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African American Equality in American History
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1865 Freedmen's Bureau - Free Slaves
African American citizens of Washington, D.C., staged a huge celebration a year later after the Freedmen Bureau. Approximately 5,000 people marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, past 10,000 cheering spectators, to Franklin Square for religious services and speeches by prominent politicians. Source: F. Deilman. Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, by the colored people in Washington, April 19, 1866. Wood engraving. From Harper's Weekly, May 12, 1866. -
1861-1865 Civil War (Ended 1865)
African American soldiers were eager to demonstrate that they could be courageous under fire. Source: Wounded Colored Troops at Aikens Landing.
Stereograph. Gladstone Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. -
Jim Crow Laws 1867
The segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. There were severe conseqences for not listening which lasted until 1965. Source: Education of the Freedmen. [The North American review. / Volume 101, Issue 209, October 1865] -
1881 Tuskegee Institute
Born a slave in Virginia in 1856, Booker T. Washington proved such an exemplary student, teacher, and speaker that the principal of Hampton recommended Washington to Alabamans who were trying to establish a school for African Americans in their state. Washington and his students built the school, named Tuskegee Institute after its location, from the ground up. Source: Booker T. Washington Booker, 1890. Prints and Photogrpahs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-25624 (6-2) -
1892 Commitee Ten
Tuskegee Institute was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881 under a charter from the Alabama legislature for the purpose of training teachers in Alabama. Tuskegee's program by a group of educators provided students with both academic and vocational training. Source: Frances Benjamin Johnston.Tuskegee History Class.
Copyprint, 1902. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-64712 (6-3) -
1896 Supreme Court Case - Plessy v.s Ferguson
Judge John Ferguson of the District Court of Orleans parish presided over Homer Plessy's (1/8 black) trial for the crime of refusing to leave the whites-only car and Plessy was found guilty. Tourgée, attorney for Plessy, positioned the term "color blindness" in his beliefs in the Plessy case. Source: Jim Crow Cars, The Supreme Court Says That They Are Constitutional," The Saint Paul Globe (St. Paul, Minnesota), May 19, 1896, Page 1, Col. 3.
