JAN. 1, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the Confederate States of America, goes into effect.

JUNE 19, 1865

News of the Emancipation Proclamation reaches Texas.

1865

The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery.

1870

The 15th Amendment prohibits the government from using a citizen's race, color or previous status as a slave as a voting qualification.

JAN. 15, 1929

Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta.

MAY 17, 1954

In Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court bans racial segregation in public schools.
 
DEC. 1, 1955

Rosa Parks, an African American woman, is arrested after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala.; King leads a bus boycott.

SEPT. 25, 1957

The Arkansas National Guard escorts nine black students to the previously all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.

SEPT. 9, 1957

Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction, creating the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

AUG. 28, 1963

The March on Washington is held in Washington, D.C., where King delivers his “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

MARCH 21–25, 1965

In Alabama, 25,000 thousand protesters march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights, protected by federal troops.

AUG. 6, 1965

The 1965 Voting Rights Act guarantees African Americans the right to vote, suspending literacy tests and other devices intended to prevent them from voting. President George W. Bush renews the act in 2006.

APRIL 4, 1968

King is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

JUNE 1, 1980

Juneteenth is declared an official state holiday in Texas, commemorating the day Texas slaves learned they were free.

JAN. 18, 1986

President Ronald Reagan declares the third Monday in January a public holiday in honor of King's birthday.

JANUARY 1987

The City of San Antonio MLK Commission, formed in April 1986, leads its first MLK March, attended by Rosa Parks.

Compiled by Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor | Sources: The San Antonio Juneteenth Association, the King Center, the City of San Antonio