Voting Rights Archives

photos of the three missing men during Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Aug. 4, 1964: Civil Rights Workers Bodies Found

The bodies of three lynched civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman) were found in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

James Meredith and Stokely Carmichael. Photo by Bob Fitch.

June 6, 1966: James Meredith and the March Against Fear

Air Force veteran James Meredith began the March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi.

March 25, 1965: Last Selma March

The Selma marches were three protest marches about voting rights, held in 1965.

March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday

To protest the police murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson and for voting rights, more than 600 people began a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery.

Jan. 6, 2021: Attempted Coup in the United States

There was an attack on the U.S. Capitol by an armed white supremacist mob, determined to block the democratic process.

Nov. 15, 1917: Suffragists Beaten and Tortured in the “Night of Terror”

Twenty women were subjected to beatings and torture at Occoquan Workhouse, a prison in Virginia, in what became known as the “Night of Terror.”

Dr. Charles Gomillion | Zinn Education Project

Nov. 14, 1960: Gomillion v. Lightfoot

SCOTUS ruled 9-0 that redrawing city boundaries in Tuskegee, Alabama to exclude African-American voters violates the 15th Amendment.

July 15, 1964: Ozell Sutton Denied Service at Arkansas Capitol Cafeteria

WWII veteran Ozell Sutton was denied service at the Arkansas Capitol cafeteria after visiting the building to collect voter registration materials.

June 4, 1919: Congress Passes 19th Amendment and Sends to States for Ratification

Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Jeanette Rankin. Portrait by Robert Shetterly of Americans Who Tell the Truth.

April 2, 1917: Jeannette Rankin Takes Seat as First Woman Elected to Congress

Jeannette Rankin took her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

March 10, 1972: National Black Political Convention

Thousands of Black leaders gathered to create a cohesive political strategy at the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana.

Jan. 31, 1964: WWII Veteran Louis Allen Murdered

Louis Allen, a WWII veteran who witnessed and was willing to testify about the murder of a voting rights worker in Mississippi, was murdered.

April 18, 1959: Students Petition and March for Integrated Schools

26,000 high school and college students came to Washington, D.C. to demand the end of segregated schools.

March 30, 1952: Charlotta Bass Accepts U.S. VP Nomination

California newspaper owner and anti-Klan activist Charlotta Spears Bass became the first African American nominated to be a U.S. political party's vice-presidential candidate.

April 15, 1960: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Founding

Founding of the youth-led Civil Rights Movement organization, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Stokely Carmichael talking with a local person about the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in 1966.

March 23, 1965: Selma to Montgomery March Continues

The Selma to Montgomery marchers traveled into Lowndes County, working with local leaders to organize residents into a new political organization: the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO).

Nov. 2, 1920: Imprisoned Eugene V. Debs Received One Million Votes for U.S. President

Eugene V. Debs received one million votes in the U.S. presidential election while in prison on the Socialist Party ticket.

Mary McLeod Bethune, pictured in the 1920s, when her school became a co-ed institution and she became the president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Fall, 1922: Mary McLeod Bethune Confronts Klan to Defend Black Voting Rights

Mary McLeod Bethune faced off against the Ku Klux Klan in defense of Black voting rights in Daytona, Florida.

Oct. 6, 1917: Fannie Lou Hamer Born

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi.

Nov. 2, 1920: The Ocoee Massacre

More than fifty African Americans killed in the Ocoee Massacre after going to vote in Florida.

Oct. 23, 1947: An Appeal to the World

The NAACP sent to the U.N. a document titled “An Appeal to the World,” to redress human rights violations the United States committed against its African-American citizens.

Aug. 3, 1980: Reagan Gives “State’s Rights” Speech at Neshoba County Fair

Reagan appealed to the “George Wallace-inclined voters” and to white supremacy in his stump speech at the Neshoba County Fair, mere miles away from where three civil rights workers were murdered by the Klan in 1964.

Here is a synopsis of South Carolina testimonies at the hearings in July, 1871.

July 7, 1871: Testimony at Klan Hearings by Elias Thomson

Elias Thomson, an African American who lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina, bravely shared testimony detailing violence inflicted against him because he voted for the Republican ticket in the local election.

June 12, 1963: Medgar Evers Murdered in Mississippi

Medgar Evers, WWII veteran and civil rights activist, was murdered by a white supremacist in Jackson, Mississippi.

Jan. 15, 1817: The Vote on Colonization of Free Blacks in West Africa

Nearly 3,000 African American men met at the Bethel A.M.E. Church and denounced the American Colonization Society’s proposal to resettle free African Americans in West Africa.

Time Period

Theme

Resource Type

Grade

Keywords