Black History Month Timeline

By spm6503

  • The first African slaves arrive in Virginia

  • The Quakers protested against slavery

  • Stono Rebellion: A slave rebellion in South Carolina

  • Lucy Terry, an enslaved person in 1746, becomes the earliest known black American poet when she writes about the American Indian attack on her village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her poem, Bar's Fight, is not published until 1855.

  • Crispus Attucks killed in Boston Massacre

  • Phillis Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is published, making her the first African American to do so.

  • Slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory. The US 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.

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    Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved African-American blacksmith, organizes a slave revolt intending to march on Richmond, Virginia. The conspiracy is uncovered, and Prosser and the number of the rebels are hang. Virginia slave laws are consequently tight.and Prosser and the number of the rebels are hang. Virginia slave laws are consequently tightened.

  • Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa.Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa.

  • The Missouri compromise ban slavery north of the southern boundary of Missouri.The Missouri compromise ban slavery north of the southern boundary of Missouri.

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    Denmark Vesey, and enslaved African American carpenter who just purchased his freedom, plans a slave revolt with the intent to lay siege on Charleston, South Carolina. The plot is uncovered, and Vesey and thirty four co-conspirators or hanged.

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    Nat Turner, and enslaved African American preacher, leads the most significant slave uprising in American history. He and his band of followers launched a short, bloody, rebellion in South Hampton County, Virginia. The militia quarrels the rebellion, and Turner is eventually hanged. As a consequence, Virginia institutes much stricter slave laws.

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    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.

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    The Wilmot proviso, 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.

  • Frederick Douglass launches his abolitionist newspaper.

  • A federal fugitive slave law is enacted, providing for the return slaves who had escaped and crossed state lines.

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    The continuing debate weather territory gained Mexican war should be open to slavery is decided in compromise of 1850; California is admitted as a free state, Utah and New Mexico territories are left to be open by popular sovereignty, and the slave trade in Washington, DC, is prohibited. It also establishes a much stricter slave law than the original, passed in 1793.
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    Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective and celebrated leaders of the Underground Railroad.

  • 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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    Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska act, establishing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The legislation repeals the Missouri compromise of 1820's and renews tensions between anti and proslavery factions.

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    The Dred Scott case holds that Congress does not have a right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore that slaves are not citizens.

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    John Brown and 21 followers capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to launch a slave revolt.

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    Confederacy is founded in the deep South secedes, and the Civil War begins.

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    Pres. Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all persons held as slaves were in the Confederate states are free.

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    Congress established the Freedman's bureau to protect the rights of the newly emancipated blacks.

  • The Civil War ends

  • Lincoln is assassinated

  • The KKK is formed in Tennessee by ex Confederates.

  • Slavery in United States effectively ended when 250,000 slaves in Texas finally received news that the civil war had ended two months earlier

  • 13th Amendment to the constitution is ratified, prohibiting slavery.

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    Black codes are passed by Southern states, drastically restricting the right of newly freed slaves

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    Reconstruction acts are passed, carving the former Confederacy into five military districts guaranteeing the civil rights of free slaves

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    14th amendment to the constitution is ratified, defining citizenship. individuals born or naturalized in the United States are American citizens, including those born as slaves.

  • 15th amendment to the constitution is ratified, giving African-Americans the right to vote

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    Hiram Revels of Mississippi is elected to as the country's first African American senator. During Reconstruction, sixteen blacks served in Congress and about 600 served in state legislatures.

  • Reconstruction ends in the south. Federal attempts to provide some basic civil rights for African Americans quickly erode.

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    Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskeegee normal and industrial institute in Alabama. The school becomes one of the leading schools of higher learning, for African Americans, and stresses the practical application of knowledge. In 1896, George Washington Carver begins teaching there is a director of the department of agricultural research, gaining an international reputation for his agricultural advances.

  • Bessie Coleman was the first African American female to become a pilot

  • 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.

  • The NAACP was founded

  • Ester Jones was the real Betty Boop

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    Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in the interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,00 volunteers, black and white.

  • Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers by Branch Rickey.

  • African Americans are integrated into the US armed forces formally by President Truman

  • Brown v Board of Education declares that racial segregation is unconstitutional.

  • Emmett Till is hanged for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.

  • Claudette Colvin refuses to move from bus seat

  • Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.

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    Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. Federal troops and the national guard are called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine". Despite a year of violent threats, several of the Little Rock Nine managed to graduate from Central High.

  • Four black students in Greensboro, NC begin a sit in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. The event triggers many similar movements throughout the south.

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    The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 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.

  • Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize

  • 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.

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    State troopers violently attacked peaceful demonstrators led by MLK as they try to cross the Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. Fifty marchers are hospitalized on "Bloody Sunday," after police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against them. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.

  • The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

  • President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first black Supreme court justice.

  • Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

  • The first race riots erupt in LA after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

  • Barack Obama is elected as President of the United States

  • Barack Obama is inaugurated