Voting Milestones

Important Voting Milestones

Museum, National Voting Rights Museum, 2016-05-16, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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This is a photo of the Voting Milestones Exhibit at the National Voting Rights Museum

1901, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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1776
The Declaration of Independence was signed.

The Right to vote was restricted to property owners — most were white males over the age of 21.

George Skadding, 1944-10, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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1781 The Articles of Confederation were ratified. This was an agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first Constitution.

1789 The U.S. Constitution declared persons of African decent 3/5th of a person.

1820 It was declared that all men who pay poll taxes can vote. This was a popular law among Southern States that required citizens to pay poll taxes.

1848 Mexicans were granted U.S. Citizenship but they were not allowed to vote.

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1855
The first black elected official, John Langston, was elected Town Clerk, Brownhelm, OH.

Civil War, 1861, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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April 12, 1812
The Civil War begins - a war over slavery and the political control of slavery.

December 6, 1865
The 13th Amendment legally ends Slavery

1901, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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1865-1877
The Reconstruction Era - this era is also known as the beginning of legalized segregation.

1866
The Civil Rights Act granted citizenship to all native born Americans except "Indians"

February 3, 1870
The 15th Amendment enacted - Black Men have the constitutional rights to vote

1870b, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1870
This is Joseph Rainey, who was elected as the first Black man to Congress

1882, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1882
The Chinese Exclusion Act keeps Chinese Americans from citizenship and voting

1901
Photo of the 1901 Alabama Constitution, created to keep blacks and poor whites from unifying thereby underminding their right to vote

Jeannette Rankin, Francis Miller, 1967, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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1916
Photo of Jeanette Rankin - the first women elected to Congress

1917, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1917
The Silent Sentinels organized by Alice Paul begun protesting the White House to advance the Women's Suffrage Movement

1920, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1920
The 19th Amendment enacted guaranteeing black and white women the right to vote

1924, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1924
Native Americans gain the right to vote

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1928
Samuel Boynton comes to Selma. A civil rights activist who with his wife Amelia Boynton, led voter registration drives in Selma, Alabama.

1933
C.J. Adams and others organized the Dallas County Voters League

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1954
In 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka Supreme Court Decision

The decision declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional

Grey Villet, 1955-09, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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April 28, 1955
Emmett Till was murdered by White Men in Money, MS for allegedly flirting with a white Woman. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them.

1962
Bernard Lafayette of S.N.C.C. arrives in Selma. S.N.C.C. was organized by young people and aided with sit-ins, marches and mass meetings

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May 1963
Sam Boynton dies and the first mass meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, AL was held

1963, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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Crowd Rallies for Birmingham Bombing Protests -- Post Office Building, 1963-09-18, From the collection of: The Bancroft Library
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September 15, 1963
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing occurred, killing 4 girls.

Ralph Crane, 1964-08, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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June 21, 1964
Schwerner, Goodman and Cheney were killed in Philadelphia, MS while registering people to vote

1964b, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1964
Rev. F.D. Reese signs the letter from the Courageous 8 from the Dallas County Voter's League inviting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma

December, 1964
S.C.L.C workers and students break the injunction barring 3 or more Blacks from assembling together

1965a, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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January 25, 1965
Annie Cooper confronts Sheriff Jim Clark when he prevents her and others from registering to vote

1965b, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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February 5, 1965
Sheriff Jim Clark blocks Rev. C.T. Vivian and marchers from registering to vote at the courthouse

1965c, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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February 5, 1965
Malcolm X visits Selma, AL

February 18, 1965
Jimmie Lee Jackson and other marchers brutally attacked

Francis Miller, 1964-05, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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March 7, 1965
Amelia Boynton was attacked on "Bloody Sunday"

1965f, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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March 9, 1965
Turnaround "Tuesday"

Marchers attempt to go across the Edmund Pettus Bridge but on the sight of all of the police cars and troopers they, kneeled, prayed and turned around.

Humphrey At All Souls Church In Wash., D.C. For Rev. Reeb, Francis Miller, 1965, From the collection of: LIFE Photo Collection
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March 9, 1965
Rev. James Reeb and two other ministers were beaten

1965h, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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March 14, 1965
President Johnson calls for voting Rights Act in his "We Shall Overcome Speech"

1965i, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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March 21, 1965
The successful Selma to Montgomery March begins

1965j, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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March 24, 1965
Arrival at St. Jude, where celebrities such as Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Joan Baez performed

March 25, 1965
Marchers arrive at Alabama State Capitol 25,000 strong

March 25, 1965
Viola Luizzo was murdered while driving back from a trip shuttling activist to Montgomery

1965m, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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August 6, 1965
President Johnson signs 1965 Voting Rights Act

August 20, 1965
Johnathan Daniels, a marcher who stayed to help after the Selma to Montgomery March was murdered in Hayneville, AL

1966, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1966
The first black Mayor elected to a U.S. city, Robert C. Henry, Springfield OH

1967, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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August 31, 1967
Thurgood Marshall became the 1st African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice

1971, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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1971
The 26th Amendment gives 18 year olds the Right to Vote

1994, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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April 27, 1994
South African Apartheid ends - Leaders inspired by American Voting Rights Movement

2000
The First Black May of Selma - James Perkins, Jr. was elected

2004, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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2004
Hip Hop artist and activist P. Diddy, Russell Simmons, TI and Queen Latifah, mobilized youth to vote in the Presidential Elections of 2004

2008, National Voting Rights Museum, From the collection of: National Voting Rights Museum and Institute
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November 4, 2008
Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America

June 25, 2013
Supreme Court invalidates Key Parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval

Credits: Story

Felecia Pettway, NVRMI Board Member
Pearlie L. Walker, NVRMI Administrator
Chico Cleveland, Video

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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