-
1619
The first “indentured servants” aka slaves made their way over to Virginia to be sold. -
Period: to
Civil Rights
-
1775
Thomas Paine’s “African Slavery in America” published in the Pennsylvania Journal. -
1777
Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery. -
1783
Massachusetts outlaws slavery within its borders. -
1789
Slaves now count as three fifths of a vote. -
1792
The Atlantic slave trade was the enslavement and transportation, primarily of African people, to the colonies of the New World along the Atlantic coast and lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries. -
1793
The Fugitive Slave Act guaranteed the right of a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave -
1807
The Britain banned the slave trade but not slavery itself. -
1808
The Congress bans the importation of slaves in Africa. -
1831
Nat Turner an enslaved African-American preacher leads a slave uprising. -
1833
Many saw the glaring contradiction in demanding freedom for themselves while holding slaves.
Although the economic center of slavery was in the South, Northerners also held slaves, as did Native Americans and even Blacks. -
1838
18,000 Cherokee indians were forcibly moved of their land to oklahoma -
1848
First Women's Rights convention met in Seneca Falls N.Y. -
1849
Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective leaders of the Underground Railroad. -
1854
Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act and renewed tension between anti- and proslavery factions. -
1857
The Dred Scott Decision was a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves were not protected by the Constitution and could NEVER be U.S. citizens. -
1859
The last recorded slave ship to land on American soil was the Clotilde, which illegally smuggled a number of Africans into the town of Mobile, Alabama. -
1865
The Civil War ends. The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, is ratified. -
1870
15th Amendment barring racial discrimination in voting added to Constitution. -
1883
Supreme Court invalidates 1875 Civil Rights Act, saying that the federal government cannot bar discrimination by corporations or individuals. -
1895
Booker Taliaferro Washington was born into slavery to a white father and a slave mother in rural Virginia. -
1896
Supreme Court approves "separate but equal" segregation doctrine. -
1909
The National Negro Committee convened in New York City. -
1947
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play major league baseball. -
1948
President Truman signs Executive Order 9981. This order allows anyone to join the armed forces, disregarding their race, color, religion, or national origin. -
1949
The Civil Right Map of America divided the United States into 3 major categories: states with “discrimination for race or color forbidden by law;” states with “segregation of white and colored enforced by law (or permitted);” and states with “no legislation” related to civil rights. -
1950
The murder of Emmett Till he was allegedly whistling at a white women, the women’s husband kidnapped him and shot him and was thrown in the river. In which his body was to be found 3 days later. -
1951
Representative Patsy T. Mink was the first women of color to be elected into congress. -
1952
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights held a meeting in Washington to discuss the Senate Rules, a procedure that Southern senators utilized to block civil rights bills in debate by filibuster. -
1954
The court case Brown v. Board of Education comes to a conclusion that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. -
Dec. 1, 1955
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat for a white man on the buss and is arrested. This causes outrage in the black community, and a bus boycott begins and lasts for over a year. Eventually, a law is passed that African Americans no longer have to sit in the back of the bus. -
Sept., 1957
Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. Troops are sent to intervene on behalf of the students. These students formally become known as the "Little Rock Nine." -
May 4, 1961
The newly formed “Freedom Riders” are attacked by angry mobs as they drive through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities. -
Oct. 1, 1962
James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violent riots surrounding the incident caused President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. -
April 16, 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested and jailed at an anti-segregation protest in Birmingham, Ala. -
May, 1963
During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Commissioner of Public Safety uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. This brutal act brings sympathy towards the civil rights movement and the people involved. -
Sept. 15, 1963
Four young girls are killed by a bomb while attending Sunday school at their church. This causes riots to erupt and causes the deaths of two more black youths. -
Jan. 23,1964
The 24th Amendment removes the poll tax, which had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor African Americans to vote. -
Summer, 1964
The Council of Federated Organizations launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. -
Feb. 24, 1965
Malcolm X is shot to death. Malcolm X was a large influence in the civil rights movement and was an inspiration to many African Americans. -
March 7, 1965
A mass group of African Americans march to Montgomery in support of voting rights, but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a blockade consisting of police officers. Fifty African American marchers are hospitalized after police use whips, clubs, and tear gas against them. -
Oct., 1966
The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. -
1967
Detroit erupts into the worst race riots ever in the nation, with 43 people dead. During the nine months of the year, 164 other racial disturbances are reported across the country which kill at least 83 people. -
April 4, 1968
At age 39, Martin Luther King Jr. is tragically shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. -
1978
The Supreme Court rules, in a well-known reverse discrimination case that medical school admission programs that allow for positions based on race are unconstitutional. -
March 22, 1988
Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act. This act expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions that receive federal funds. -
Nov. 22, 1991
President Bush signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of discrimination within employment. -
April. 29, 1992
The first race riot occurred during this time period when the jury acquitted 4 white police officers for beating African American Rodney King. -
2005
The ringleader of the Mississippi civil rights murders (see Aug. 4, 1964), Edgar Ray Killen, is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes. -
2008
Barack Obama is the first African American to ever be president in the United States.
