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Slaves Brought to America
Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to aid in the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco. -
Stono Rebellion
One of the earliest slave revolts takes place in Stono, SC. A score of whites, more than twice as many black slaves, are killed as the armed slaves tried to flee to Florida. -
Phillis Wheately
Phillis Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is published, making her the first African American to do so. -
Slavery made illegal in Northwest
The U.S Constitution states that Congress may not ban the slave trade until 1808. -
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin
Greatly increases the demand for slave labor. -
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. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise bans slavery north of the southern boundary of Missouri. -
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 -
The Liberator
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. -
Amistad Case
Slaves being transported aboard the Spanish ship Amistad. Taken over and sailed at Long Island. Eventually won their freedom in a Supreme Court Case -
Wilmot Provisio
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. -
Harriet Tubman
Escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective and celebrated leaders of the Underground Railroad. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. It becomes one of the most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments. -
Dred Scott Case
Holds that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens. -
John Brown
John Brown and 21 followers capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va. (now W. Va.), in an attempt to launch a slave revolt. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
13th Amendment
Abolishment of slavery -
14th Amendment
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. -
15th Amendment
is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote. -
Ida B. Wells
Begins crusade to investigate the lynchings of African Americans -
Plessy vs Ferguson
This landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South. -
George Washington Carver
helped liberate the South from its reliance on cotton by convincing farmers to plant peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes in order to rejuvenate the exhausted soil. -
Niagra Movement
Created by African American intellectuals and activists, led by W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter -
NAACP
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 -
The Great Migration
The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities begins. -
Harlem Renaissance
flourishes in the 1920s and 1930s. This literary, artistic, and intellectual movement fosters a new black cultural identity. -
Tuskegee Airmen
The U.S. Army creates the Tuskegee Air Squadron who will soon be known as the Tuskegee Airmen -
Jackie Robinson
breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers by Branch Rickey. -
Integration of Armed Forces
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. -
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 -
Brown vs Board of Education
declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional -
Emmett Till
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 -
Rosa Parks
refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger -
SCLC
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a civil rights group, is established by Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth -
Greensboro Sit-ins
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 -
Freedom Riders
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 -
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. -
March on Washington
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 -
Civil Rights Act
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 -
Malcolm X Assassinated
black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is assassinated -
Black Panthers
are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale -
Thurgood Marshall
President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice. -
MLK Assassinated
is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. -
First Afro-American in Space
Guion Bluford Jr. was the first African-American in space. He took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the space shuttle Challenger -
Oprah Winfrey
First black woman to host a national TV show -
First Afro-American Sec. of State
Colin Powell becomes the first African American U.S. Secretary of State -
Barrack Obama
On November 4, Barack Obama, becomes the first African American to be elected president of the United States, defeating Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain.
