John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon.  For the first time, presidential candidates engaged in televised debates. Photo: Civil rights leaders meet with the president in the oval office. Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Source: Library of Congress.

Latino farm workers organized by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. Photo: Chavez speaking at a 1974 United Farm Workers rally in Delano, California. Source: Wikipedia.  Taken on June 1, 1974. Photo by Joel Levine.

Photo: President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas, Texas, on Main Street, minutes before the assassination. Also in the presidential limousine are Jackie Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife, Nellie. Source: Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News. Work in public domain; copyright expired in 1991 without renewal.

Incident at 133rd Street and Seventh Avenue during the Harlem Riots of 1964, photographed by a staff photographer of the New York World Telegraph & Sun. Source: New York World-Telegram and Sun collection, Library of Congress.

The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address. Photo: President Johnson visit during his Poverty Tour of Appalachia on April 24, 1964. Source: LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton.

Civil Rights Act, landmark civil rights and labor law, passed. Photo: Participants, some carrying American flags, marching in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. Pettus, Peter,, photographer. Library of Congress.

Watts riots after the arrest of an African American motorist in Los Angeles.  Photo: Police arrest a man during the Watts Riots. Image marked as August 12. Source: New York World-Telegram collection, Library of Congress.

Photo: President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  Source: The U.S. National Archives.

Housing and Urban Development Act passed, establishing Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Photo: Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development headquarters. Washington, D.C.  Photo by Kjetil Ree.

Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are devised

Kerner Commission appointed to investigate heightening racial tension and riots occurring across the U.S. Photo: President Lyndon B. Johnson with some members of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Violence breaks out between Vietnam War protestors and police at Democratic National Committee convening in Chicago. Photographer: David Wilson. Taken on August 10, 1968. Source: Wikipedia. Some rights reserved.

American Indian Movement begins.  Photo: Indian-Owned Shop on One Side of Route 66 Challenges White-Owned Shop on the Other.  Source: The U.S. National Archives.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis. Photo: Dr. King at apress conference. Trikosko, Marion S.,, photographer. Source: Library of Congress.

Senator Robert Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles after winning CA presidential primary.  Photo: Robert F. Kennedy speaking to a crowd of African Americans and whites through a megaphone outside the Justice Department. Warren K. Leffler, photographer. Source: United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division.

President Richard Nixon elected. Photo source: National Archives & Records Administration.

Photo: Close-up view of an astronaut’s leg and foot and footprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 lunar surface extravehicular activity. By Neil Armstrong , July 20, 1969. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Information Agency.

Despite a decade of growth in the number of women in the job market, the pay gap still amounts to women earning only 71% of men’s wages

Watergate investigation begins. Image: The Senate Watergate Investigating Committee, Associated Press file photo

President Richard Nixon wins re-election

Second Nixon administration issues severe funding cuts to social and anti-poverty programs

Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling overturns state laws against abortion

Gerald Ford becomes President following Nixon resignation

Vietnam War ends after two decades of conflict, culminating in the deaths of more than 58,000 American soldiers, over 1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters, and as many as 2 million civilians.

Community Development Block Grant Program created

President Jimmy Carter elected

First personal computer released for retail sale. In picture: Steve Wozniak holding an Apple II.

Television miniseries Roots airs to critical acclaim

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) passed. The Community Reinvestment Act is intended to encourage depository institutions to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound operations. It was enacted by the Congress in 1977 (12 U.S.C. 2901) and is implemented by Regulation […]

United States Refugee Act established

President Ronald Reagan elected

Reagan administration overhauls tax codes and cuts budget for public and subsidized housing by half, resulting in an explosion of homelessness

Tax cuts severely impact federal programs aimed at helping low-income communities

Sandra Day O’Connor becomes first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo source: Library of Congress

AIDS epidemic officially recognized in the U.S.

More than 11 million Americans are unemployed, highest rate since 1940

Following economic downturn, 15 percent of U.S. population is living in poverty.

President Ronald Reagan wins re-election

Stock market crashes on what becomes known as Black Monday

President George H.W. Bush elected

President H. W. Bush declares a “War on Drugs”

Berlin Wall comes down

First Gulf War begins

Cold War ends

Rodney King brutally beaten by four white police officers in Los Angeles

35.7 million Americans are living below the poverty line

Riots tear through Los Angeles for five days after officers are acquitted in Rodney King case

President Bill Clinton elected

Welfare Reform Act passed

President Bill Clinton wins re-election

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) established

Housing trust funds have invested $1.5 billion in building and preserving almost 200,000 housing units for low-income families

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century enacted, including four TEN policy proposals

President Clinton is tried for impeachment and acquitted

The world prepares for the new millennium amid fears of an impending so-called Y2K technological disaster

President George W. Bush elected. Photo Source: The U.S. National Archives.

More than 150 housing trust funds are in operation in the U.S.

Apple releases new product announcement for first iPod

Iraq War begins

September 11th terrorist attack kills 2,753 Americans. Photo: A helmet and flower sit atop a rack at New York City’s Engine Co. 55 firehouse in New York City. Source: The U.S. National Archives.

Department of Homeland Security created in response to 9/11 attacks. Photocredit: Ridge. Mark Wilson/Getty Images Staff

Facebook launches as an obscure online social network for college students

Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, with low-income communities being hit the hardest as hundreds of thousands of people are displaced

Twitter’s founder sends the first tweet on fledgling social network

Great Recession begins, due in large part to sub-prime mortgage and housing market crisis

President Barack Obama elected, becoming America’s first African American president

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling drastically changes regulation of political campaign spending by organizations

Landmark health care bill, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) signed into law

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) created

Across the Middle East and North Africa, anti-government protests and demonstrations flourish in the so-called Arab Spring

Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, is shot and killed in Florida, sparking national outcry

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is established by executive order following several failed attempts at passing a DREAM Act and extensive organizing by CCC/FIRM

President Barack Obama wins re-election

46.5 million Americans are living in poverty

Enrollment begins in ACA online health insurance exchanges

The opioid epidemic begins, hitting rural and low-income communities hardest

Obamacare officially goes into effect

Unprecedented numbers of women and children fleeing violence in Central America cross the border into the U.S., sparking a humanitarian crisis. In this July 12, 2014, photo, a young boy is helped down from a freight car, as Central American migrants board a northbound freight train in Ixtepec, Mexico. Many smugglers take their charges from […]

13 year-old Tamir Rice is shot and killed by police while playing in a park amid growing outrage at instances police violence against unarmed black people

35 housing trust fund campaigns win more than $400 million for affordable housing

Protesters and police clash in Baltimore following the forceful arrest and death of Freddie Gray, leading to the establishment of the Movement for Black Lives

DREAMer and immigration activist Astrid Silva addresses the Democratic National Convention

Donald J. Trump walks down the West Colonnade of the White House | January 3, 2017 (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen). Source: The White House

Women’s March is the largest single-day protest in U.S. history

Protests erupt in airports across the U.S. following Trump administration’s proposed travel ban of Muslim countries

DACA is rescinded by President Trump. Photo Credit: Michael Sullivan at the newnormalphotography.com