| Rivers
of Change Timeline: 1847-1956 |
| 1847 |
 |
Dred Scott files suit |
| 1848 |
|
Benjamin
Roberts filed suit in behalf of daughter to attend Boston school,
the beginning of legal segregated schools. |
| 1854 |
 |
Elizabeth
Jennings Graham, New York Carriage incident, trial, that
brought an end to segregated seating in New York City |
| 1857 |
|
Dred
Scott vs. Sanford, Supreme Court denies citizenship right to
Blacks |
| 1861 |
 |
-Civil
War begins
-Alabama joins the Confederacy
-Jefferson gives order to fire on Fort Sumter, S.C. from Winter
Building in Montgomery.
-1st home of Confederate Capital in Montgomery |
| 1865
|
 |
-Civil
War ends/Reconstruction begins
-13th
Amendment Ratified
-Black codes created by former confederate states
-Klan organized |
| 1866 |
 |
-First
Civil Rights Law passed.
-KKK terror attacks/lynching |
| 1867 |
|
Congress
passes 14th Amendment |
| 1870 |
|
Congress
passes 15th Amendment |
| 1873 |
|
Supreme
Court rules that due process protects national not state citizenship
rights |
| 1881 |
 |
Tennessee enacts law requiring racial segregation on rail cars
Alabama cecedes |
| 1883 |
|
Supreme Court rules that Civil Rights Act of 1873 is unconstitutional
on
grounds that Congress had gone beyond its authority by making
laws that
only states could make. |
| 1884 |
 |
Ida Barnett Wells’s incident
on rail car, arrest, trial, conviction. |
| 1896 |
 |
Plessy
vs. Ferguson case in New Orleans, Supreme Court rulings upheld
states
right to provide separate equal seating on conveyances and led
to de jure
segregation in all phases of public life in U. S. |
| 1900 |
|
1st Montgomery segregation ordinance requiring separation of
races on rail cars. |
| 1901 |
|
Black riders in Montgomery boycott rail cars at the urging of
Black Ministers. |
| 1905 |
|
Nashville Tennessee Backs boycott street cars to protest new
jim crow laws |
| 1906 |
|
Lighting Route Trolley company boycott because of ordinance
requiring them to provide separate cars for races. |
| 1907 |
|
Ordinances passes in 1906-07 dealing with segregated seating
on trolleys and rail cars defeated |
| 1933 |
|
NAACP begins seeking Civil Rights through legal suits |
| 1934 |
 |
National City Lines obtains bus franchise and begins practice
of seating on bus that required reserved seats for black and
whites that became the object of the court challenge in 1956. |
| 1938 |
 |
E. D. Nixon elected President of Montgomery Transit Union |
| 1939 |
|
Alabama Motor Carrier Act passed. |
| 1946 |
|
-Women’s Political Council founded.
-Supreme Court bans segregated interstate travel
|
| 1947 |
|
E. D. Nixon elected State President and removed from office
by National headquarters. |
| 1948 |
|
Rufus Lewis begins job training program and organizes citizen
club to register black veterans |
| 1949 |
 |
Jo Ann Robinson incident of
city line bus |
| 1953 |
|
Black votes help elect City Commissioner, gets first black police
officers |
| 1954 |
 |
-Brown vs. Board ruling from Supreme Court
-May '54, Jo Ann Robinson letter to Tacky Gale threaten boycott
-June '54, Thurgood Marshall unsuccessful in getting blacks
to challenge segregated schools in Montgomery |
| 1955 |
Colvin
Browder
McDonald
 Smith
Parks
|
-February
meeting at Ben Moore Hotel with city candidates
-March 2, Claudette Colvin’s
arrest and court trials begin
-April 16, Aurelia Browder incident
on bus
-October 16, Susie Macdonald
incident on bus
-October 21, Mary Louise Smith
arrested and fined on city bus
-December 1, Rosa
Parks arrest
-December 2, WPC calls for boycott (see
copy of flyer originally distributed by the Women's Political
Council), E.D. Nixon calls for meeting to support boycott
and Mrs. Parks trial on December 5 Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
-December 5, Mrs. Parks trial, convicted and fined on criminal
charges.
-Boycott begins and lasts 381 days.
-MIA formed at Mt. Zion and Dr. King elected as spokesperson
-1st Mass meeting held at Holt Street Baptist Church
- Fleming vs. South Carolina
|
| 1956 |
King
Gray
|
-January
30 MIA agree to file suit, King’s home is bombed
-February 1, MIA files Browder vs. Gayle, a Civil Rights Lawsuit
-February indictment of boycotters
-March trial of Dr. King on conspiracy to boycott
-May 11, hearing held by 3 judge federal panel in Montgomery
to determine if plaintiffs 14th Amendment rights of due process
and equal rights have been violated.
-June 5, ruling in favor of plaintiffs
-November 13, Supreme Court upholds ruling
-November 13, Montgomery officials get injunction to end carpool
-November 14, Frank Johnson ruled against appeal by MIA to
continue carpool
-December 20 injunction served on Montgomery city officials
to obey orders of the court
-December 21, legal segregation ended and boycott comes to
an end.
-January 6, Homes and Churches bombed, woman was beaten, and
buses were shot at by white insurgents in opposition and response
to court rulings.
-January bombers arrested, charges dropped against bombers
and the 89
boycotters indicted. Dr. King lost appeal of earlier conviction.
-SCLC is founded. |
