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Britain bans the slave trade but not slavery itself. The ban made it illegal for British ships to transport slaves, and a blockade was established off the African coast to enforce the ban. The ban technically applied only to British ships but most countries supported it and gave the Royal Navy the right to search ships for slaves, with the exception of the United States.
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James Madison acknowledged that slavery was a great evil, but still thought of his small number of enslaved laborers as property. He also supported the American Colonization Society's campaign to return freed blacks to Africa after compensating owners.
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The United States outlawed the importing of new slaves on January 1. U.S. Constitution, Article 1 Section 9 was written to protect the slave trade for twenty years after ratification. In exchange for a 20-year ban on restrictions on the Atlantic slave trade, southern delegates of the Constitution Convention agreed to remove a clause that restricted national government's power to enact laws requiring goods to be shipped on American vessels.
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The American School for the Deaf is founded.
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Nathaniel "Nat" Turner leads a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, that resulted in 56 deaths among their victims. Afterwords, Turner was convicted and executed. In the aftermath, the state executed 56 blacks accused of being part of Turner's slave rebellion. Two hundred were lynched. Many southern states passed laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black wo
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The American Anti-Slavery Society was established.
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As part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up their land east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to a place in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," due to the fact that the move and conditions caused many to die.
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The Perkins Institution, founded by Samuel Gridley Howe in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first residential institution for people with mental retardation. Over the next century, hundreds of thousands of developmentally disabled children and adults were institutionalized, often for the duration of their lives.
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The first Women's Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York. About three hundred women and men attended the Convention, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass.
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Harriet Tubman starts to smuggle slaves out and across the Mason Dixon line. During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom.
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854, allowing people in Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders.
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The Dred Scott case lead to the ruling that congress has no right to ban slavery in states and also ruled that slaves are not citizens.
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In an attempt to launch a slave revolt, John brown along with 21 followers manage to capture the federal arsenal at Harper’s ferry in Virginia.
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The succession of the south leads to the formation of the confederacy. The civil war begins.
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President Lincoln issues the Emancipation proclamation which states that “all persons held as slaves” in the Confederate states are now free.
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The Freedmen’s Bureau act is passed by Congress to protect the rights of newly emancipated African Americans.
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The civil war comes to an end when Robert E. Lee surrenders the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse.
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President Lincoln is assassinated in Ford theater by John Wilkes Booth, a confederate supporter.
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The thirteenth amendment is ratified, prohibiting slavery.
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Southern states passed black codes which severely reduced the rights of newly freed slaves.
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The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified which defined citizenship. Individuals who are born or naturalized in the United States are considered American citizens, even those born as slaves. This nullifies the Dred Scott Case from 1857, which had ruled that blacks were not citizens.
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The fifteenth amendment is ratified allowing black to vote.
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The black exodus occurs when thousands of African Americans migrate from southern states to Kansas.
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This monumental verdict by the Supreme Court states that racial segregation is constitutional. This decision leads to the formation of repressive Jim Crow laws in the South.
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On May 31, 1909 the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) holds its first convention in New York City. More than 300 white and African American people attended the conference, featuring Ida B. Wells as a speaker.
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On February 7, 1926, the Association for the Study of Negro life and History founded “Negro History week” to coincide with Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass's birthdays. This is recognized as the foundation for the later creation of Black History month.
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On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel wins an Academy Award for her role in Gone with the Wind.
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On July 26, 1948 President Truman ordered that the U.S. desegregates its military, on not only race but also religion. "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."
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On May 17, 1954, the unanimous decision by the supreme court overturned the previous decision in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson that allowed for segregation of schools by ruling it unconstitutional.
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On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks made an infamous decision to refuse to give up her seat at the front of the bus to a white woman. This violated the Alabama law requiring blacks to give up her seat to a white person when the bus was full. Her action is regarded as a big moment in the civil rights movement- and sparked a boycott on the Montgomery bus system that lasted over a year. Source
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On December 5, 1955, after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, a boycott of the Montgomery bus system was started and lasted a little over a year, until December 20, 1956, after the U.S. supreme court told Montgomery to integrate their bus system.
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On March 6, 1961, Kennedy ordered all government contractors to not hire people based on their race. The purpose of this order was to ensure equal opportunity.
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On October 1, 1962 James Meredith attends the University of Mississippi, which caused a lot of mixed reactions. There were many riots, and President John F. Kennedy had to send the Mississippi National Guard to calm down the rioters and to protect Meredith.
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On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for being in a protest in Birmingham, Alabama. He violated the state's law against “mass public demonstrations”.
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On August 28, 1963, King gave his speech to over 250,000 attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. People of all kinds came together to march in Washington D.C. This event, like Rosa Parks’ bus ride, is an infamous moment in the civil rights movement in America.
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On September 15, 1963, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins were attending Sunday service church at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church had largely African American membership and was also used as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like MLK Jr. It is thought that the bombing was carried out by the Klu Klux Klan. source
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The poll tax, which originally made it difficult for poor blacks to vote was abolished by the 24th Amendment.
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Malcolm X is assassinated on his way to give a speech in New York on the 21st of February.
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Literacy tests, poll taxes, and other things that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is passed , which made it easier for Southern blacks to register and vote.
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The Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panthers was a political organization that stood for black rights.
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The Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia case.
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Martin Luther King is shot on the balcony outside his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed by President Johnson, which prohibited discrimination in the rental, sale, and financing of housing.
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In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the Supreme Court requires busing as a step towards achieving integration in public schools.
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Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which widens the reach of non-discrimination laws making private institutions receiving federal funds follow them as well.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is signed by President Bush, which strengthened existing civil rights laws and cases of intentional employment discrimination.
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In Los Angeles, California the first race riot in decades breaks out after four white police officers are videotaped beating an African American, Rodney King, and the jury finds them not guilty.
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The Supreme Court rules that race can be a category by which a college can choose their students off of.
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The Justice Department opens an investigation into the police department in Ferguson, Missouri because an unarmed African- American teen was shot and killed.
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On June 26, 2015, the supreme court ruled that states could not choose whether or not to legalize gay marriage.
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14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed is arrested by police after a clock he made at home was suspected of being a bomb.
