Milestones in African American History

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

August 20

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

 

September 13

 

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

 

March 5

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.

1775

 

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

1777

November 1

The African Free School of New York City was opened

1777

 

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.

1787

 

July 13

The Continental Congress forbade slavery in the region northwest of the Ohio River by the Northwest Ordinance

1787

 

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

September

Benjamin Banneker published the first almanac by a black.

1793

February 12

Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law

1793

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.

1829

 

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

The Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery, was passed by Congress.

1866

 

December 18

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.

1868

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

August 1-2

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.

1936

 

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.

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.

1944

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

 

September 22

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.

1957

 

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.

1960

 

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.

1963

June-August

Civil rights protests took place in most major urban areas.

1963

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

1964

 

March 12

Malcolm X announced his split from Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam. He would be assassinated on February 21, 1965.

1964

 

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.

1965

 

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.

1966

 

October

The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.

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

Kenneth Gibson became the first black mayor of an Eastern city when he assumed the post in Newark, New Jersey.

1970

 

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.

1973

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.

1974

 

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

 

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.

 

 

African American Historical and Genealogical Society founded

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.

1983

 

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

1983

 

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

January 1 

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.

1988

 

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.

1989

 

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.

1990

 

May 13

George Augustus Stallings became the first bishop of the African-American Catholic Church, a breakaway group from the Roman Catholic Church.

1990

November 1

Ebony magazine celebrated its 45th anniversary

1991

January 15

Roland Burris became the first black attorney general of Illinois.

1991

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.

1992

August 3

Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the first woman to repeat as Olympic heptathlon champion.

1992

 

September 12

Mae C. Jemison was first black American woman in space on board the space shuttle Endeavor.

1992

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.

1993

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.

1995

 

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.

1995

 

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.

1997

 

October 25

Black American women participated in the Million Woman March in Philadelphia, focusing on health care, education, and self-help.

1998

 

January 15, 1998

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.

1998

January 18, 1998

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.

1998

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.