The Department of Justice announced on December 12, 2025 that it had sued four additional states—Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Nevada—demanding complete, unredacted voter registration lists including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, bringing the total number …
Department of JusticeHarmeet DhillonJena GriswoldBill GalvinAndrea Joy Campbell+4 morevoter-suppressiondoj-weaponizationsurveillance-stateelectoral-manipulationcivil-liberties+2 more
On August 13, 1953, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10479, establishing the President’s Committee on Government Contracts under Vice President Richard Nixon’s chairmanship. The committee was charged with ensuring that federal contractors did not discriminate in employment, …
Dwight D. EisenhowerRichard NixonGovernment Contract CommitteeNAACPcivil-rightsexecutive-orderemployment-discriminationfederal-contracting
On July 17, 1944, two transport ships loading ammunition at Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California explode, killing 320 men instantly, including 202 African American enlisted men who comprised the entire loading workforce. Three weeks later, 258 surviving Black sailors refuse to return to loading …
U.S. NavyThurgood MarshallNAACPPort Chicago 50Eleanor Rooseveltracial-discriminationmilitary-justicecivil-rightslabor-exploitationinstitutional-racism
The Detroit race riot erupts on June 20, 1943, killing 34 people, injuring over 400, and causing $2 million in property damage. The violence exposes how federal housing policy enforces residential segregation while demanding integrated war production, creating explosive tensions that government …
Detroit Police DepartmentFederal troopsDetroit housing authorityWar production workersNAACPracial-violencehousing-segregationwar-productioncivil-rightsinstitutional-racism
The Supreme Court unanimously struck down a Louisville, Kentucky ordinance prohibiting Black residents from moving onto blocks where the majority of residents were white, and vice versa. While appearing to be a civil rights victory, the Court’s reasoning in Buchanan v. Warley rested entirely …
Supreme Court of the United StatesNAACPMoorfield StoreyLouisville, Kentuckyhousing-discriminationcivil-rightsprogressive-erajudicial-powersegregation
The Supreme Court unanimously struck down Oklahoma’s grandfather clause in Guinn v. United States, marking the first time the Court invalidated a state voting restriction as a Fifteenth Amendment violation since Reconstruction. Chief Justice Edward White, himself a former Confederate soldier …
Supreme CourtChief Justice Edward WhiteOklahoma LegislatureNAACPvoting-rightssupreme-courtgrandfather-clausefifteenth-amendmentcivil-rights
Within months of taking office, President Woodrow Wilson’s administration began systematically segregating the federal government, reversing decades of relative integration in civil service employment. Postmaster General Albert Burleson proposed segregation at an April 11, 1913 cabinet …
President Woodrow WilsonPostmaster General Albert BurlesonTreasury Secretary William McAdooNAACPBooker T. Washington+1 morecivil-rightssegregationprogressive-erafederal-governmentinstitutional-racism