Mar. 30. 1870: Ratification of 15th Amendment to U.S. Constitution gives African-American men the right to vote. Poll taxes and literacy tests soon follow. 1970: After five-year boycott, United Farm Workers signs first table grape contract. 1972: Great Britain imposes direct rule on Northern Ireland.

Mar. 31. 1927: Birth of nonviolent activist and labor organizer Cesar Chavez 20 miles north of Yuma, Ariz. 1959: The Dalai Lama flees Tibet to India. 1966: Two-day boycott of Seattle schools begins, protesting de facto segregation. 1985: 300,000 demonstrate in peace rallies across Australia. 1997: Four East Timorese arrested in Warton, England, at the British Aerospace factory where Indonesian Hawk fighter jets, used in the ongoing occupation and genocide of their homeland, are built.

Apr. 1. 1866: Congress overrides Pres. Andrew Johnson's veto of Civil Rights Bill and gives equal rights to all men born in the U.S. ... except Indians. 1955: Boycott of segregated schools begins, South Africa.

Apr. 2. 1966: 100,000 Vietnamese demonstrate in Da Nang against U.S. and South Vietnamese governments. Civil unrest spreads to Hue and Saigon. 1970: Native Americans, including a young activist named Leonard Peltier, stage a third attempted occupation of Fort Lawton in an effort to force the city of Seattle to return the land to its original owners. The campaign eventually results in the establishment of Daybreak Star Cultural Center in adjacent Discovery Park. 1982: President Reagan authorizes much broader powers for federal government to withhold public information on "national security" grounds.

Apr. 3. 1789: A Boston trader visits and describes Neah Bay, a principal village of the Makah. 1963: Martin Luther King, Jr., launches a voter registration drive in Birmingham, Alabama. Police Chief "Bull" Connor responds with fire hoses and attack dogs. 1969: Blacks riot in Chicago in response to police brutality. 1989: In Mississippi Choctaw Case, U.S. Supreme Court upholds rights of tribal courts under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.

Apr. 4. 1914: Unemployed riot in Union Square, New York City. 1967: Martin Luther King, Jr., preaches against Vietnam War and calls for common cause between civil rights and anti-war movements, Riverside Church, New York City. 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated, Memphis, Tennessee, at age 39, while visiting city in support of striking sanitation workers. Riots break out in scores of cities across the U.S.

Apr. 5. 1208: Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king, priest, astronomer and culture-hero, dies; he reduced Mayan calendar and appendices to a system of signs and ideographs which fitted all languages equally. 1969: Anti-war marches in 50 U.S. cities attract an estimated 150,000 protesters. 1992: Over 500,000 march on Washington, D.C. to support women's reproductive rights and equality. 1996: Fifty-four arrested in Good Friday protest at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory, Livermore, Calif.