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Slavery Ends
The Civil War is over and the slaves have been set free. Abraham Lincoln played a huge role in this process up until his assasination. African-Americans play a huge role in the reconstruction of the South, and will still face much hardship in the years to come. -
Booker T. Washington
Wanted blacks to acquire the kind of industrial or vocational training like farming, mechanics and domestic service that would give them the necessary skills to create a place for themselves in the U.S. economy. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
A leading voice in the growing black protest movement during the first half of the 20th century. In his book Souls of Black Folk, DuBois spoke out against Washington's advocacy of industrial education, as he saw it as too narrow and economically focused, and stressed the importance of higher education for African Americans at the time. -
Marcus Garvy
Appealed to the racial pride of African Americans. He claimed that racial prejudice was so ingrained in white civilization, that it was futile for blacks to appeal to whites' sense of justice and democratic ideals, and their only hope was to leave America and return to Africa. -
George Washington Carver
Liberated the South from its reliance on cotton by convincing farmers to plant peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes in order to give back nutrients to the soil. By 1940, peanuts had become the second biggest cash crop in the South. -
Emmett Till
Kidnapped and killed by two white men in the Jim Crow South, and the two men were set free by an all-white jury. Till's mother held an open-casket funeral for her son in Chicago, and thousands attended to gain national attention. These events led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Rosa Parks
Legitimately started the Montgomery Bus Boycott whether the NAACP was ready for it or not. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested. She later explained: "I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed and I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen." -
Montgomery Bus Boycotts Begin
An African-American woman named Rosa Parks on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama and the driver told her to give her seat to a white man that had just got on. Parks refused, and was soon arrested for violating the city's racial segregation ordinances. -
Civil Rights Act
Because of the nonviolent resistance employed by Martin Luther King Jr. beginning in the late 1950s, the civil rights movement had begun to gain ground in the United States by 1960. That year, President John F. Kennedy made new civil rights legislation part of his presidential campaign platform and won more than 70 percent of the African-American vote. -
Ole Miss & James Meredith
James Meredith attempted to be admitted in to the University of Mississippi many times, and after many failures, filed a law suit against the university. It went all the way up to the Supreme Court and the Court ruled in his favor, saying that the university can not rule out students based on race. This paved the way for other African-Americans to be admitted into universities accross the country. -
Malcolm X
After Malcolm’s incarceration in 1952, he became an influential leader of the NOI, which combined Islam with Black Nationalism and sought to encourage “disadvantaged young blacks searching for confidence in segregated America”. After some tension within the NOI he left, and on February 21, 1965, while giving a speech to the public in Harlem, three members of the NOI rushed the stage and shot Malcolm 15 times at close range. After his death, his autobiography influenced the Black Power movement. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Shot
Famous for his “I Have a Dream” speech, was the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organized many marches in the name of racial equality. He spoke of the struggle facing black Americans and the need for continued action and nonviolent resistance. "I have a dream," King intoned, expressing his faith that one day whites and blacks would stand together as equals, and there would be harmony between the races. 5 years after he was shot and killed while his motel room balcony. -
Jesse Jackson
Member of the SCLC during its “crusade” for African-American Civil Rights in the South, he encouraged the youth to be more politically active, and even ran for the democratic nomination in 1984, and again in 1988. To this day, the Democratic Party includes African-American issues as a part of its platform. -
Oprah
Born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenage mother, Winfrey got her start in television news before taking over a morning talk show in Chicago in 1984. Two years later, she launched The Oprah Winfrey Show, which would go on to become the highest-rated in TV history. She notably promoted the work of black female writers, forming a film company to produce movies based on novels like The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, and Beloved, by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. -
Barack Obama
Obama was the first African-American to hold the Office of the President of the United States. His childhood being that of struggle, and later running for president with the slogan "Yes We Can", he inspired thousands of new voters, many young and black, to cast their vote for the first time in the historic election. He is by far the largest and most influential African-American political voice today. -
Barack Obama
Obama was the first African-American to hold the Office of the President of the United States. His childhood being that of struggle, and later running for president with the slogan "Yes We Can", he inspired thousands of new voters, many young and black, to cast their vote for the first time in the historic election. He is by far the largest and most influential African-American political voice today. -
Today
Summary: African-Americans, as well as many other racial groups in America, strive for, in its simplest meaning, equality for all. Though it took many years (and some still arguing that complete equality for African-Americans has not yet been achieved), most believe that equality has been achieved. And though some have sacrificed their lives for the cause, this equality was set with the philisophical ideas of some of the greatest political-rights activists the world has ever seen. -
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