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Jan 1, 1526
First slaves are brought to South Carolina
From "Documenting the Melungeons" an internet blog: In 1526, almost 100 years before Jamestown the first African slaves arrived in what would later become the United States. Evidence suggests these slaves along with many of the Portuguese and Spanish "men, women and children" were left behind to mix with the Native tribes. Three or four generations later these mixed Native tribes would meet the English at Jamestown. -
Boston Massacre
From History.com: "The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. A squad of British soldiers, ... , let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds; among the victims was Crispus Attucks, a man of black or Indian parentage." I think this was important because Crispus Attucks was the first black man to die as a US patriot. -
First anti-slavery society formed
Anthony Benezet founded the first American abolition society call The Society for the releif of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. 17 of the 24 men who attended the first meetings were Quakers. Benjamin Franklin was elected president of this organization in 1785. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society still exists, working to improve the racial injustice that still exists. -
Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence signed in 1776 declared that "all men are created equal." But apparently that didn't mean black men too. The white people were declaring their freedom from England - black people were given no such freedoms. -
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Emancipations
In 1777 VT declared slaves to be free begining emancipation. Over the next 25 years other northenrn states followed suit and emancipated the slaves. -
Missouri Compromise
From Bitannica.com, "On March 3, 1820, the decisive votes in the House admitted Maine as a free state, Missouri as a slave state, and made free soil all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border." This was improtant because it was an attempt to limit slavery. And it was one of numerous events that led to the civil war. -
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Civil War
The civil war while not fought just because of slavery was a huge event that was about economics. And slavery was a necessary component to keeping the southern states economy profitable due to the free labor of the slaves. The civil war bacme the war to free the slaves after the Emancipation Proclomation. Black people fully participanted in this war on both side. -
Lincoln signs the emancipation proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Th -
Assault on Battery Wagner
At dusk on July 18 an attack on the Wagner Battery was spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment. Members of the brigade scaled the parapet but after brutal hand-to-hand combat were driven out with heavy casualties. This was the fourth time in the war that black troops played a crucial combat role, proving to skeptics that they would fight bravely if only given the chance. -
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment formally aboshed slavery by declaring 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." -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment 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. -
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution 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." Although the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 before the majority of African Americans in the South were registered to vote. -
NAACP founded
Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, campaigning for equal opportunity and conducting voter mobilization. -
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Great Depression
The great depression started with the stock market crash in 1929 and didn't really end until the US got into WWII with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The war effort kicked the economy into full gear. Most black people remained in the rural south. The depression most effected poor folks and especially blacks from the south when the need for cash crop production from the 1920s dryed up. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans. declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional. This case 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. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. -
Civil Rights Act
In 1964 Congress passed Public Law 88-352 (78 Stat. 241). Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to "fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual's race, color,religion, sex, or national origin. This was landmark legislation that forced changes to prejudice behavior in the workplace. -
Barak Obama become the first black president
In 2008 the US elected the first black man to become president of the Unired States of America. This event is shows that now a black man can do anything he desires even in the face of continued discrimination and racial bias that still continues in the US. -
Importation of African slave banned
The U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” -
Adam Clayton Powell
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was a Baptist pastor and an American politician, who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives (1945–71). He was the first person from New York of African-American descent to be elected to Congress -
Malcom X and the Nation of Islam
Malcolm X becomes a minister of the Nation of Islam. Over the next several years his influence increases until he is one of the two most powerful members of the Black Muslims (the other was its leader, Elijah Muhammad). This is important because the Nation of Islam contends that only blacks can resolve the problems of blacks.
