Timeline of African-American Civil Rights Movement - 21st Century

21st Century

2001

• January 20 – Colin Powell becomes Secretary of State.

2003

• June 23 – Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds the University of Michigan Law School's admission policy. However, in the simultaneously heard Gratz v. Bollinger the university is required to change a policy.

2005

• June 21 – Edgar Ray Killen is convicted of participating in the Mississippi civil rights worker murders.
• October 15 – The Millions More Movement holds a march in Washington D.C.
• October 25 – Rosa Parks dies at the age of 92. She was famous for starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Her body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. before her funeral.

2007

• May 10 – Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson on February 18, 1965.
• June 28 – Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 decided along with Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education prohibits assigning students to public schools solely for the purpose of achieving racial integration and declines to recognize racial balancing as a compelling state interest.

2008

• June 3 – Barack Obama receives enough delegates by the end of state primaries to be the presumptive Democratic Party of the United States nominee.
• August 28 – At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, in a stadium filled with supporters, Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
• November 4 – Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States of America, opening his victory speech with, "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

2009

• January 20 – Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, the first African-American to become president.
• January 30 – Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele becomes the first African-American Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
• The U.S. Postal Service issues a commemorative six-stamp set portraying twelve civil rights pioneers.
• October 9 – Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2010

• July 19 – Shirley Sherrod first is pressured to resign from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and immediately thereafter receives its apology after she is inaccurately accused of being racist towards white Americans.

2011

• January 14 – Michael Steele, the first African-American Chairman of the RNC lost his bid for re-election.

2013

• January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in for his second term as president.