate equipment in minority neighborhoods. Asian American, Haitian
American, Latino, and other language minority voters report that they were denied
language assistance to which they were entitled. These and other irregularities
trigger calls for federal election reform legislation to address both procedural and
technological barriers to voting participation.