Download Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Kentucky Bar Association

Timeline of
Expanding Constitutional Liberties
for African Americans
steps toward (and away from) racial equality
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The Civil Rights
Movement
1954-1968
Reconstruction
1863-1877
1792-1865
Kentucky Statehood
through the Civil War
1877-1954
The Jim Crow Era
More Recent
Events
1792-1865
Kentucky Statehood
through the Civil War
Slaves and free
blacks fought in the
Civil War
1861-1865
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Berea College
founded as fully
integrated
1855
1st
Kentucky’s
Constitution
protected slavery
1792
1790
Ratification of the U.
S. Constitution and
slavery compromises
1850
Kentucky’s
Constitution
strengthened slavery protections
3rd
1857
Dred Scott v Sanford decision
excludes African Americans
from citizenship
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1790
The U. S. Constitution was ratified, with several compromises regarding slavery: Congress was
prohibited from ending the Atlantic slave trade before 1808; free states were forbidden to grant
freedom to fugitive slaves who crossed their borders; and slaves—who had no legal rights as
persons—were each counted as three-fifths of a person in the census, thereby increasing the South’s
representation in Congress.
Other matters regarding slavery were left up to the individual states.
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National Archives
1792
Kentucky became the first state to protect slavery in its first Constitution. Article IX, which states
that the Legislature cannot pass laws to emancipate slaves without the consent of their owners, was
the most debated topic at the constitutional convention.
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Library of Congress
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1850
Protections for slavery were increased in the 1850 Kentucky Constitution.
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Kentucky Historical Society
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1855
Abolitionist Reverend John Fee founded Berea College in 1855, as the only non-segregated, coeducational college in the South. This photo shows Berea’s students in 1899.
Library of Congress
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1857
The U. S. Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v Sanford, ruled that African Americans—slave or free—
were not citizens of the United States, and therefore, were not entitled to rights under the Constitution.
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1861-1865
The Civil War—At the start of the war, there were more than 225,000 slaves in Kentucky. More than
23,000 Kentucky men of African descent joined the Union Army as United States Colored Troops.
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1863-1877
Reconstruction
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The 13th
Amendment
abolished slavery
1865
1863
The Emancipation
Proclamation
freed slaves
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The 14th Amendment
reinforced equal
protection of the laws
1868
Louisville
streetcar protests
and lawsuit
1870-1871
1866
The Civil Rights
Act provided
equal protection of
the laws
United States v Reese
challenged the
15th Amendment
1873-1876
1870
The 15th Amendment
granted voting
rights
1868-1871
Blyew v United States
challenged the Civil Rights
Act
1875
A new Civil Rights
Act expanded
rights
1863
With the Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln freed slaves in the states in
rebellion with the United States. The measure did not affect slaves in Kentucky, since the
Commonwealth remained loyal to the Union.
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Library of Congress
1865
Slavery was abolished in all states by the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
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Library of Congress
1866
The federal Civil Rights Act conferred citizenship upon black males born in America and extended to
them the rights “to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and
property.”
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U.S. Capitol
1868
The Fourteenth Amendment provided constitutional reinforcement of the Civil Rights Act, granting
citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws to “all persons born or naturalized in the United
States.”
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1868-1871
In one of the first full cases to challenge the Civil Rights Act, Blyew v United States, the U. S.
Supreme Court ruled that the federal protections under the Act didn’t apply to the black members of a
Kentucky family who witnessed the ax murders of four relatives by two white men. The case was
returned to Kentucky courts, where it was illegal for a black witness to testify against a white
person.
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1870-1871
Robert Fox led a non-violent protest on an all-white Louisville streetcar in 1870, and then sued the
railroad for arresting him. The U. S. District Court ruled in Fox’s favor, saying the railway’s refusal to
serve blacks violated the 14th Amendment and common-law provisions.
As a result of this ruling and the ongoing protests organized by Quinn Chapel AME Church,
Louisville did not enact Jim Crow ordinances for streetcars—a landmark victory in the South,
85 years before Rosa Parks.
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1870
The Fifteenth Amendment declared that “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged…on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
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1873-1876
A Kentucky case was the first to test voting rights under the 15th Amendment. In United States v
Reese, the U. S. Supreme Court considered whether it was unconstitutional for a Lexington election
inspector to refuse to allow African American William Garner to pay his poll tax and vote.
The Court ruled that the 15th Amendment “does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one,” and
that Congress had not yet provided the appropriate legislation to enforce the law. As a result, many
state and local governments began to implement poll taxes, literacy tests, and other methods to
suppress the black vote.
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1875
In an effort to guarantee African Americans’ rights under the 14th Amendment—including equality in
public accommodations and transportation and the right to serve on juries—Congress passed the Civil
Rights Act of 1875.
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1877-1954
The Jim Crow Era
Kentucky’s
separate coach law
was upheld
1900
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Court case opened
the door to
legalized
segregation
1883
1880
Two court cases
addressed blacks on
juries
The U.S. Supreme Court
upheld Kentucky’s Day
Law
1908
1904
The Day Law
segregated
Kentucky schools
1896
Plessy v Ferguson
established
“separate but
equal”
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The U.S. Supreme Court
ruled that courts cannot
enforce restrictive
covenants
1948
1950
Kentucky’s Day Law was
amended to allow
voluntary integration of
colleges
1916-1917
Louisville’s
residential
segregation
ordinance ruled
unconstitutional
1880
The U. S. Supreme Court, in Strauder v West Virginia, ruled that it was unconstitutional to exclude
blacks on juries due to their race.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals, in Commonwealth v Johnson, ruled that the Kentucky statute that
excluded citizens of African descent from grand and petit juries because of their race was
unconstitutional.
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1883
The U. S. Supreme Court decided that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional because the
federal government lacked the power to prohibit discrimination by private individuals. This ruling
opened the door to legalized segregation.
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Library of Congress
1896
In Plessy v Ferguson, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring
racial segregation in public facilities, under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” U. S. Supreme
Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, a Kentuckian, was the lone dissenter.
Click here to
read from
Justice Harlan’s
dissent
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Library of Congress
Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor
tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights,
all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the
peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man
and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color
when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of
the land are involved.
--U. S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan,
Plessy v. Ferguson dissenting opinion, 1896
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1900
In Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company v Kentucky, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s
separate coach law, requiring railway companies to furnish separate cars for white and black
passengers.
John McCutheon Cartoon
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1904
Kentucky enacted the Day Law, to end Berea College’s mission to fully integrate black and white
students. The law prohibited students of color from attending the same school as white students and
required that black schools be located at least 25 miles from whites-only schools.
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1908
In Berea College v Kentucky, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s Day Law, allowing states
to prohibit interracial instruction in private and public schools. U. S. Supreme Court Justice John
Marshall Harlan, a Kentuckian, was the lone dissenter.
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Library of Congress
1916-1917
In Buchanan v Warley, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Louisville’s residential
segregation ordinance, prohibiting the sale of property to African Americans, violated the 14th
Amendment.
After this victory, more African Americans won their cases before the Supreme Court. As another
consequence, blacks became increasingly able to move to places where they would have voting rights
and greater political power.
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1948
The U. S. Supreme Court, in Shelley v Kraemer, ruled that the courts cannot enforce restrictive
covenants that bar people from occupying real estate based on their race.
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1950
Kentucky’s Day Law was amended to allow voluntary integration at Kentucky colleges.
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1954-1968
The Civil Rights Movement
Select an event to explore:
The Voting Rights Act
outlawed discrimination in
voting
1965
Brown v Board ruled
racial segregation
The Civil Rights Act of
of schools unconstitutional
1964 outlawed
1954
discrimination
1964
1954
A Kentucky case
expanded
“separate is
not equal”
1957
The Civil Rights
Act
strengthened
social justice
statutes
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1964
The
Amendment
eliminated the poll tax
Kentucky passed a
bill to enforce the
Civil Rights Act
1966
Four Kentucky
cities passed
open housing
laws
1967
24th
1967
Loving v Virginia
ended race-based
restrictions on
marriage
1968
Kentucky passed the first statewide
open housing law in the South
1954
Federal rights to education were advanced when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled, in Brown v Board of
Education of Topeka, KS, that separate public schools for blacks and whites were “inherently
unequal” and therefore unconstitutional.
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1954
Immediately after the Brown v. Board decision, the U. S. Supreme Court decided to take another look
at the Kentucky racial segregation case, Muir v Louisville Park Theatrical Association, a first step
toward applying “separate is not equal” to recreation facilities, not just schools.
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1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 created a commission to strengthen social justice statutes and protect
voting rights. The act was the first federal civil rights legislation in eight decades.
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1964
The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin. It protected voting rights and ended racial segregation in schools, workplaces, and
public accommodations.
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1964
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment was passed, eliminating the poll tax, which was often used to
discourage blacks from voting.
Library of Congress
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1965
The Voting Rights Act outlawed discriminatory voting practices, resulting in a dramatic increase in
African American voters and elected officials.
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1966
Kentucky Governor Edward T. Breathitt signed a state law to establish enforcement powers over the
federal Civil Rights Act. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called it “the strongest and most comprehensive
civil rights bill passed by a southern state.”
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The Kentucky Office of Public Information
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1967
The U. S. Supreme Court case, Loving v Virginia, ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage
in the United States.
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1967
African American activists in Louisville organized a series of demonstrations and united to help elect
a new Board of Aldermen. As a result of these community efforts, Louisville became the first major
city in the South to pass an open housing law.
Bardstown, Covington, and Lexington also passed local laws in advance of the state law.
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1968
The Kentucky Fair Housing Act was the first statewide open housing law in the South, providing
equal housing opportunities for all persons, regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin.
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More Recent Events
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Batson v Kentucky ruled that
jurors cannot be excluded based
on race alone
1986
1976
Kentucky finally
ratified the 13th, 14th,
and 15th Amendments
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1996
Language requiring school
segregation was finally removed
from Kentucky’s Constitution
1976
Kentucky formally ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution.
It had been the only state to reject all three amendments more than a century before. (The exConfederate states were required to approve them, in order to be readmitted to the Union; but since
Kentucky had remained loyal to the Union, it was not required to do so.)
Mae Street Kidd, an African American legislator elected in 1967, sponsored the bill.
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Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
1986
In Batson v Kentucky—a case that originated in Louisville—the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that
excluding jurors based on race alone violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
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1996
Kentucky voters passed an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution to remove language requiring
the state to maintain separate schools for "white" and "colored" children.
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Timeline of
Expanding Constitutional Liberties
for African Americans
steps toward (and away from) racial equality
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