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Emancipation Proclamation issued by US President Abraham Lincoln.
The Emancipation Proclamation was a document signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, freeing all slaves tthat were hen held in the states in rebellion to the United States. -
Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed
The amendment stated 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.' -
Civil War Ends
The Civil War ends with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. -
Ratification of thirteenth amendment completed.
The thirteenth amendment was now into place and enforced. -
Congress enacts the third Reconstruction Act.
It affirms the authority of the military district commanders to remove state officials from office. -
Martial Law Imposed By Grant
President Grant, acting under the authority of the Ku Klux Klan Act, imposes martial law and suspends the writ of habeas corpus in South Carolina. -
Black Exodus
The Black Exodus takes place, in which tens of thousands of African Americans migrated from southern states to Kansas. -
Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama.
Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. The school becomes one of the leading schools of higher learning for African Americans, and stresses the practical application of knowledge. In 1896, George Washington Carver begins teaching there as director of the department of agricultural research, gaining an international reputation for his agricultural advances. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson: This landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South. Read more: African-American History Timeline (Civil Rights Movement, Facts, Events, Leaders) | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html#ixzz2S0atm6Vr -
NAACP.
W.E.B. DuBois founds the Niagara movement, a forerunner to the NAACP. The movement is formed in part as a protest to Booker T. Washington's policy of accommodation to white society; the Niagara movement embraces a more radical approach, calling for immediate equality in all areas of American life. -
Cornelius Jones sues the U.S. government,
Cornelius Jones sues the U.S. government, arguing that it had profited from slave labor through a federal tax on cotton. Since the slaves had never been paid, Jones calculates that they were owed $68 million. Jones loses his suit. -
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Harlem Renaisance
Gives a name for the black community -
Nine black youths are indicted in Scottsboro, Ala.,
Nine black youths are indicted in Scottsboro, Ala., on charges of having raped two white women. Although the evidence was slim, the southern jury sentenced them to death. The Supreme Court overturns their convictions twice; each time Alabama retries them, finding them guilty. In a third trial, four of the Scottsboro boys are freed; but five are sentenced to long prison terms. -
Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier
Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier when he is signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers by Branch Rickey. -
Truman issues an executive order integrating the U.S. armed forces.
Although African Americans had participated in every major U.S. war, it was not until after World War II that Although African Americans had participated in every major U.S. war, it was not until after World War II that President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order integrating the U.S. armed forces. -
General Assembly of the United Nations adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 4 states: 'No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.'