Topic: Protests

Jan 21,

1884

Roger Baldwin, Founder of the ACLU, is Born

Feb 4,

1913

Happy Birthday Rosa Parks!

Mar 3,

1915

Protests Greet “Birth of a Nation” Opening in New York City

May 18,

1917

Congress Creates World War I Draft: Protests, Civil Liberties Violations Follow

Jul 2,

1917

Civil Liberties Bureau to Defend Conscientious Objectors, Free Speech in World War I Crisis

Nov 1,

1917

National Civil Liberties Bureau Reports Sweeping Government Censorship

Apr 18,

1918

Dyer Anti-lynching Bill Introduced in House

Aug 31,

1918

DOJ Raids National Civil Liberties Bureau Office, Seizes Records

Sep 14,

1918

Eugene Debs Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Anti-War Speech

Sep 14,

1918

WW I Conscientious Objectors Chained in Solitary Confinement, Dark Unsanitary Cells

Oct 30,

1918

Roger Baldwin, ACLU Founder, Sentenced to Prison – Delivers Famous Statement of Conscience

Jan 15,

1919

National Civil Liberties Bureau Condemns Deportation and Exclusion Laws

Feb 9,

1919

Suffragists Burn Effigy of President Wilson in Front of White House

Mar 1,

1919

National Civil Liberties Bureau Issues Comprehensive Report on WW I Rights Violations

Jul 19,

1919

Race Riot Erupts in Washington, DC

Jan 16,

1920

Prohibition Begins – Civil Liberties Abuses Follow

Jan 19,

1920

ACLU Founded – Fight For Civil Liberties Begins

Jun 5,

1920

Women’s Bureau is Created

May 15,

1923

Upton Sinclair Arrested in LA for Reading the Bill of Rights

Feb 10,

1924

Police in Wilkes-Barre, PA Block Radicals’ Meeting

Mar 21,

1925

Tennessee Governor Signs Anti-Evolution Law – Sets Stage for Famous Scopes Case

Jul 10,

1925

Historic Scopes Monkey Trial Begins

Jul 20,

1925

Darrow Mercilessly Cross-Examines Bryan at Scopes Trial

Jan 15,

1927

Scopes Conviction is Overturned

Jul 8,

1928

Crystal Eastman, Civil Liberties Pioneer, Dies

May 23,

1929

ACLU Leaders Meet with NYC Police Commissioner, Demand Protection of Civil Liberties

Jan 28,

1930

ACLU to Sue NYC Police Over Brutality, Fatal Shooting of Communist Party Member in Demonstration

Oct 2,

1930

Cleveland Police Club, Tear Gas 2,500 Protesting President Herbert Hoover

Mar 25,

1931

Scottsboro Case Begins: Nine Young African-Americans Arrested in Alabama

Aug 10,

1931

Wickersham Commission: First-Ever Report on Police Brutality

Nov 28,

1931

NYC Police Raid Anti-Fascist Newspaper’s Office – ACLU Protests

Oct 2,

1932

LA Police, American Legion Break Up Scottsboro Defense Meeting in Long Beach, CA

Oct 13,

1934

NYC Police Break Up Anti-Fascist Rally – NYCLU Demands Mayor Investigate

Nov 27,

1934

NYC Police Commissioner Tells Officers to “Muss Up” Known Criminals

Mar 20,

1935

NYC Mayor La Guardia Launches Investigation of Police Brutality in Harlem

Feb 20,

1937

National Lawyers Guild, Alternative to ABA, is Organized

Apr 6,

1937

Julia Sims First Woman Foreperson of a Federal Grand Jury

May 24,

1937

New York Law Allows Women as Jurors

Mar 13,

1938

“Attorney for the Damned,” Clarence Darrow, Dies

Feb 21,

1940

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

Jan 14,

1941

A. Philip Randolph Calls For a March on Washington

Jun 25,

1941

FDR Signs First-Ever Equal Employment Opportunity Order

Mar 9,

1942

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Founded

Apr 17,

1943

First Sit-in Challenges Segregated Washington D.C. Restaurants

May 8,

1943

CORE Leads Early Sit-in in Chicago

Aug 1,

1943

Harlem Race Riot Signals Rising African-American Discontent

Sep 29,

1943

Six Conscientious Objectors Begin Hunger Strike in Lewisburg Penitentiary over Censorship of Reading Materials

Jan 28,

1944

Teens Declare That Boogie-Woogie Does Not Cause Delinquency!

Apr 22,

1944

Sit-in Challenges Restaurant Segregation in Washington, D.C.

Jul 17,

1945

Congress Refuses to Extend Committee on Fair Employment Practices

Apr 27,

1946

Civil Rights Congress Formed

Jan 12,

1948

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

May 1,

1948

Senator Glen Taylor Arrested in Civil Rights Protest

Aug 13,

1951

ACLU Defends Right of NYC Police to Form a Union

May 17,

1954

“Separate but Equal” Unconstitutional: Landmark “Brown v. Board of Education” Decision

Jan 20,

1955

Sit-ins Integrate Baltimore Lunch Counters at Read’s Stores

Mar 2,

1955

Nine Months Before Rosa Parks: Four African-American Women Challenge Discrimination on Montgomery, Alabama, Bus

Oct 22,

1955

Future Civil Rights Hero Frank M. Johnson Appointed District Court Judge in Alabama

Dec 1,

1955

Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat to a White Person– Inspires Historic Montgomery Bus Boycott

Dec 5,

1955

Rosa Parks Convicted for Refusing to Give Up Her Seat; Bus Boycott Begins

Jan 19,

1956

“Dragnet” Episode Attacks CA Supreme Court Exclusionary Rule Decision

Jun 13,

1956

Court Orders Montgomery, Alabama, Buses Desegregated

May 23,

1957

Cleveland Police Raid Dolree Mapp’s House: Case Leads to Exclusionary Rule

Jun 30,

1958

Supreme Court Establishes Right of Freedom of Association

Jul 19,

1958

1958 Wichita Sit-In Challenges Segregation

Jan 24,

1960

A. Philip Randolph Calls for Mass Movement; Sit-Ins Begin a Week Later

Feb 1,

1960

Greensboro, NC Sit-In — Civil Rights Struggle Enters Historic New Phase

Feb 13,

1960

Nashville Students Begin Sit-ins

Mar 15,

1960

Julian Bond Leads Atlanta’s First Sit-In

Mar 29,

1960

The Ad That Produced a Landmark First Amendment Case

Apr 15,

1960

SNCC Founded by Sit-In Leaders

Apr 28,

1960

Newly Formed SDS Holds “Act Now” Conference on Human Rights in the North

May 12,

1960

Major Anti-HUAC Protest Begins in San Francisco; Police Brutality the Next Day

Jul 25,

1960

Greensboro, North Carolina, Lunch Counters Integrated

Oct 17,

1960

Major Sit-in Victory: Four Chain Stores Desegregate 150 Lunch Counters in 112 Cities

Jan 9,

1961

Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, First African-Americans to Enroll at University of Georgia

Feb 2,

1961

Civil Rights “Jail-in” in Rock Hill, South Carolina

Mar 6,

1961

President Kennedy Issues Equal Employment Opportunity Order

Mar 7,

1961

Sit-In Victory: Atlanta Stores Desegregate Lunch Counters

May 4,

1961

Freedom Ride Begins, Challenges Segregation in Interstate Travel

May 14,

1961

Jim Peck, Freedom Rider, Assaulted in Alabama

May 20,

1961

President Kennedy Fails to Support Freedom Ride

May 24,

1961

Freedom Riders Immediately Arrested in Jackson, MS – Secret Deal by AG Robert Kennedy

May 30,

1961

“We’ve Been ‘Cooling Off’ for 350 Years!” Civil Rights Leader Rebukes AG Kennedy’s Call for Halting the 1961 Freedom Ride

Nov 17,

1961

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Finds Police Brutality “A Serious Problem” Nationwide

Dec 11,

1961

“Garner v. Louisiana” – Early Sit-In Victory

Feb 9,

1962

Police Chiefs Hold 5-day Closed Meeting on Desegregation; Agree that Federal Law is Supreme

Jan 14,

1963

Governor George Wallace: “Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever”

Mar 20,

1963

Joan Baez Boycotts “Hootenanny” Over Blacklist

Apr 3,

1963

“B” Day – Rev. Martin Luther King Launches Birmingham Demonstrations

Apr 12,

1963

Martin Luther King Arrested in Birmingham Demonstration: Writes Famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Apr 16,

1963

Martin Luther King, Jr., Writes Famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

May 2,

1963

“D” Day in Birmingham – Martin Luther King Mobilizes Children for Demonstrations

May 3,

1963

Fire Hoses and Police Dogs Attack Birmingham Civil Right Demonstrators

May 10,

1963

“Bombingham:” Racists Bomb Birmingham Motel

Jun 11,

1963

George Wallace “Stands in the Schoolhouse Door” to Block Integration; Then Steps Aside

Sep 10,

1963

Alabama Fights School Integration – JFK Mobilizes National Guard

Sep 15,

1963

“Bombingham” – Birmingham Church Bomb Kills Four African American Girls

Sep 16,

1963

“A Time to Speak:” Chuck Morgan, White Birmingham Resident, Denounces Racist Bombing

Feb 8,

1964

House Debates Adding Sex Discrimination to Title VII of 1964 Civil Rights Act

Mar 2,

1964

“Fish-In” Challenges Limits on Native-American Fishing Rights

Apr 3,

1964

Malcolm X Gives Famous “The Ballot or the Bullet” Speech in Cleveland

Jul 29,

1964

Civil Rights Groups Split on Suspending Protests Because of Riots

Oct 1,

1964

Jack Weinberg Arrested; Berkeley Free Speech Movement Escalates

Dec 2,

1964

Free Speech Movement Historic Moment – Mario Savio Denounces “The System”

Mar 7,

1965

“Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama: John Lewis, Other Marchers Beaten and Tear Gassed

Mar 16,

1965

LBJ Sends Federal Troops to Guard Selma Voting Rights March

Mar 21,

1965

Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March Begins Again

Mar 24,

1965

First Vietnam War Teach-in at University of Michigan

Mar 25,

1965

1965 Voting Rights March Reaches Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery

Apr 17,

1965

First Big Anti-Vietnam War March on Washington

Apr 17,

1965

Mattachine Society Pickets White House to Demand Equal Rights for Homosexuals

Jul 2,

1965

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Established

Nov 27,

1965

Tens of Thousands of Vietnam War Protesters Picket the White House

Dec 3,

1965

All-White Jury Convicts KKK Members for Murder of Viola Liuzzo

Feb 9,

1966

NYC Police Commissioner Opposes Civilian Review of the Police in Letter to Mayor

Nov 8,

1966

NYC Voters Abolish Civilian Complaint Review Board for the Police

Mar 29,

1967

Court Ends Philadelphia Police Advisory Board

May 17,

1967

Tennessee Repeals Anti-Evolution Law — 42 Years After the Scopes Case

Oct 20,

1967

1,000 Draft Cards Turned in to Justice Department in Vietnam War Protest

Oct 21,

1967

100,000 March on Pentagon to Protest Vietnam War

Nov 8,

1967

President Johnson Ends Barriers to Promoting Women in Military

Jan 5,

1968

Dr. Spock, Four Others, Indicted for Anti-War Conspiracy

Jan 15,

1968

“Sisterhood is Powerful”: Women’s March for Equality Led by 87-year old Jeannette Rankin

Feb 29,

1968

Kerner Commission Report on 1960s Riots Warns: “Two Societies, One Black, One White”

Jun 10,

1968

Supreme Court Okays Police Stops and Frisks

Aug 28,

1968

“Police Riot” at Democratic Party Convention

Sep 4,

1968

CIA Delivers “Restless Youth” Report on U.S. Peace Groups

Dec 1,

1968

Walker Report Finds “Police Riot” at Democratic Party Convention

Jan 7,

1969

Governor Reagan: Drive “Anarchists” and “Latter Day Fascists” Off California Campuses

Feb 5,

1969

“Nude-In:” Grinnell College Students Protest Playboy Magazine

Jun 28,

1969

Stonewall Inn Riots – Lesbian, Gay Rights Movement Born

Jul 11,

1969

Dr. Spock’s Conviction for Conspiracy to Oppose Vietnam War Draft Overturned

Oct 15,

1969

First Vietnam War Moratorium – Massive Protests Across the Country

Nov 15,

1969

Second Anti-Vietnam War Moratorium – Massive Protests

Dec 4,

1969

President Nixon, Vice-President Agnew Ponder Causes of “Generation Gap”

Dec 22,

1969

Native-American Protest: Radio Free Alcatraz Broadcasts

Feb 26,

1970

Army to End Monitoring Peaceful Protests

May 1,

1970

Massive Nationwide Student Strike Protests Cambodian Invasion in Vietnam War

May 10,

1970

Protester Hangs American Flag Upside Down, With Peace Symbol, Heads to Supreme Court

Jun 5,

1970

President Nixon Demands Action on Anti-War Protests: Abuses Follow

Jan 22,

1971

Congressional Black Caucus Boycotts President Nixon’s State of the Union Address

Sep 3,

1971

FBI to Investigate Police Violence Against Latinos, African-Americans in Bridgeport, CT

Sep 9,

1971

Attica Prison Rebellion Begins

Sep 13,

1971

Massacre at Attica Prison, New York

Oct 22,

1971

“A Civil Liberties Disaster” – New York Civil Liberties Union Attacks Procedures in Police Corruption Probe

Nov 22,

1971

Breakthrough: Women Covered by Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

Jun 21,

1973

Help Wanted: Sex-Segregated Want Ads Unconstitutional

Nov 7,

1973

New Jersey Civil Rights Division Rules Little League Must Admit Girls

Jan 21,

1975

Women Cannot be Excluded From Jury Duty: “Taylor v. Louisiana”

Oct 7,

1975

John Lennon Can Stay in U.S. – Court Ends Government Deportation Effort

Jan 22,

1976

Supreme Court Rejects Injunctions Against Police Misconduct

Sep 15,

1976

ACLU Sues Memphis over Destroyed Police Spying Files

Jan 18,

1977

Indiana the Last State to Ratify the ERA for Women’s Rights

Jan 21,

1977

President Carter Pardons Vietnam War Protesters

Aug 26,

1977

Alice Paul Memorial March for Women’s Rights

Mar 20,

1978

Florida Supreme Court Rules Homosexuals Can Practice Law

Jan 16,

1981

ACLU’s Roger Baldwin and Earl Warren Awarded Medal of Freedom

Mar 2,

1982

Wisconsin First State to Ban Sexual Orientation Discrimination

Sep 28,

1982

Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues Protests Low Number of Women at IRS

Dec 9,

1983

FBI Ordered to Pay Jim Peck $25,000 for Assault as Freedom Rider

Mar 27,

1985

Supreme Court Limits Police Use of Deadly Force

Jun 4,

1985

Alabama “Moment of Silence” Law Unconstitutional

Oct 1,

1985

Annual Free Speech Day in California: Commemorates Free Speech Movement

Mar 10,

1987

ACT UP, HIV/AIDS Advocacy Group, Founded

May 4,

1987

ACT UP Demands Action on HIV / AIDS Crisis

Mar 3,

1991

L.A. Police Beat Rodney King; Video Tape Provokes National Outrage

Apr 29,

1992

LAPD Officers Acquitted in Rodney King Beating: Los Angeles Erupts in Riots

Sep 13,

1994

Violent Crime Control Act Addresses Police Abuse, Violence Against Women

Jul 19,

1995

President Clinton on Affirmative Action: “Mend it, Don’t End It”

Sep 5,

1995

“Women’s Rights are Human Rights” – Hillary Clinton Speaks In Beijing

Apr 16,

1997

Consent Degree to End “Pattern or Practice” of Abuse by Pittsburgh Police

Jun 10,

1999

Supreme Court Declares Chicago Anti-Gang Law Unconstitutional

Jul 31,

2001

Ten Commandments Installed in Alabama Court House

Sep 24,

2003

New York City Police “Stop and Frisk” Practices Unconstitutional — But Practices Continue

Jan 13,

2004

Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal Begins

Apr 28,

2004

“60 Minutes II” Broadcasts Exposé of Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse

May 2,

2004

Taguba Report Confirms Abuse by U.S. Military at Abu Ghraib Prison

Oct 24,

2005

Rosa Parks, Hero of Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dies

May 29,

2007

Supreme Court Denies Lily Ledbetter Remedy for Unequal Pay

Jan 21,

2008

John Lewis Returns to Scene of 1961 Freedom Ride Beating; Reconciles with Attacker

Jun 17,

2012

Silent Marches Protest Police “Stop and Frisk” Policies

Aug 12,

2013

NYC Police’s Stop and Frisk Practices Ruled Unconstitutional

Jul 17,

2014

“I Can’t Breathe:” Eric Garner Choked to Death by NYPD Police Officers

Aug 9,

2014

Unarmed Michael Brown Shot and Killed by Ferguson, Missouri, Police Officer – Nationwide Protests Follow

Mar 4,

2015

DOJ Issues Blistering Report on Ferguson, Missouri, Police Department

Mar 4,

2015

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing Releases Interim Report

Oct 23,

2015

FBI Director James Comey Blames Police Critics For Recent Rise in Violent Crime

Apr 16,

2016

Washington Post Wins Pulitzer for Path-Breaking Reporting on People Shot by the Police

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