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First black slaves are brought to U.S.
A Dutch ship captain brought the first Africans to the colony of Jamestown in 1619. and sold them as indentured servants. -
Slave Codes are Passed
In 1705, Virginia passed the Slave Codes. These codes said that any foreign born, non Christian person could be enslaved, and enslaved people were considered property. -
The term "Melting Pot" is coined
The melting pot metaphor was created in the eighteenth century, sometimes being written as the smelting pot or crucible, it described how many people, cultures, ideas, and religions are made into 1 people. : E pluribus unum. In 1782, French immigrant J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur wrote that in America, “individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.” -
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Many Europeans immigrated to the U.S.
Between 1850 and 1915, during the Age of Mass Migration, the US attracted close to 30 million European immigrants, and the foreign-born share of the US population peaked at 14% -
Slaves are Emancipated
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." This was limited, as it only applied to states that had seceded. This means slavery in free states was unaffected. -
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1.5 African Americans moved North
African Americans Moved north to get away from racial violence, pursue education or job opportunities, and escape the oppression of Jim Crow laws. Many people still faced discrimination after they moved, but they had better educations and jobs. -
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was an equal right protest. African Americans refused to ride the busses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregation. -
Term "Salad Bowl" is coined.
Starting in the 1960's another metaphor came around, the salad bowl. Rather than assimilating, different ethnic groups would not bring their individual "flavors", their separate identities like the ingredients in a salad, held together by the “dressing” of law and the market. This view expresses the idea of multiculturalism, which says that ethnic differences should be acknowledged rather than disparaged. -
1970's migration.
World War II brought an expansion to the nation’s defense industry and many more jobs for African Americans in other locales, again causing a massive migration that was active until the 1970s. During this period, more people moved North, and further west to California's major cities including Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Within twenty years of World War II, a further 3 million Black people migrated throughout the United States. -
Fair Housing Act
The Fair Housing Act was passed in 1986 , and it makes it illegal for real estate agents in residential real estate-related transactions to refuse to sell based on race, gender, religion, national origin or social status.