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Inclusion is respect. Inclusion is feeling and being valued.
Inclusion Milestones
What’s happening in the real world when a book is published
and the book’s fictional setting both inform literary inclusion and exclusion.
2027
Inclusion Milestones are events reflecting progress toward inclusion of traditionally marginalized Americans.
2026
DEI rollbacks spawn pressure on marginalized people, protests, lawsuits, govmt shutdown, partisan media, education/research/
workplace program cuts; mental health issues; voting outcomes.
2025
• Protests against divisive Trump policies gain nationwide traction.
• Costco elevates commitment to DEI; revenues, loyalty increase.
• 20 state attorneys general sue to protect DEI.
2024
• Biden gives first government apology to Native Americans.
• AI shows limitations/potential to address bias, improve health.
• Barbie takes on patriarchy.
2023
• Tina Turner, first black artist and first woman on a Rolling Stone cover, remembered as inspiration to domestic abuse survivors.
2023
• Lighthouse Programme identifies DEI success factors: root cause understanding; success definition; accountable, invested leaders; specific context solution; tracking/course correction.
2022
• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appointed to Supreme Court
• U.S. support of Ukrainians includes ban of Russian oil
• Politico outs conservative decision to overturn Roe v. Wade
2021
• Police support conviction of George Floyd's murderer
• Most diverse U.S. Cabinet
• NASA Headquarters Building renamed after agency's first Black female engineer
2020
• Kamala Harris elected VP
• Black Lives Matter protests, largest U.S. movement
• Supreme Court prohibits LBGTQ workplace discrimination
2019
• Billy Porter first openly gay Black man to win Emmy for drama series lead actor
• Teen activist Greta Thunberg arrives in NYC after emissions-free voyage across the Atlantic
2018
• "Crazy Rich Asians" highest earning rom com in a decade
• Jared Polis first openly gay man elected governor
• First transgender person signs contract to join U.S. military
2017
• DC residents first to choose X as gender marker for driver's licenses and ID cards
• Danica Roem first openly transgender candidate elected to state legislature (Virginia)
2016
• Barbie doll introduces three new body types
• Obama signs bill to ban term “Oriental”
• Pentagon lifts transgender ban
2015
• Boy Scouts removes openly gay leader/employee restriction
• Sarah Thomas first woman NFL referee
• Supreme Court rules states cannot ban same-sex marriage
2014
• Mo'ne Davis first Little League World Series girl shutout pitcher
• America’s first marijuana stores open in Colorado
• First ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
2013
• Mary Barra first female CEO of major auto manufacturer
• U.S. military lift ban against women serving in combat
• Supreme Court rules same-sex couples entitled to benefits
2012
• Katy Perry first woman with 5 consecutive #1 Billboard singles from one album
• Obama first sitting president to publicly support LGBTQ marriage
2011
• "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ends ban on gay men and lesbians from serving openly in military.
• Trevor Bayne becomes youngest Daytona 500 winner
2010
• Kathryn Bigelow first woman Best Director Oscar winner
• Legislation for Indians and Black farmer reparation
• 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act
2009
• Stephen Hawking throws party for time travelers
• Hate Crime Prevention Act
• Rosa's Law replaces term “mental retardation" with “intellectual disability”
2008
• Barack Obama first U.S. Black president
• California Supreme Court rules marriage defined as opposite-sex couples unconstitutional
2007
• Nancy Pelosi first female Speaker of the House
• Nola Ochs graduates from college at age 95
• Hate Crime Act definitions expanded
2006
• Nine-year old Jordan Romero climbs Mt Kilimanjaro
• New Jersey rules for rights and benefits of marriage to gay and lesbian couples
2005
• Greek-born Arianna Huffington launches Huff Post
• Condoleezza Rice first Black woman U.S. Secretary of State.
• America supports victims of Hurrican Katrina
2004
• 19-year old Mark Zuckerberg co-founds Facebook
• Massachusetts first state to legalize same-sex marriage
• Bush proposes legal status for immigrants with jobs
2003
• Scientists from around the world sequence human genome
• "Finding Nemo," which deals with memory loss, becomes Pixar's biggest success to date
2002
• Halle Berry first Black woman to win Best Actress Oscar
• No Child Left Behind passed to reform educational outcomes
• Godless Americans March on Washington
2001
• Colin Powell first Black Secretary of State
• America mourns 9-11
• Virginia first to formally express regret for eugenics legislation
2000
• Sacagawea on dollar coin
• Kathleen A McGrath first woman to command a U.S. Navy warship
• Closest Presidential election in U.S. history
1999
• Mace first woman Citadel grad
• Maurice Ashley world's first Black chess grandmaster
• Unjustified segregation of persons with disabilities ruled discrimination by Supremes
1998
• Coretta Scott King asks for to help extinguish homophobia
• Nez Pierce tribe returned to Oregon after 121 years of exile
• Assistive Tech Act supports individuals with disabilities
1997
• Tiger Woods first Black and youngest Masters champion
• Madeleine Albright first female secretary of state
• Ellen DeGeneres comes out on “Time” cover
1996
• Telecomm Act mandates closed captioning and computer & telephone accessibility
• Hawaii first state to require gay and lesbian couples same privileges as other couples
1995
• “Superman” Reeves paralyzed; later creates spinal cord injury research legacy
• Million Man March
• Internet goes mainstream
• Mississippi approves slavery abolition
1994
• Future Chobani CEO Ulukaya moves to U.S. with $3,000 and no English
• Violence Against Women Act
• Darnell Martin first Black woman to direct major movie
1993
• RBG joins the Supreme Court
• Joycelyn Elders first African American surgeon general
• National Home of Your Own for people with developmental disabilities
1992
• LA Riots follow acquittal of four white LAPD officers in Rodney King beating
• Carol Moseley Braun is first African American woman senator
1991
• Naomi Campbell on Time cover
• World Wide Web debuts
• Autism is special ed category
• 92-year old Dr. Paul Spangler finishes NYC marathon
1990
• Wang opens bridal boutique
• ADA provides disability access
• Temple Grandin, autistic hero, invents humane cattle restraints
• Native American Languages Act protects native languages
1989
• Opening of Chinese-American I.M. Pei's Louvre Pyramid
• Colin Powell first Black Joint Chiefs of Staff chair
• Ros-Lehtinen first Hispanic woman elected to Congress
1988
• Shawna Robinson first woman to win NASCAR-sanctioned race
• Accessible housing units required in all new government assisted housing projects
1987
• Aretha Franklin first woman inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Congress passes McKinney Homeless Assistance Act
1986
• Oprah launches talk show
• Ann Bancroft first woman to trek North Pole
• Modern Museum of Art displays Racing Wheelchair
1985
• Live Aid Ethiopian famine relief concerts
• Gwendolyn Brooks first Black U.S. Poet Laureate
• Penny Harrington first female police chief of a major U.S. city
1984
• Jesse Jackson first Black man to run for president
• Geraldine Ferraro first major party woman VP nominee
• Joan Benoit wins the first women's Olympic marathon
1983
• Sally Ride first woman, Guion Bluford first African American in space
• Discrimination suit overturns eviction of doc treating HIV patients
1982
• MJ drops “Thriller”
• Wisconsin outlaws sex orientation discrimination
• The National Coalition for the Homeless is founded
• Viet Nam War Memorial, designed by Maya Lin
1981
• Sandra Day O’Connor sworn in as first female Supreme Court justice
• IBM Personal Computer intro, tech created in part by Black inventor Mark Dean
1980
• First rainbow flag
• Johnsons establish BET
• Sioux refuse Black Hills reparation
• Make-A-Wish created
• Census adds Asian American
1979
• Google’s Sergey Brin emigrates to escape persecution
• Susan B. Anthony first woman honored on U.S. coin
• First National March on D.C. for Lesbian and Gay Rights
1978
• Supreme Court denies quotas, upholds college racial diversity
• American Indian Religious Freedom Act and Indian Child Welfare Acts passed
1977
• Janet Guthrie first woman to race in Indianapolis 500
• Andrew Young America's first Black US ambassador to UN
• PC intros: Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore
1976
• 89-year old Arthur Rubinstein performs at Carnegie Hall
• “Linda the Librarian,” who is deaf, debuts on Sesame Street
• Jobs age 21 and Gates age 20 co-found Apple and Microsoft™
1975
• Women get right to open credit card in their own name
• Free education for children with disabilities mandated
• Transfer from Indian Affairs to tribal governments begins
1974
• Beverly Johnson first Black woman on “Vogue” cover
• Kathy Kozachenko first openly LGBTQ elected to public office
• Repeals of last “Ugly Law” to avoid public view of a disability
1973
• Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in straight sets
• Roe v Wade protects legal right to abortion
• Homosexuality removed from mental disorder list
1972
• Title IX passes: equal athletic funding, opportunities
• Katharine Graham first female Fortune 500 CEO
• Ms. Magazine launch
• Chamberlin scores 100 points
1971
• Charley Pride wins County Music Entertainer of the Year
• WGBH Boston provides Closed Captioning
• PARC requires education of people with handicaps
1970
• Betty Friedan leads Women's Strike for Equality march
• Senate votes to return 48,000 acres to Taos Indians
• Urban Mass Transit Act requires wheel chair lifts
1969
• Jimi Hendrix headlines at Woodstock
• Stonewall Inn raid protests ignite gay civil rights movement
• Anti Vietnam war protests
1968
• Architectural Barriers Act requires accessible buildings
• Indian Civil Rights Act requires land expansion consent
• Berkley student Yuji Ichioka coins term Asian American
1967
• Thurgood Marshall first Black Supreme Court justice
• Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• National Theatre of the Deaf created
1966
• Special Olympics launch
• Edward Brooke first popularly-elected Black senator
• Dr. Harry Benjamin prescribes gender transition hormones
• NOW founded
1965
• Prior’s first Ed Sullivan show
• Selma to Montgomery March
• Supreme Court ends state and local contraception laws
• Medicare and Medicaid for disabilities and low-income
1964
• Conscientious Objector Ali becomes heavyweight champ
• Title VII bans discrimination
• Takemoto Mink is first Asian American woman in Congress
• LBJ declares War on Poverty
1963
• Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech
• Equal Pay Act prohibits sex-based wage discrimination
• Community Mental Health Act alters mental health services
1962
• Andy Warhol mocks ads and supermarkets via soup cans
• Ed Roberts, paralyzed, wins fight to attend UC Berkley
• Bob Dylan writes protest anthem “Blowin’ in the Wind”
1961
• Motown signs Stevie Wonder
• Ernie Davis first Black Heisman Trophy winner
• Illinois repeals sodomy laws; first to decriminalize homosexuality
1960
• Greensboro Four stage civil rights movement sit-in prompts Woolworth to serve first Black customer at Greensboro counter
• FDA approves first commercial birth control pill
1959
• Berry Gordy founds Motown
• U.S. Census Bureau begins to track poverty by race
• Hiram Fong first Asian American senator
1958
• Bobby Fischer, age 15, international grandmaster
• Monument Valley first Navajo Tribal Park
• "Rehabilitation Gazette" launches, focuses on rights
1957
• Althea Gibson first Black tennis player to win Wimbledon
• Royal Ice Cream sit in to protest segregation.
• Johnny Cash, plays first prison concert; calls attention to reform
1956
• Elvis Presley becomes phenom
• Billie Holiday’s “Lady Sings the Blues at Carnie Hall”
• Dalip Singh Saunda first Asian elected to Congress
• First electric wheelchair
1955
• Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man
• Helen Keller’s doc wins Oscar
• Child Welfare League: first professional adoption conference
1954
• Brown v Board of Education upends racial school segregation
• Access to free public education for children with disabilities
• McCarthy censured by Senate for Communist witch hunt
1953
• Suffering Marilyn Monroe stars in “Some Like It Hot”
• Kinsey's “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” published
• George Washington Carver national monument dedicated
1952
• Ellison’s “Invisible Man” reveals how it feels to be a Black man people refuse to see
• Social Security Act provides funds for social service programs for older persons
1951
• Janet Collins first Black prima ballerina
• "We Charge Genocide" paper about U.S. submitted to U.N.
• 22nd Amendment limits Presidents to two terms
1950
• Ralph Bunche: first Black American Nobel Peace Prize win
• Einstein warns nuclear war leads to mutual destruction
• Mattachine Society, one of first gay rights groups, formed
1949
• Truman declares right of all Americans to a "fair deal"
• Congress raises min wage, extends old-age benefits, creates Federal Housing Act to provide suitable homes for all Americans
1948
• Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" published
• Executive Order: “equality of treatment in the military"
• Native American right to vote
• First computer program
1947
• Robinson breaks color barrier; plays in first TV world series.
• Freedom Riders challenge Jim Crow laws
• Hollywood Ten defy congressional communist hunters
1946
• Paralyzed Vets of America founded by service members
• Washington, first Black NFL player, signs with Rams
• Mother Cabrini first U.S. citizen canonized as saint
1945
• World War II ends; concentration camps liberated
• Wheelchair basketball begins
• Pap smear to detect cervical cancer perfected
1944
• GI Rights Bill gets resources for vets to attend college, buy homes and farms
• Supremes require States to make primary election voting accessible to all races
1943
• First mainframe computer weighs 5 tons, fills entire room
• Chinese immigrant exclusion law repealed
• Olympian POW Zamperini begins post-crash survival story
1942
• Rosie the Riveter celebrates women working in factories
• Nakashima learns traditional Japanese furniture making in Idaho internment camp
1941
• Pearl Harbor attack sparks US World War II involvement
• Lindbergh's antisemitism publicly condemned
• Exec Order 8802 bans racial employment discrimination
1940
• McDaniel wins "Gone with the Wind" Oscar yet is seated at segrated table
• Woody Guthrie writes "This Land is Your Land"
1939
• Chrysler meets many striking worker demands; solidifies UAW position, contributes to broad labor gains
• Marian Anderson sings on Lincoln Memorial steps
1938
• Wages & Hours Act creates minimum wage, prohibits child labor, mandates OT pay
• March of Dimes founded
• Benny Goodman plays swing jazz at Carnegie Hall
1937
• Intro of automatic washer
• "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" first feature-length animated cartoon with sound
• Senate vote avoids Supreme Court packing
1936
• Jesse Owens wins four golds
• Public Works Admin launches large-scale mass transit assistance
• Edward VII abdicates; marries American Mrs. Wallis Simpson
1935
• Wagner Act guarantees rights to organize trade unions, collectively bargain, and strike
• Canned beer available
• Alcoholics Anonymous founded
1934
• FHA, amortized mortgages make home ownership more attainable
• FCC organized to regulate telephone, telegraph and radio
1933
• TVA, Public Works Admin, and Relief & Construction Act create public works jobs to address flooding, electricity, forests and build dams, bridges, schools, and hospitals.
1932
• Labor Dept. gets power to determine minimum wage
• Amelia Earhart solos Atlantic
• Unemployed vets protest for payment Senate denied
• FDR, who had polio, elected president
1931
• Teenage girl Jackie Mitchell strikes out Ruth & Gehrig
• Al Capone sentenced for tax evasion
• Frozen veggies available
1930
• Salvatierra fights in Texas to end segregation of children of Mexican descent
• Supremes end prohibition
• Department of Veteran Affairs founded
1929
• National City Bank provides $25 million credit to stop market slide
• German Shepherd Buddy first guide dog
• First frozen veggies available
1928
• Virginia sterilization law challenged; Supremes ruling to affirm still not overturned
• Bootleggers' income taxed
• 78 recordings of Louis Armstrong's West End Blues
1927
• Fur & Leather Workers strike leads to 40-hour work week.
• U.S. 40 first coast‐to‐coast highway
• DeFord Bailey first Black Grand Ole Opry performer
1926
• Gertrude Ederle first woman to swim the English Channel
• Richard Byrd almost flies over the North Pole
• Amateur Bobby Jones wins British Open
1925
• Scopes teaches evolution knowing he'll be indicted
• Act of Congress recognizes Native Americans as citizens
• Hubble documents Milky Way is one of many galaxies
1924
• IBM and MGM founded
• Statue of Liberty designated National Monument
• Nellie Tayloe Ross first woman elected governor
1923
• Time magazine founded
• Immigrant Zworykin files electronic TV patent
• First successful heart value surgery
1922
• 1st presidential radio address
• 1st female senator serves one day until man is available
• Douglass home landmarked
• Lincoln Memorial dedicated
• 1st public NYC Bat Mitzvah
1921
• First Black women conferred doctorates: Sadie Alexander, Georgiana Simpson, Eva Dykes
• National Amateur & Athletic Fed founded to put girls, boys on "equal footing"
1920
• 19th Amendment ratified; women get right to vote
• Edith Wilson effectively secret female president after Woodrow Wilson's stroke
• Negro Nat'l League opens
1919
• Johnson organizes peaceful protests against racial violence
• Laborers strike to protest working conditions
• Felix the Cat first cartoon character
1918
• Influenza pandemic prompts masking, social distancing, hospital isolation
• Armistice agreement ends WWI fighting
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