U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise black-gloved fists on medal stand at Olympics in Mexico to protest racial inequality in the U.S.; they receive death threats for years after returning home.
October 15, 1883
U.S. Supreme Court declares unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which banned discrimination in public places, and facilitates the expansion of Jim Crow laws in the South.
October 14, 1958
After refusing to accept Black lawyers as members, the District of Columbia’s Bar Association votes to change its policy.
October 13, 1892
In Monroeville, Alabama, a lynch mob seizes from jail four young Black men from 15 to 19 years old and shoots them to death without a trial.
October 12, 1995
Five police officers in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, kill Black motorist Jonny Gammage during a routine traffic stop by pinning him facedown on the pavement until he asphyxiates.
October 11, 1944
U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in Korematsu v. United States, and later issues decision upholding the executive order that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.
October 10, 1933
California cotton growers trying to break a strike, kill Mexican diplomat and two farmworkers.
October 10, 1871
Black civil rights activist Octavius Catto is killed after voting in Philadelphia, PA.
October 9, 1893
A white mob attacks a Black couple in Weakley County, Tennessee, lynching Bob Hudson and brutally beating his wife.
October 8, 2017
Facing excessively high caseloads and inadequate funding, the Missouri State Public Defender this week refuses to take on any new cases.