1619- One year before the Mayflower, the first 20 African slaves are sold to settlers in Virginia as "indentured servants."

1789- The Constitution is adopted. Slaves are counted as 3/5 of a person for means of representation.

1838- Over 18,000 Cherokees are forcibly removed from their land and resettled west of the Mississippi.

1861- The Civil War begins.

1863- President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. The proclamation declares "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

1865- The Civil War ends. Lincoln is assassinated. The Freedmen's Bureau is established to help former slaves. Ku Klux Klan forms in Tennessee. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, stating that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude... shall exist".

1867- Over 2,000 Chinese workers on the Central Pacific Railroad strike for better pay.

1868- The 14th Amendment is ratified, making African Americans full citizens of the U.S., prohibiting states from denying equal protection or due process of law. Women petition to be included but are turned down.

1870- The 15th Amendment is ratified, guaranteeing the right to vote will not be denied on account of race. First segregation law is passed in Tennessee, mandating separation of African Americans from whites on trains. By 1885, most Southern states have laws requiring separate schools.

1875- Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act, requiring equal accommodations for blacks with whites in public facilities other than schools.

1848- Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, restricting the immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years and requiring Chinese to carry identification cards. (Renewed in 1892 for an additional 10 years.)

1883 - The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is voided by the Supreme Court.

1896- Supreme Court rules on Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding "separate but equal" accommodations under Jim Crow laws. The National Association of Colored Women is founded and becomes a major vehicle for attempted reforms on behalf of women and people of color for the next 40 years.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

1920- The 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote and is ratified by the required 36 states. When African American women try to register to vote in most Southern states they face property tax requirements, literacy tests and other obstacles. A small number of fire departments begin hiring black males.

1924 - Congress passes the Indian Citizenship Act, granting U.S. citizenship to Native Americans. Several nations, including the Hopi and the Iroquois, decline citizenship in favor of retaining sovereign nationhood.

1941- President Roosevelt issues an executive order banning discrimination against minorities in defense contracts.

1942- Following the bombing at Pearl Harbor, U.S. government interns over 110,000 Japanese Americans in "relocation camps" encircled by barbed wire.

1947 - Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play major league baseball.

1954- In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court rules that deliberate public school segregation is illegal. Mexican Americans are ruled to be "persons of a distinct class" entitled to the protection of the 14th Amendment. Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on an Alabama bus to a white man, precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr.

1957- Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, meets with legal resistance and violence. Nine African American students attend the school with the presence of federal troops.

1962 - Cesar Chávez leads the United Farm Workers Union to win bargaining power for Mexican Americans.

1963- Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated.

1964- Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, protecting citizens against discrimination and segregation. Patsy Mink (D-HI) is the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

1965 - President Johnson signs executive order requiring federal agencies and contractors to take "affirmative action" in overcoming employment discrimination. President also signs the Immigration Act, which eliminates race, creed and nationality as a basis for admission to the U.S.

Malcolm X is assassinated. Race riots erupt in the Watts section of Los Angeles after an African American woman is killed by a fire truck driven by white men.

1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. Unrest and civil disorders erupt in 124 cities across the country. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, aimed at curbing discrimination in housing. Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is the first African American woman elected to Congress. The American Indian Movement (AIM) is founded in Minneapolis.

1978 - In the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case, the Supreme Court upholds affirmative action principles but rejects fixed racial quotas as unconstitutional. Bakke had been denied a slot in medical school and claimed to be a victim of reverse discrimination when a minority student with lower test scores gained admission through affirmative action.

1989- Douglas Wilder (D-Virginia) becomes the nation's first African American elected to state governor.

1991- Thurgood Marshall, the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, resigns for health reasons. Another African American, Clarence Thomas, is nominated and confirmed, following lengthy hearings that stemmed from sexual harassment accusations against Thomas by former employee Anita Hill.

1992- The first racially based riots in decades erupt in Los Angeles and other cities after police officers are acquitted in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, an African American.

1997 - Little Rock Superintendent of Schools Dr. Don Roberts successfully petitions for the school district to be given a window of exemption from federal desegregation monitoring.

Confederate Flag Debate! Still going on! In state government the assembly is debating on what material the flag should be made out of instead of passing laws that matter!!!!

Race and discrimination is the taboo subject for whites. When you ask a person in South Carolina if there is discrimination they will say usually that, "that was then and this is now. Discrimination ended in the 1960’s. This is a different generation!"

All state agencies had to develop a cultural competence plan. Sure it is law and every state agency has one, but after it was made it went right on the shelf along side affirmative action.

Racial Divide: When going through town you can almost see a line that divides the sections of town.

Last week I saw one trailer in a trailer park of mostly African Americans with a flag outside.

Discrimination in South Carolina is far from over! Discuss what ways race relations can improve in South Carolina and even Greenwood area (surrounding areas as well).