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Sigma Pi Phi, the first African-American Greek-letter organization, is founded by African-American men as a professional organization, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Orlando, Florida hires its first black postman. -
First meeting of the Niagara Movement, an interracial group to work for civil rights.
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African-American men found Alpha Phi Alpha at Cornell University, the first intercollegiate fraternity for African-American me
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Jack Johnson wins the World Heavyweight Title.
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Planned first meeting of group which would become the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an interracial group devoted to civil rights.
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The National Negro Committee meets and is formed; it will be the precursor to the NAACP.
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The National Negro Committee chooses "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People" as its organization name.
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Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes formed; the next year it will merge with other groups to form the National Urban League.
The NAACP begins publishing The Crisis. -
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. was founded at Indiana University.
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Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., which is the first African-American greek-lettered organization founded at an HBCU (Howard University).
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Delta Sigma Theta Sorrority, Inc., was founded at Howard Univeristy
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The Birth of a Nation is released to film theaters. The NAACP protests in cities across the country, convincing some not to show the film.
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In Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court rules against grandfather clauses used to deny blacks the vote.
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Professor Carter G. Woodson founds the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Chicago.
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Marcus Garvey arrives in the U.S.
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Shuffle Along is the first major African American hit musical on Broadway.
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In Moore v. Dempsey, the Supreme Court holds that mob-dominated trials violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Jean Toomer's novel Cane is published. -
Scottsboro Boys arrested. The film Heavens Fall was made about the incident.
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Five African-American men recruited and trained by African-American attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker conduct a sit-in at the then-segregated Alexandria, Virginia, library and are arrested after being refused library cards.
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Followers of Father Divine and the International Peace Mission Movement join with workers to protest racially unfair hiring practices by conducting "a kind of customers' nickel sit down strike" in a restaurant.