Pressure for military equality precedes Executive Order 9981

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...

African veterans marched toward Christiansborg Castle to present demands over promised benefits and pay. Police killed three veterans, and wider unrest followed. The protest confronted unequal...

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...

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...

Kwame Nkrumah formed the Convention People’s Party in the Gold Coast. Its demand for immediate self-government and mass organizing widened the struggle beyond negotiations among established...

The ANC adopted a Programme of Action calling for boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and noncooperation. It linked national freedom to ending white domination and gaining political rights. The...

The Netherlands transferred sovereignty following years of Indonesian resistance and negotiations. The transfer recognized a political independence that Indonesians had proclaimed in 1945 and defended...