1940
Jan 9

ABA House of Delegates Calls for Defense of Civil Liberties

Jan 18

Frank Murphy, Civil Libertarian, Joins Supreme Court

Jan 20

Mayor La Guardia: “Arrest Punks, Pimps, Racketeers and Gangsters on Vagrancy Charges”

Feb 21

Civil Rights Leader and U.S. Representative John Lewis is Born in Troy, Alabama

Feb 25

Prominent Liberals Ask HUAC to Change Procedures, and to Investigate Right-Wing Group

Feb 29

Hattie McDaniel First African-American to Win Oscar – Forced to Sit at Segregated Table

Mar 14

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt Endorses Civil Liberties

Apr 28

Supreme Court Affirms Right to Picket

May 7

ACLU Expels Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from Board of Directors

May 14

Emma Goldman, Anarchist, Anti-WW I Activist, Feminist, Birth Control Advocate, Dies

May 20

Free Exercise of Religion Affirmed: “Cantwell v. Connecticut”

May 21

FDR Okays Continued FBI Wiretapping

Jun 3

Supreme Court Upholds Compulsory Flag Salute – But Soon Reverses Itself

Jun 29

Advocating an Idea is Illegal: Smith Act Passed

Jul 13

Equal Rights Amendment Divides Women at Democratic Party Convention

Jul 15

War Preparations Threaten Civil Liberties, Says ACLU

Jul 31

ACLU Demands Federal Investigation of Barriers to the Ballot for Minority (i.e., Radical) Parties

Aug 17

Rabbi Warns of Wartime Threat to American Liberties

Sep 11

Lawyers Guild Report: Laws, Violence Keep “Reds” off the Ballot

Sep 16

First Peacetime Draft in American History Enacted

Sep 22

California Removes Communist Party From the Ballot

Sep 27

A. Philip Randolph Confronts FDR In White House Over Segregated Military

Oct 9

FDR White House Says Military Will Not “Intermingle” Different Races

Oct 13

Ten States Bar Communist Party from the Ballot in November 1940 Elections

Oct 16

First Peacetime Draft in American History Begins; Creates Two Civil Liberties Issues

Oct 19

NYU Students Protest University Discrimination Against its Own Player

Nov 7

Universities Agree to AAUP Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure

1940

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!
Contact Us