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25 slaves armed with guns and clubs burned down houses on the northern edge of New York City and killed nine whites. The rebels were killed after soldiers arrived. The repercussions of this rebellion resulted in the tortuous execution of 18 participants in the rebellion. https://www.britannica.com/event/New-York-slave-rebellion-of-1712 -
The Underground Railroad was created in response to the suffering of enslaved African Americans. The Underground Railroad was an escape from slaver with assistance from formerly enslaved people, free African Americans, and white people opposed to slavery.
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Approximately 80 slaves armed themselves and attempted to march toward Spanish Florida from their home area of Stono, South Carolina. When confronted by a group of white militia, a battle ensued. Forty-four blacks and twenty-one whites perished.
https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/stono-rebellion/ -
In 1800, Gabriel Prosser organized more than 1,000 slaves and amassed an armory of weapons in Richmond, Virginia, in the first planned large-scale slave revolt. On the day of the invasion, bridges leading to Richmond were destroyed in a flood. Prosser was betrayed and captured by the state militia. Along with 35 of his men, he was hanged.
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24714507 -
Slave rebellion in Louisiana in which 500 slaves took part and 100 were killed. Louisiana had only recently joined the United States after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
https://theblackdetour.com/andrys-rebellion-largest-servile-slave-uprising-in-united-states-history/ -
Three hundred fugitive slaves and twenty Florida Native Americans battled U.S. Army troops at Apalachicola Bay in Florida for several days.
https://blackhistory45.blogspot.com/2011/04/fort-blount-1816.html -
In the early 1800's a Quaker abolitionist from Pennsylvania set up a network to help slaves escape to freedom through Pennsylvania. The Underground Railroad became more organized but still was under the radar in 1831 when it was given its name. Thousands of enslaved people were smuggled to the Northern states and into Canada through the Underground Railroad.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad -
In February of 1863 the abolitionist Governor John A. Andrews issued the Civil War's first call for African Americans. More than 1,000 men from Massachusetts and other states formed the 54th Massachusetts infantry. Robert Shaw led the 54th Massachusetts, as they fought valiantly until they suffered major causalities at the battle of Fort Wagner.
https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/the-54th-massachusetts-infantry -
After the Civil war, the governments of the former Confederate states were closely monitored and reconstructed to prohibit slavery and create equal opportunity for African Americans. During this Period African Americans took advantage of the freedoms they had newly acquired, and created their own churches, schools, and communities. African Americans were now allowed to vote and run for public office.
https://www.nps.gov/reer/learn/historyculture/historyculture.htm -
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored people was created during the Jim Crow era to help African Americans preserve their rights and freedoms, and to fight the epidemic that was lynching. The NAACP played a vital role in the early civil rights movement and continues to fight for equal rights for all to this day.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/naacp-is-founded-in-new-york-city -
In 1917, some 10,000 people in New York City participated in an NAACP-organized silent march to protest lynching's and other violence against Black people. The march was one of the first mass demonstrations in America against racial violence. Ultimately, the NAACP was unable to get a federal anti-lynching law passed; however, its efforts increased public awareness of the issue.
https://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/naacp -
In 1929 the Chicago newspaper the Whip, under editor Joseph Bibb, sponsored a campaign to boycott Chicago stores that refused to hire blacks. Supported by the Reverend J. C. Austin of the Pilgrim Baptist Church, the program resulted in the hiring of more than two thousand blacks, mostly as clerks in Chicago department stores.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dont-buy-where-you-cant-work-movement -
On May 17, 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. State-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/brown-v-board-of-education -
Sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott was a 13-month mass protest that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional. 90% of African Americans in Mongomery stayed off public transportation, instead they walked, took cabs, rode bikes and horses, or drove their own cars in protest.
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/montgomery-bus-boycott -
Both Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock Nine bravely entered white schools to integrate these schools in response to the Brown V. Board Supreme Court ruling that stated that the segregation of schools was unconstitutional.
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On September 3, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine, arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement -
Ruby Bridges, just 6 years old on November 14, 1960, was set to begin first grade at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. As the first Black student to attend the school, Bridges carried integration on her small shoulders. She was walked to and from school by federal marshals, and they stayed with her throughout the day for her protection.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/14/us/ruby-bridges-desegregation-60-years-trnd/index.html -
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded in 1960 in the wake of student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters across the South and became the major channel of student participation in the civil rights movement. Members of SNCC included prominent future leaders such as former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc -
The Albany Movement was a desegregation campaign formed on November 17, 1961, in Albany, Georgia. Local activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the NAACP, the Ministerial Alliance, the Federation of Woman’s Clubs, and the Negro Voters League joined together to create the movement. The Albany Movement challenged all forms of racial segregation and discrimination in the city.
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/albany-movement-1961-1962/ -
The event focused on employment discrimination, civil rights abuses against African Americans, Latinos, and other disenfranchised groups, and support for the Civil Rights Act that the Kennedy Administration was attempting to pass through Congress. It was the largest gathering for civil rights of its time. An estimated 250,000 people attended the March, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous I Have a Dream speech
https://www.nps.gov/articles/march-on-washington.htm -
On July 16, 1964, an off-duty police officer shot and killed a fifteen-year-old African American boy in Manhattan. That night, there was a peaceful student protest march in Harlem. Two days later, the Congress of Racial Equality sponsored a protest march and rally to protest police brutality. By 10:30 pm, a riot had begun. The riots continued until July 23, 1964.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/race-riots-1960s -
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. It was an organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. It was part of the Black Power movement, which broke from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/black-panthers -
On October 16, 1968, in the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos placed first and third in the 200 meters Olympic final. After getting on the podium for the awards ceremony, Smith and Carlos turned toward the flag, bowed their heads, and raised a black gloved hand in the air. This symbolized the continuous struggle for African American rights in the US.
https://en.gariwo.net/righteous/exemplary-figures-in-sport/tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-21927.html -
A riot broke out on May 17th, 1980, after the acquittal of all police officers involved in a police brutality case from the year before. After a highspeed chase and the crash of a motorcycle, the responding officers had beat the victim to death with their flashlights. By nightfall the violence escalated into a full-blown riot as angry blacks attacked motorists fleeing their vehicles. By May 20th order was restored. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/miami-liberty-city-riot-1980/ -
A major outbreak of violence, looting, and arson in Los Angeles that began on April 29, 1992, in response to the acquittal of four white Los Angeles policemen on all but one charge connected with the severe beating of an African American motorist in March 1991. As a result of several days of rioting, more than 50 people were killed, more than 2,300 were injured, and thousands were arrested.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Los-Angeles-Riots-of-1992 -
Million Hoodie March is a protest primarily directed against racial profiling. The protest was held on March 21, 2012 in Union Square, New York. The case of Trayvon Martin's death triggered the protest. The 17 year old unarmed teenager wearing a hoodie was shot to death on February 26, 2012 by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford Florida. -
In 2013, three female Black organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter began with a social media hashtag, #BlackLivesMatter, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin back in 2012. BLM later became a worldwide movement in 2014
https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM -
In response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other African Americans by police brutality the 2020 BLM movement was created to protest against it.15-26 million people have participated in protests across the country. Social media has played a key role in bringing awareness and gaining more supporters to the cause. BLM has become a global cause that continues to grow more each day.
https://www.ask.com/culture/black-lives-matter-protests-2020-largest-movement -
As protests over the death of George Floyd continued around the United States, a movement was started by music execs Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang, who wrote on a site that Tuesday, June 2 would be a day to pause all business and take a stand against the “racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard.” there were 28 million posts worldwide with #BlackoutTuesday as a caption.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/06/blackout-tuesday-social-media-origin-critics -
When African Americans were forcefully brought to North America and enslaved, they still found a way to create agency and fight for their rights. Slave rebellions transformed into the Civil Rights Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement evolved into the Black Lives Matter Movement. Although they have faced adversity, African Americans have never given up on the fight for their rights and freedoms. The BLM movement continues to fight for those freedoms to this day.