1970 – Former SDS member Wade Rathke forms ACORN in Little Rock, Ark.
1977 – After intense lobbying from ACORN members, Congress passes the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to increase lending in “underserved” communities. The law also gives leverage to non-profits like ACORN by allowing them to derail bank mergers.
1990 – Illinois state regulators hold the first-ever public hearing to consider a thrift merger challenged by ACORN.
1992 – Project VOTE is launched. Barack Obama is hired by ACORN to run its voter registration project.
1993 – ACORN is given $55 million by 14 big banks to set up an 11-city lending program to comply with CRA.
1995 – A team of Chicago attorneys, including Obama, win a lawsuit on behalf of ACORN that forces the State of Illinois to implement the federal “motor voter” law. Meanwhile, ACORN sues the State of California to exempt its own employees from the state minimum wage, arguing that if it has to pay higher salaries, it won’t be able to hire as many people.
1996 – ACORN volunteers in Chicago work on Obama’s state senate campaign and picket Mayor Richard Daley as he welcomes delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
1997 – ACORN activists in Arkansas block the drive-through lanes of Pulaski Bank & Trust, while pressuring banks nationwide to ignore bad credit histories and low incomes when underwriting mortgages.
1998 – ACORN activists disrupt Federal Reserve hearings on Citicorp/Travelers merger even though Citigroup promised to provide home loans to illegal immigrants in California
2000 – ACORN volunteers work on Obama’s failed bid for Congress and the group endorses the Senate candidacy of Hillary Clinton.
2000 – A Senate subcommittee estimates that CRA directed $9.5 billion to non-profit housing groups like ACORN.
2001 – When workers in ACORN’s Seattle office sign cards to join the Industrial Workers of the World, they’re locked out by ACORN management, which refuses to recognize the union. In New York, ACORN-sponsored candidates win a veto-proof majority on the New York City Council and torpedo Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s efforts to let non-profit Edison Schools manage the five worst public schools.
2003 – The National Labor Relations Board finds that ACORN violated federal law by interrogating employees about union activities and firing workers who threatened to organize its Dallas office.
2004 – ACORN volunteers work on Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign. The Wall Street Journal reports that one ACORN worker in Ohio who turned in voter registrations for “Mary Poppins,” “Dick Tracy” and “Jive Turkey” was paid in crack cocaine.
2006 – Under pressure by ACORN, the Chicago City Council requires big-box retailers to pay employees at least $10 hour. In Washington State, ACORN registers 1,800 new voters, all but six of whom were later determined to be fake.
2007 – The largest case of voter fraud in Washington State history is settled when three ACORN workers plead guilty to submitting nearly 2,000 fraudulent voter registration forms, which one prosecutor called “an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls.”
2008 – ACORN founder Wade Rathke steps down as chief organizer after his brother Dale’s $1 million embezzlement in 2000 is revealed.
2008 – Michael Slater, head of Project Vote, admits that 400,000 voters newly registered by ACORN in its $18 million voter registration drive were rejected by state and local elections officials as fraudulent.
2008 – Election officials in 14 states complain of widespread voter fraud, including Philadelphia’s city commissioners, who vote unanimously to hand over more than 50,000 fraudulent registration forms gathered by ACORN workers to the U.S. attorney.
2009 – Criminal charges are filed against ACORN members in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Ohio.
2009 – The House of Representatives passes the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, which provides $140 million in grants for legal assistance for foreclosed homeowners. Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., guts an amendment by Rep. Michele Bachman, R-Minn., that would have prevented ACORN Housing and any other groups under indictment from receiving federal funds.
2009 – Obama administration hires ACORN to “partner” with the Census Bureau to compile the 2010 census.
