This document summarizes over 50 Supreme Court rulings, Congressional acts, and other events related to civil rights in the United States from the 1860s to the 1980s. Some key takeaways are: the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling established the "separate but equal" doctrine; the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling overturned legal racial segregation in schools; and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were major pieces of legislation that outlawed racial discrimination and expanded voting rights.