Court TV Celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

Saturday, August 6, 2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the historic signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To remember this important legislation and the struggle for African-Americans to gain the right to vote freely in this country, Court TV and its partners will hold a series of events to discuss its significance and solutions for engaging more youth in the political process. Additionally, the network will host screenings of a new original documentary titled Home of the Brave. The film will premiere on Monday, August 8 and it chronicles the life of Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman murdered during the civil rights movement and why we don’t know who she is. Told through the eyes of her children, the film follows the on-going struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother’s heroism and the mystery behind her killing.

Civil Rights Events

1954 -- U.S. Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.

1955 -- Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus as required by city ordinance; boycott follows and bus segregation ordinance is declared unconstitutional.

Federal Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation on interstate trains and buses.

1956 -- Coalition of Southern congressmen calls for massive resistance to Supreme Court desegregation rulings.

1957 -- Arkansas Gov. Orval Rubus uses National Guard to block nine black students from attending a Little Rock High School; following a court order, President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to ensure compliance.

1960 -- Four black college students begin sit-ins at lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant where black patrons are not served.

Congress approves a watered-down voting rights act after a filibuster by Southern senators.

1961 -- Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states.

1962 -- President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend.

The Supreme Court rules that segregation is unconstitutional in all transportation facilities.

The Department of Defense orders full integration of military reserve units, the National Guard excluded.

1963 -- Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is killed by a sniper's bullet.

Race riots prompt modified martial law in Cambridge, Maryland.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington.

Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young black girls dead.

1964 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Act declaring discrimination based on race illegal after 75-day long filibuster.

Three civil rights workers disappear in Mississippi after being stopped for speeding; found buried six weeks later.

Riots in Harlem, Philadelphia.

1965 -- March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand protection for voting rights; two civil rights workers slain earlier in the year in Selma.

Malcolm X assassinated.

Riot in Watts, Los Angeles.

New voting rights act signed.

1966 -- Edward Brooke, R-Massachusetts, elected first black U.S. senator in 85 years.

1967 -- Riots in Detroit, Newark, New Jersey.

Thurgood Marshall first black to be named to the Supreme Court.

Carl Stokes (Cleveland) and Richard G. Hatcher (Gary, Indiana) elected first black mayors of major U.S. cities.

1968 -- Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee; James Earl Ray later convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Poor People's March on Washington -- planned by King before his death -- goes on.

1973 -- Maynard Jackson (Atlanta), first black elected mayor of a major Southern U.S. city.

1975 --Voting Rights Act extended.

1978 -- Supreme Court rules that medical school admission programs that set aside positions based on race are unconstitutional (Bakke decision).

1979 -- Shoot-out in Greensboro, North Carolina, leaves five anti-Klan protesters dead; 12 Klansmen charged with murder.

1983 -- Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday established.

1988 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Restoration Act over President Reagan's veto.

1989 -- Army Gen. Colin Powell becomes first black to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1989 -- L. Douglas Wilder (Virginia) becomes first black elected governor.

1990 -- President Bush vetoes a civil rights bill he says would impose quotas for employers; weaker bill passes muster in 1991.

1991 -- Civil rights museum opens at King assassination site in Memphis.

1994 -- Byron De La Beckwith convicted of 1963 Medgar Evers assassination.

1995 -- Supreme Court rules that federal programs that use race as a categorical classification must have "compelling government interest" to do so.

1996 -- Supreme Court rules consideration of race in creating congressional districts is unconstitutional.

Early civil rights efforts

The history of the civil rights movement in the United States actually begins with the early efforts of the fledgling democracy.

1783 -- Massachusetts outlaws slavery within its borders.

1808 -- Importation of slaves banned; illegal slave trade continues.

1820 -- Eighty-six free blacks sail to Sierra Leone, a British colony in Africa -- first immigration of blacks from U.S. to Africa.

Missouri Compromise allows slavery in Missouri, but not elsewhere west of the Mississippi and north of Missouri's southern border; repealed in 1854.

1831 -- Nat Turner leads slave rebellion in Virginia; 57 whites killed; U.S. troops kill 100 slaves; Turner caught, tried and hanged.

1833 -- Oberlin College, first U.S. college to adopt co-education, is first to refuse to ban black students.

1850 -- Compromise of 1850 admits California into the union without slavery, strengthens Fugitive Slave Laws, and ends slave trade in Washington, D.C.

1857 -- Dred Scott Supreme Court decision rules that slaves do not become free when taken into a free state, that Congress cannot bar slavery from a territory, and that blacks cannot become citizens.

1861 -- Confederate States of America formed; Civil War begins.

1863 -- President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation freeing "all slaves in areas still in rebellion."

1865 -- Civil War ends.

13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, added to the Constitution.

1866 -- Ku Klux Klan formed in secrecy; disbands 1869-71; resurgence in 1915.

Congress takes over Reconstruction.

1867 -- Series of measures aimed at suffrage, other redresses for former slaves passed over President Andrew Johnson's vetoes.

1868 -- 14th Amendment conferring citizenship added to Constitution.

1870 -- 15th Amendment barring racial discrimination in voting added to Constitution.

1875 -- Congress passes civil rights act granted equal rights in public accommodations and jury duty.

1877 -- Henry O. Flipper becomes first black graduate of U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

1883 -- Supreme Court invalidates 1875 Civil Rights Act, saying that the federal government cannot bar discrimination by corporations or individuals.

1896 -- Supreme Court approves "separate but equal" segregation doctrine.

1906 -- Race riots in Atlanta; 21 dead, city under martial law.

1909 -- National Congress on the Negro convenes, leading to founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

1923 -- Oklahoma placed under martial law because of Ku Klux Klan activities.

1925 -- Ku Klux Klan marches on Washington.

1943 -- War contractors barred from racial discrimination.

Riots in Harlem, Detroit.

1948 -- President Truman issues executive order outlawing segregation in U.S. military.

1952 -- Racial, ethnic barriers to naturalization removed by Immigration and Naturalization Act.

Education

Education played a very important part in post-1945 civil rights history. Much time and effort was spent on education - the belief being that in a democracy it was only right and fair that all people regardless of skin colour should have the right to a decent education. This issue of civil rights and education made international headlines with the affair that took place at Little Rock High School in 1957. But education was to remain at the forefront of civil rights even after this event.

In 1945, the two areas where segregation and racism was most obviously applied was in housing and in education. In the southern states, the African Americans lived in the poorest areas with the worst facilities. That they did was symbolic that they had the worst paid jobs that could only afford the most basic of facilities. The worst financed schools were also in these areas so the separation between education and the general standard of lifestyle in America is a clinical one - the two must be seen as being one of a whole. This problem was not only restricted to the southern states either.

Within the south, the general philosophy that had developed since the civil war, was that if African Americans were kept ill-educated they would remain ‘in their place’ in society. An educated "boy" could become a danger. There was also a belief in some areas that African Americans were not intelligent enough to deserve an education. The shadow of "Jim Crow" cast itself over education in the south. The result of this was very much linked to the poverty most African Americans found themselves in - without a good education, no-one could advance themselves in southern society. Therefore, a poor education guaranteed a poor lifestyle for the African Americans.

There had been some movement after the Second World War regarding attitudes. The horror of the death camps in Europe and the abject nonsense of scientific racism had moved by degrees some sections of southern society. The whole element of black equalling backwardness weakened though it did not die out. Military service by African Americans had made young men more assertive and the NAACP built on this development.

Press Release

11-18-09

Former Kentucky Jail Supervisor Sentenced on Charges Related to Abuse of Detainees

11-17-09

Mexican Citizen Sentenced to 121 Months in Prison for Her Participation in an Organization That Forced Young Mexican Women into Sexual Slavery in New York

11-17-09

Bexar County, Texas, Corrections Officer Indicted on Civil Rights Charges

11-16-09

Justice Department Signs Agreement with Fargo, North Dakota, to Ensure Civic Access for People with Disabilities

11-12-09

Justice Department Files Fair Housing Lawsuit in Missouri Against Owner and Managers of Federally-Subsidized Property for Race and Sex Discrimination

11-12-09

Former Missouri Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing a Teenage Girl While She Was Detained

11-10-09

Justice Department Signs Agreement with Wilmington, North Carolina, to Ensure Civic Access for People with Disabilities

11-6-09

Justice Department Resolves Lawsuit Alleging Disability-Based Housing Discrimination at 11 Multifamily Housing Complexes in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas

11-6-09

Justice Department Obtains $131,500 in Discrimination Settlement with Chattanooga, Tennessee, Apartment Complex

11-5-09

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Knight Protective Services to Enforce the Employment Rights of Retired Army Service Member

11-4-09

Former Memphis, Tennessee, Police Officer Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Civil Rights Violations

11-3-09

Three Idaho Men Sentenced for Federal Hate Crime Assault

11-3-09

Justice Department Sues Colorado Attorney for Disability Discrimination

11-3-09

Justice Department Obtains Record $2.725 Million Settlement of Housing Discrimination Lawsuit

11-2-09

Former Federal Corrections Officer Indicted on Civil Rights Charges Related to Fatal Assault

11-2-09

Justice Department Signs Agreement with Glynn County, Georgia, to Ensure Civic Access for Persons with Disabilities

11-2-09

Justice Department to Monitor Elections in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania

10-30-09

Justice Department Releases ADA Employment Video

10-29-09

Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Nevada Company to Enforce the Employment Rights of Air Force Reservist

Resources

National Civil Rights Museum

This tour is made up of exhibits arranged in chronological order. Each exhibit allows the viewer to see a glimpse of a key civil rights historical event.

Civil Rights Literature During the 1960s:

This site features the civil rights movement in the larger context of literary trends and social change during the "psychedelic '60s," illuminating the ways in which literature of the "psychedelic'60s" influenced and reflected social trends and changes. The site places civil rights literature amidst literature surrounding other significant events, people, and social movements of the 1960s.

The Civil Rights Movement and the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr:

This site details significant historical moments during the civil rights moment, as well as information on prominent civil rights leadership personalities.

Will the Circle be Unbroken?:

An audio history of the civil rights movement in five Southern communities, this project takes listeners into the homes, schools, streets and courtrooms of Atlanta, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama and Columbia, South Carolina.

Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore

Charles Moore is a photographer for Life, known for his photographs depicting the civil rights movement.

The Encyclopædia Britannica Guide to Black History:

This site features informative articles and is illustrated with historical film clips and audio recordings, as well as hundreds of photographs and other images. The Related Internet Links and Bibliography sections provide excellent source material and areas for further study, as does the Study Guide for Students, which is organized around six classroom activities, each with their own teacher recommendations, technical tips, and scholastic bibliographies.

Home Of The Brave

Home of the Brave is about the only white woman murdered in the civil rights movement in America and why we DON’T know who she is. Told through the eyes of her children, the film follows the on-going struggle of an American family to survive the consequences of their mother’s heroism and the mystery behind her killing.

Viola Liuzzo was a 39 year-old Detroit Teamster’s wife and mother of five, who joined thousands of people converging in Selma, Alabama for the march on Montgomery, led by Martin Luther King in ’65. But shortly after the historic Voting Rights March had ended, she was shot in the head and killed by a car full of Klansmen, while driving on a lone highway.

Liuzzo’s death came at a pivotal moment in the civil right movement, when President Johnson had been fighting an uphill battle to push the Voter’s Rights Act through Congress. Her murder is attributed by historians of the era as providing the final piece of leverage that won Johnson approval of the Act in Congress, which forever changed our political landscape.

Why do we not know the story of Viola Luizzo, while nearly everyone has heard of Goodman, Schwerner and Cheney -- the three rights workers killed the year before in Mississippi? The reasons are complex, and won’t be found in history books. Immediately following her murder, Liuzzo became the target of a smear campaign, mounted by J Edgar Hoover and the FBI, as a means of diverting attention from the fact that a key FBI informant was in the car with Liuzzo’s killers. This discrediting of her name -- mostly based on her gender and wholly unfounded -- succeeded in erasing Viola Liuzzo from our cultural memory. After delving through thousands of pages of government documents and filming interviews with leaders in the fields of politics, history and forensics psychology, the filmmakers shed a new light on this complicated, buried story.

Parallel to the Civil Rights struggle for which Viola lost her life is the present-day journey of her five children. Mary, the middle daughter, decides to retrace her mother’s road trip from Detroit to Selma with the filmmakers. In the mid-60s she was an angry kid in the midst of a personal rebellion with her mother. The trauma of her sudden death caused her to bury any memories of her mother. Instead, she found herself reliving only the details of her gruesome death and its tumultuous aftermath. Now as an adult, she’s ready to bring her back into consciousness. What she finds in Selma is both surprising and profoundly healing.

Her brothers Tony and Tommy, who as boys felt the weight of it all on their shoulders, were eventually hit the hardest. Theirs is a path routed in turmoil, resulting largely from repeated failed attempts to vindicate their mother and seek justice their family. Their lives have been torn apart by what they see as a betrayal of their government, and after decades of fighting, they’ve each resigned themselves to their own form of refuge, which disconnects them from their sisters and the rest of the world.

Home of the Brave links the personal and the political, the past and present and has a resonance to our world today. learn more