1948
Jan 5

Kinsey Report on Male Sexual Behavior Published

Jan 7

President Truman Promises Civil Rights Message

Jan 9

Hollywood Ten Arraigned for Contempt of Congress

Jan 12

Supreme Court Requires Oklahoma to Provide Equal Law School Opportunity for African-Americans

Feb 2

President Truman Delivers Civil Rights Message to Congress

Feb 19

Virginia Senator Byrd Compares President Truman’s Civil Rights Plan to Hitler and Stalin

Mar 19

French Nobel Prize Winner, Mme. Joliot-Curie, Detained at Ellis Island for 24 Hours

Mar 22

A. Philip Randolph Confronts Truman Over Segregated Military

Mar 26

Philadelphia Police Seize 2,000 Books; Authors Protest

Mar 30

A. Philip Randolph Threatens to Advise Young African-American Men Not to Register for a Segregated Draft

Apr 8

Southern Leaders Attack President Truman’s 1948 Civil Rights Speech

May 1

Senator Glen Taylor Arrested in Civil Rights Protest

May 3

Supreme Court Rules Restrictive Racial Covenants in Housing Not Enforceable

Jun 12

Women’s Armed Services Integration Act is Passed

Jun 18

CIA Gets Covert Action Authority

Jul 7

First Six Enlisted Women Sworn into the U.S. Navy

Jul 13

Groups Protest NYC Public Schools Ban on “The Nation” Magazine

Jul 14

Democratic Party Convention Adopts Historic Civil Rights Plank

Jul 14

Segregationist Dixiecrats Walk Out of Democratic Party Convention, Create States’ Rights Party

Jul 18

Meiklejohn: “Everything Worth Saying Should Be Said”

Jul 19

Canwell Committee Begins Hearings on Communism in Washington State

Jul 20

Communist Party Leaders Arrested – Test of Smith Act Ahead

Jul 22

NYC Seeking New Rules to Govern Use of Sound Trucks, Loudspeakers

Jul 23

An Early Voice for Young People: National Youth Organization Demands Vote for 18-Year-Olds

Jul 26

President Truman Desegregates U. S. Military

Jul 28

NY “Released Time” Law for Religious Instruction Challenged

Aug 14

States’ Rights Party Adopts Pro-Segregation Platform

Aug 21

ACLU Officials Roger Baldwin and Arthur Garfield Hays Invited to Advise U.S. Government on German Occupation

Sep 13

Margaret Chase Smith First Woman Elected to Serve in Both Houses of Congress

Oct 1

California Supreme Court Ends Ban on Interracial Marriages

Oct 1

Guilty of Speaking in the Park

Oct 4

First “First Monday” for African-Americans: William T. Coleman Becomes First African-American to Clerk for Supreme Court Justice

Nov 1

Smith Act Trial Begins – First Amendment Test Lies Ahead

Nov 2

President Truman Re-Elected – Two Civil Liberties Actions Play Major Role

Nov 16

Anti-National Health Care “Thought Control in Medicine” Denounced

Dec 9

ACLU Protests New York “Regents’ Prayer” For Public Schools

Dec 9

UN General Assembly Adopts Convention Against Genocide

Dec 10

“Respectful Prostitute” Play Banned in Chicago Over Race Issues

Dec 10

Catholic Students in Binghamton, NY, Burn 10,000 Comic Books

Dec 10

Human Rights Day – Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted

Dec 17

ACLU Leader Urges U.S. to Grant Civil Liberties to Germans

1948

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