-
Crispus Attucks dies in the Boston Massacre
Crispus Attucks is believed to have been born around 1723, in Framingham, Massachusetts. A 1750 ad in the Boston Gazette sought the recovery of a runaway slave named "Crispas," but all that is definitely known about Attucks is that he was the first to fall during the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1888, the Crispus Attucks monument was unveiled in Boston Common. -
The Nat Turner Rebellion
Nat Turner led a rebellion in Southhampton County, Virginia. Turner and a group of followers killed some sixty white men, women, and children on the night of August 21. Turner and 16 of his conspirators were captured and executed, but the incident continued to haunt Southern whites. In the wake of the uprising planters tightened their grip on slaves and slavery. -
The Amistad Revolt
The Amistad, also known as United States v. Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, 40 U.S. was a United States Supreme Court case resulting from the rebellion of Africans on board the Spanish schooner La Amistad in 1839. t was an unusual freedom suit that involved international issues and parties, as well as United States law. The historian Samuel Eliot Morison in 1965 described it as the most important court case involving slavery before being eclipsed by that of Dred Scott. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Acts were a pair of federal laws that allowed for the capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the United States. The Fugitive Slave Acts were among the most controversial laws of the early 19th century, and many Northern states passed special legislation in an attempt to circumvent them. -
Scott vs. Sanford
Dred Scott was a slave who made history by launching a legal battle to gain his freedom. After his first owner died, Scott spent time in two free states working for several subsequent owners. Shortly after he married, he tried to buy freedom for himself and his family but failed, so he took his case to the Missouri courts, where he won only to have the decision overturned at the Supreme Court level. -
John Brown Raid
John Brown and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry.Descending upon the town in the early hours of October 17th, Brown and his men captured prominent citizens and seized the federal armory and arsenal. US Marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived and stormed the engine house, killing many of the raiders and capturing Brown. He was sentenced to life inprisonment and was hung on December 2 1859. -
SC Secedes From The Union
South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to SECEDE from the Union. State by state, conventions were held, and the CONFEDERACY was formed. Just as Springfield, Illinois celebrated the election of its favorite son to the Presidency on November 7, so did Charleston, South Carolina, which did not cast a single vote for him. It knew that the election meant the formation of a new nation. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as the country entered the third year of the Civil War. It declared that all persons held as slaves shall be then and forever free but it applied only to states designated as being in rebellion. -
The Fugitive Slave Law
This controversial law allowed slave-hunters to seize alleged fugitive slaves without due process of law and prohibited anyone from aiding escaped fugitives or obstructing their recovery. This law threatened the safety of all blacks, slave and free, and forced many Northerners to become more defiant in their support of fugitives. -
13th Amendment
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.". -
End of Civil War
The war ended in Spring, 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The last battle was fought at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1865. -
Assasination of President Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln. A doctor in the audience rushed over to examine the paralyzed president. Lincoln was then carried across the street to Petersen's Boarding House, where he died early the next morning. -
14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment is legislation in the US that was ratified on the 9th of July 1868. The legislation grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. It also forbids states from denying any person his life, liberty or property, without a due process of law. It was meant to protect the civil rights of all Americans regardless of their race or gender. -
15th Amendment
It granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.". -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
April 13, 1896: Homer A. Plessy v. Ferguson was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States. May 18, 1896: In a 7 to 1 decision the "separate but equal" provision of public accommodations by state governments was found to be constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. -
The Phoenix Election
The Phoenix Election Riot in 1898 was a riot by white South Carolinians in the name of Redemption in Greenwood, South Carolina. Over a dozen prominent black leaders were murdered and hundreds were injured by the white mob.Southern states began to fight back with state legislation specifically designed to disenfranchise African American citizens. Beginning in 1895, South Carolina took its first steps towards the disfranchisement of the black citizen. -
Wilmington NC Riot
A mob of up to 2,000 whites roamed the streets of Wilmington, burned the offices of the black-owned Wilmington Record newspaper, murdered perhaps dozens of black residents, ran black and white Republican leaders out of town and forced the legally elected Republican city government to resign. -
Rosewood Massacre
A massacre was carried out in the small, predominately black town of Rosewood in Central Florida because of a white woman was cheating on her husband with another white man who abused her and she said it was a black man named Jesse Hunter so the town men set out to find him. -
Scottboro Boys
It was about 9 boys on a train seeking jobs in another city that were charged for rape which they didn't commit because 2 prostitues were sfraid of being prosecuted for prostitution. -
Sweatt vs. Painter (day of SC decision)
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, a black man, applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School. State law restricted access to the university to whites, and Sweatt's application was automatically rejected because of his race. -
Mc Laurin vs Oklahoma (day of SC decision)
George W. McLaurin was denied admission to the University of Oklahoma’s Doctorate in Education program, solely because of his race. McLaurin filed suit, and the law, ordering the University to admit McLaurin. He was separated from the other students on campus, forced to sit by himself in classrooms, libraries, and the cafeteria. The NAACP came to McLaurin’s aid, led by attorney Thurgood Marshall, who was, at the same time, arguing another desegregation case. -
Brown vs Board (day of SC decision)
The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement, inspiring education reform everywhere and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society. The Court unanimously ruled that "separate but equal" public schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till
He was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on August 24, 1955, when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till, beat him, shot him in the head and threw him in a river. The two men were aquitted by an all white jury. Till's murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging Civil Rights Movement. -
Little Rock 9
In September of 1957, the country was changed forever by the “Crisis at Central High”, One of the first federally ordered integration acts. At that time, the United States was a nation of racial inequalities and segregation. When nine courageous black students dared to challenge racial segregation in public schools by enrolling at the all-white Central High School, the “Little Rock Nine” became an integral part of the fight for equal opportunity in America. -
Ruby Bridges
Ruby Bridges was born on September 8, 1954, in Tylertown, Mississippi, She was 6 years old when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school, having to be escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums. -
James Meredith
James Meredith was born in Mississippi in 1933 and raised on a farm with nine siblings. He joined the military after high school and attended an all-black college before becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962. After he graduated, he earned a law degree and became involved in politics. He continues to be active in civil rights and lives in Jackson, Mississippi. -
March on Washington
On August 28, 1963, more than 200,000 Americans gathered in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event was designed to shed light on the political and social challenges African Americans continued to face across the country. The march, which became a key moment in the growing struggle for civil rights in the United States, culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a spirited call for racial justice and equality. -
16th St. Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963 as an act of white supremacist terrorism. The explosion at the African-American church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the United States 1960s Civil Rights Movement and contributed to support for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
Assassination of Malcolm X
On Feb. 21, 1965, the former Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X was shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. He was 39. For many, Malcolm X is a cultural hero and a symbol of black pride and social protest. -
March on Selma
In early 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) made Selma, Alabama, the focus of its efforts to register black voters in the South. That March, protesters attempting to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery were met with violent resistance by state and local authorities. As the world watched, the protesters finally achieved their goal, walking around the clock for three days to reach Montgomery. -
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) bans racial discrimination in voting practices by the federal government as well as by state and local governments.The act significantly widened the franchise and is considered among the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. -
Watts Riots
Two African Americans were arrested by white police officers for a minor vehicle violation in Watts, a small neighbourhood in Los Angeles. Couple youths intervene and quickly surrounded the police car. When the police sent reinforcement into Watts they were attacked with stones and bottles. The incident developed into a riot and there was considerable looting and a large number of businesses were fire-bombed. -
Orangeburg Massacre
The Orangeburg Massacre refers to the shooting of protestors by South Carolina Highway Patrol Officers that were demonstrating against racial segregation at a local bowling alley in Orangeburg, South Carolina near South Carolina State University on the evening of February 8, 1968.[1] Of the 150 protestors in the crowd that night, three African American males were killed and twenty-eight other protestors were injured. -
Assassination of MLK, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who became known for his advancement of civil rights by using civil disobedience. He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on Thursday April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05pm that evening. -
Arrest of Angela Davis
Angela Davis, born on January 26, 1944, in Birmingham, Alabama, became a master scholar who studied at the Sorbonne. She joined the U.S. Communist Party and was jailed for charges related to a prison outbreak, though ultimately cleared. Known for books like Women, Race & Class, she has worked as a professor and activist who advocates gender equity, prison reform and alliances across color lines. -
Lucy is Found
Lucy was discovered in 1974 by anthropologist Professor Donald Johanson and his student Tom Gray in a maze of ravines at Hadar in northern Ethiopia. -
Roots was Publishd
Roots was written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his alleged descendants in the U.S. down to Haley. -
Beating Of Rodney King
Rodney King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat him brutally, while amateur cameraman George Holliday caught it all on videotape. The four L.A.P.D. officers involved were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. After a three-month trial, a predominantly white jury acquitted the officers, inflaming citizens and sparking the violent 1992 L.A riots. -
Barack Obama becomes the first black president
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats Senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first African American elected to the White House. He garnered 365 electoral votes and nearly 53 percent of the popular vote, while his 72-year-old Republican challenger captured 173 electoral votes and more than 45 percent of the popular vote.
