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American Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, which were at the time at war with Great Britain, removed themselves from the British Empire and saw themselves as independent states. -
Black Loyalists Migrate to Canada
During the American Revolution, tens of thousands of refugees were forced to flee. Because they were loyal to Britain, they were called "Loyalists." Many of these Loyalists were Blacks who had been promised their freedom if they would fight on the British side. -
The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in Britain
This society was created when 12 men gathered at a printing shop in London, England with the purpose of informing the public of the inhumane and immoral treatment of enslaved Africans, to campaign in favour of a new law to abolish the slave trade and enforce this on the high seas, and to establish areas in West Africa where Africans could live free of the risk of capture and sale into slavery. -
Britain Abolishes the Slave Trade
A strong movement emerged in 18th-century Britain to put an end to the buying and selling of human beings. These early activists argued that the only way to end the suffering of enslaved Africans was to make the slave trade illegal by banning British ships from taking part in the trade. In the United Kingdom, The Slave Trade Act was passed. The act abolished the slave trade in the British Empire, but not slavery itself. -
U.S. Abolishes Trade in African Peoples
On January 1, 1808, the importation of slaves into the United States was formally, and finally, abolished. -
Peak of the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. Its peak was between 1830 and 1865. -
British Empire Abolishes Slavery
In 1833, The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was created in the United Kingdom to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire (with the exceptions "of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company," the "Island of Ceylon," and "the Island of Saint Helena"; the exceptions were eliminated in 1843). -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. -
U.S. Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 in the United States after several Southern slave states declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America. This war was the result of decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United States over issues including states' rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery. -
Abraham Lincoln Assassinated
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Fourteenth Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. -
Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". -
Creation of NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States with the mission: "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination". -
Ontario Passes Racial Discrimination Act
In 1944, Ontario enacted the Racial Discrimination Act. The Act prohibits the publication or display, on lands, premises, by newspaper or radio, of any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation indicating racial discrimination. -
Jackie Robinson Breaks Color Barrier in MLB
Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. -
Brown vs Board of Education
The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. While the facts of each case are different, the main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools. -
Greensboro Sit-Ins
The Greensboro Sit-Ins were started by a non-violent protest by young African-American students at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. It soon spread to college towns throughout the region. -
Halifax Tears Down Africville
Former slaves of American and British owners settled on the northern tip of the Halifax peninsula. There, they created a vibrant community by the shores of the Bedford Basin known as Africville. In the 1960s, its buildings were eradicated in what was called 'urban renewal' in the 1960s. The community and its dwellings were ordered destroyed, and residents evicted in advance of the opening of the nearby A. Murray MacKay Bridge. -
Black Panthers Are Founded
The Black Panther Party was a progressive political organization that stood in the vanguard of the most powerful movement for social change in America since the Revolution of 1776 and the Civil War: It is the sole black organization in the entire history of black struggle against slavery and oppression in the United States that was armed and promoted a revolutionary agenda. -
Civil Rights Act of 1968 Passed
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law. This act provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The 1968 act provided for the equal opportunity to buy or lease housing. In 1988, it was amended to include people with disabilities and families with children. The 1968 act was a continuation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
