TIMELINE: HUMAN RIGHTS IN AMERICA

Americans consider human rights to be a defining feature of their national heritage. And in the almost 300 years since the country was first settled, significant strides have been made toward ensuring that all Americans -- and people the world over -- enjoy those rights that are theirs as human beings. At times, movement forward has been painfully slow. Nevertheless, the commitment of the United States, as a nation, to universal human rights has remained firm.

1607 - Captain John Smith and 105 cavaliers in three ships disembark on the Virginia coast at Jamestown on May 14 and establish the first permanent English settlement in the "New World."

1619 - The first African laborers -- indentured servants -- in the English North American colonies arrive at Jamestown in August, although slavery is not legally recognized until 30 years later.

1620 - Puritan separatists from the Church of England arrive at Plymouth Harbor on the Massachusetts coast on November 19. While on board the ship Mayflower, they draw up the "Mayflower Compact," America's first constitution, by which they agree to "combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick...for the General good of the Colony...."

1621 - Puritans of Plymouth Colony joined with native Wampanoag Indians in a Thanksgiving ceremony to celebrate a good harvest and peace. But cordial relations do not last, and warfare between European settlers and Native Americans soon becomes common. This is the case throughout the American colonies, as settlers attempt to claim greater amounts of Indian land.

1634 - Maryland is founded as a Catholic colony with religious tolerance.

1735 - A New York court recognizes freedom of the press and due process of law by acquitting John Peter Zenger, editor of Weekly Journal. Zenger had been charged with libeling the British governor by criticizing his conduct in office. Alexander Hamilton, who defended Zenger, argued successfully that the charges printed by Zenger were true, and thus not libelous.

1761 - Boston attorney James Otis, maintaining that "a man's house is his castle," opposes as unconstitutional the issuance by the superior court of writs of assistance -- general search warrants to aid in enforcement of the Sugar Act of 1733. Although Otis loses the case, his argument anticipates ideas later set forth in the U.S. Declaration of Independence regarding the rights to life, liberty, and property.

1776 - On June 7, at the Second Continental Congress of delegates from the American colonies, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moves that "these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states." The resolution is adopted July 2; the Declaration of Independence (of the American colonies from Britain) is approved by the Congress on July 4.

1783 - The Massachusetts Supreme Court outlaws slavery in that state, citing from the state's bill of rights that "all men are born free and equal."

1787 - The Constitutional Convention opens at Philadelphia on May 25. The Constitution of the United States is adopted by the delegates on September 17 and declared in effect on June 21, 1788, after nine states have ratified it.

1787 - On July 13, the Continental Congress adopts the Northwest Ordinance, which guarantees freedom of religion and support for schools, and prohibits slavery, in America's "Northwest Territories."

1791 - The Bill of Rights, 10 amendments to the Constitution intended to clarify individual and states' rights not specifically mentioned in that document, goes into effect December 15.

1807 - The U.S. Congress outlaws the importation of African slaves into the United States. Nevertheless, some 250,000 slaves are illegally imported between 1808 and 1860.

1830 - To free land for settlement, Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, which allows the government to move eastern Native American tribes to thinly settled land west of the Mississippi River. Within 10 years, the U.S. government attempts to relocate more than 70,000 Native Americans, many of whom die on the arduous journey westward.

1848 - Some 200 women and 40 men meet in Seneca Falls, New York, to draft a "bill of rights" outlining the social, civil, and religious rights of women.

1857 - A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6 -- known because of the claimant's name as the "Dred Scott" decision -- holds that a slave does not become free when taken into a free state, that Congress cannot bar slavery from a territory, and that blacks cannot be citizens.

1861 - The Civil War, America's bloody battle to preserve the Union, begins on April 12. Before the war ends in 1865, half a million American lives are lost and 11 "rebellious" southern states have seceded from the United States.

1863 - On January 1, President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that "all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States" are "forever free."

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States, takes effect on December 18.

1866 - The Ku Klux Klan, an organization of white men, is formed in the South to terrorize blacks who vote. Although it is disbanded between 1869 and 1871, a second Klan is later organized.

1868 - The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified on July 28. The amendment prohibits abridgment of citizenship rights and reaffirms the principles of due process and equal protection of the law for persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the laws thereof.

1869 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony establish the National Woman Suffrage Association, beginning a 50-year campaign to gain for women the right to vote.

1870 - The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," goes into effect on March 30.

1887 - Congress passes the Dawes (Severalty) Act, breaking up Native American tribal lands into small property units that are given to individual Indians. Remaining land is sold to white settlers.

1896 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, approves racial segregation under a doctrine known as "separate but equal," which holds that blacks are entitled to the same types of facilities as whites, but that the two groups need not share the same facilities. This allows some states to legislate segregation and makes racial discrimination acceptable and protected by law.

1909 - The National Conference on the Negro is convened on May 30, leading to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of America's most powerful civil rights organizations.

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- granting women the right to vote -- is ratified on August 26.

1924 - The Snyder Act is approved by Congress admitting all Native Americans born in the United States to full U.S. citizenship.

1933 - In a 100-day special session, Congress passes the "New Deal," guaranteeing social and economic measures for workers.

1934 - Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, which restores tribal ownership of reservation lands and establishes a credit fund for land purchases by Native Americans.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt, in a speech to Congress, identifies "Four Freedoms" as essential for all people -- freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and fear.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14 adopt the Atlantic Charter, in which they state their hope, among other things, "that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want."

1942 - Following the attack on the United States by Japan on December 7, 1941, the U.S. government forcibly moves some 120,000 Japanese-Americans from the western United States to detention camps; their exclusion lasts three years. Some 40 years later, the government acknowledges the injustice of its actions with payments to Japanese-Americans of that era who are still living.

1945 - The United States becomes a charter member of the United Nations, a body committed to, among other things, reaffirming "faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small."

1947 - The House (of Representatives) Committee on Un-American Activities investigates the U.S. motion picture industry to determine whether Communist sentiments are being reflected in popular films. When some writers refuse to testify, they are cited for contempt and sent to prison.

1948 - The United States, along with all other members of the United Nations General Assembly, approves the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The act outlines the principal civil and political rights, as well as certain economic, social, and cultural rights, of "all members of the human family."

1950 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy launches a vigorous anti-Communist campaign, charging -- but not substantiating -- treachery even among the top ranks of the U.S. government. McCarthy is eventually condemned for his conduct by the U.S. Senate.

1952 - The last racial and ethnic barriers to naturalization of aliens living in the United States are removed in June with the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952.

1954 - Racial segregation in public schools is unanimously ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 17 in a decision known as Brown v. Board of Education. The ruling, in effect, overturns the earlier "separate but equal" decision of Plessy v. Ferguson.

1955 - On December 1, an African-American woman named Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, an action often regarded as the beginning of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

1957 - In response to the Civil Rights Movement, the U.S. Congress, on April 29, approves the first civil rights bill for blacks -- this to protect voting rights -- since the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.

1962 - The National Farm Workers (later known as the United Farm Workers of America) is organized by Cesar Chavez to protect migrant American farm workers, largely Hispanic. Over the next several years, the group battles successfully to earn bargaining agreements with a number of agribusinesses.

1963 - On August 28, more than 200,000 persons of all races demonstrate in Washington, D.C., in support of black demands for equal rights.

1964 - The Omnibus Civil Rights Bill is passed June 29, during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, banning discrimination in voting, jobs, public accommodation, and other activities.

1965 - A new Voting Rights Act is signed into law on August 6. The law authorizes the U.S. government to appoint examiners to register voters where local officials have made black registration difficult.

1971 - The U. S. Senate on March 22 approves a constitutional amendment -- the Equal Rights Amendment -- banning discrimination against women because of their sex; the measure is sent to the states for ratification, but is defeated in 1982.

1975 - The United States, Canada, the Soviet Union, and 32 other countries, mostly European, sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (the Helsinki Accords), pledging, among other things, to respect the human rights of their citizens.

1977 - A human rights bureau is created within the U.S. Department of State. Its first reports on human rights are issued that year.

1980 - The U.S. Supreme Court orders the federal government to pay some $120 million dollars to eight tribes of Sioux Indians in reparation for Native American land seized illegally by the government in 1877.

1984 - President Ronald Reagan signs a law prohibiting public high schools from barring students who wish to assemble for religious or political activities outside of school hours.

1985 - The U.S. Senate votes July 11 to impose economic sanctions on South Africa in protest against the government's apartheid policy.

1986 - The United States, for the first time, officially observes the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with a national holiday.

1990 - The Americans With Disabilities Act is signed into law. The law establishes "a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability."