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African-American History Timeline
A chronology of black history from the early slave trade through Affirmative
Action
by Borgna Brunner
1600s •
1700s •
1800–1850 •
1850–1900 •
1900–1950 •
1950–present
1619 Photograph of newspaper advertisement from the 1780s
Photograph of newspaper advertisement from the 1780s
The first African slaves arrive in Virginia.
1746 Lucy Terry, an enslaved person in 1746, becomes the earliest known
black American poet when she writes about the last American Indian attack on
her village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her poem, Bar's Fight, is not
published until 1855.
1773 Phillis Wheatley
An illustration of Phillis Wheatley from her book
Phillis Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is
published, making her the first African American to do so.
1787 Slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory. The U.S
Constitution states that Congress may not ban the slave trade until 1808.
1793 Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin greatly increases the demand
for slave labor.
1793 Poster advertising $100 reward for runaway slaves from 1860
Poster advertising $100 reward for runaway slaves from 1860
A federal fugitive slave law is enacted, providing for the return slaves who
had escaped and crossed state lines.
Top
1800 Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved African-American blacksmith, organizes a
slave revolt intending to march on Richmond, Virginia. The conspiracy is
uncovered, and Prosser and a number of the rebels are hanged. Virginia's
slave laws are consequently tightened.
1808 Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa.
1820 The Missouri Compromise bans slavery north of the southern boundary of
Missouri.
1822 Denmark Vesey, an enslaved African-American carpenter who had purchased
his freedom, plans a slave revolt with the intent to lay siege on
Charleston, South Carolina. The plot is discovered, and Vesey and 34
coconspirators are hanged.
1831 Nat Turner, an enslaved African-American preacher, leads the most
significant slave uprising in American history. He and his band of followers
launch a short, bloody, rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. The
militia quells the rebellion, and Turner is eventually hanged. As a
consequence, Virginia institutes much stricter slave laws.
William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the Liberator, a weekly paper that
advocates the complete abolition of slavery. He becomes one of the most
famous figures in the abolitionist movement.
Top
1839 On July 2, 1839, 53 African slaves on board the slave ship the Amistad
revolted against their captors, killing all but the ship's navigator, who
sailed them to Long Island, N.Y., instead of their intended destination,
Africa. Joseph Cinqué was the group's leader. The slaves aboard the ship
became unwitting symbols for the antislavery movement in pre-Civil War
United States. After several trials in which local and federal courts argued
that the slaves were taken as kidnap victims rather than merchandise, the
slaves were acquitted. The former slaves aboard the Spanish vessel Amistad
secured passage home to Africa with the help of sympathetic missionary
societies in 1842.
1846 Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
The Wilmot Proviso, introduced by Democratic representative David Wilmot of
Pennsylvania, attempts to ban slavery in territory gained in the Mexican War
. The proviso is blocked by Southerners, but continues to enflame the debate
over slavery.
Frederick Douglass launches his abolitionist newspaper.
1849 Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective
and celebrated leaders of the Underground Railroad.
1850 The continuing debate whether territory gained in the Mexican War
should be open to slavery is decided in the Compromise of 1850: California
is admitted as a free state, Utah and New Mexico territories are left to be
decided by popular sovereignty, and the slave trade in Washington, DC, is
prohibited. It also establishes a much stricter fugitive slave law than the
original, passed in 1793.
Top
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. It becomes
one of the most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments.
1854 Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing the territories
of Kansas and Nebraska. The legislation repeals the Missouri Compromise of
1820 and renews tensions between anti- and proslavery factions.
1857 Oil painting of Dred Scott
Oil painting of Dred Scott
The Dred Scott case holds that Congress does not have the right to ban
slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens.
1859 John Brown and 21 followers capture the federal arsenal at Harpers
Ferry, Va. (now W. Va.), in an attempt to launch a slave revolt.
1861 The Confederacy is founded when the deep South secedes, and the Civil
War begins.
1863 Slaves at Cumberland Landing, Va.
Slaves at Cumberland Landing, Va.
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all
persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward
shall be free."
1865 Congress establishes the Freedmen's Bureau to protect the rights of
newly emancipated blacks (March).
The Civil War ends (April 9).
Lincoln is assassinated (April 14).
The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee by ex-Confederates (May).
Slavery in the United States is effectively ended when 250,000 slaves in
Texas finally receive the news that the Civil War had ended two months
earlier (June 19).
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, prohibiting slavery (
Dec. 6).
Top
1865-1866 Black codes are passed by Southern states, drastically restricting
the rights of newly freed slaves.
1867 A series of Reconstruction acts are passed, carving the former
Confederacy into five military districts and guaranteeing the civil rights
of freed slaves.
1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, defining
citizenship. Individuals born or naturalized in the United States are
American citizens, including those born as slaves. This nullifies the Dred
Scott Case (1857), which had ruled that blacks were not citizens.
1869 Howard University's law school becomes the country's first black law
school.
1870 Hiram Revels
Hiram Revels
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right
to vote.
Hiram Revels of Mississippi is elected the country's first African-American
senator. During Reconstruction, sixteen blacks served in Congress and about
600 served in states legislatures.
1877 Reconstruction ends in the South. Federal attempts to provide some
basic civil rights for African Americans quickly erode.
1879 The Black Exodus takes place, in which tens of thousands of African
Americans migrated from southern states to Kansas.
1881 Spelman College, the first college for black women in the U.S., is
founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles.
Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in
Alabama. The school becomes one of the leading schools of higher learning
for African Americans, and stresses the practical application of knowledge.
In 1896, George Washington Carver begins teaching there as director of the
department of agricultural research, gaining an international reputation for
his agricultural advances.
1882 The American Colonization Society, founded by Presbyterian minister
Robert Finley, establishes the colony of Monrovia (which would eventually
become the country of Liberia) in western Africa. The society contends that
the immigration of blacks to Africa is an answer to the problem of slavery
as well as to what it feels is the incompatibility of the races. Over the
course of the next forty years, about 12,000 slaves are voluntarily
relocated.
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson: This landmark Supreme Court decision holds that
racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim
Crow laws in the South.
Top
1905 W.E.B. DuBois founds the Niagara movement, a forerunner to the NAACP.
The movement is formed in part as a protest to Booker T. Washington's policy
of accommodation to white society; the Niagara movement embraces a more
radical approach, calling for immediate equality in all areas of American
life.
Top
1909 W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded in
New York by prominent black and white intellectuals and led by W.E.B. Du
Bois. For the next half century, it would serve as the country's most
influential African-American civil rights organization, dedicated to
political equality and social justice In 1910, its journal, The Crisis, was
launched. Among its well known leaders were James Weldon Johnson, Ella Baker
, Moorfield Storey, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, Benjamin Hooks, Myrlie Evers-
Williams, Julian Bond, and Kwesi Mfume.
1914 Marcus Garvey establishes the Universal Negro Improvement Association,
an influential black nationalist organization "to promote the spirit of race
pride" and create a sense of worldwide unity among blacks.
1920s The Harlem Renaissance flourishes in the 1920s and 1930s. This
literary, artistic, and intellectual movement fosters a new black cultural
identity.
1931 Scottsboro Boys
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black youths are indicted in Scottsboro, Ala., on charges of having
raped two white women. Although the evidence was slim, the southern jury
sentenced them to death. The Supreme Court overturns their convictions twice
; each time Alabama retries them, finding them guilty. In a third trial,
four of the Scottsboro boys are freed; but five are sentenced to long prison
terms.
1947 Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier when he is
signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers by Branch Rickey.
1948 WWI Black Soldiers
WWI Black Soldiers
Although African Americans had participated in every major U.S. war, it was
not until after World War II that President Harry S. Truman issues an
executive order integrating the U.S. armed forces.
1952 Malcolm X becomes a minister of the Nation of Islam. Over the next
several years his influence increases until he is one of the two most
powerful members of the Black Muslims (the other was its leader, Elijah
Muhammad). A black nationalist and separatist movement, the Nation of Islam
contends that only blacks can resolve the problems of blacks.
1954 Pictured from left to right: George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and
James Nabrit
Pictured from left to right: George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall, and James
Nabrit
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. declares that racial
segregation in schools is unconstitutional (May 17).
1955 Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
A young black boy, Emmett Till, is brutally murdered for allegedly whistling
at a white woman in Mississippi. Two white men charged with the crime are
acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder
. The public outrage generated by the case helps spur the civil rights
movement (Aug.).
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section"
of a bus to a white passenger (Dec.1). In response to her arrest Montgomery
's black community launch a successful year-long bus boycott. Montgomery's
buses are desegregated on Dec. 21, 1956.
Top
1957 The Little Rock Nine pictured with Daisy Bates, the president of the
Arkansas NAACP.
The Little Rock Nine
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights group,
is established by Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L.
Shuttlesworth (Jan.-Feb.)
Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of
Governor Orval Faubus. (Sept. 24). Federal troops and the National Guard are
called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "
Little Rock Nine." Despite a year of violent threats, several of the "Little
Rock Nine" manage to graduate from Central High.
1960 Four black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, begin a sit-in at a
segregated Woolworth's lunch counter (Feb. 1). Six months later the "
Greensboro Four" are served lunch at the same Woolworth's counter. The event
triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded, providing
young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement (April).
1961 Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips
through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in
interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations.
Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked
by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (
SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white.
Top
1962 James Meredith
James Meredith
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University
of Mississippi (Oct. 1). President Kennedy sends 5,000 federal troops after
rioting breaks out.
1963 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests
in Birmingham, Ala. He writes "Letter from Birmingham Jail," which advocated
nonviolent civil disobedience.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is attended by about 250,000
people, the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital. Martin
Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The march builds
momentum for civil rights legislation (Aug. 28).
Despite Governor George Wallace physically blocking their way, Vivian Malone
and James Hood register for classes at the University of Alabama.
Four young black girls attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb
explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for
civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of
two more black youths (Sept. 15).
1964 FBI photographs of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael
Schwerner
FBI photographs of Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Schwerner
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most sweeping civil rights
legislation since Reconstruction. It prohibits discrimination of all kinds
based on race, color, religion, or national origin (July 2).
The bodies of three civil-rights workers are found. Murdered by the KKK,
James E. Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner had been working to
register black voters in Mississippi (Aug.).
Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize. (Oct.)
1965 Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-
American Unity, is assassinated (Feb. 21).
State troopers violently attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., as they try to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.
Fifty marchers are hospitalized on "Bloody Sunday," after police use tear
gas, whips, and clubs against them. The march is considered the catalyst for
pushing through the voting rights act five months later (March 7).
Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern
blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other such
requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal (Aug.
10).
In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people
are killed and 883 injured (Aug. 11-16).
Top
1966 Members of The Black Panthers Party
Members of The Black Panthers Party: Bobby Seale and Huey Newton
The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale (Oct.).
1967 Thurgood Marshall
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle (
April 19).
Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12-16) and Detroit (July 23-30).
President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He
becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice.
The Supreme Court rules in Loving v. Virginia that prohibiting interracial
marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states still have anti-miscegenation
laws and are forced to revise them.
1968 Eyewitnesses to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Eyewitnesses to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. (April 4).
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting
discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing (April 11).
1972 The infamous Tuskegee Syphilis experiment ends. Begun in 1932, the U.S.
Public Health Service's 40-year experiment on 399 black men in the late
stages of syphilis has been described as an experiment that "used human
beings as laboratory animals in a long and inefficient study of how long it
takes syphilis to kill someone."
1978 The Supreme Court case, Regents of the University of California v.
Bakke upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action, but imposed
limitations on it to ensure that providing greater opportunities for
minorities did not come at the expense of the rights of the majority (June
28).
1992 The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles
after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating
of African-American Rodney King (April 29).
Top
2003 In Grutter v. Bollinger, the most important affirmative action decision
since the 1978 Bakke case, the Supreme Court (5–4) upholds the University
of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors
considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a
compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a
diverse student body." (June 23)
2006 In Parents v. Seattle and Meredith v. Jefferson, affirmative action
suffers a setback when a bitterly divided court rules, 5 to 4, that programs
in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., which tried to maintain diversity in
schools by considering race when assigning students to schools, are
unconstitutional.
2008 Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat from Chicago, becomes the first African
American to be nominated as a major party nominee for president.
On November 4, Barack Obama, becomes the first African American to be
elected president of the United States, defeating Republican candidate, Sen.
John McCain.
2009 Barack Obama Democrat from Chicago, becomes the first African-American
president and the country's 44th president.
On February 2, the U.S. Senate confirms, with a vote of 75 to 21, Eric H.
Holder, Jr., as Attorney General of the United States. Holder is the first
African American to serve as Attorney General.
Read more: African-American History Timeline (Civil Rights Movement, Facts,
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