Civil and political rights

• 1775: Darby Vassall: A lesson about equality

• 1776: Activist Black community forms in Boston

• 1789: Enslavers are majority in first U.S. Congress

• 1790: U.S. Congress: "You must be White to be a citizen"

• 1810: David Ruggles: Marshals support for freedom seekers

• 1816: "Fantasy" scheme to preserve U.S. slavery

• 1823: Supreme Court legitimizes theft of Native lands

• 1826: New group fosters Black abolitionist movement

• 1827: Freedom's Journal: the voice of Black abolitionism

• 1829-1830: Pro-slavery mobs devastate Black Ohio communities

• 1830: Abolitionists lead church desegregation effort

• 1831 Flagship anti-slavery paper is launched

• 1833: Emiliano Mundrucu: Challenges racism in court

• 1835: Activists foil kidnappers, help fugitives to freedom

• 1837 Wendell Phillips: Powerful voice for abolition

• 1837-1838: Black activists organize for voting rights

• 1842: Sarah Parker Remond: Activist for human rights, women's suffrage

• 1843: Abolitionists campaign against segregation, for interracial marriage

• 1844: Historian derides notions of White superiority

• 1846 "Father" of Underground Railroad helps free 800

• 1850: Martin Delany: Abolitionist leader, champions Black self-reliance

• 1855: Black abolitionists help ban segregated schools

• 1857: Supreme Court: Black Americans have no rights

• 1860: Ballot loss shows White hostility to voting rights

• 1860 New schooner linked to illegal slave trade circle

• 1860 Abolitionist plot rumors spark deadly rampage

• 1860 Wide Awake: The movement that helps Lincoln win

• 1860: Lincoln victory hailed as historic turning point

• 1860: South Carolina is first to secede from the Union

• 1862: Ida B. Wells: Journalist, civil rights leader exposes lynching

• 1863: Abraham Galloway: Militant activist, Union spy, civil rights leader

• 1865: KKK founded; will boast over 500,000 New England members in 1920s

• 1865-1866: Black Codes: Slavery by another name

• 1866: White mob kills voting rights advocates

• 1866: Wisconsin activists win voting rights campaign

• 1866: Racism robs African Americans of land reform benefits