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Crispus Attucks Dies
Crispus Attucks was an African-American man killed during the Boston Massacre, making him the first casualty of the American Revolution. -
Fugitive Slave Laws
Laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory. -
Nat turner's Rebellion
A slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. -
Amistad Revolt
A 25-year-old slave named Sengbe Pieh (or "Cinque" to his Spanish captors) broke out of his shackles and released the other Africans. The slaves then revolted, killing most of the crew of the Amistad. They were on a slave ship. -
Fugitive Slave Act
All escaped slaves upon capture must be returned to their masters. -
Scott vs Sandford
This opinion declared that slaves were not citizens of the United States and could not sue in Federal courts. In addition, this decision declared that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. -
John Brown's Raid
John Brown lead a raid on Harpers ferry with slaves to try to take control of US Arsenal but it was a failure. -
SC Secedes from the Union
South Carolina became the first Southern state to declare its secession from the US and later formed the Confederacy. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
End of Civil War
General Robet Lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court House. -
Lincoln Assassination
President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed at Ford's theatre by John Wilkes Booth. -
13th Amendment
The 13th amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
14th Amendment
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. -
15th Amendment
The United States Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". -
Plessy vs Ferguson
Homer Plessy sat in the all white section of the train and was jailed for it. He argued but the ruling was "seperate but equal". -
Phoenix Election Riot
The Phoenix Election Riot in 1898 was a riot by white South Carolinians in the name of Redemption in Greenwood, South Carolina. Over a dozen prominent black leaders were murdered and hundreds were injured by the white mob. -
Wilmington Nc Riot
The Riot was a white supremacist movement, which overthrew the legitimately elected biracial government of Wilmington, North Carolina and replaced it with officials who instituted the first Jim Crow laws in North Carolina. -
Rosewood Massacre
A racially motivated mob atrocity in Florida where at least six blacks and two whites were killed, and the town of Rosewood was abandoned and destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot. -
Scottsboro Boys
Nine black guys were accused of raping two white women on a train. -
Sweatt vs. Painter
A U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. The case was influential in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education four years later. -
McLaurin vs. Oklahoma
A United States Supreme Court case that reversed a lower court decision upholding the efforts of the state-supported University of Oklahoma to adhere to the state law requiring African-Americans to be provided graduate or professional education on a segregated basis. -
Brown vs Board
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till
An African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. -
Little rock nine
The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. -
Ruby Bridges
The first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South. -
James Meredith
Was the first black student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi. -
March on Washington
More than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. -
16th Street Church Bombing
A bomb went off at a baptist church where one girl lost her right eye and four other girls were caught underneath the rubble. It was the third in 11 days. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City. -
March on Selma
Protestors Marched from Selma to Montgomery Alabama with the aid of Federal troops to raise awareness of black voters in the south. -
Voting Rights Act
This law prohibits discrimination in voting. -
Watts Riots
This 6 day riot caused 34 deaths and over 40 million dollars in damage. It was the biggest riot in the cities history until the 1992 LA riots. -
Orangeburg Massacre
Nine white highway patrolmen opened gunfire onto a college campus—killing three black students and wounding 27 others. The argument was over a bowling alley. -
MLK Assassination
Martin Luther King was shot and killed in front of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee by a sniper. -
Angela Davis Arrest
Davis was charged with aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley when she never killed anyone, she just bought the weapons. -
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
400 African American men afflicted with syphilis to go untreated for a period of almost 40 years. -
Lucy is discovered
Lucy was a hominid skeleton discovered by two men in Ethiopia that is approximately 3 million years old. -
Roots was published
A dramatization of author Alex Haley's family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendants' liberation. -
Rodney King Beating
an African-American construction worker became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles police officers, following a high-speed car chase. -
Barack Obama
Barack Obama becomes the 44th president of the US and the first black president.
