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The first African slaves arrive in colonial America, specifically Virginia, to be sold as slaves in 1619.
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Phillis Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is published, making her the first African American to do so.
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Slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory. The U.S Constitution states that Congress may not ban the slave trade until 1808.
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Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa but not the actual practice of slavery.
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The Missouri Compromise of 1820 bans slavery north of the southern boundary of Missouri.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin is published. It becomes one of the most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments
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The Dred Scott case holds that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizens.
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The Confederacy is founded when the deep South secedes,
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The civil war begins marking the largest loss of american life of any war ever fought.
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President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
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Black codes are passed by Southern states, drastically restricting the rights of newly freed slaves.
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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.
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Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote.
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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.
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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional
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The 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.
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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
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Barack Obama, becomes the first African American to be elected president of the United States.
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