|
1619
|
August
20.
Twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship.
They were the first blacks to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers
in the North American British Colonies. |
1641
|
Massachusetts
was the first colony to legalize slavery by statute. |
1663
|
September
13. The first documented attempt at a rebellion by slaves
took place in Gloucester County, Virginia.
|
1664
|
Maryland was the first state to try to discourage by law the marriage
of white women to black men. |
1688
|
February 18. The Quakers of Germantown, Pennsylvania passed
the first formal antislavery resolution. |
|
1712
|
April 7. A slave insurrection occurred in New York City, resulting
in the execution of 21 African Americans. |
1739
|
September 9. The Cato revolt was the first serious disturbance
among slaves. After killing more than 25 whites, most of the rebels,
led by a slave named Cato, were rounded up as they tried to escape
to Florida. More than 30 blacks were executed as participants. |
1770
|
March 5. Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, was among the
five victims in the Boston Massacre. He is said to have been the first
to fall. |
1772
|
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable decided to build a trading post near Lake
Michigan, thus becoming the first permanent resident of the settlement
that became Chicago. |
1775
|
April 19. Free blacks fight with the Minutemen in
the initial skirmishes of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord,
Massachusetts.
June 17. Peter Salem and Salem Poor were two blacks
commended for their service on the American side at the Battle of
Bunker Hill. |
1777
|
July 2. Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery.
November 1. The African Free School of New York City
was opened.
December 31. George Washington reversed previous policy
and allowed the recruitment of blacks as soldiers. Some 5,000 would
participate on the American side before the end of the Revolution.
|
1787
|
April 12. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organized the Free
African Society, a mutual self-help group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
July 13. The Continental Congress forbade slavery in
the region northwest of the Ohio River by the Northwest Ordinance.
September. The Constitution of the United States allowed
a male slave to count as three-fifths of a man in determining representation
in the House of Representatives. |
1791
|
Benjamin Banneker published the first almanac by a black. |
1793
|
February 12. Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave
Law. |
1739
|
March
14. Eli Whitney obtained a patent for his cotton gin, a device
that paved the way for the massive expansion of slavery in the South.
|
1794
|
June 10. Richard Allen founded the Bethel African Methodist
Church in Philadelphia. |
1797
|
August 30. A slave revolt near Richmond, Virginia, led by
Gabriel Prosser and Jack Bowley, was first postponed and then betrayed.
More than 40 blacks were eventually executed. |
|
1804
|
January 5. The Ohio legislature passed "Black Laws"
designed to restrict the legal rights of free blacks. These laws were
part of the trend to increasingly severe restrictions on all blacks
in both North and South before the Civil War. |
1808
|
January 1. The federal law prohibiting the importation of
African slaves went into effect. It was largely circumvented. |
1816
|
April 9. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized
at the first independent black denomination in the United States. |
1818
|
August 18. General Andrew Jackson defeated a force of Native
Americans and African-Americans to end the First Seminole War. |
1822
|
May 30. The Denmark Vesey conspiracy was betrayed in Charleston,
South Carolina. It is claimed that some 5,000 blacks were prepared
to rise in July. |
1829
|
September. David Walker's militant antislavery pamphlet, An
Appeal to the Colored People of the World, was in circulation in the
South. This work was the first of its kind by a black.
September 20-24. The first National Negro Convention
met in Philadelphia. |
1831
|
August 21-22. The Nat Turner revolt ran its course in Southampton
County, Virginia. |
1839
|
July. The slaves carried on the Spanish ship, Amistad, took
over the vessel and sailed it to Montauk on Long Island. They eventually
won their freedom in a case taken to the Supreme Court. |
1849
|
July. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery. She would return
south at least twenty times, leading over 300 slaves to freedom. |
|
1854
|
January 1. Ashmum Institute, the precursor of Lincoln University,
was chartered at Oxford, Pennsylvania. |
1857
|
March 6. The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court denied
that blacks were citizens of the United States and denied the power
of Congress to restrict slavery in any federal territory. |
1861
|
August 23. James Stone of Ohio enlisted to become the first
black to fight for the Union during the Civil War. He was very light
skinned and was married to a white woman. His racial identity was
revealed after his death in 1862. |
1862
|
July 17. Congress allowed the enlistment of blacks in the
Union Army. Some black units precede this date, but they were disbanded
as unofficial. Some 186,000 blacks served; of these 38,000 died. |
1863
|
January 1. The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves
in states in rebellion against the United States. |
1865
|
December 18. Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing
slavery. |
1866
|
Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell were the first blacks to
sit in an American legislature, that of Massachusetts. |
1868
|
July 6. The South Carolina House became the first and only
legislature to have a black majority, 87 blacks to 40 whites. Whites
did continue to control the Senate and became a majority in the House
in 1874.
July 28. The Fourteenth Amendment was passed. It made
blacks citizens of the United States. |
1870
|
March 30. The Fifteenth Amendment, which outlawed the denial
of the right to vote, was ratified. |
1875
|
March 1. Congress passed a Civil Rights Bill, which banned
discrimination in places of public accommodation. The Supreme Court
overturned the bill in 1883. |
1881
|
Tennessee
passed a law requiring segregation in railroad cars. By 1907 all
Southern states had passed similar laws.
|
1895
|
September 18. Booker T. Washington delivered the "Atlanta
Compromise" speech at the Cotton States International Exposition
in Atlanta, Georgia. |
1896
|
May 18. In Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court give legal
backing to the concept of separate but equal public facilities for
blacks. |
|
1905
|
July 11-13. W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter were
among the leaders of the meeting from which sprung the Niagara Movement,
the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. |
1910
|
April. The National Urban League was established. |
1912
|
September 27. W. C. Handy published "Memphis Blues."
|
1915
|
September 9. Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for
the Study of Negro Life and History. |
1918
|
February
19-21. The First Pan-African Congress met in Paris, France,
under the guidance of W. E. B. Du Bois. |
1920
|
August 1-2. The national convention of Marcus Garvey's Universal
Negro Improvement Society met in New York City. Garvey would be charged
with mail fraud in 1923. He was convicted in 1925 and deported in
1927 after serving time in prison. |
1922
- 1929
|
These are the years usually assigned to the Harlem Renaissance, which
marks an epoch in black literature and art. |
1925
|
May 8. A. Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping
Car Porters. |
|
1931
|
April 6. Nine young blacks were accused of raping two white
women in a boxcar. They were tried for their lives in Scottsboro,
Alabama, and hastily convicted. The case attracted national attention.
|
1936
|
August 9. Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics
in Berlin. |
1937
|
June 22. Joe Louis defeated James J. Braddock to become heavyweight
boxing champion of the world. |
1940
|
October 16. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., became the first black
general in the United States Army. |
1941
|
June 25. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive
order forbidding discrimination in defense industries after pressure
from blacks led by A. Philip Randolph. |
1942
|
June. Some blacks and whites organized the Congress of Racial
Equality in Chicago. They led a sit-in at a Chicago restaurant. |
1944
|
April 24. The United Negro College Fund was founded.
October 2. The first working, production-ready model
of a mechanical cotton picker was demonstrated on a farm near Clarksdate,
Mississippi. |
1947
|
April 19. Jackie Robinson became the first black to play major
league baseball. |
|
1950
|
September 22. Ralph J. Bunche won the Nobel Peace Prize for
his work as a mediator in Palestine. |
1952
|
After keeping statistics kept for 71 years, Tuskegee reported that
this was first year with no lynchings. |
1954
|
May 17. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas,
the Supreme Court completed overturning legal school segregation at
all levels. |
1955
|
December 1. Rosa Parks refused to change seats in a Montgomery,
Alabama, bus. On December 5 blacks began a boycott of the bus system
which continued until shortly after December 13, 1956, when the United
States Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation in the city. |
1957
|
February
14. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed
with Martin Luther King, Jr., as president.
August 29. Congress passed the Voting Rights Bill
of 1957, the first major civil rights legislation in more than 75
years.
|
|
1960
|
February 1. Sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina, initiated
a wave of similar protests throughout the South.
April 15-17. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina. |
1963
|
April
3. Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., blacks
began a campaign against discrimination in Birmingham.
June-August. Civil rights protests took place in
most major urban areas.
August
28. The March on Washington was the largest civil rights
demonstration ever. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I
Have a Dream" speech.
|
1964
|
January 23. The Twenty-fourth Amendment forbade the use of
the poll tax to prevent voting.
March 12. Malcolm X announced his split from Elijah
Muhammad's Nation of Islam. He would be assassinated on February 21,
1965.
July 18-August 30. Beginning in Harlem, serious racial
disturbances occurred in more than six major cities. |
1965
|
January 2. The SCLC launched a voter drive in Selma, Alabama.
which escalated into a nationwide protest movement.
August 11-21. The Watts riots left 34 dead, more than
3,500 arrested, and property damage of about 225 million dollars.
|
1966
|
July 1-9. CORE endorsed the concept "Black Power."
SNCC also adopted it. SCLC did not and the NAACP emphatically did
not.
October. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland,
California founded the Black Panther Party. |
1967
|
May 1-October 1. This was the worst summer for racial disturbances
in United States history. More than 40 riots and 100 other disturbances
occurred. |
1968
|
April 4. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In the following week riots occurred in at least 125 places throughout
the country. |
1969
|
October 29. The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation
in schools had to end at once and that unitary school systems were
required. |
|
1970
|
July 1. Kenneth Gibson became the first black mayor of an
Eastern city when he assumed the post in Newark, New Jersey.
August 7. There was a shootout during an attempted
escape in a San Rafael, California, courthouse. Implicated in the
incident, Angela Davis went into hiding to avoid arrest. Davis would
be acquitted of all charges on June 4, 1972. |
1971
|
March 24. The Southern Regional Council reported that desegregation
in Southern schools was the rule, not the exception. The report also
pointed out that the dual school system was far from dismantled. |
1973
|
May 29. Thomas Bradley was elected the first black mayor of
Los Angeles.
October 16. Maynard H. Jackson was elected the first
black mayor of Atlanta. |
1974
|
April 8. Henry Aaron hit his 715th home run to become the
all-time leading hitter of home runs.
July 1. The largest single gift to date from a black
organization was the $132,000 given by the Links, Inc., to the United
Negro College Fund. |
1977
|
1977
February 3. This was the eighth and final night for the miniseries
based on Alex Haley's Roots. This final episode achieved the highest
ratings ever for a single program. |
|
1980
|
May 18. Racial disturbances beginning on May 17 resulted in 15
deaths in Miami, Florida. This was the worst riot since those in Watts
and Detroit in the 1960s. |
1982
|
May 23. Lee P. Brown was named the first black police commissioner
of Houston, Texas. |
1983
|
February 23. Harold Washington won the Democratic party nomination
for mayor of Chicago. On April 12 he would win the election for mayor.
June 22. The state legislature of Louisiana repealed
the last racial classification law in the United States. The criterion
for being classified as black was having 1/32nd Negro blood. November
2. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill establishing a federal
holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 30. Guion (Guy) S. Bluford, Jr. was the first
black American astronaut to make a space flight on board the space
shuttle Challenger |
1986
|
January 16. A bronze bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., was
the first of any black American in the halls of Congress. The first
national Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday was celebrated four days
later on January 20. |
1987
|
Frederick Drew Gregory was the first black to command a space shuttle
|
1988
|
July 20. Jesse L. Jackson received 1,218.5 delegate votes
at the Democratic National Convention. The number needed for the nomination,
which went to Michael Dukakis, was 2,082.
November 4. Bill Cosby announced his gift of $20,000,000
to Spelman College. This is the largest donation ever made by a black
American. |
1989
|
January 29. Barbara Harris was elected the first woman bishop
of the Episcopal Church. August 10. General Colin L. Powell was named
chair of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
November 7. David Dinkins was elected mayor of New
York, and L. Douglas Wilder, governor of Virginia. |
|
1990
|
February 11. Nelson Mandela, South African Black Nationalist,
was freed after 27 years in prison.
May 13. George Augustus Stallings became the first
bishop of the African-American Catholic Church, a breakaway group
from the Roman Catholic Church.
November 1. Ebony magazine celebrated its 45th anniversary. |
1991
|
January 15. Roland Burris became the first black attorney
general of Illinois.
June 18. Wellington Webb was elected mayor of Denver,
Colorado. |
1992
|
April 30. "The Cosby Show" broadcast the final original
episode of its highly successful eight season run.
August 3. Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the first woman
to repeat as Olympic heptathlon champion.
September 12. Mae C. Jemison was first black American
woman in space on board the space shuttle Endeavor.
November 3. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois was the
first black woman ever elected to the United States Senate. |
1993
|
September 7. M. Joycelyn Elders became the first black and
the first woman United States Surgeon General.
October 7. Toni Morrison was the first black American
to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
1994
|
October 21. Dexter Scott King, the youngest son of Martin
Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, is named chief executive
and chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent
Social Change in Atlanta. |
1995
|
October 16. The Million Man March, the idea of Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan, called the event, held in Washington, D.C.,
"A Day of Atonement and Reconciliation." The march was described
as a call to black men to take charge in rebuilding their communities
and show more respect for themselves and devotion to their families.
November 8. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Colin Powell, ends months of speculation by announcing that he will
not run for the U.S. presidency in 1996.
December 9. Kweisi Mfume is unanimously elected as
president and chief executive officer of the NAACP. |
1996
|
April 3. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and distinguished business
leaders are killed in a plane crash in Dubrovnik, Croatia. |
1997
|
June 23. Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X and a champion
of civil rights, died in New York of burns suffered in a June 1 fire
in her apartment, allegedly set by her 12-year-old grandson, Malcolm.
October 25. Black American women participated in the
Million Woman March in Philadelphia, focusing on health care, education,
and self-help. |
1998
|
January 15. Civil rights veteran James Farmer was one of 15
men and women awarded the Medal of Freedom from President Clinton.
Born in Marshall, Texas, he was the national director of the Congress
of Racial Equality during the 1960s and was one of the most influential
leaders of the civil rights movement throughout its most turbulent
decade.
January 18. Now an annual observance, the New York
Stock Exchange closed, for the first time, in honor of the birthday
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
September 21. Track star Florence Griffith Joyner died
at the age of 38. In the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Griffith became
the first American woman to win four track and field medals - three
gold and one silver - in one Olympic competition. |
1999
|
January 13. After 13 seasons and six NBA championships, professional
basketball star Michael Jordan retired from the game. |
|