This is a photo of the Voting Milestones Exhibit at the National Voting Rights Museum
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.
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.
1855
The first black elected official, John Langston, was elected Town Clerk, Brownhelm, OH.
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
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
1870
This is Joseph Rainey, who was elected as the first Black man to Congress
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
1916
Photo of Jeanette Rankin - the first women elected to Congress
1917
The Silent Sentinels organized by Alice Paul begun protesting the White House to advance the Women's Suffrage Movement
1920
The 19th Amendment enacted guaranteeing black and white women the right to vote
1924
Native Americans gain the right to vote
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
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
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
May 1963
Sam Boynton dies and the first mass meeting at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, AL was held
September 15, 1963
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing occurred, killing 4 girls.
June 21, 1964
Schwerner, Goodman and Cheney were killed in Philadelphia, MS while registering people to vote
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
January 25, 1965
Annie Cooper confronts Sheriff Jim Clark when he prevents her and others from registering to vote
February 5, 1965
Sheriff Jim Clark blocks Rev. C.T. Vivian and marchers from registering to vote at the courthouse
February 5, 1965
Malcolm X visits Selma, AL
February 18, 1965
Jimmie Lee Jackson and other marchers brutally attacked
March 7, 1965
Amelia Boynton was attacked on "Bloody Sunday"
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.
March 9, 1965
Rev. James Reeb and two other ministers were beaten
March 14, 1965
President Johnson calls for voting Rights Act in his "We Shall Overcome Speech"
March 21, 1965
The successful Selma to Montgomery March begins
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
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
The first black Mayor elected to a U.S. city, Robert C. Henry, Springfield OH
August 31, 1967
Thurgood Marshall became the 1st African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1971
The 26th Amendment gives 18 year olds the Right to Vote
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
Hip Hop artist and activist P. Diddy, Russell Simmons, TI and Queen Latifah, mobilized youth to vote in the Presidential Elections of 2004
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
Felecia Pettway, NVRMI Board Member
Pearlie L. Walker, NVRMI Administrator
Chico Cleveland, Video
