Covid-19 outbreak fuels racist attacks against Asian people

As the number of coronavirus cases started to grow in the United States, rampant ignorance and misinformation about the pandemic prompted racist and xenophobic attacks against Americans or anyone in the US who looked East Asian. President Donald Trump, who described Covid-19 as the “China virus” or “Chinese virus,” later asked Americans to “protect our Asian American community.”

March 13

Breonna Taylor killed in a botched police raid

Taylor, a Black medical worker, was in her apartment when officers barged in while executing a search warrant in a narcotics investigation, leading to a barrage of police gunfire. Her death would prompt months of protests in Louisville, Kentucky, and in cities across the US.

April 19

New York City launches team to fight anti-Asian discrimination

The city’s Commission on Human Rights created the team after receiving hundreds of harassment and discrimination reports related to Covid-19. More than 40% involved anti-Asian incidents, the agency said.

May 25

Hours later, George Floyd cries 'I can't breathe' multiple times before dying in police custody

Floyd was killed in an encounter with police in Minneapolis. The incident was caught on video and showed an officer kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.

Massive 'Black Lives Matter' murals painted on streets across the US

The giant yellow letters were painted on the road to the White House in an effort spearheaded by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser. Soon, the same words filled multiple city blocks in cities such as Dallas, Seattle and Los Angeles to represent the community and local officials’ commitment to social justice.

June 12

Atlanta police officer shoots and kills Rayshard Brooks

Brooks, 27, was killed outside a Wendy’s restaurant after failing a sobriety test, fighting with two officers, taking a Taser from one and running away. It ignited protests in Atlanta that led to the burning of the restaurant and the resignation of the city’s police chief. Officer Garrett Rolfe was fired and charged with murder in Brooks’ death.

Nike and Twitter join multiple cities designating Juneteenth an official holiday

The oldest celebration of the end of slavery in the US was recognized for the first time by major companies, universities and local governments. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 on which Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas, told slaves of their emancipation. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia recognize it, but it still isn’t a federal holiday.

June 28

St. Louis couple pulls guns on protesters

Mark and Patricia McCloskey came out of a home brandishing firearms as protesters, who were protesting Mayor Lyda Krewson’s decision to publish the names and addresses of people in favor of police reform, walked outside their home. Months later, the couple spoke on video at the Republican National Convention accusing Democrats of wanting to “abolish” the suburbs. They pleaded not guilty to weapons and tampering charges linked to the incident.

July 13

NFL's Washington franchise decides to change name and logo

The team became the first team to announce a name change. The Redskins name had long been denounced by Native American groups as an ethnic slur. The change came amid mounting pressure from corporate sponsors and after some brands, including Nike and Amazon, removed the team’s merchandise from their online stores.

July 25

WNBA dedicates season to Breonna Taylor

When the league began its season, players dedicated it to Taylor and the Say Her Name campaign, which raises awareness for Black female victims of police violence. A Social Justice Council of players and activists was created to push forward conversations about social issues.

August 23

Jacob Blake shot multiple times by police

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot in the back at point-blank range seven times by Kenosha Police Department officer Rusten Sheskey, a White man. The shooting immediately sparked local protests and intensified demonstrations against police brutality in the US. Blake survived but is paralyzed from the waist down.

August 28

March on Washington returns to the nation's capital

Fifty-seven years to the day since Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, relatives of African Americans killed or injured in recent police encounters took to the same spot on the National Mall in an emotionally call for social and political change. Thousands watched numerous speakers, including King’s son Martin Luther King III, make emphatic calls for police reform, justice reform and voter action.

October 3

Jonathan Price shot dead by police after trying to intervene in dispute

Price, a 31-year-old Black man, was intervening in a domestic dispute at a gas station in Wolfe City, Texas, a city of about 1,400 roughly 70 miles northeast of Dallas. A police officer who responded to the incident attempted to detain Price, used his Taser and then fired his weapon, hitting him. The officer, Shaun Lucas, was charged with murder in the shooting.

Kamala Harris becomes vice president-elect

The California senator is the first female, first Black and first South Asian elected to that office in the country’s nearly 250-year history. Harris was only the second Black female US senator after she was elected to Congress in 2016.

Ritchie Torres becomes first Afro-Latino member of Congress who identifies as gay

Torres, a New York City Council member, won his US House race to represent the South Bronx, one of the poorest and most Democratic districts in the country. “I hope I can represent the possibility that a poor kid, a kid of color, a LGBTQ kid from a place like the Bronx, can overcome the odds and become a member of the United States Congress,” he told CNN.

Bruce Boynton, the man who inspired the Freedom Rides, dies

The civil rights attorney and Alabama’s first Black special prosecutor was arrested in 1958 after refusing to leave the “Whites-only” section of a restaurant at a bus station in Richmond, Virginia. He was convicted of trespassing and challenged his sentence, which sparked the historic US Supreme Court ruling in Boynton v. Virginia and ignited the Freedom Rides movement in 1961.

Biden’s Cabinet is shaping up to be pretty diverse

President-elect Joe Biden nominated several people to be in his Cabinet, including retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who would be the first Black secretary of defense; Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, a Black woman, for secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a Black woman, for UN ambassador; Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban American man who would be the first Latino to serve as secretary of Homeland Security; Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, the first Native American who would serve as secretary of interior; Neera Tanden, the first woman of color and first South Asian person who would lead the Office of Management and Budget; and Cecilia Rouse, who would be the first woman of color to serve as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Biden said he would name “the most diverse Cabinet anyone in American history has ever announced.”

December 16

MLB elevates Negro Leagues to major league status

Major League Baseball recognized the Negro Leagues as a major league and will count the statistics and records of thousands of Black players as part of the game’s storied history.