Colonial police shoot marching African veterans in Accra

An armed uprising began in Madagascar against French colonial domination. French forces responded with severe repression, including torture and summary executions. The struggle challenged the right of...

An interracial group began the Journey of Reconciliation through the Upper South to test compliance with the Morgan decision. Riders challenged segregated seating and faced arrests and hostility....

Jackie Robinson made his Brooklyn Dodgers debut, breaking the colour barrier in modern Major League Baseball. His entry challenged institutional exclusion from a prominent cultural and economic arena....

India became independent following decades of organizing against British rule. Ending imperial political authority repudiated the assumption that colonized people should be governed by a foreign...

Burma achieved independence after nationalist organizing and negotiations over British withdrawal. The creation of a sovereign state ended formal imperial control over its government. In an...

The colonial governor ordered the arrest of six leading United Gold Coast Convention figures after unrest following the veterans’ shootings. The detained leaders became known as the Big Six. Their...

The Supreme Court held that courts could not enforce racially restrictive housing covenants. J. D. and Ethel Shelley’s legal struggle challenged the use of state power to exclude Black families from...

President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed services regardless of race, colour, religion or national origin. Black veterans...

The General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It defined crimes against protected groups and obligations to prevent and punish them. Antiracist...

The UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris. Its principles gave campaigners language for challenging exclusion from political, social and economic rights. The...