From the drafting of the Constitution to the manipulation of the 14th amendment to the notion of separate-but-equal laws, the rights of African Americans were compromised for the economic interests of the white status quo, and those who held racist sentiments.

By mid-20th Century, the relentless push for equality by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and others gave hope to those who struggled against Jim Crow laws, segregation and oppression.

1955: Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, is murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. An all-white jury finds his assailants not guilty.

On Dec. 1, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus to a white passenger, which was the law. She is arrested, refuses to pay fine and is jailed.

1963: Civil rights protesters begin boycotts, sit-ins, and demonstrations in segregated Birmingham, Ala. King writes his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Congress passes the Fair Housing Act, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which makes it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent, or negotiate for the sale or rental of a dwelling because of race or religion.

1969: The Nixon administration files a motion in the Supreme Court to delay integration throughout the country. A unanimous Supreme Court rejects the request.

1978: The Supreme Court strikes down a state medical school admissions policy that set aside a specific number of seats for minority candidates.

1988: Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 over President Ronald Reagan's veto. The act limits the government's ability to withhold federal funds from institutions that discriminated on the basis of race or sex.

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