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Slavery Comes to America
In 1619, the first ship of enslaved African Americans was brought to Virginia and the slaves were sold for supplies and goods. Shortly after yet another ship with more African Americans was brought over. -
Dred Scott Case
One of the biggest African Court cases of the slavery period of America, Scott and his wife sued for their freedom on the grounds that they were living in an area where they were supposed to be proclaimed free but they were held in bondage and brought back to a place where slavery was legal. Eventually the case made it all the way up to the supreme court where Scott would lose this case and not given his freedom, a huge slap in the face to him and his wife. -
Emancipation Proclamation
During the civil war President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed over 3 million slaves that were in the rebellious states during the war, and would later lead to the ratification of the 13th amendment. -
KKK
The KKK was a white supremacist group who turned into a terrorist group, trying to instill fear into the minds of all African Americans by assaulting and murdering them as well as vandalizing their homes. They would try to be held down by the U.S. government, but for a long time it was no use and one of the scariest times in America's history for African Americans. -
Abolishment of Slavery
The 13th Amendment was the second biggest step in the right direction for the country after the emancipation proclamation, and it fully eradicated the legalization of owning slaves in America. It shed a very bright beam on the nation for moving forward and treating African Americans as equals, or so it had seemed for the foreseeable future at the time. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment, the next big step in giving African Americans the equal rights they deserved as citizens of America. It gave African Americans the right to vote, and therefor finally a voice in the government and system that had been holding them down for so long. -
Separate But Equal (Plessy v. Ferguson)
The first major step back to the evolution of equal rights for African Americans, besides the constant hate and discrimination. The case Plessy v. Ferguson gave way to the ideology of segregation and the phrase "Separate but Equal" only, things were not that equal. This sparked the era of the Jim Crow Laws, which stated as long as facilities were equal, White people and African Americans could have separate schools, banks, ect. However, African Americans had severely less equal facilities. -
NAACP Founded
The NAACP was in short a group run by the rare highly educated African Americans to support those of the colored population that were not able to fight for themselves. They the were the biggest and most well known group of freedom fighter for the African Americans -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. The Board of Education would somewhat end the Jim Crow Law era, as finally the separate but NOT equal institutions were deemed unconstitutional and eradicated, reversing the effects of the Plessy v. Ferguson case from prior years. -
Emmett Till
Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American boy, at a supermarket that cat called the woman behind the register. Days later the woman's husband and his brother hunted the kid down, jumped him, and then shot him to death. Just showing the type of power white people had over colored people at this time, as the men were not even convicted of murder after they even confessed to kidnapping the young boy. -
Rosa Parks Incident
The Rosa Parks incident refers to when she was sitting on a bus and the white portion had been filled up so she was asked to move and refused. This small gesture sparked multiple bus boycotts that dealt a sufficient blow to the bus companies and additionally the boycotts were lead by none other than Martin Luther King Jr. -
Loving v. Virginia
One of the first interracial marriages in the nation, when the couple originally got married when interracial marriage was still illegal, but after bringing the case all the way through the court system and reaching the supreme court, the law was deemed unconstitutional and the couple made history. -
Sit in Movement
the movement started because of a group of African Americans that were refused service at a coffee house because of their skin color decided to stage a sit in and peacefully fight to end this discrimination of African Americans to make the right to refuse service of a customer because of their skin color illegal. -
Freedom Rides
The freedom riders were a group of mixed race riders that rode the bus to show that they did not need to be segregated. However, despite the early portion of the ride going smoothly with little to no aggravation, when the bus ride got to the deep south, the riders were met with extreme hostility and terrorism as one of the busses was burned down. -
I Have A Dream Speech
One of if not the most well known and recognizable events in African American history is Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, which was shared with the 25,000 people who joined the march on Washington, including a fair amount of white people. This speech really touched the nation, as he shared that all he wants is for his kids to be able to group in a world where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but of their person. -
Birmingham Church Bombing
After Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and the enforcement of Alabama to integrate the school system, a Church was bombed and four young African American girls were killed. This was yet again another event of hatred towards African Americans in the south despite the nation and government trying to end segregation and discrimination. -
Mississippi Burning Murders
The murders of 3 civil rights activists was a complete tragedy, as they were effectively handed over to the KKK like the cops just wanted them dead. In 1964, some civil rights activists in Mississippi were trying to get more African Americans to vote, when they were driving to one of their destinations they were stopped by the police and arrested. They were let go the next day into the custody of KKK members and were never seen again. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
This act was a huge moment for African Americans, as it really solidified the 15th amendment, and outlawed the voting restrictions put on by a majority of the southern states such as the Grandfather claws, and literacy tests. -
Fair Housing Act
This act basically made it illegal for people to deny citizens the right to by a house or be hired for a job based on the color of their skin. -
The Bakke Decision and Affirmation Act
This act made it illegal for Universities to have racial quotas, and deny people acceptance to a University based on the color of their skin.