Transcript U.S.A. Timeline

U.S.A. Timeline
Understanding historical
events related to
To Kill a Mockingbird
1850s
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1852 – Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
Beecher Stowe is published. Focused
national attention on the cruelties of slavery.
1857 – Supreme Court ruled on the Dred
Scott case. African-Americans could not be
citizens of the U.S.A.
1859 – The last slave ship arrives in Mobile
Bay, Alabama
1860s
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Abraham Lincoln elected President.
Civil War 1860-1865
1863 The Emancipation Proclamation – frees
slaves in all areas of the U.S.A.
1865 – 13th Amendment – Outlaws slavery
1866 – Ku Klux Klan is founded in Memphis
1867 – Reconstruction begins
1868 – 14th Amendment ratified – Grants
citizenship to any person born or naturalized
into the U.S.A.
1870s
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1870 – 15th Amendment – Guaranteed
black male Americans the right to vote.
1877 – End of Reconstruction – Federal
troops withdraw from the South and end
federal efforts to protect the civil rights of
African- Americans
1880s
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1881 – Public transportation is
segregated in the South.
1882 – Lynching begins. 460 Black
Americans are lynched in the 1880s.
1890s
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Literacy tests and understanding tests
keep black Americans from voting in the
South.
Lynching continues – 1111 black
Americans are lynched in the 1890s.
1896 – Plessy vs Ferguson – “Separate
but Equal” facilities are legal, known as
Jim Crow Laws.
1900 - 1910
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1901 - Booker T. Washington dines with
President Roosevelt at the White House
causing white Americans to become
furious over this casual act.
1909 NAACP is formed.
627 black Americans lynched 1900-1910
1910 - 1919
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1913 – Federal segregation begins in
work places, rest rooms, and lunch
rooms.
1914-1918 – World War I
467 black Americans lynched from 1910
-1919
1920s
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19th Amendment gives women the right
to vote.
First radio broadcast.
Anti-Lynching bill fails in the U.S. Senate
– Lynching continues. 3,436 black
Americans are lynched between 18821950.
Harlem Renaissance begins – creativity
in black writers, poets, and artists.
1920s Continued
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1929 – Herbert Hoover becomes
President.
October 29th Black Tuesday – Stock
Market crash.
Hoovervilles and Hoboes become
common in the U.S.A.
1930s
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3.2 million Americans are out of work.
1931- Scottsboro Trial begins. Nine
black teenagers charged with rape of
two white girls despite lack of evidence.
1932 – F.D.R. – Franklin Delano
Roosevelt becomes President pledging a
New Deal for America.
1930s Cont.
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1932 - 1933– Worst years of the Great
Depression.
Over 10,000 banks fail.
1934 – Dust Bowl hurts American
farmers.
1935 – FDR creates jobs through
programs like the WPA
Prices in the 1930s
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Milk 41 cents and Bread 7 cents.
Gas 10 cents and a car $550.
House $5,759
Average Salary $1,368
Unemployment 25 percent
Harper Lee’s Life
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Grew up in the 1930s in a small southern
Alabama town.
Father (Amasa) an attorney and Alabama
legislator
Playmates – older brother and neighbor
Truman Capote
Passionate reader
Scottsboro trials covered by local news when
Lee was 6 years old.