1909
The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) is founded in New York.
1920
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) is founded.
1932
In India, Mohandas K. Gandhi holds
his first hunger strike.
1944
The National Congress of American
Indians is founded after Native
American service in World War II.
1946
Viola Desmond refuses to leave the
White section of a theater in Nova
Scotia—a key moment in the civil
rights movement in Canada.
1954
NAACP lawyers persuade the
Supreme Court to outlaw
segregation in education.
1956
A year-long public boycott leads
to the desegregation of buses in
Montgomery, Alabama.
1963
More than 250,000 people join the
March on Washington to claim
better rights for Black Americans.
1963
In Bristol, UK, a boycott forces the
bus company to change a policy
outlawing Black workers.
1969
Activists occupy Alcatraz Island in
San Francisco to highlight Native
American land rights.
1969
A riot breaks out when police
raid the Stonewall Inn in New York
City. The event leads to a new
type of gay rights activism.
1972
Aboriginal activists set up a “tent
assembly” outside the Australian
parliament to protest land rights.
1977
Disabled activists hold the 504
Sit-In in San Francisco and other
cities to protest the slow progress
of disability rights legislation.
1994
Nelson Mandela is elected
president in South Africa’s first
fully democratic elections.
2012
Canadian activists form Idle No
More to fight for First Nations
sovereignty and land protection.
2013
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is formed
when the killer of Black American
Trayvon Martin is freed by a court.
2018
The Windrush campaign forces the
British government to allow long-
term immigrants from the
Caribbean to remain in the country.
2020
BLM coordinates global protests
following the police killing of
George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Timeline
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