| Aug 1965 |
Watts section of LA: more than a week of rioting triggered by the arrest of a black motorist in the Watts section of LA leaves 34 people dead and more than 1,000 injured. Nearly 3,800 are arrested and damages are put at $40 million. An official report, criticized by black leaders, puts some of the blame for the riot on the growing civil rights movement. Two more are killed when disorder flares again in Watts in early 1966. |
| Jun 21 - Sep 20, 1966 |
A dozen cities: riots in more than a dozen cities in June through September leave at least 11 dead. Many of the disturbances--in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit-- are touched off after incidents between police and blacks. Others--in Brooklyn, Baltimore and Cleveland--flare after interracial civilian disputes. |
| Jul 1967 |
Newark, N.J.: in the worst rioting since Watts, 26 people die, more than 1,500 are arrested and about 1,400 are injured in a week of violence. The arrest of a black cab driver and his ensuing scuffle with the police spark the violence. |
| Jul 1967 |
Detroit, Mich.: forty-three people die in a week of rioting. Federal troops are deployed to quell civil strife for the first time since 1953. A police raid on an after hours bar on the largely black West Side triggers the trouble. Damage is estimated at $200 million, arrests top 7,000 and more than 2,000 are injured. The Newark and Detroit riots prompt the federal appointment of the so-called Kerner Commission, which reports in 1968 that the US is "moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." |
| Apr 1968 |
125 cities: following the assassination of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., violence erupts in as many as 125 cities. The Justice Department says 46 people are killed in a week of unrest. Insured damages are reported at $67 million. |
| May 1980 |
Miami, Fla.: three days of rioting in the Liberty City section of Miami are touched off after an all-white jury acquits 4 former Miami police officers of the fatal beating of a black insurance executive. Eighteen people die, more than 400 are injured and 1,100 arrests are made. Damages are put at around $200 million. |
| Jan 1989 |
Miami, Fla.: the Overtown section of Miami erupts after a black motorcycle rider is shot and killed by a policeman. |
| Jan 1990 |
According to the 1990 US Census:; 30 million blacks make up 12.1% of the US population of 248.7 million which is a 13.2% gain since 1980.; The number of black Americans living in the metropolitan North and Midwest declined relative to the number living in economically more active areas in the South and West.; College educated white men earn almost one-third more than black men with similar educational backgrounds, the gap between black and white women is smaller.; The high school graduation rate for blacks has doubled since 1970 to 63.1% as compared to 77.9% for whites.; 11.4% of blacks hold bachelor's degrees and 3.8% hold graduate or professional degrees as compared to 21.5% and 7.6% for whites.; A median-priced home is beyond the ability of 77% of black families to purchase as opposed to 43% of white families.; The median household income for blacks is $19,758 as compared to $31,435 for whites with the biggest income disparity in southern states.; 31.9% of blacks live below the poverty line as compared to 10.7% of whites.; 34% of elderly (65 or over) blacks live below the poverty line compared to 10% of elderly whites.; Of those blacks living below the poverty line 24.3% have no health insurance as opposed to 30.6% of whites.; Of women giving birth in 1990, 56.7% of blacks and 17.2% of whites were unmarried |
| Jan 9, 1990 |
The Quality Education for Minorities Project releases a report which concludes that "most minority children remain in schools that are separate and decidedly unequal," resulting in a "glaring gap between minority and non-minority educational achievement" in the US. |
| Jan 9, 1990 |
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, performance by black students has improved since 1988. The gap between black and white 11th grade students narrowed from 51 to 20 points out of a possible 500. |
| Jan 10, 1990 |
The Supreme Court overturns contempt fines imposed on 4 city councilmen in Yonkers, N.Y. for refusing to vote for legislation needed to carry out a court-ordered housing desegregation plan. The court finds that sanctions should have been placed solely on the city and not on individual councilmen. |
| Jan 13, 1990 |
Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected black governor in US history when he is sworn in as governor of Virginia. Since black politicians are successful throughout the period covered in this chronology in obtaining elective offices, election results will not be further noted here unless otherwise noteworthy. |
| Jan 18, 1990 |
An altercation between an employee and a Haitian woman in a Korean owned store in Flatbush, Brooklyn leads to the two accusing each other of assault and racial insults. Thereafter 500 blacks picket the store in question and another Korean owned store in the area and a black boycott against the stores is organized. |
| Jan 18 - 19, 1990 |
After protests by black medical students, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. cancels its plans to test-market a new cigarette brand named Uptown which is aimed at African-American smokers. |
| Feb 5 - 13, 1990 |
Black students in Selma Ala. boycott classes over the firing of the city's first black school superintendent, Norward Roussell. It is alleged that the firing is racially motivated after the school board voted along racial lines for dismissal. Although Selma's schools are about 70% black, white board members outnumber black members 6 to 5. Roussell eventually agrees to resign and accept a $150,000 settlement from the school board as well as drop a $10 million racial discrimination lawsuit against the city. |
| Feb 8, 1990 |
Satirical news commentator Andy Rooney is suspended for three months from his news magazine show "60 Minutes" for remarks he allegedly made which were derogatory to blacks and homosexuals. His suspension is ended early on March 1. |
| Mar 22, 1990 |
The Justice Department files a civil suit against the village of Island Park, N.Y. alleging that village officials had conspired to subvert the goals of a federally subsidized low-income housing project. Among other things, the charges include the fact that none of the homes went to black or Hispanic families. |
| Mar 29, 1990 |
The US Education Department reports that black enrollment in colleges has risen between 1986 and 1988 to 1.1 million out of 13 million students. |
| Apr 18, 1990 |
The Supreme Court approves the authority of federal judges to order local governments to increase taxes to finance school desegregation even if the tax hike is not permitted by state law. |
| Apr 23, 1990 |
President Bush signs into law a bill that requires the federal government to keep records on crimes motivated by racial, ethnic or sexual prejudice. |
| Apr 23, 1990 |
Harvard Law School's first black professor, Derrick A. Bell Jr., sets off a debate over minority hiring when he requests an unpaid leave of absence until the school appoints a black woman to its tenured faculty. Students stage 2 sit-ins in April to protest the scarcity of women and minority members on the faculty. |
| May 13 - 14, 1990 |
A black gang in Brooklyn assaults 3 Vietnamese men. It is widely assumed that the assailants mistakenly believed their victims to be Korean, and that the assault is connected to a black boycott of 2 Korean stores in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The next day a teacher and some 30 black pupils from a Brooklyn school defy the boycott by entering the shop but are intimidated and spat upon by picketers. A few days previous to this New York mayor Dinkins condemns "any boycott based on race" and offers to mediate any dispute. (see January 18 for details of boycott.) |
| May 16, 1990 |
After over 15 years of political bickering, Arizona adopts a law making Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a paid holiday for state workers. |
| May 19, 1990 |
The Rev. Al Sharpton leads 500 marchers through central Bensonhurst (a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NYC). The march is opposed by several hundred white residents and racial taunts are exchanged but a heavy police presence prevents any serious violence. This march takes place in the context of the trial for the racially motivated murder of Yusuf Hawkins. |
| Jun 20, 1990 |
South African ANC leader Nelson Mandela arrives in the US for an 11-day, 8-city tour. He attracts enormous public attention and is hailed as a hero and role model by the African-American community. During his tour, it is estimated that well over a million people turn out to see Mandela in person. |
| Jun 27, 1990 |
The Supreme Court upholds a federal affirmative action policy designed to increase the number of broadcast licenses held by minorities and women. This decision, Metro Broadcasting v. FCC is the first time that the court has approved of affirmative action programs for any other reason than simply to correct the effects of past discrimination. The court says that the goal of diversity of broadcast programming is sufficient justification for the program. |
| Jul 16, 1990 |
In what is believed to be the first discrimination suit in the US brought by one black against another, a federal judge rules that a black woman has failed to prove that she had been discriminated against by a darker skinned supervisor in the IRS. |
| Jul 16, 1990 |
A black aide to Sen. Jesse Helms issues a news release criticizing the leadership of the NAACP and alleges that 80% of the 3,000 delegates to the 1990 NAACP convention are involved in "criminal or immoral activities" and that 60% of the delegates are part of the "drug culture." |
| Aug 11, 1990 |
PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), the Chicago-based civil rights group founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1971, calls for a boycott by black consumers of the largest athletic footwear manufacturer in the US, Nike Inc. The boycott is to protest the fact that Nike has no blacks on its board of directors or in upper management positions. |
| Aug 21, 1990 |
Paul R. Phillip, the FBI's highest ranking black field agent is appointed to head up a team to investigate allegations of racial discrimination within the FBI. This occurs after a black field agent brings suit against the bureau and several white agents alleging harassment by white agents in Chicago and Omaha. |
| Aug 28, 1990 |
The College Entrance Examination Board reports that black students scored an average of 352 on the verbal section and 385 on the math on the SATs as compared to 442 and 491 respectively for white students. |
| Sep 21, 1990 |
The NAACP announces that Supreme Court nominee David H. Souter "failed to articulate that level of concern for fairness, equality and justice for all citizens that should be present in any individual taking a seat on the court." |
| Sep 21, 1990 |
For the third time in recent years, a high ranking Japanese official makes derogatory remarks about American blacks. Japanese Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama likens prostitutes to US blacks, contending that both groups "ruin the atmosphere" of the neighborhoods they move into. He later apologizes for the remarks. |
| Sep 27, 1990 |
Public officials at the annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus charge that law enforcement officials have been selectively targeting black politicians for investigation and prosecution. |
| Oct 22, 1990 |
President Bush vetoes a comprehensive civil rights bill designed to overcome several recent Supreme Court decisions that made it more difficult for individuals to win job discrimination lawsuits. Bush has opposed the bill from the outset because he claims that it will lead to racial quotas. The veto is condemned by many Congressmen as well as interest groups representing women, trade unions, blacks and other minorities. The veto is upheld by 1 vote in the Senate. Bush offers an alternative bill which civil rights leaders call a "sham." |
| Oct 25, 1990 |
The Supreme Court reverses an Illinois Supreme Court decision barring a third-party slate of candidates, the predominantly black Harold Washington Party, from the November election ballot in Cook County. |
| Nov 1990 |
In a referendum, Arizona voters defeat 2 initiatives to establish a paid holiday for state workers in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. This referendum effectively negates a law passed earlier this year establishing such a holiday. |
| Dec 6, 1990 |
According to figures released by the federal Centers for Disease Control, the homicide rate among black males between 15 and 24 rose 68% between 1984 and 1988. Homicide is the leading cause of death for black men in that age group. |
| Dec 8, 1990 |
Dallas voters reject a plan intended to increase minority representation on the city council. The plan would have eliminated at-large members of the council whom many contend dilute minority representation. |
| Dec 12, 1990 |
The Education Department announces that it will prohibit colleges that receive federal funds from awarding scholarships designated for minority students. The policy is later amended to allow minority targeted scholarships if the funds are privately donated or come from federal programs set up to aid minority students. |
| Dec 31, 1990 |
As of this date blacks make up a disproportionate 40% of death row inmates. |
| Jan 8, 1991 |
According to a survey sponsored by the National Science Foundation, whites continue to hold negative stereotypes of blacks and Hispanics. |
| Jan 12, 1991 |
NYC black activist Rev. Al Sharpton is stabbed in the chest by a white man during a protest march in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. Sharpton and 200 marchers had been protesting the relatively lenient sentences given to 2 white suspects accused of the murder of a black youth, Yusuf Hawkins. |
| Jan 15, 1991 |
The Supreme Court in Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell rules that court orders for busing could end if school districts had done everything "practicable" to eliminate "vestiges of past discrimination." The reemergence of single-race schools as a result of local housing patterns is not necessarily a reason for continued busing. |
| Jan 20, 1991 |
According to the American Council on Education, in 1989, 76.1% of blacks graduated from high-school and 30.8% of the graduates attended college. 82.1% of white students graduated from high-school and 38.8% of the graduates attended college. |
| Jan 24, 1991 |
The Justice Department shifts its position of challenging court-ordered desegregation plans. Under William Bradford Reynolds, who served as Attorney General under President Reagan, the Justice Department had actively approached more than 82 southern school districts to see if they were interested in mounting legal challenges to court-ordered desegregation plans. |
| Jan 25, 1991 |
Brown University expels a student for using racist slurs including "nigger." |
| Jan 25, 1991 |
Operation PUSH lays off its entire 12-person staff. It is said that the organization has been suffering from severe financial problems and a lack of focus following its founder's (Jesse Jackson) departure as leader to run for the US democratic presidential nomination in 1984. Jackson announces on January 31 that the organization had received pledges of support from black churches and businesses and would continue to operate. |
| Jan 29, 1991 |
According to a poll, most black Americans prefer the term "black" to "African-American." |
| Feb 19, 1991 |
The Supreme Court unanimously rules that a black death-row inmate is entitled to a review based on the inmate's charge that the prosecutor had excluded blacks from the jury during his trial. |
| Mar 1, 1991 |
A Korean grocer in LA shoots dead a 15-year-old black girl who he claims was trying to steal a bottle of orange juice. The incident touches off racial tensions after a videotape of the incident is repeatedly shown on local television. |
| Mar 3, 1991 |
An onlooker videotapes L.A. police officers apparently beating a suspect named Rodney Glenn King who had been stopped for a speeding violation. The videotape airs on national news programs for several days thereafter. Probes into the beating are launched by the FBI, the L.A. Police Department's internal affairs division and the local district attorney's office. |
| Mar 5, 1991 |
The ACLU of Southern California reports that about 35% of the calls it receives concern police abuse. |
| Mar 14, 1991 |
Four white L.A. police officers are indicted for the beating of black motorist Rodney King. |
| Mar 14, 1991 |
In the wake of the Rodney King beating, Attorney General Thornburgh announces that the Justice Department will launch a review of every police brutality complaint filed with the US government in the past 6 years. |
| Mar 14, 1991 |
A study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that teen-age black males are more likely to die from gun injuries than from all natural causes combined. |
| Mar 19, 1991 |
At least 30,000 people gather in Albany, NY. to demand higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporations in lieu of budget cuts. The march is sponsored by the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus and many of New York's largest trade unions. |
| Mar 20, 1991 |
Education Secretary Alexander places on hold a December 1990 decision that ruled race based scholarships illegal. |
| Apr 1, 1991 |
In Powers v. Ohio, the Supreme Court rules that criminal defendants have the right to object to prosecutor's race based peremptory challenges of potential jurors, regardless of the race of the defendant or the potential juror. |
| Apr 7, 1991 |
Rev. Jesse Jackson leads a 2,000 strong march demanding the resignation of L.A. police chief Daryl Gates. There have been many calls for Gates' resignation due to the Rodney King beating. |
| Apr 8, 1991 |
Timothy Maguire, a law student at Georgetown University who works in the school's admissions office charges that many black students that are admitted to the law school are less qualified than white students. Georgetown's Black Law Students Association files a formal complaint with the School's disciplinary board on April 15 charging that Maguire had violated the school's disciplinary code by using confidential data. |
| Apr 12, 1991 |
Education Secretary Alexander challenges the standards used by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in granting accreditation to colleges and universities. Specifically, he questions the association's requirement that the schools promote racial and cultural diversity on their campuses. |
| Apr 18, 1991 |
Apple Computer Inc. settles a dispute with 15 unidentified black people charging the company with racially discriminatory hiring practices since 1987. |
| Apr 18, 1991 |
A Fairfax County, VA family court rules that Virginia's law against cross-burning is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. |
| May 5 - 6, 1991 |
Riots in a Hispanic neighborhood of Washington DC heighten tension between the city's Hispanic and black residents. |
| May 6, 1991 |
The Smithsonian Institution's board of regents unanimously approves the creation of a National African American Museum. |
| May 14, 1991 |
According to a study released by the Urban Institute, young white men seeking entry-level jobs in Washington DC. and Chicago are 3-times more likely to receive favorable treatment as equally qualified black men. |
| Jun 3, 1991 |
The Supreme Court rules that lawyers in civil cases can not exclude potential jurors because of their race. |
| Jun 3, 1991 |
According to the Children's Defense Fund, a disproportionate 35% of poor children are black and 21% are Hispanic. |
| Jun 4, 1991 |
A black group starts a 110 day long boycott of a Korean liquor store whose owner shot and killed a black man during an armed robbery attempt. The boycott ends October 4 after both sides reach an agreement in which black businessmen are given 30 days to buy the store. |
| Jun 13, 1991 |
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announces that it has seen an "alarming rise" in discrimination complaints filed against employment agencies. Such complaints of racial or sex discrimination have risen 20% since 1990. |
| Jun 20, 1991 |
The Supreme Court rules that the 1965 Voting Rights Act applies to judicial elections, thereby allowing voters to challenge election methods which are alleged to militate against the election of minorities on to the bench. |
| Jun 27, 1991 |
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the only black Justice on the court, announces his resignation from the court effective upon the confirmation of his successor. |
| Jun 28, 1991 |
The police shooting of a black suspect provokes unrest in some black neighborhoods in Miami. |
| Jun 28 - Jul 2, 1991 |
The Justice Department blocks Louisiana and Mississippi's congressional redistricting plans on the grounds that the plans discriminate against blacks. |
| Jul 9, 1991 |
An independent commission released a scathing report in the wake of the Rodney King beating concerning brutality and racism in the L.A. Police Department. The commission finds, among other things, that the L.A.P.D. is over aggressive in its approach to crime prevention; there are a small group of "problem" officers who repeatedly use excessive force; hundreds of "improper messages" over various police communication systems include racist and sexist remarks. |
| Jul 17, 1991 |
A preliminary study of programs sponsored by the Job Training Partnership Act shows that nearly 20% discriminate against women and blacks. |
| Jul 20, 1991 |
Leonard Jeffries Jr. of the City University of New York, one of the country's most visible and controversial black academics, makes statements in a speech that are widely considered to be racist and anti-Semitic. As a result there are widespread calls for Jeffries' dismissal. |
| Jul 31, 1991 |
The NAACP announces that it is opposed to the nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The Congressional Black Caucus is also opposed to the nomination. |
| Aug 7, 1991 |
Labor Secretary Lynn Martin says that a department study of 9 Fortune 500 companies shows that these companies do not make opportunities for advancement as available for women and minorities as they do for white males. |
| Aug 8, 1991 |
According to a report by the private non-profit Population Reference Bureau, the income gap between rich and poor black households has widened since the 1960s. |
| Aug 19 - 22, 1991 |
Members of the black community and Hasidic Jews violently clash in the New York Neighborhood of Crown Heights. The violence includes cars and barricades being burnt, looting and running battles between youths and police. The center of the fighting is the headquarters of the Hasidic Lubavicher sect where blacks and Jews exchange volleys of bricks and bottles while police in riot gear try to keep the 2 groups separated. The incident started when a Hasidic Jew accidentally kills a black child in a car accident. A few hours later an Australian Hasidic Jew is stabbed to death by a black gang in revenge. The neighborhood has suffered from racial tensions in the past. Many Hasidic Jews blame blacks for the neighborhood's high crime rate and some blacks express resentment over what they perceive as the Hasidim's political clout and the preferential treatment that they receive from New York City officials and police. (The Hasidim are a sect of strictly observant Orthodox Jews.) |
| Aug 27, 1991 |
The College Board reports that in 1991, black students averaged 351 on the verbal section of the SATs and 385 on the math section. White students scored an average of 441 on the verbal section and 489 on the math. |
| Oct 11, 1991 |
A US District Court judge in Milwaukee voids a University of Wisconsin ban on hate speech as an infringement of Constitutional rights. The ban prohibited demeaning comments about an individual's race, sex, religion, color, creed, sexual orientation, disability or ancestry. |
| Oct 21, 1991 |
The Federal Reserve Board releases a report which shows that blacks are twice as likely to be turned down for a mortgage as whites in the same income group. These results are consistent across all income groups. |
| Nov 1991 |
Race is an important factor in 2 southern elections. Conservative Republican Kirk Fordice narrowly wins the governorship of Mississippi after a campaign which highlighted his opposition to affirmative action and welfare with racially loaded television advertisements. Louisiana's Republican governor candidate, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, loses after a black voter turnout of nearly 80%. |
| Nov 7, 1991 |
The passage by Congress of a civil rights bill ends a 2-year battle for enactment that includes President Bush's 1990 veto of a previous bill. The bill contains several measures to attack discrimination in the workplace including the reversal of several recent Supreme Court decisions. |
| Dec 18, 1991 |
A wave of racial incidents breaks out in Dubuque, Iowa in the wake of an integration plan sponsored by the city council in May. There have been at least 12 cross burnings and one KKK rally since the enactment of a plan which calls for the recruitment of 200 minority families by 1995 and anti-bias education programs for Dubuque residents. |
| Dec 19, 1991 |
The New Orleans City Council votes unanimously to outlaw discrimination by the private clubs which sponsor the city's annual Mardi Gras parade. |
| Dec 30, 1991 |
A US District Court judge orders the Alabama state university system to remove all traces of racial discrimination and to change some of its hiring, admissions and financing practices. |
| Jan 6 - 13, 1992 |
Several people are assaulted in New York City in a series of racial bias attacks on children. In several incidents groups of whites attack and beat black and Hispanic children. Police say that they are investigating the possibility that a local gang of Albanian youths are involved in the incidents. |
| Jan 7, 1992 |
According to a study released by the American Jewish Committee, racist and anti-Semitic attitudes are on the decline in America. |
| Jan 14, 1992 |
The Supreme Court overturns an Illinois law which had been used to keep the predominantly black Harold Washington party off of the Cook County ballot. The law is deemed to make it too difficult for third parties to get on the ballot. |
| Jan 17, 1992 |
The Federal Center for Disease Control reports that a disproportionate 31% of new AIDS cases between September 1989 and November 1991 were blacks. |
| Jan 17, 1992 |
A Florida judge is demoted for making what many consider to be racist comments. |
| Jan 19, 1992 |
The American Council on Education reports that black enrollment in colleges has risen during the 1980s from 21.6% of high school graduates in 1985 to 33% in 1990. This is still lower than the 39.4% of white high school graduates who attended college in 1990. |
| Jan 20, 1992 |
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is marked by speeches and rallies across the US. In Phoenix 5,000 people march in support of a state holiday. (Arizona is the only state that does not celebrate the holiday, although New Hampshire's holiday celebrates civil rights in general rather than King in particular.) In Denver, a riot erupts at a KKK rally involving about 100 clansmen and 1,000 civil rights supporters. |
| Jan 21, 1992 |
The Justice Department rejects Georgia's congressional redistricting plans as racially discriminatory. |
| Jan 27, 1992 |
For the first time, the Supreme Court in Presley v. Etowah County Commission and Mack v. Russell County Commission rules that 2 County commissions in Alabama do not need federal approval under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to reorganize or diminish the authorities of individual commissioners. In both cases white incumbents reduced the authority of individual commissioners after blacks had been elected to previously all white commissions. |
| Feb 6, 1992 |
The Federal Center for Disease Control reports that the 1989 mortality rate for black babies is 18.6 for every 1,000 live births as compared to 8.1 for whites. |
| Feb 6, 1992 |
The New Orleans City Council votes to weaken its anti-discrimination ordinance for its annual Mardi Gras parade after some of the private clubs which sponsor the parades threaten to cancel their parades. |
| Feb 27, 1992 |
Fredrick Goodwin quits as head of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration amid controversy over a remark in which he appeared to compare the behavior of inner city youths to "male monkeys" in the jungle. |
| Mar 18, 1992 |
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton causes an uproar by playing golf at an all-white club in Little Rock, Ark. Clinton later apologizes. |
| Mar 18, 1992 |
According to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, older white Medicare patients are three-and-one-half times as likely to receive a heart bypass operation as their black counterparts. The most disproportionate ratios of operations were in Alabama (8 to 1) followed by Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and Arkansas (7 to 1). |
| Mar 23, 1992 |
The trustees of the City University of New York vote to remove Leonard Jeffries Jr. as head of the university's black studies department due, in part, to some racist comments he had previously made. |
| Mar 31, 1992 |
In Freeman v. Pitts, the Supreme Court rules that school districts operating under court-supervised desegregation orders could be released from court supervision bit by bit. The districts can be returned gradually to local control as they achieve racial equality in each of the 7 aspects of their operations that the high court had previously set out for consideration when determining whether a district had achieved desegregation. These include student assignments; physical facilities; transportation; extracurricular activities; assignments of faculty and administrators; allocation of resources; and the "quality of education." |
| Apr 7, 1992 |
A US District Court judge rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to political parties since they accept federal money for their nominating convention and orders the parties to issue rules to insure that minorities are not discriminated against in selecting delegates to the conventions. |
| Apr 14, 1992 |
The city council of Yonkers, NY. approves a plan to desegregate its housing signaling a possible end to a 12-year-old court battle with the NAACP. |
| Apr 17, 1992 |
Independent Presidential candidate Ross Perot resigns from 2 private clubs that exclude minority members. |
| Apr 21, 1992 |
The FBI announces its agreement to review bureau procedures regarding promotion, evaluation and discipline as part of a settlement with 300 black agents. |
| Apr 29 - May 3, 1992 |
Serious rioting breaks out in L.A. after all 4 L.A.P.D. officers indicted for the Rodney King beating are acquitted. The rioting includes serious looting (with many Korean owned stores specifically targeted), arson (by May 4 10,000 stores were at least partially burned), over a billion dollars in property damage and at least 60 deaths. Some store owners, particularly Asians, armed themselves and defended their stores. Also, a news helicopter videotapes 3 black men dragging a white truck driver, Reginald Denny, from his truck and beating him with rocks and bottles (4 black men are later arrested for this crime). In some areas police say they lack the manpower to react to rampaging crowds and stand by watching. On April 30 a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed. By May 1 some 30,000 uniformed personnel including the national guard, several federal agencies and US army soldiers and Marines were available to restore order. |
| Apr 30 - May 1, 1992 |
Protests against the Rodney King verdict occur across the country. In some cities, such as Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle the protests turn violent. In other cities such as New York, Washington DC. and Detroit, police gear up for violent protest but the protests there are peaceful. |
| May 11, 1992 |
The Census Bureau reports that in 1990 25.3% of full-time black workers and 31.4% of Hispanic workers earned what the bureau defines as low annual income as compared to a national average of 18% of full-time workers. Low annual income is defined by the bureau as an annual salary of less than $12,195 or $6.10 per hour. |
| May 15, 1992 |
It is ruled that LA policeman Lawrence M. Powell who was acquitted on all but one count associated with the Rodney King beating will be retried on a count of using excessive force under the color of police scrutiny. |
| May 26, 1992 |
The Supreme Court upholds the redrawing of Maryland's congressional districts which splits Anne Arundel County into 4 districts in order to create a black majority district. |
| Jun 1, 1992 |
The Supreme Court upholds the redrawing of Arkansas' congressional districts despite complaints that none of the new districts have a large enough black population to affect electoral results. |
| Jun 18, 1992 |
The Supreme Court rules that defendants may not exclude prospective jurors solely on the basis of race. |
| Jun 22, 1992 |
The Supreme Court overturns a St. Paul, Minn. ordinance that makes it a criminal offence to engage in speech or behavior that is inflammatory because of its sexist, racist or otherwise bigoted content because the ordinance is an infringement of free speech rights. |
| Jun 22, 1992 |
The Supreme Court lets stand the conviction of Dennis C. Hall for the murder of his 10-year-old daughter. Hall, who is black, appealed on the grounds that prosecutors excluded blacks from the jury. |
| Jun 26, 1992 |
The Supreme Court rules that the State of Mississippi has not satisfied its obligation to eliminate segregation in its university system. The court rules that "race neutral" policies are not enough to satisfy the court's requirements. |
| Jun 28, 1992 |
L.A.P.D. chief Daryl F. Gates leaves office. Gates is widely considered at least partially responsible for the Rodney King beating and the LA riots. |
| Jul 11, 1992 |
Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot suffers a major setback when he gives a speech at the national NAACP convention in which he used the pronouns "you" and "your" when referring to black people. Many members of the audience who feel that the use of these pronouns by Perot reflects an insensitivity to diversity among blacks and emphasizes separation between whites and blacks are offended. |
| Aug 4, 1992 |
The 4 officers originally tried for the beating of Rodney King are indicted on federal charges of violating King's civil rights. |
| Aug 26, 1992 |
According to the College Board SAT results black students averaged 352 on the verbal section and 385 on the math section as compared to scores of 442 and 491 for whites. |
| Sep 16, 1992 |
According to the US Department of Education, the high school dropout rates for blacks fell from 21.4% in 1972 to 13.6% in 1991 as compared to 8.9% for whites. |
| Oct 8, 1992 |
The Federal Reserve's Boston regional bank releases a report indicating that racial discrimination is a major factor in mortgage lending by banks. |
| Oct 29, 1992 |
The acquittal of Lemrick Nelson for the August 1991 killing of a Hasidic Jewish rabbinical student sparks a protest by 1,000 Hasidic Jews and bottle throwing and small skirmishes between blacks and Jews. (See August 19-22, 1991 for details of original incident.) |
| Nov 4, 1992 |
President Bush vetoes a tax and urban aid bill following his defeat by Bill Clinton in the November 3 elections. The legislation was originally proposed as a long-term response to the May 1992 LA riots. |
| Nov 5, 1992 |
A black motorist is killed by Detroit policemen. 2 police officers are later charged with murder and 2 are charged with lesser offences. |
| Dec 14, 1992 |
Police quell a disturbance caused by about 100 people demonstrating in support of the 3 black men accused of beating truck driver Reginald Denny during the LA riots. |
| Dec 18, 1992 |
Two white Nashville, Tenn. officers are dismissed for the beating of a black undercover officer. |
| Dec 23, 1992 |
A federal judge orders an overhaul of the Louisiana state university system which is still largely segregated. |
| Jan 1, 1993 |
Three white men kidnap a black tourist in Tampa, Fla. and douse him with gasoline while hurling racial slurs at him and then set him on fire. |
| Jan 5, 1993 |
The 103rd Congress convenes with 38 black House members. |
| Jan 10, 1993 |
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the death rate for black women from breast cancer rose 2.6% between 1989 and 1992 while it dropped 5.5% for white women in the same period. |
| Jan 11, 1993 |
The National Commission on AIDS recommends that the disease be viewed as a racial issue because discrimination and a lack of health care for poor members of minority groups are fostering its spread. The commission notes that blacks and Hispanics account for a disproportionate 46% of AIDS cases. The commission, however, warns that stressing the ethnic dimension of the epidemic may cause whites to view AIDS as a disease that hits `other' people. |
| Jan 18, 1993 |
President Clinton attends a ceremony celebrating the life of Rev. Martin Luther King at Howard University on the national holiday honoring his birthday. For the first time all 50 states celebrate the holiday with Arizona and New Hampshire finally joining with the other 48 states. |
| Feb 5, 1993 |
A federal appeals court rules that tax-supported colleges could continue offering race-based scholarships. |
| Mar 2, 1993 |
The Supreme Court rules that states have broad authority to design voting districts that are dominated by ethnic minorities. |
| Mar 9, 1993 |
Georgia Governor Zell Miller says that he is abandoning his campaign to remove the Confederate battle emblem from Georgia's flag. The emblem was added in 1956 as a means of protesting court-ordered desegregation. |
| Mar 26, 1993 |
The Justice Department files a lawsuit against Denny's (a restaurant chain) charging them with a "pattern and practice" of racial discrimination against black customers. |
| Apr 1993 |
Black students at the University of Pennsylvania confiscate thousands of copies of the university's student newspaper as a form of protest against a conservative columnist whom they consider racially biased. |
| Apr 17, 1993 |
A federal jury convicts 2 officers of violating Rodney King's civil rights during the 1991 beating incident. 2 other officers are acquitted. |
| Apr 29, 1993 |
The New Hampshire House rejects a bill establishing a holiday specifically honoring Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The state does celebrate Civil Rights Day to coincide with the celebration elsewhere of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. |
| May 5, 1993 |
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announces plans to eradicate illegal discrimination in mortgage lending in banks it regulates. The plan involves the use of "testers" who will pose as mortgage applicants. |
| May 11, 1993 |
A federal jury decides that the City University of New York had violated Leonard Jeffries, Jr.'s right to free speech when it removed him as chairman of City College's black studies department in 1992. Jeffries contended that he was dismissed because of a speech which was widely considered racist and anti-Semitic. |
| May 12, 1993 |
Between 1976 and this date, a disproportionate 39% of executions in the US were blacks. |
| May 17, 1993 |
The Supreme Court lets stand a lower court ruling in American Family Mutual Insurance Co. v. NAACP which allows the application of the federal Fair Housing Act to the practice of redlining by insurance companies because most mortgages are dependant upon the obtaining of insurance. |
| May 24, 1993 |
Five black University of Pennsylvania sorority sisters drop their charges of racial harassment against a white student who called them "water buffalo" during a January incident. The case had focused national attention on racial tensions at the university. |
| Jun 11, 1993 |
The Supreme Court rules in Wisconsin v. Mitchell that states can impose stiffer sentences on defendants who commit crimes motivated by racial, religious or other biases. |
| Jun 25, 1993 |
The Supreme Court in St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks rules that workers must provide explicit evidence that they have been discriminated against on the basis of their race, religion or other status in order to qualify for protection under civil rights legislation. |
| Jun 28, 1993 |
The Supreme Court rules in Shaw v. Reno that states with irregularly shaped electoral districts drawn for the purpose of creating minority voting districts could be challenged constitutionally. |
| Jul 13, 1993 |
The Census Bureau reports that 56% of black women between the ages of 18 and 44 surveyed in 1992 who had never been married had given birth to a child (up from 49% in 1982) as opposed to 15% of white women (up from 7% in 1982). Also, 67% of all births among blacks in 1992 were out of wedlock as compared to 17% of births among whites. |
| Jul 15, 1993 |
Federal authorities' arrest 8 white supremacists in Southern California on weapons charges. Some of the suspects arrested, according to investigators, were planning violent attacks on blacks and Jews in order to incite a "race war." 3 of those arrested are accused of planning an attack on a LA black church and to assassinate Rodney King. |
| Jul 20, 1993 |
White supremacists bomb an office of the NAACP in Tacoma, Wash. in part of what authorities call a plot to spark a "race war." |
| Jul 22, 1993 |
Carol Moseley-Braun, the Senate's only black member, successfully opposes a motion for congress to renew the design patent of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a charitable organization whose logo incorporated the design of a flag flown by the Confederate states of America during the US Civil War. Moseley-Braun argues that Congress should not endorse the symbol of the "Confederate effort in the Civil War...to preserve the institution of slavery." |
| Jul 25, 1993 |
The New Orleans City Council votes to remove a 25-foot-tall stone obelisk that some consider to be a symbol of white supremacy. |
| Aug 4, 1993 |
Two of the white police officers who were convicted of violating Rodney King's civil rights during the March 1991 beating are sentenced to 30 months imprisonment. Many black leaders consider the sentences too lenient. |
| Aug 4, 1993 |
Hughes Aircraft Co. responds to a NAACP allegation that it has a disproportionately low number of black workers, in violation of federal guidelines for government contractors. The company claims that 9.1% of its employees are black and 30.7% are minorities. The NAACP claim is part of the organization's intensified efforts to monitor federal contractors for compliance with affirmative action provisions. |
| Aug 18, 1993 |
According to the College Board black students' SAT scores averaged 353 on the verbal section and 388 on the math section as opposed to 444 on the verbal and 494 on the math for white students. |
| Sep 16, 1993 |
Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and members of the Black Congressional Caucus hold a public forum on race and politics in Washington D.C. in what is considered a rare show of unity between the controversial Farrakhan and the other participants. The forum sponsors pledge unified action on legislation and other measures to improve the economic well-being of blacks. |
| Oct 4, 1993 |
According to the Census Bureau, the poverty rate for blacks in 1992 was 33% (up from 32.7% in 1991) as opposed to 14.5% (up from 14.2% in 1991) for the country as a whole. |
| Oct 12 - 13, 1993 |
FBI director Louis J. Freeh announces several new appointments to top bureau positions and a reorganization of its middle management structure which, among other things, elevates minority and female agents to high ranking posts. Freeh's appointment decisions are widely viewed as a continuation of his effort to address long-standing criticism that the FBI's senior officials had denied women and minorities opportunities for advancement. |
| Oct 17, 1993 |
A federal court dismisses a lawsuit by white FBI agents who challenged a January settlement of a racial discrimination case brought against the bureau by black agents. The settlement called for the promotion or transfer of several black agents who had charged that they suffered from racial bias. The court rules that the settlement is justified by "manifest imbalance" in favor of white agents in the bureau's past promotion practices. |
| Oct 18, 1993 |
Actor Ted Danson offends some members of a celebrity-filled audience in New York City at a roast for his girlfriend actress Whoopi Goldberg. Danson, who is white, appears on stage in blackface and makes a series of racial and sexual jokes about Goldberg repeatedly using the word "nigger." Goldberg later defends Danson saying that she wrote most of the routine. |
| Oct 18, 1993 |
Two black men accused of the beating of white truck driver Reginald Denny during the 1992 LA riots are acquitted of attempted murder but convicted on lesser charges. Some observers feel that the jurors' judgment was affected by a fear of repeating the riots. LA police had been placed on modified alert in anticipation of potential violence over the verdicts. However the city remained calm. |
| Nov 1, 1993 |
Nation of Islam member Khalid Abdul Muhammad while speaking to a largely sympathetic New Jersey college audience accuses Jews of being "bloodsuckers" on the black community, questions the truth of the Holocaust, and also calls for the killing of all white South Africans. The Jewish Anti Defamation League publicizes the speech. The Senate eventually unanimously passes a resolution condemning the speech's content and the House overwhelmingly passes a similar resolution. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan later strips Khalid of his rank within the movement over the manner in which the speech was presented but stands by the "truths" in the speech. |
| Nov 2, 1993 |
Henry Wilson, a black man who in October was acquitted of attempted murder for the beating of truck driver Reginald Denny during the 1992 LA riots, pleads guilty to felony assault stemming from the beating of another truck driver. |
| Nov 4, 1993 |
The results of a joint Justice and Housing investigation of independent mortgage companies show that there are continuing discrepancies in loan-approval rated for applicants of different ethnic backgrounds. 36% of all black applicants for mortgages not backed by the government were denied loans in 1992 as compared to 16% of all white applicants. |
| Nov 4, 1993 |
A US magistrate rules that public schools in Rockford, Ill. had repeatedly violated desegregation laws. The magistrate, in his decision, writes that the schools had "committed such open acts of discrimination as to be cruel and committed others with such subtlety as to raise discrimination to an art form." The violations include the schools' practice of preventing minority students from enrolling in accelerated classes. |
| Nov 9, 1993 |
Antoine Miller, a suspect in the Denny beating case pleads guilty to 2 misdemeanor counts and one felony charge in a plea bargain. |
| Nov 9, 1993 |
Edward J. Rollins, the manager of the successful New Jersey gubernatorial campaign of Christine Todd Whitman (R), asserts that the state's Republican Party had paid about $500,000 to black ministers and Democratic Party workers in return for their cooperation in curbing black voter turnout. Rollins retracts his remarks the next day. A lawsuit challenging Whitman's victory on the grounds of these allegations is later dropped due to lack of evidence. |
| Nov 18, 1993 |
A US District Court judge upholds a University of Maryland scholarship program open only to black students. The judge rules the program constitutional because the effects of the university's past discrimination against blacks were still being felt at the school. The suit was brought in 1990 by a Hispanic student who had been prevented from applying to the program. |
| Nov 30, 1993 |
The Supreme Court upholds without comment a New Jersey court decision intended to discourage voluntary segregation in the state's public high schools in Board of Education of Englewood Cliffs v. Board of Education of Englewood. Englewood Cliffs which did not have a high school had been sending its mostly white students to a predominantly black high school in Englewood. When another nearby town, Tenafly began to allow out-of-town students to pay tuition to attend its mostly white high school many white students from both Englewood and Englewood Cliffs transferred there. In 1985 the New Jersey board of education refused an Englewood Cliffs request for permission for students to attend Tenafly's high school for free on the grounds that such a move would further segregate the area's high schools. |
| Dec 13, 1993 |
According to a study by the National School Boards Association, racial segregation in the US is on the rise. 66% of black students attended predominantly minority schools during the 1991 academic year, the highest percentage since 1968 when the figure was 76%. The study says that higher birth-rates, immigration and increased concentration of minorities in big cities are the reasons for this rise in segregation. |
| Dec 28, 1993 |
A panel of federal district judges order the state of Louisiana to remap its congressional districts, ruling that a redistricting plan that had gone into effect after the 1990 census was "the product of racial gerrymandering." |
| Jan 13, 1994 |
Four black families move into a formerly all-white public housing complex in Vidor, Texas. The project is one of 170 in Eastern Texas targeted for integration by a 1980 federal desegregation order. In 1993 the only black residents in the project had moved out claiming that white residents had threatened and harassed them. Housing officials say that these families, comprising 12 people, were the only blacks who accepted the invitation to move in which was extended to more than 100 blacks on a waiting list. In previous years, the town had been a center for KKK demonstrations. |
| Jan 17, 1994 |
In a widely publicized incident, students from the predominantly black Castlemont high school are ejected from a movie theater during a field trip when some of them laugh at depictions of violence in "Schindler's List", Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning film about the Holocaust. The students apologize shortly after the incident. |
| Jan 25, 1994 |
The Census Bureau reports that the net worth of the median black household in 1991 was $4,604 as opposed to $44,408 for white households. |
| Jan 30, 1994 |
Civil rights leaders, including Rev. Jesse Jackson demonstrate outside the Georgia Dome in protest of the state's continued use of the Confederate States of America battle insignia on its flag which was flown at the game. |
| Jan 31, 1994 |
A federal judge rules that white truck driver Reginald Denny and 3 other victims of the 1992 riots could sue the city of Los Angeles. The claimants contend that police at the onset of the riots had withdrawn from the South Central section of the city, where the four were attacked, because the area was populated by blacks and Hispanics. The judge rules that the victims can sue on the ground that they were deprived of their constitutional right to equal protection under the law. |
| Feb 5, 1994 |
Byron De La Beckworth, 73, is convicted of the 1963 murder of black civil rights leader Medgar Evers. |
| Feb 11, 1994 |
President Clinton signs an executive order that directs federal agencies running programs affecting the environment from discriminating against communities in which poor people and minorities are concentrated. Activists had objected to the tendency of state and federal governments to place toxic waste dumps near poorer areas or districts with large concentrations of minorities. The EPA in recent years has launched investigations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to determine whether the placement of waste sites or the pace of clean-up programs in those areas violated civil-rights of minority communities. |
| Feb 17, 1994 |
The NAACP is one of several groups which criticize the Florida State Citrus Commission for hiring conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh to do advertisements. |
| Feb 23, 1994 |
The Atlanta-Fulton County (Ga.) Recreation Authority votes unanimously to remove from display in the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium the Georgia State Flag which features the Confederate States of America battle insignia. |
| Feb 24, 1994 |
The principal of Randolph County High School in Wedowee threatens to cancel the school's prom if interracial couples attend the event. He is suspended for his remarks, but later reinstated. |
| Feb 28, 1994 |
According to a report released by the American Council on Education, the college enrollment rate of black males who were high school graduates dropped to 30% in 1992, down from 35% in 1990 as compared to 42% of white males in 1992. |
| Mar 10, 1994 |
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that a disproportionate number of Blacks and Hispanics contracted AIDS in 1993. |
| Apr 19, 1994 |
A US District Court jury awards Rodney King $3,816,535.45 in compensatory damages in a civil lawsuit against the city of LA stemming from King's March 1991 videotaped beating by city police officers. |
| Apr 23, 1994 |
The NAACP sponsors a protest that coincides with the prom at Randolph County High School where the school's principle made controversial remarks about interracial dating. |
| Apr 26, 1994 |
The Supreme Court issues 2 rulings that bar the 1991 Civil Rights Act from being applied retroactively. |
| Apr 29, 1994 |
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the gap in mortality rates for black and white babies is widening and that by the year 2000, black babies will be three-times more likely to die by their first birthday than white newborns. In 1991, the black infant death rate was 22.2 per 1,000 births while the rate for white infants was 7.3 per 1,000 births. |
| May 4, 1994 |
Florida enacts a law to compensate black survivors of a week-long January 1923 rampage by a white mob through the mostly black hamlet of Rosewood Florida. |
| May 7, 1994 |
The Justice Department approves new congressional and state legislative maps for South Carolina. The maps include minor boundary adjustments related to racial demographics. |
| May 14, 1994 |
Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin L. Powell, speaking at a commencement address at the historically black Howard University in Washington DC., urged blacks not to "detour into the swamp of hatred." Powell, who is black, is apparently referring to controversial speeches made at Howard by Khalid Abdul Muhammad. |
| May 17, 1994 |
Amid the controversy surrounding Randolph County High School in Wedowee Ala., whose principle had made controversial remarks on interracial dating, the Justice Department Office of Civil Rights files a motion in US District Court requesting that the Randolph County School District be found in violation of a 1970 desegregation order that applies to all districts in the state. In an unusual move, the department also calls for the "termination or reassignment" of the principle who is eventually (August 8) reassigned. (See February 24, 1994) |
| May 24, 1994 |
Flagstar Cos., the parent of the Denny's restaurant chain, agrees to pay more than $54 million to settle lawsuits filed by black customers who allege that they had been discriminated against at the restaurants because of their race. (See January, 1993.) |
| May 26, 1994 |
San Francisco State University of California removes a controversial mural of Malcolm X from its student union amid allegations that the mural is anti-Semitic. |
| May 29, 1994 |
Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former deputy leader of the Nation of Islam is shot and wounded while making a speech at the University of California, Riverside. His assailant, James Edward Bess, who was expelled from the Nation in 1991, is badly beaten by the crowd before being arrested by police. |
| May 31, 1994 |
A federal judge orders the state of Mississippi to unseal within one year the files of the now-defunct Sovereign Commission, a pro-segregation state agency during the civil rights era. |
| Jun 1, 1994 |
In the final act of the judicial proceedings surrounding Rodney King, a jury rules that none of the 6 L.A.P.D. police officers against whom King has been pursuing a civil suit should be liable for punitive damages. |
| Jun 12 - 14, 1994 |
The National African-American Leadership summit, a conference for black leaders, is held in Baltimore, Md. and attended by dozens of prominent blacks. The participants reportedly agree to consider measures--which would focus on economic, spiritual and moral renewal--to empower the black community. |
| Jun 30, 1994 |
The Supreme Court rules that the 1965 Voting Rights Act does not require the creation of the largest possible number of minority dominated election districts. In another case, the Court decides that the size of a legislative body could not be challenged under the Voting Rights Act. |
| Jul 24, 1994 |
According to the Justice Department a disproportionate 31% of the accused in serious juvenile offences between 1988 and 1992 were black. |
| Aug 2, 1994 |
A panel of federal district judges uphold the boundaries of North Carolina's 12th House District, the geographic block whose constitutionality had been questioned in Shaw v. Reno. The judicial majority maintain that although the district had been created through explicit gerrymandering, it performs a vital state interest by remedying past political discrimination against blacks. |
| Aug 6, 1994 |
Randolph County High School in Wedowee Ala., whose principle had made controversial remarks on interracial dating, is partially destroyed by arson. (See February 24 & May 17, 1994.) |
| Aug 9, 1994 |
South Carolina Republican primary voters in a non-binding referendum, vote by a three-to-one margin to continue to fly the "Stars and Bars," the battle flag of the Confederate army during the Civil War, over the state capital. |
| Aug 11, 1994 |
The Supreme Court orders the reinstatement of a Louisiana congressional map that includes 2 black-majority House districts. |
| Aug 19, 1994 |
A US district Court judge rules that the University of Texas Law School's 1992 affirmative action policies discriminate against white applicants. |
| Aug 22, 1994 |
The Justice Department announces that it has reached an $11 million agreement with the Chevy Chase Federal Savings Bank, settling charges that the bank had discriminated against minorities and low-income people in its marketing practices. |
| Aug 24, 1994 |
According to the College Board, black students' SAT scores averaged 352 on the verbal section and 288 on the math section as opposed to 443 on the verbal section and 495 on the math section for white students. |
| Sep 4, 1994 |
The NAACP holds a march of about 1,000 people in South Carolina to protest the state's flying of the Confederate States of America flag over the state's capital. A counter-demonstration of about 400 marchers is held. |
| Sep 8, 1994 |
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that AIDS is the leading cause of death among blacks aged 25 to 44. |
| Sep 12, 1994 |
An Appeals Court orders the redrawing of the borders of Georgia's 11th House District because the district had been created in violation of the Constitution because it was created solely to create a "minority-majority" area. |
| Sep 29, 1994 |
The Labor Department settles agrees to pay $4.5 million to settle a racial discrimination suit filed by a group of black employees who were fired or demoted from their jobs at the department' Employment and Training Administration division in the early 1980s. |
| Oct 6, 1994 |
According to the Census Bureau the poverty rate among blacks in 1993 was 33.1% (down from 33.4% in 1992) as opposed to 12.7% for whites (up from 11.9% in 1992). Also, 57% of black children in 1993 lived in single-parent households as opposed to 21% of white children. |
| Oct 10, 1994 |
Six demonstrators disrupt a reenactment of a colonial slave auction held by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Va. which is made to resemble the city as it was in the 18th century. |
| Oct 12, 1994 |
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Science Association, only 34% of black infants and 46% of white infants received all of their immunizations. |
| Oct 19, 1994 |
The Bell Curve Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, a controversial book that argues that black Americans score lower than whites on intelligence tests due in part to genetic differences, is released. |
| Oct 21, 1994 |
The state of Texas brings suit against the KKK for allegedly violating fair housing laws by intimidating black residents who had moved into a formerly all white housing project in Vidor, Texas in 1993. (In a separate lawsuit, Edith Marie Johnson on July 26 was ordered to pay $300,000 for waging a "campaign of intimidation" against black residents of the project.) |
| Oct 25, 1994 |
100 to 200 black youths riot in downtown Lexington, Ky. after a white police officer fatally shoots a black teenager. The officer involved is later indicted. |
| Oct 26, 1994 |
According to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, loans extended to blacks in 1993 were up 36%. However, denial rates for blacks were at 34% as opposed to 15.3% for whites. |
| Oct 27, 1994 |
A 3 judge panel from a US Court of Appeals unanimously strikes down a University of Maryland scholarship program open only to black students. This reverses a 1993 federal court ruling. The panel rules that the school failed to demonstrate how the program made up for the school's past discrimination of blacks. The suit was brought in 1990 by a Hispanic student denied the right to apply to the program. |
| Nov 14, 1994 |
The Supreme Court vacates a federal court ruling that the City College of New York had violated the free-speech rights of Professor Leonard Jeffries. It orders the lower court to reevaluate the ruling in light of a May Supreme Court decision allowing public institutions and government agencies to dismiss employees whose remarks are disruptive to their workplace. |
| Nov 14, 1994 |
A federal judge approves a plan to desegregate the Louisiana state university system. |
| Nov 28, 1994 |
A Pennsylvania Judge rejects part of the Philadelphia, Pa. school district's plan to overhaul its racially divided schools. While the judge finds that segregation cannot be avoided, the quality of education afforded to minorities must be improved. |
| Dec 6, 1994 |
The GOP conference sparks ire among prominent Democrats by voting to eliminate government funding for the 28 special house caucuses known as Legislative Service Organizations. Among the groups that would lose funding are the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses and the Caucus for Women's Issues. |
| Dec 30, 1994 |
According to the Census bureau, the median income for black households in 1992 was 54% of the median for white households that year. This is a drop from 61% in 1969. |
| Jan 1995 |
The 104th Congress contains 1 black Senator and 38 black House members. |
| Jan 5, 1995 |
The House votes to bar members from using their staff or office budgets to fund the work of special caucuses of lawmakers known as Legislative Service Organizations. The move is expected to severely curtail such predominately Democratic bodies as the Black and Hispanic Caucuses. |
| Jan 31, 1995 |
As of this date, of the 2,976 people on death row in the United States, 1,444 were white, 1,199 black, 219 Latino, 52 Native American, 21 Asian, and 41 unknown. (Agence France Presse 4/8/95) |
| Mar 15, 1995 |
The Glass Ceiling Commission, a bipartisan federal panel established in 1991, reports that women and minorities are extremely under-represented in senior management posts. |
| Mar 23, 1995 |
President Clinton announces that he plans to review all federal affirmative action programs to find out which ones are effective and whether they have resulted in reverse discrimination. |
| Mar 24, 1995 |
The Senate passes a bill to repeal a 1978 FCC program granting tax breaks to minority owned firms that sought to purchase or establish media operations. This is seen as one of the first attempts of the now Republican dominated Congress to dismantle the government's affirmative action programs. |
| Mar 26, 1995 |
Alan Keyes announced his candidacy for the 1996 Republican nomination for the presidential race. He became the first black candidate in the race. (Agence France Presse 3/26/95) |
| Mar 29, 1995 |
Two female employees sued the NAACP for sex discrimination, charging that the organization was an old boys' club, and that women working there were paid less and regarded as snitches if they complained about their working conditions. (International Herald-Tribune 3/29/95) |
| Apr 18, 1995 |
The Supreme Court declared the Birmingham Fire Department' system of promoting black firefighters over white firefighters with higher exam scores unconstitutional. The Fire Department had instituted the plan to remedy past discrimination. (Toronto Star 4/18/95) |
| May 1995 |
The film Panthers, a fictionalized account of the Black Panther movement, stirred controversy as one of the organizations former members accused the director of concocting a two hour lie. The director maintained that the film was meant as a call to consciousness. (London Times 5/11/95) |
| May 26, 1995 |
According to the US Center for Health Statistics, the average black woman had 5.1 pregnancies in her lifetime, Hispanic women 4.7, and whites women 2.8. The Hispanic women bear an average of three babies, black women 2.6 and whites 1.8. (London Daily Mail 5/27/95) |
| Jun 1, 1995 |
A report done for the Clinton administration revealed that most types of affirmative action were helpful, by increasing productivity by reducing discrimination and finding the best candidates for particular jobs. But it expressed concern about programs that established "hard set- asides," or rigid quotas, for blacks, Hispanic Americans and women, noting that they often led to resentment by those who were rejected by such programs, such as white men. (International Herald Tribune, 6/1/95) |
| Jun 12, 1995 |
In Adarand Constructors v. Pena, the Supreme Court ruled that "all racial classifications" were unconstitutional, unless government could show a "compelling interest" for them in a narrowly drawn, specific instance. The decision overturned a federal law which awarded cash bonuses to states which used minority-owned contractors to perform work. (London Independent 6/21/95) |
| Jun 29, 1995 |
The Supreme Court ruled that in creating electoral districts, any district created with the intention of electing a candidate of a specific race was unconstitutional. Earlier redistricting challenges, which had come under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, looked at the geographic shape of the district in question to determine whether it was a reasonable and legal district or an unconstitutional racially-constructed one. Note Election redistricting battles continue throughout the time period covered by this chronology, and will not be further mentioned unless of significance. (Agence France Presse 6/29/95) |
| Jul 9, 1995 |
According to statistics from the US Center for Health Statistics, black infant mortality was comparatively high, despite a record low year for infant mortality overall. African-American babies died at a rate of 16.5 per 1,000 births in 1992, while white babies died at a rate of 6.9 per 1,000 births that year, making it 2.4 times more likely that a black baby would die before its first birthday than a white baby . (Agence France Presse 7/9/95) |
| Jul 19, 1995 |
President Bill Clinton defended affirmative action programs in a speech after a released poll showed that of 120,000 employees in 64 private U.S. firms, a majority of whites believed they had fewer opportunities for promotion than their minority colleagues. (Toronto Star 7/20/95) |
| Jul 20, 1995 |
The University of California Board of Regents voted to end programs promoting the hiring of minority personnel and giving preferences to minorities in student admission, sparking a demonstration led by the Reverend Jesse Jackson. (Agence France Presse 7/21/95) |
| Jul 25, 1995 |
According to the Rand Corporation, a think tank, the typical black and Hispanic household has less than $500 in assets and four out of 10 have no savings at all. (London Independent 7/25/95) |
| Jul 25, 1995 |
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panthers who was facing execution for the 1982 murder of a Philadelphia policeman, was granted a new trial after an international lobbying effort charged that the original trial was racist and Abu-Jamal was innocent. (Agence France Presse 8/4/95) |
| Aug 9, 1995 |
A report by the US Justice Department noted that black residents were seven times more likely than whites to end up in a state or federal prison. (Agence France Presse 8/9/95) |
| Sep 24, 1995 |
According to a report in the Tennessean, black people get prison sentences about 10 percent longer than white people for similar crimes in the United States. (Xinhua News Agency 9/24/95) |
| Oct 1995 |
The National Park Service promised to increase diversity among its employees after an action group of them forced the issue. Among more than 10,000 professional-level employees, white males made up 46 percent of the NPS work force and have the highest average pay grade, white females represent 37.5 percent of these full-time "graded" or professional positions, while only 8.5 percent are African American, 4.3 percent are Latino, 1.8 percent are Asian American or Pacific Islanders and 2 percent are American Indian or Alaska Natives. White males hold 54 percent of the 15,000 blue-collar positions, followed by white females at 26 percent. Ethnic representation ranges from 6.5 percent African American males to less than 1 percent American Indian females. (Salt Lake Tribune 10/23/95) |
| Oct 3, 1995 |
A twelve-person jury found black former football player O.J. Simpson not guilty in the murder of his white wife and her friend. The ten-month trial had featured testimony from and about Mark Fuhrman, a white police detective who had been recorded making racist comments, leading to national racial debate over whether Simpson had actually committed the crime or had been framed by a racist police department. (Toronto Star 10/4/95) |
| Oct 16, 1995 |
Several hundred thousand black men converged in Washington DC for the Million Man March, led by controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Though the message of the march was Atonement, many joined simply to make a statement about the black experience or black presence in the United States. Other popular black leaders - such a General Colin Powell - stayed away, worried about being perceived as supporting Farrakhan' message. Though some believed the original goal of 1 million black men in attendance had been reached early in the day, police later put the crowd estimate at less than half that amount, leading to considerable dispute. (London Independent 10/17/95 and 10/18/95) |
| Nov 2, 1995 |
The NAACP suspended the president of its Yonkers, New York branch after he commented that the court-ordered busing for the city had outlived its usefulness. (International Herald-Tribune 11/2/95) |
| Nov 24, 1995 |
According to an article in the magazine Science, one in 92 American men between the ages of 27 and 39 has AIDS, a ratio that climbed to one in 33 among black men in the same age group. (Agence France Presse 11/24/95) |
| Dec 11, 1995 |
Black Congressman Kweisi Mfume announced that he would resign his position in Congress to take over as head of the NAACP. His move was seen by many as a sign of frustration with the Republican Congressional leadership, which had increasingly cut benefits which had helped blacks economically and socially. At the time, the NAACP was in significant decline, and $3.2 million in debt. (London Times 12/11/95) |
| Dec 13, 1995 |
The US Army began investigations into racism within its organization after two white soldiers murdered a black man and woman in North Carolina. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 12/13/95) |
| Jan 25, 1996 |
According to the American Heart Association, fifty percent more African-American men die from heart attacks than their white counterparts. For black women, the ratio jumped to 77 percent. (Agence France Presse 1/24/96) |
| Feb 1996 |
Congress subpoenaed Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan to inquire into allegations that he accepted $1 billion from Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to help spread his message to minorities in the United States. The allegations came on the heels of a trip by Farrakhan to various Islamic countries accused of terrorism by the United States. (The Scotsman 2/2/96) |
| Mar 21, 1996 |
The Army released the results of its investigation into racism in the ranks, and found that while there was little racist extremism in the Army, there was an undercurrent of subtle racism, which reflected American society. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 3/21/96) |
| Mar 25, 1996 |
Jesse Jackson called for a boycott of a television network before the Academy Awards to protest the race and gender exclusion in the media. Black actors and actresses scheduled to appear at the ceremony argued that it was not the proper forum. Note the issue of representation of non-whites in the media remains prominent throughout the time period covered by this update, and will not be mentioned unless otherwise noteworthy. (Agence France Presse 3/25/96) |
| Apr 10, 1996 |
According to the Children' Defense Fund, the gun death rate among black males 15 to 19 was 153.1 per 100,000, among their white peers 28.8 per 100,000. (International Herald-Tribune 4/10/96) |
| May 3, 1996 |
According to the Centers for Disease Control, blacks aged 5-14 were four times as likely to die of asthma as whites the same age group. (Agence France Presse 5/3/96) |
| May 11, 1996 |
The House of Representatives approved by a 393 to 15 vote a bill supported by President Bill Clinton that would prevent states from delaying or refusing an adoption on the basis of race. Opponents of the bill said it would separate children from their racial and cultural heritage. Forty percent of the estimated 20,000 children immediately available for placement are black -- a disproportionately high number as blacks make up only 12 percent of the overall population. A University of California study showed that 43 percent of black children wait up to four years to be placed while only 17 percent of white children wait that long. (Agence France Presse 5/11/96) |
| Jun 8, 1996 |
President Bill Clinton drew attention to the spate of arsons in predominantly black churches across the U.S., and deployed a task force of 200 federal officers to join local forces in investigating the problem. Since January 1995, at least 30 African American churches had been burned. (Agence France Presse 6/8/96) |
| Jun 13, 1996 |
The Supreme Court invalidated the boundaries of five Congressional districts in Texas and North Carolina, ruling that they had been drawn primarily to create districts where candidates of racial minorities could succeed. In some cases, the districts had been drawn with the help of computer programs and census data which showed the ethnic makeup of the areas. (Agence France Presse 6/14/96) |
| Jul 1, 1996 |
The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on race-based school admission, leaving intact a lower court ruling that struck down racial "targets" for public universities. The Court said the question was moot since the school no longer used the policies. (Agence France Presse 7/1/96) |
| Jul 3, 1996 |
President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that made it a federal crime to damage, destroy, or deface a church because of the racial membership of its congregation and authorized $9 million in loan guarantees to help rebuild the 40 black churches burned since January 1995. (London Independent 7/5/96) |
| Jul 10, 1996 |
Presidential candidate Bob Dole angered the NAACP by declining to speak to their annual convention. The group construed it as a sign that he was more focused on America's political right than on the large number of black voters. (International Herald-Tribune 7/10/96) |
| Jul 16, 1996 |
Red swastikas were painted on eight barrack doors in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Six of the rooms marked belonged to black soldiers, the other two were unoccupied. (Agence France Presse 7/16/96) |
| Jul 17, 1996 |
The International Commission of Jurists released a report declaring American application of the death penalty to be racist, wanton, and freakish. It also found that 82 per cent of defendants are accused of murdering whites, and the majority are poor. It adds that 40 per cent of those executed between 1973 and 1995 were of African-American, Hispanic, or American Indian origin. (London Times 7/17/96) |
| Aug 13, 1996 |
The percentage of black delegations attending the Republican National Convention dropped in half since 1994 - to 2.6 percent from 5.0 percent. (Agence France Presse 8/13/96) |
| Aug 23, 1996 |
Texas A & M University and the University of Texas announced that beginning in the fall of 1997, they would no longer consider race in their admissions policies, but would rather take into account a wide range of factors, including high school grades, extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, socio-economic background and the parents' level of education. The racial considerations were meant to reverse previous discrimination. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 8/23/96) |
| Aug 24, 1996 |
A report in the San Jose (CA) Mercury News alleged that the CIA had allowed Nicaraguan Contra rebels to sell crack cocaine to gangs to finance their war against the government. The Los Angeles City Council later demanded that Attorney General Janet Reno investigate the claim. The report caused considerable furor among blacks, who were particularly devastated by the crack epidemic. The NAACP also came out in favor of an investigation, although most government sources called the allegations ridiculous. (Agence France Presse 8/24/96) |
| Oct 16, 1996 |
Louis Farrakhan called for a Day of Atonement in New York City on the first anniversary of the Million Man March, and asked the U.S. to atone for its damage to Libya and its nonpayment of dues to the U.N. (Agence France Presse 10/15/96 and Deutsche Presse-Agentur 10/16/96) |
| Oct 25, 1996 |
The fatal shooting of a black man by a white police officer during a traffic stop in St. Petersburg, Florida sparked riots, in which buildings were set on fire and police, firefighters, and reporters were attacked. (Agence France Presse 10/25/96) |
| Nov 1996 |
Allegations arise at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a military base in Maryland, that drill instructors forced recruits to have sex with them, prompting a national inquiry into similar conduct at all U.S. military bases. The NAACP later alleged that the Army unfairly targeted black men who had relations with white women; and some women later claimed they were coerced into making the allegations. (Toronto Star 3/12/97) |
| Nov 4, 1996 |
The New York Times printed details of a meeting of Texaco (a major US oil company) in which executives made derogatory comments about black people. The subsequent public outrage cost Texaco millions of dollars and lowered the company's stock value, and lead to demands for a boycott. (Agence France Presse 11/11/96) |
| Nov 5, 1996 |
The citizens of California passed Proposition 209, which prohibited discrimination or preferential treatment on grounds of gender or race. A restraining order issued later in November prevented the law from taking effect. (London Times 11/9/96 and Agence France Presse 11/28/96) |
| Nov 18, 1996 |
Texaco agreed to a $176 million settlement in a racial discrimination case, resulting from claims by black employees that they were treated unfairly in payment and promotion, subject to racial slurs, and that Texaco lawyers destroyed evidence of this prejudice. The settlement was believed to be a record high in a racial discrimination case. (London Times 11/18/96) |
| Dec 2, 1996 |
Jesse Jackson began a series of protests in front of the R.R. Donnelly Printing Company in Chicago, charging racial and gender discrimination when the company downsized in 1993. (Agence France Presse 12/2/96) |
| Dec 2, 1996 |
A federal jury ruled that Circuit City Stores had shown bias against blacks in its promotion policies. (Agence France Presse 12/3/96) |
| Dec 18, 1996 |
The Oakland (CA) School Board passed a resolution approving the use of English-as-a-second-language curricula for speakers of Ebonics or black English, the dialect used by inner-city black children. The move was started as a means of introducing the children to standardized English, but was derided as laughable and a dumbing down by many critics and even members of the black community. The NAACP opposed it; Jesse Jackson initially did, but revised his opinion when he met with the board, who convinced them that they were in fact trying to improve the English usage and better communicate with the children. (Agence France Presse 12/18/96 and Toronto Star 3/9/97) |
| Jan 30, 1997 |
According to a study by the Sentencing Project, an independent organization favoring alternatives to incarceration, 1.4 million US black men -- or 14 percent of the 10.4 million black men of voting age -- can't vote because of a prison or criminal record. The disparity in prison rates between blacks and whites also continued to grow, going from 6.88 blacks for one white in 1988 to 7.66 blacks for one white in 1994. (Agence France Presse 1/30/97) |
| Feb 19, 1997 |
Two black employees filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Citibank alleging that racist jokes were addressed to them via electronic mail from their bosses. (Agence France Presse 2/19/97) |
| Mar 10, 1997 |
Four black employees of the Walt Disney Co. sued employers for discrimination stating that black workers were over-represented in subordinate positions, while too few blacks were promoted to positions of responsibility at the Disneyland Resort and Convention Center in California and at Walt Disney World in Florida. (AFX News 3/10/97) |
| Mar 18, 1997 |
According to the US Center for Health Statistics, white males suffered from negative moods only 5.8 percent of the time, compared with 8.1 percent for white females, 10.7 percent for black males and 16.4 percent for black females. (Agence France Presse 3/18/97) |
| Mar 18, 1997 |
A group of black job-seekers sued Texaco for job discrimination, claiming that they had been left out of an earlier suit which only covered blacks already employed by the company. (AFX News 3/18/97) |
| Apr 1997 |
Virginia governor George Allen sparked controversy when he declared April to be a month to honor the Confederacy's four year struggle for independence. (The Scotsman 4/12/97) |
| Apr 4, 1997 |
O.J. Simpson was found guilty of the wrongful death of his ex-wife and her friend in a civil trial by an all-white jury. His lawyers immediately asked for a new trial. (For details of the case, see 10/3/95) (Agence France Presse 4/4/97) |
| Apr 13, 1997 |
Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller commented to CNN called multiracial golf pro Tiger Woods that boy and suggested he should not serve fried chicken or collard greens during the Masters Golf victory banquet - a reference to African-American cuisine. The comments were widely interpreted as racist, causing popular outrage and condemnation by the NAACP, as well as the loss of a lucrative advertising contract for Zoeller. Zoeller apologized a week later. (Glasgow Herald 4/24/97) |
| Apr 29, 1997 |
The Sentencing Panel recommended to Congress that they remove distinctions of sentencing for cocaine possession, following protests that stiffer sentences for possession of its "crack" form were racist. Inner city blacks tended to use crack, while suburban whites used cocaine powder. (Agence France Presse 4/29/97) |
| May 16, 1997 |
President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the Tuskegee experiment, a secret government study of untreated syphilis in the Negro male. It began in 1932 and ended only after it was uncovered by newspaper reporters in 1972. Its purpose was to see what would happen if the disease were left untreated. None of the participants knew the true purpose of the study. (London Times 5/14/97) |
| Jun 8, 1997 |
The Orlando Sentinel newspaper printed an article noting that a review of records from January 1996 through April 1997 showed that an Orange County sheriff's drug squad searched 39.6 percent of black drivers who were stopped against 6.2 percent of whites. The paper also said that while blacks made up 16.3 percent of the drivers stopped by Orange County sheriff's officers, they accounted for 50 percent of all searches and more than 70 percent of searches with drug-sniffing dogs. Though the police denied using race as a factor in deciding who should be searched, the NAACP declared the study to be a red flag. (Agence France Presse 6/8/97) |
| Jun 10, 1997 |
According to a Gallup poll, 76 percent of whites said they believed blacks were treated equally while only 49 percent of blacks gave the same answer. Seventy-nine percent of whites said blacks have the same professional opportunities as they do but only 46 percent of black said they had the same chances as whites. About 45 percent of blacks indicated they had experienced racial discrimination in at least one of five settings in the previous 30 days. (Agence France Presse 6/10/97) |
| Jun 12, 1997 |
According to the US Center for Health Statistics, whites outlive blacks by 7 years. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 6/12/97) |
| Jun 13, 1997 |
President Bill Clinton named a seven-member commission to study ways to improve US race relations. The commission will seek solutions to problems in areas like education, housing and health. (Agence France Presse 6/13/97) |
| Jul 4, 1997 |
In a voice vote, teachers at the National Education Association annual meeting affirmed their support for affirmative action. (Xinhua News Agency 7/4/97) |
| Jul 17, 1997 |
President Clinton addressed the annual convention of the NAACP in Pittsburgh, and unveiled a program to create scholarships for college students who promise to teach in underserved inner-city and rural schools. The issue of education took a prominent place in the meeting, as the NAACP debated for the first time the end to its traditional promotion of public school integration. Detractors of the program had pointed out that it usually meant that only black children were being bused out of their neighborhoods, and that there was a mixed message in the idea that black children could only thrive and learn in white schools. (Agence France Presse 7/17/97 and International Herald Tribune 6/24/97) |
| Jul 20, 1997 |
As the television networks began to advertise their new fall shows, only one of the 21 new sitcoms was touted as striving for racial diversity. Sixteen others had all-white or majority-white casts, and four had all-black casts. They joined 27 returning sitcoms that were all-white or mostly-white, and twelve that were all-black. Television executives blamed the uniformity on the apparent lack of public interest (low ratings) and the lack of black writers, even on the all-black sitcoms. (Toronto Star 7/20/97) |
| Jul 30, 1997 |
In a class action suit, seven blacks alleged that African -Americans were routinely followed while in Guest Services cafeterias and were singled out to present their food for inspection before being allowed to leave the premises. The filing also reflected that African-Americans had been baselessly accused of theft and, in one case, had been detained by armed Federal agents for using more than one tea bag in a large cup of tea. The Department of Justice also followed the case, because Guest Services was a government contractor. (M2 Presswire 7/30/97) |
| Aug 28, 1997 |
A group of black American farmers filed a lawsuit against the United States Agriculture Department (USDA), seeking about 513 million dollars in damages for alleged delays, because of their race, in processing their loan applications. (Xinhua News Agency 8/28/97) |
| Aug 28, 1997 |
Proposition 209, which barred preferential treatment on the basis of race, went into effect in California, after numerous appeals had delayed its debut. Civil rights groups petitioned the Supreme Court for its review the following day. (Agence France Presse 8/29/97) |
| Aug 29, 1997 |
As a result of the University of Texas's new policy of not considering race in admissions, fewer blacks enrolled in the school. Among the freshman class of 6,500, there were only 150 black students, half the 1996 number. The first-year law school class normally included about 40 blacks and about 60 Hispanics, but this semester, the first-year class of 488 included 4 blacks and 26 Hispanics after the school received applications from 225 blacks, 306 Mexican-Americans and 2,515 whites. (International Herald-Tribune 8/29/97) |
| Sep 12, 1997 |
A Chicago woman was indicted on charges that she sent packages to herself and to black leaders, and covered them with racial epithets, in an attempt to convince the United Parcel Service that there were racists working for them, and collect a cash settlement. (Agence France Presse 9/12/97) |
| Sep 26, 1997 |
On the fortieth anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the original Little Rock Nine were ushered into their old school, and President Clinton made a speech warning that American schools were becoming more segregated through white flight and voluntary separatism by white and black children. The NAACP and other groups boycotted the event to protest Clinton's lack of action on racial matters. (The Guardian 9/26/97) |
| Sep 29, 1997 |
The NAACP and People for the American Way issued a joint press release condemning the consideration of private school vouchers in the U.S. Senate. The vouchers, popularized by religious leaders and social conservatives, would allow public school children in bad schools to receive vouchers to pay for a private school education. The organizations felt that this would divert money away from the public schools that desperately needed it, and serve only a small percentage of school-age children. This issue remained controversial for the remainder of the period covered by this update. (M2 Presswire 9/29/97) |
| Sep 29, 1997 |
According to the US Census Bureau, the percentage of African American children living in poverty was 39.9 in 1996, the lowest since 1974, but still double the national average. (Agence France Presse 9/29/97) |
| Oct 16, 1997 |
The NAACP threatened to boycott the publisher of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary because it listed the primary definition of nigger as a black person. The NAACP and most black people found the word an offensive holdover from segregation and slavery. (Toronto Star 10/16/97) |
| Oct 25, 1997 |
Tens of thousands of black women from across the United States gathered in the city of Philadelphia for the "Million Woman March,@ to forge a new unity in the black women's movement, demanding better health, education and employment opportunities. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 10/25/97) |
| Nov 1997 |
The Piscataway, NJ, school board voted to settle the case of a white female high school teacher who had been laid off to maintain a racially diverse faculty. Several civil rights groups had offered to help pay for the settlement, rather than risk the case going to the Supreme Court in November, lest the Court issue a broad ruling striking down all forms of affirmative action based on what they perceived as a weak case. (International Herald Tribune 11/24/97) |
| Nov 1997 |
Senator Orrin Hatch announced he would block the confirmation of Bill Lann Lee, an Asian civil rights attorney, to the position of assistant Attorney General for civil rights, because Lee had spoken out against programs that would dismantle affirmative action, and vowed to fight them to the Supreme Court. People For the American Way later noted that of the many presidential nominees for judicial appointments awaiting Senate confirmation, those who waited the longest were women and minorities. Lee was later appointed to the job during the Senate recess, allowing him to temporarily bypass the need for confirmation. (Agence France Presse 11/6/97 and M2 Presswire 11/14/97 and 12/15/97) |
| Nov 11, 1997 |
President Clinton convened the first-ever White House Conference on Hate Crimes, where he unveiled new law enforcement and prevention initiatives against hate crimes. (M2 Presswire 11/11/97) |
| Jan 13, 1998 |
Black community activists protested the removal of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the prize-winning autobiographical work by black writer Maya Angelou, from the ninth grade curriculum of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, because of its explicit sexual content. (AAP Newsfeed 1/13/98) |
| Jan 26, 1998 |
Unknown assailants broke into the offices of the Jackson Advocate - Mississippi's oldest black newspaper - and set a fire that caused $125,000 in damage to equipment and also destroyed priceless artifacts. (Agence France Presse 3/26/98) |
| Jan 27, 1998 |
U.S. lawyers filed suit against Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands, claiming that since 1994 Shell Oil has charged dealers in predominantly black neighborhoods on the east side of Cleveland "significantly higher" wholesale prices for petrol than dealers in Cleveland's predominantly white west side neighborhoods and suburbs. (AFX News 1/27/98) |
| Mar 1, 1998 |
At the annual Academy Awards (Oscars) presentation, no African Americans received nominations for the awards. (AAP Newsfeed 3/1/98) |
| Mar 3, 1998 |
President Clinton unveiled announced a new initiative to eliminate longstanding disparities in health status among racial and ethnic minority groups by the year 2010. (M2 Presswire 3/3/98) |
| Mar 20, 1998 |
After a 21-year legal battle, Mississippi unsealed the files of the defunct State Sovereignty Commission, which had been created in 1956 to thwart attempts at desegregation in the state. Officials said that they would prosecute the perpetrators of any crimes documented in the files. (International Herald Tribune 3/20/98) |
| Mar 21, 1998 |
Although the suicide rate for white teenagers was still higher than that for their black counterparts, the suicide rate for black teenagers was rising much more sharply, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1980, the suicide rate for young whites was 157 percent greater than it was for young blacks, according to the report, while in 1998 it was 42 percent greater. The suicide rate of African Americans between the ages of 10 and 19 increased by 114 percent since 1980, the report found. (International Herald Tribune 3/21/98) |
| Apr 18, 1998 |
A study in the magazine Science noted that poor blacks were much less likely to own a computer or have used the internet than whites in the same income bracket, leading to concerns of a technology gap. (International Herald Tribune 4/18/98) |
| May 2, 1998 |
The publisher of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary announced it would include an italicized warning prior to the definition of over 200 offensive religious, sexual, and ethnic slurs and words considered obscene, after months of protests surrounding its definition of the word nigger. (AAP Newsfeed 5/2/98) |
| May 28, 1998 |
Sam Bowers, the 73-year-old former imperial wizard of the Mississippi Ku Klux |
| May 28, 1998 |
Klan, and two other former Klansmen, were arrested and charged with the 1966 murder and arson of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer. Earlier attempts to convict Dahmer had ended in mistrials, despite his prominence in KKK activities. (Agence France Presse 5/28/98) |
| Jun 3, 1998 |
Twelve workers at a Goodyear Tire plant in New Jersey filed a civil lawsuit against the company, alleging a thirty-year pattern of discrimination, including racial slurs and painted swastikas in the workplace. (AAP Newsfeed 6/4/98) |
| Jun 4, 1998 |
According to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center, black defendants in the United States were four times as likely to receive the death penalty as whites. In addition, 98 percent of prosecutors who decide whether or not to seek the death penalty were white, which might have accounted for the high number of blacks on death row. As of this date, 1,420 of the 3,387 people on death row were black, 1,611 were white and 265 were Hispanic. Blacks made up 42 percent of prisoners condemned to death. (Agence France Presse 6/4/98) |
| Jun 10, 1998 |
Three men with ties to the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood were charged in Texas with the gruesome murder of James Byrd, whom they picked up as he walked along a country road at night, beat in a field, and then chained to the back of their pickup truck where he was dragged to death. The murder received considerable media attention and protests. (London Times 6/11/98) |
| Jun 13, 1998 |
A black teenager in Illinois claimed that a group of white teenagers lured him over to their car, and then picked him up and dragged him while shouting racial epithets, in what was believed to be a copycat attack after the James Byrd incident in Texas. (AAP Newsfeed 6/13/98) |
| Jun 16, 1998 |
Fifteen African Americans sued the Wonder Bread plant in San Francisco, alleging racist practices including epithets and blocking blacks from advancing in the company. They also said that groups of blacks were not allowed to congregate for fear they would form a gang. (Agence France Presse 6/16/98) |
| Jul 13, 1998 |
Kwesi Mfume spoke out against the Supreme Court in a meeting of the NAACP, criticizing their rulings on affirmative action and the fact that only 7 of the 397 clerks working for Supreme Court justices have black ancestry, and none are Native American. (Xinhua News Agency 7/13/98) |
| Jul 16, 1998 |
President Bill Clinton signed a bill approving the creation of a monument to Martin Luther King, Jr. on the National Mall in Washington, DC. (Xinhua News Agency 7/16/98) |
| Aug 10, 1998 |
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council released a report stating that lenders continued to turn down minorities more often than whites for home mortgages (M2 Presswire 8/10/98) |
| Aug 22, 1998 |
Former Ku Klux Klan leader Sam Bowers was convicted of the 1966 murder of Vernon Dahmer and sentenced to life in prison. (See 5/28/98 entry for details) (Agence France Presse 8/22/98) |
| Aug 25, 1998 |
Thirteen black and one white employee of Amtrak sued their employer, and alleged that they had been subject to racial insults like "nigger bitch," while a white manager who was sympathetic to minorities was called "nigger lover." (Agence France Presse 8/25/98) |
| Sep 4, 1998 |
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rates of death during childbirth for African-American women were four times the rates for white women -- while there were 18 to 22 deaths for every 100,000 births among African -American women, there were only 5 to 6 deaths among white women. (Agence France Presse 9/4/98) |
| Sep 5, 1998 |
The Million Youth March, organized in New York by Khalid Abdul Muhammad to encourage black youth to take responsibility for their actions and build their communities, ended in violence when police stormed the stage. New York Mayor Giuliani had branded the event a hate march, but the gathering had been peaceful until police rushed the platform when the speaker had run minutes over the allotted time. (Toronto Star 9/6/98) |
| Sep 18, 1998 |
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that an additional $4.9 million would be directed to supplement existing FY 1998 departmental efforts to address HIV/AIDS prevention and outreach services in racial and ethnic minority communities. (M2 Presswire 9/18/98) |
| Oct 1998 |
The NAACP, the Los Angeles City Council, and others demonstrated and protested against The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, a satire sitcom that was to be run on the UPN Network. Many found the show, about the fictional Desmond Pfeiffer who was a black English aristocrat who became Abraham Lincoln's slave, as insensitive and offensive. (London Guardian 10/6/98) |
| Oct 16, 1998 |
The owners and managers of a Richmond, Virginia, apartment complex agreed to pay $480,000 in damages and civil penalties as a lawsuit settlement for allegedly discouraging African Americans from renting apartments in the previous eight years. Additionally, the owners and managers agreed to develop a fair housing policy, require their employees to attend fair housing training, and hire an independent consulting firm to conduct self-testing of the apartment complex over the next three years. (M2 Presswire 10/16/98) |
| Nov 3, 1998 |
Voters in South Carolina voted to remove a clause from the 1865 state constitution which banned interracial marriages. The law had been overturned in South Carolina courts in 1968. (Agence France Presse 11/3/98) |
| Nov 28, 1998 |
David Baugh, a black attorney from Virginia, agreed to defend Barry Black, a KKK imperial wizard, in a Virginia cross-burning case. Both felt that the law Black allegedly broke, which banned KKK-type activities done with the intent to intimidate someone in the state of Virginia, unconstitutionally limited free speech. (London Daily Telegraph 11/28/98) |
| Dec 1998 |
Sarah Wessman and her family won her a place in the prestigious Boston Latin Academy after two years of appeals to overturn a system of race-based preferences which had denied her admission but allowed eleven nonwhite students with lower test scores to attend classes. (London Times 1/3/99) |
| Dec 30, 1998 |
A young black woman in a gas station was shot at least 27 times by police officers, who claimed she pointed a gun at them when they broke into her car to help her. Relatives said they believed the woman was having a seizure and passed out, thus unable to raise the gun. (London Evening Standard 12/30/98) |
| 1999 |
Colonial Williamsburg, the United States' oldest and largest living history museum, included Enslaving Virginia, and A Broken Spirit, programs showing the harsh realities of slavery during colonial times. Earlier attempts to deal with slavery at the museum had usually been criticized as sugar-coated. (Toronto Star 8/14/99) |
| Jan 5, 1999 |
The US Department of Agriculture agreed to settle out of court with over 1,000 black farmers who claimed that the department had discriminated against them in giving out loans since the USDA's office of civil rights was abolished in 1983. Black farmers who sued the government for discrimination or who filed a complaint naming specific individuals in the USDA became eligible for 50,000 tax-free dollars and would have all their debts to the USDA forgiven. (Agence France Presse 1/5/99) |
| Jan 29, 1999 |
The head of the Office of Public Advocacy for Washington, DC, was forced to resign after staff members misinterpreted his use of the word niggardly as a racial slur. (Irish Times 1/30/99) |
| Feb 4, 1999 |
Police in New York City fired 41 bullets at an unarmed Guinean immigrant in the mistaken belief that he was a serial rapist they were looking for; 24 actually struck the man. It took the New York City police commissioner three weeks to admit that the killing was unjustified and excessive, despite weeks of daily protests by civil rights leaders and African American activists, including former New York mayor David Dinkins and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. (Toronto Star 2/28/99 and Agence France Presse 3/19/99) |
| Feb 23, 1999 |
According to a poll done by the American Bar Association, 47 percent said they strongly disagreed with a statement that "the courts treat all ethnic and racial groups the same," 39 percent agreed with the statement, and 14 percent voiced no view. (Xinhua News Agency 2/23/99) |
| Feb 23, 1999 |
The Southern Poverty Law Center said there were 537 hate groups active in the country in 1998, up from 474 in 1997, in part because hate groups were using the internet as a recruiting tool. Hate sites on the Internet also went up almost 60 percent from 163 in 1997 to 254. (Agence France Presse 2/23/99) |
| Feb 24, 1999 |
John King, 24, was found guilty in the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. He was the first of the accused trio to be put on trial. His cohorts were found guilty in separate trials later that year. (For details of the case, see 6/10/98 entry) (Agence France Presse 2/24/99 and 9/22/99) |
| Apr 7, 1999 |
President Clinton urged the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1999, which would have strengthened existing civil rights legislation by (1) extending the situations where prosecutions can be brought for violent crimes motivated by bias based on race, color, religion, or national origin; and (2) expanding the federal hate crimes statute to protect against hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender, or disability. (M2 Presswire 4/7/99) |
| Apr 9, 1999 |
The US Customs Service announced it had appointed an independent, all-minority commission to review the procedures it uses to identify and search suspected narcotics traffickers in international airports. Several African- and Mexican-Americans had complained publicly that they had been searched by Customs inspectors without cause. (InfoLatina News 4/9/99) |
| Apr 12, 1999 |
The U.S. Internet Council rejected fears of an Internet gap among races in its study, which showed that Net usage among whites, blacks, and Hispanics was close, with 36% of Hispanics having access, 34% of whites and 23% of blacks. (The National Post 4/13/99) |
| Apr 20, 1999 |
Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement by not giving up her bus seat to a white person in 1955, was given the Congressional Gold Medal. (Agence France Presse 4/20/99) |
| Apr 21, 1999 |
Two students at a Colorado high school killed 13 of their peers and themselves in a rampage allegedly motivated in part by racial hatred. (Plymouth Western Morning News 4/22/99) |
| May 4, 1999 |
The Eastman Kodak Company, acting on concerns raised by the Rochester, NY chapter of the NAACP, admitted that it found it had underpaid over 2,000 employees who were female or non-white. It fired the managers believed responsible for the discrepancies, and paid to adjust the wage differences, but said there was no way to know if the inequities were intentional. (National Post 5/4/99) |
| May 18, 1999 |
New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman admitted that a study had shown that New Jersey police searched more than 77% of the cars searched were driven by members of ethnic minorities. Police also pulled over disproportionately high numbers of black drivers. Blacks had been making claims of racial profiling of traffic stops around the country for years. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 5/18/99) |
| May 20, 1999 |
Legislators in Nebraska approved a two-year moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the state, to allow time for the state crime commission to conduct a study on how the death penalty is meted out between members of different gender, ethnic and economic groups. The governor of Nebraska later vetoed the bill. Legislatures in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota were considering similar bills. (Agence France Presse 5/20/99 and 5/28/99) |
| Jun 9, 1999 |
President Bill Clinton ordered federal law enforcement officials to collect data on the race and gender of the people they stop to question or arrest in an attempt to fight against racial profiling. (Xinua News Agency 6/9/99) |
| Jul 2 - 5, 1999 |
A single gunman went on an interstate killing spree, killing a Korean leaving a Korean United Methodist Church, and a black man walking along a sidewalk, and injuring six Jews in a Jewish neighborhood, and another Asian man, before killing himself. (International Herald Tribune 7/6/99 and Agence France Presse 7/7/99) |
| Jul 12, 1999 |
The NAACP announced it would sue gun manufacturers to better control the sale of their products, noting that black males aged 15-24 were five times as likely to become victims of gun violence than whites the same age. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 7/12/99) |
| Jul 16, 1999 |
A former senior vice-president of U.S. Bancorp sued the company, claiming supervisors frequently made demeaning comments to him, demoted him from key jobs and ultimately fired him after he complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (National Post 7/16/99) |
| Jul 27, 1999 |
The governor of South Carolina met with the NAACP to try to work out a dispute regarding the South Carolina practice of flying the Confederate flag over the state Capitol. African Americans find the flag, with its legacy of representing the slave-owners in the Civil War, offensive, and several groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Urban League, the Council of Negro Women and the NAACP, had threatened to boycott the state. The governor agreed that the flag did not belong over the capitol, and promised to ask individual Carolina legislators to consider removing it. The legislature had traditionally resisted such attempts. (London Guardian 7/28/99) |
| Jul 28, 1999 |
Critics began complaining that CRACK (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity), which offered sterilizations and cash to drug-addicted women to prevent the birth of addicted infants, was racist in trying to stop the birth of black babies, since most drug addicts are black. (The Scotsman 7/28/99) |
| Aug 7, 1999 |
Neo-Nazis were threatened with a lawsuit after canceling their planned march in Washington DC. The police, who had turned out in force to prevent violence, demanded to be compensated for their time. Of the 150 - 300 neo-Nazis expected, only four arrived, leading counter-demonstrators to announce a victory. (Agence France Presse 8/7/99) |
| Aug 16, 1999 |
The NAACP and Zogby International released the results of a poll they had co-sponsored on racial attitudes among Americans aged 18 to 29. According to the survey, 50.7% agreed that racial separation was okay as long as there was equal opportunity for all, more than 56% said the federal government should ensure blacks receive fair treatment in jobs, and more than 57% agreed that generations of slavery and discrimination have "created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class." Fifty-four percent said it was unlikely a black would be elected U.S. president in the near future. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur 8/17/99) |
| Aug 19, 1999 |
Lawyers filed a class action suit against Honda car company on behalf of all black employees in their three Ohio plants, charging a "long-standing pattern and practice of systematically excluding blacks from employment opportunities." The suit claimed that in 1998 only three percent of Honda of America's managers were black, while the percentage of African-Americans in Honda's overall workforce "has been significantly higher." (Agence France Presse 8/19/99) |
| Sep 24, 1999 |
A federal judge ruled Charlotte, North Carolina had gone too far in its busing program, which set up quotas for children of different races in each school. Magnet schools, which offered specialization in certain fields, would deny white children empty seats in the schools if the quota of minority children had not been filled. The decision was believed to be the potential start to dismantle busing programs across the country, but was promptly appealed. (London Telegraph 9/26/99) |
| Feb 17, 2004 |
A white supremacist stabbed two African-American men in two bars, shouting white-power slogans while doing so. (Botonis, Greg, 2/19/2004, "Two Held in Knife Attacks; White Supremacist Slogans Shouted Before Stabbings," The Daily News of Los Angeles) |
| Oct 15, 2005 |
Thousands of African-Americans gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to demand equity in areas such as schooling and justice. Protesters also asked for reparations in regards to slavery. (Pear, Robert and Holli Chmela, 10/16/2005, "Thousands Attend Rally in Washington, Seeking Greater Power for African-Americans," The New York Times) |
| Apr 5, 2006 |
A group of blacks attacked and killed a white youth in Harlem whom they chased into traffic shouting racial slurs. (National Post, 4/12/2006, "Racism comes full circle: African-American leaders say little about death of white man in Harlem") |
