National Council of Negro Women founded

The Marchant amendment to the Electoral Act gave women the right to vote. Women’s organizations had campaigned for decades; the first election in which women could actually cast ballots followed in...

Suffrage organizers created a civic organization to help women participate in public affairs after the constitutional victory. It institutionalized voter education and reform advocacy, though...

The amendment prohibited denying the vote because of sex after a long suffrage struggle. Many Black, Indigenous and Asian American women still faced racialized barriers to voting, and equal...

The act granted US citizenship to Native Americans born in the United States, after centuries of exclusion and federal control. Citizenship did not end tribal sovereignty disputes or guarantee the...

The act equalized voting ages for women and men at 21. The change followed decades of activism and removed a property-linked age distinction that had limited women’s political participation.

President Roosevelt’s order prohibited racial discrimination by defense contractors after A. Philip Randolph and labor allies threatened a mass march. It created a Fair Employment Practice...

The GI Bill expanded education, housing and employment support for veterans. Racial discrimination in administration and segregated institutions sharply limited Black veterans’ access to its benefits.

The act reorganized English and Welsh schooling and established free secondary education. The system expanded access but selective tracking and unequal resources continued to reproduce class...

The Charter made human rights and equal rights language part of a new international institution. Women delegates, including Hansa Mehta and Minerva Bernardino, pressed for gender-inclusive wording and...

The new organization committed to education, science and culture as foundations for peace. Its early anti-racism work challenged racial science, while later critics asked how international...