Preliminary Exercise:

Before reading through the contents of this page, it would be benificial to reflect on the central question below.

What are Civil Rights?

Suggested Readings: Timeline of Legislation Related to Black History:

• Slave Codes
• Virginia's Manumission Law of 1782
• Slavery and the Antebellum South
• Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
• Fugitive Slave Acts (1793, 1850)
• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - A brief video
• Black Codes - Article 1
• Black Codes - Article 2
• The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) - Constitutional Amendment Ending Slavery: 
• Civil Rights Act of 1866

Reconstruction Amendments: (Note: Choose your preference between reading level 2 and 3 in the top left corner.)

• The Thirteenth Amendment
• The Fourteenth Amendment
• The Fifteenth Amendment

Read about Civil Rights During the Reconstruction Period.

• Jim Crow Laws
• KU KLUX KLAN ACT / Civil Rights Act of 1871
• Lynching / Anti-Lynching Bills in the 1930s
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975

• Civil Rights Act of 1991

Additional Reading:

 Civil Rights Mini-Unit: A timeline of Events

1. Provide an example of a way that laws were written in the past to deny the civil rights of Black people in the U.S. 

2. In what way was racism reflected in Black Codes?

3. How did Black Codes lead to an increased number of Black people being arrested?

4. What was the purpose of Jim Crow laws?

5. What was established in the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

6. What was established in the Civil Rights Act of 1991?