2 MLK 2009This is the annual march in Colorado Springs to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. The march goes from Acacia Park to Shove Chapel on the Colorado College campus for speeches and music. You can contact the committee here: MLK, Jr. Holiday Committee p.o.box 60332 Colorado Springs, Co. 80960-0332 http://www.MLK-EPC.org info@MLK-EPC.org The struggle so far: 1870 The 15th Amendment is ratified by the states, giving African-American men the right to vote. Under Reconstruction-era protections, Hiram Revels is the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate and Joseph Hayne Rainey becomes the first African-American member of the U.S. House, followed by Georgia's Jefferson Franklin Long. 1877 Reconstruction ends as part of a deal that settles a disputed presidential election. Over the next three decades, Southern states adopt so-called Jim Crow laws that enforce segregation and effectively disenfranchise African-Americans through poll taxes, literacy tests and similar measures. Whites whose forefathers had held the right to vote before black enfranchisement are exempted under "grandfather" clauses. Violence is also used to intimidate would-be black voters. 1896 The U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, clears the way for Jim Crow laws by upholding the doctrine of "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites. 1915 The U.S. Supreme Court outlaws grandfather clauses, but states quickly devise legislative end runs that preserve discriminatory voting laws. 1937 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds Georgia's poll tax in Breedlove v. Suttles, ruling against a white man who challenged it because women who did not register to vote were exempted. 1941-45 Millions of African-Americans serve in the military during World War II. Returning home, many are emboldened by their experiences to seek the vote. 1946 In an early example of organized voting rights action, a group of activists from Columbus, Ga., wins a legal challenge to the state's whites-only Democratic primaries. 1954 The NAACP wins the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, effectively overturning the "separate but equal" philosophy underlying Jim Crow laws. A growing movement of nonviolent resistance demands voting rights and an end to segregation. 1955-56 The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. launches his career as a civil rights leader with the Montgomery bus boycott. 1957 The largely toothless but psychologically significant Civil Rights Act of 1957 gives the attorney general the authority to sue on behalf of African-Americans denied the right to vote. 1960 The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee is formed to organize a growing movement of sit-ins and other protests, and John Lewis, now a congressman from Atlanta, becomes one of its early leaders. 1962 SNCC and other groups begin voter registration drives in Mississippi and elsewhere in the South. 1963 Hundreds of thousands of people join the March on Washington, where King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech. 1964 Poll taxes are outlawed with the adoption of the 24th Amendment and activists from throughout the nation work to register black voters in a "Freedom Summer" drive in Mississippi. 1965 John Lewis (now aU.S. Rep. representative for Georgias 5th Congressional District.) is severely beaten as he leads a voting rights march in Selma, Ala. National media coverage of the violent suppression of the marchers galvanizes public support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. It permanently bars direct barriers to political participation by racial and ethnic minorities and requires jurisdictions with a history of discrimination in voting to get federal approval of changes in their election laws. 1966 Edward Brooke of Massachusetts is the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. Today, the Congressional Black Caucus has more than 40 members. 1977 Patricia Harris, as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is the first black Cabinet member. 1989 Douglas Wilder of Virginia becomes the first black governor of a U.S. state. 2001 Colin Powell is confirmed as the first African-American secretary of state. 2008 Barack Obama is elected president. code pour embarquer la vidéo : >>> http://www.youtube.com/embed/TTxqE9w9xDE <<< |