This info is from 1896 to 1954. Please verify and merge it with the main timeline if you can. Thanks!
- (1896) The Supreme Court rules that "separate but equal" facilities are constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson.
- (1898) Louisiana enacts the first state-wide grandfather clause.
- (1900) There are more than 1,100 lynchings in the South between 1900 and 1914.
- (1901) In March, North Carolina's George H. White leaves Congress. It will be more than 25 years before there is another black member.
- (1904) On August 16th, Paul Reed and Willis Cato are seize from jail and lynched in Statesboro, GA.
- (1905) From July 11th to July 13th, the Niagara Movement takes place.
- (1906) From September 22nd to September 24th, there are race riots in Atlanta, GA; they result in 21 deaths.
- (1908) On February 26th, Jack Johnson defeats Tommy Burns to become the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the world in Australia.
- (1909) W.E.B DuBois, Jane Addams, and John Dewey found the NAACP (or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
- (1911) Marcus Garvey founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
- (1915) On January 14th, 400 whites storm a jail and lynch four blacks in Monticello, GA.
- (1915) In June, the Supreme Court case Guinn v. the United States rules that grandfather clauses are unconstitutional.
- (1915) In December, the Ku Klux Klan charter is revived in GA.
- (1917) There are riots in East St. Louis, in which whites kill or injure at least 100 blacks.
- (1917) On July 28th, the NAACP organizes a march of 10,000 participants in New York to protest racism.
- (1917) On August 28th, white and black soldiers clash in Houston, Texas.
- (1918) There are twenty five race riots and eighty three lynchings throughout the year.
- (1919) In July, the Chicago Race Riots begin after black teen Eugene Williams is drowned by whites throwing stones when he attempts to swim in a traditionally white section of Lake Michigan. When police arrive they arrest a black man prompting African-Americans on the scene to attack the police. White Chicagoans, often aided by police, respond with four days of violence against blacks throughout the city. It is one of 26 race riots in the United States in 1919 alone.
- (1920) In August, Marcus Garvey speaks to 25,000 people during a UNIA convention in New York.
- (1920) In August, the 19th amendment extends suffrage to women.
- (1922) An anti-lynching bill passes in the House of Representatives but fails in the Senate.
- (1925) In May, A. Philip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
- (1925) In August, 4,000 Ku Klux Klan members organize a march into Washington, D.C..
- (1927) The Supreme Court Smith v. Herndon rules the white-only primaries in Texas as unconstitutional.
- (1927) In December, Marcus Garvey is deported after spending two years in prison on mail fraud charges.
- (1929) On January 15th, Martin Luther King is born.
- (1929) On October 29th, the stock market crashes, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
- (1931) On April 6th, the Scottsboro Boys go on trial for the rape of two white women in Scottsboro, AL. The series of trials, court rulings, and political maneuverings surrounding the trial will last for more than 20 years.
- (1935) In March, riots in Harlem begin after a young black man is badly beaten in a department store for shoplifting.
- (1936) On December 8th, the Supreme Court requires equal teacher salaries in Maryland through the case Gibbs v. the Board of Education.
- (1937) In Murry v. Allwright, the Supreme Court rules that blacks must be allowed to attend University of Maryland law school since it is the only in-state law school.
- (1938) In December, the Supreme Court rules that separate educational facilities must be equal in Missouri ex rel Gaines (the plaintiff disappears after the case).
- (1939) In March, the Daughters of the American Revolution refuse black singer Marian Anderson permission to sing at Washington's Constitution Hall. The Secretary of the Interior rearranged for her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial instead, where 25,000 attend.
- (1939) In October, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is established.
- (1940) On June 10th, Marcus Garvey dies in London.
- (1940) On October 8th, another anti-lynching bill dies in the Senate.
- (1941) In April, A. Philip Randolph proposes a March on Washington Movement to protest discrimination in Federal programs and hiring.
- (1941) On April 28th, the Supreme Court rules that train facilities must be equal.
- (1941) On June 25th, Executive Order 8802 prohibits racial discrimination in federal hiring and establishes the FEPC (or Fair Employment Practice Committee).
- (1942) In June, 18,000 protestors attend the March on Washington rally in New York. 26,000 attend the rally in Chicago.
- (1942) In June, the CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) is founded in Chicago.
- (1943) CORE stages it's first sit-in at a Chicago restaurant.
- (1943) From June 20th to June 23rd, there is a race riot in Detroit.
- (1943) From August 1st to August 2nd, there is a race riot in Harlem.
- (1944) On April 3rd, the Supreme Court rules that white-only primaries violate the 15th amendment.
- (1946) On February 7th, a Senate filibuster kills a bill to make the FEPC permanent.
- (1946) On February 13th, sergeant Isaac Woodward is blinded during a beating while he was in police custody.
- (1946) On June 3rd, the Supreme Court bans segregation on interstate buses in Morgan v. Virginia.
- (1946) On December 5th, Truman appoints a presidential committee on civil rights.
- (1947) From April 9th to April 23rd, CORE sends mixed-race groups on bus trips in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to test the Supreme Court’s 1946 ruling. The expedition is known as the Journey of Reconciliation.
- (1947) Harry Truman gives the Civil Rights Address to the NAACP.
- (1947) On October 29th, the presidential committee on civil rights issues the "To Secure These Rights" report.
- (1948) On Janury 12th, the Supreme Court rules that states must provide legal education to blacks if it is to provide it for whites in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Oklahoma.
- (1948) On May 3, the Supreme Court rules that enforcement of racially restrictive housing covenants violates the 14th Amendment in Shelly v. Kraemer.
- (1948) In May, the Supreme Court bans craft union discrimination in Steel v. Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
- (1948) On July 14th, the Democratic National Convention adopts a civil rights platform that causes a split in the party and the eventual creation of the Dixiecrats.
- (1948) On July 17th, the Dixiecrats nominate Strom Thurmond for president.
- (1948) On July 26th, Executive Order 9980 establishes the Fair Employment Board. Executive Order 9981 begins de-segregation of the armed forces.
- (1948) In November, Harry Truman is re-elected.
- (1949) The Truman administration proposes legislation to establish a permanent FEPC, make lynching a federal crime, abolish the poll tax, and end all transportation segregation. However, the bills are never brought to a vote in the Senate.
- (1950) On June 5th, the Supreme Court orders the University of Texas at Austin to admit a black man to their law school ruling that separate legal training is not equal in Sweatt v. Painter. It also outlaws segregated seating in graduate school in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents and bans segregated seating on railroad dining cars as a violation of the Interstate Commerce Act in Henderson v. the United States.
- (1950) On June 25th, the Korean War begins.
- (1951) In Februrary, the Martinsville Seven are executed in Richmond, Virginia for raping a white woman.
- (1951) In May, Willie McGee is executed in Mississippi on charges of rape.
- (1951) On May 24th, Washington D.C. courts ban segregation in distinct restaurants.
- (1951) In July, governor Adlai Stevenson calls out the National Guard to suppress white riots against a black family that had moved into a white neighborhood in Cicero, IL.
- (1951) On December 25th, NAACP activists Harry T. Moore and Harriet Moore are killed by a bomb in their Mims, FL home.
- (1952) On January 12th, the University of Texas at Austin admits blacks for the first time.
- (1952) In August, Malcolm Little is released from prison.
- (1952) On December 9th, the [[Supreme Court begins hearing arguments for Brown v. Board of Education.
- (1952) The Tuskeegee Institute report declares 1952 to be the first lynch free year in seventy one years.
- (1953) In June, Dr. Walter Ridley becomes the first black graduate of a University of Virginia professional school.
- (1953) On June 8th, the Supreme Court orders re-argument for the Brown v. Board case and upholds the Washington D.C. ban on segregated restaurants in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co..
- (1953) On June 19th, the Baton Rouge bus boycott begins.
- (1953) On June 27th, the Korean War ends.
- (1953) In August, there are riots against integrated housing in Chicago.
- (1953) From December 7th until December 9th, the Brown v. Board of Education case is re-argued.
- (1954) On May 17th, the Brown v. Board of Education ruling is made.