Skip to content
newBWS
The Ledger
On this day

July 2nd

3 events recorded on The Ledger.

  1. 1908
    The Rise

    Thurgood Marshall born

    Thurgood Marshall is born in Baltimore, Maryland. He becomes the NAACP's chief counsel, the architect of Brown v. Board of Education, and the first Black United States Supreme Court Justice.

    Read the full page →
  2. 1917
    The Record

    East St. Louis massacre

    White mobs in East St. Louis, Illinois, attack Black workers brought in to fill wartime jobs at the Aluminum Ore Company. Official counts of Black dead range from thirty-nine to two hundred; thousands are left homeless. Marcus Garvey calls it a crime against humanity; W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson lead a silent protest march of 10,000 down Fifth Avenue.

  3. 1964
    Context

    Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed

    President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. The Act's Title II uses the Commerce Clause for constitutional grounding, the lesson Congress learned from the 1883 Civil Rights Cases.

Timeline data: 159 events across The Ledger. See the full 400-year timeline →