African American History Timeline: African American History Timeline: 1492 Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World opening a vast new empire for plantation slavery. Exploration and Discovery The Bahamas 1494 The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons. Africans in the New World Dominican Republic 1501 The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved Africans into Spain's American colonies. Spanish Slavery Spain 1511 The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola. Spanish Slavery Dominican Republic 1513 Thirty Africans accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his trip to the Pacific Ocean. Exploration and Discovery Panama 1517 Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas petitions Spain to allow the importation of twelve enslaved Africans for each household immigrating to America's Spanish colonies. De Las Casas later regrets his actions and becomes an opponent of slavery. Spanish Slavery Mexico 1518 King Charles I of Spain grants the first licenses to import enslaved Africans to the Americas. Spanish Slavery Spain 1518 The first shipload of enslaved Africans directly from Africa arrives in the West Indies. Prior to this time, Africans were brought first to Europe. Spanish Slavery Dominican Republic 1519 Hernan Cortez begins conquest of the Aztec Empire. Colonial Conquest Mexico 1520s Enslaved Africans are used as laborers in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico. Spanish Slavery Puerto Rico 1522 African slaves stage a rebellion in Hispaniola. This is the first slave uprising in the New World. Anti-Slavery Resistance Dominican Republic 1526 Spanish colonists led by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon build the community of San Miguel de Guadape in what is now Georgia. They bring along enslaved Africans, considered to be the first in the present-day United States. These Africans flee the colony, however, and make their homes with local Indians. After Ayllon's death, the remaining Spaniards relocate to Hispaniola. Africans in the New World United States 1527-1539 Esteban, a Moroccan-born Muslim slave, explores what is now the Southwestern United States. Exploration and Discovery United States 1540 An African from Hernando de Soto's Expedition into the Lower Mississippi River valley decides to remain behind to make his home among the Native Americans there. Africans in the New World United States 1540 Africans serve in the New Mexico Expeditions of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Alarcon. Exploration and Discovery United States 1542 The Spanish Crown abolishes Indian slavery. Emancipation Mexico 1550 The first slaves directly from Africa arrive in the Brazilian city of Salvador. Portuguese Slavery Brazil 1562 An expedition to Hispaniola led by John Hawkins, the first English slave trader, sparks English interest in that activity. Hawkins' travels also call attention to Sierra Leone. Hawkins is knighted in 1588 for his service in England's victory over the Spanish Armada. English Slavery Great Britain 1565 African farmers and artisans accompany Pedro Menendez de Aviles on the expedition that establishes the community of San Agustin (St. Augustine, Florida). Africans in the New World United States 1573 Professor Bartolome de Albornoz of the University of Mexico writes against the enslavement and sale of Africans. Anti-Slavery Campaign Mexico 1598 Isabel de Olvera, a free mulatto, accompanies the Juan Guerra de Resa Expedition which colonizes what is now New Mexico. Africans in the New World United States - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1600#sthash.vbAwcGY3.dpuf African American History Timeline: Yearsort icon Events Subject Country State Era 1603 Mathieu Da Costa, a free black explorer, guides the French through parts of Canada and the Lake Champlain region of what is now New York state. Exploration and Discovery United States New York 1601-1700 1607 Jamestown is founded in Virginia. Colonial America Colonial America Virginia 1613 Jan Rodriquez, a free sailor working for a Dutch fur trading company is assigned to live with and trade among the Native Americans on the island of Manhattan. Africans in Colonial America United States New York 1619 Approximately 20 blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies. Africans in Colonial America Colonial America Virginia 1620 The Pilgrims reach New England. Colonial America Colonial America Massachusetts 1624 The first African American child born free in the English colonies, William Tucker, is baptized in Virginia. 17th Century Black Religion Colonial America Virginia 1625 The first enslaved Africans arrive in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City) with the Dutch West India Company. They quickly become the city's first municipal labor force, clearing land of timber, cutting lumber, cultivating crops, and constructing roads and fortifications. Colonial Slavery Colonial America New York 1629 The first enslaved Africans arrive in what is now Connecticut. Colonial Slavery Colonial America Connecticut 1634 Slavery is introduced in Maryland. Colonial Slavery Colonial America Maryland 1636 Dutch minister Everadus Bogardus summons a teacher from Holland to Manhattan Island to provide religious training to Dutch and African children. This is the first example of educational efforts in Colonial North America which are directed toward persons of African descent. Black Education United States New York 1641 Massachusetts explicitly permits slavery of Indians, whites, and Negroes in its Body of Liberties. It is the first mainland British colony to legalize slavery. Slave Laws Colonial America Massachusetts 1641 Mathias De Sousa, an African indentured servant who came from England with Lord Baltimore, is elected to Maryland's General Assembly. Black Politics Colonial America Maryland 1642 Virginia passes a fugitive slave law. Offenders helping runaway slaves are fined in pounds of tobacco. An enslaved person is to be branded with a large R after a second escape attempt. Slave Laws Colonial America Virginia 1643 The New England Confederation reaches an agreement that makes the signature of a magistrate sufficient evidence to reenslave a suspected fugitive slave. Slave Laws Colonial America New Hampshire 1645 Merchant ships from Barbados arrive in Boston where they trade their cargoes of enslaved Africans for sugar and tobacco. The profitability of this exchange encourages the slave trade in New England. Colonial Slavery Colonial America Massachusetts 1645 (ca.) Dutch colonists transfer some of their landholdings in New Amsterdam to their former enslaved Africans as compensation for their support in battles with Native Americans. A condition of the land transfer, however, is the guarantee of a specified amount of food from those lands to their former owners. Emancipation Colonial America New York 1650 Connecticut legalizes slavery. Rhode Island by this date has large plantations worked by enslaved Africans. Slave Laws Colonial America Connecticut 1650 The Dutch West India Company introduces new rules concerning slavery in New Netherlands. After gaining freedom, former slaves, for example, are required to give fixed amounts of their crops to the company. After the English capture of the colony, greater restrictions are imposed on free blacks and enslaved people. Racial Restrictions Colonial America New York 1651 Anthony Johnson, a free African American, imports several enslaved Africans and is given a grant of land on Virginia's Puwgoteague River Other free African Americans follow this pattern. Africans in Colonial America Colonial America Virginia 1652 Massachusetts enacts a law requiring all African American and Native American servants to undergo military training so as to be able to help defend the colony. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Massachusetts 1652 Rhode Island enacts first anti-slavery law in the British colonies. The law limits slavery to ten years. Gradual Emancipation United States Rhode Island 1653 Enslaved African and Indian workers bulid wall across Manhattan Island to protect the Dutch colony from British invasion. The site of the wall is now Wall Street. Slave Labor United States New York 1655 Anthony Johnson successfully sues for the return of his slave John Casor, whom the court had earlier treated as an indentured servant. Africans in Colonial America Colonial America Virginia 1656 Fearing the potential for slave uprisings, Massachusetts reverses its 1652 statute and prohibits blacks from arming or training as militia. New Hampshire, and New York soon follow. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Massachusetts 1657 Virginia amends its fugitive slave law to include the fining of people who harbor runaway slaves. They are fined 30 pounds of tobacco for every night they provide shelter to a runaway slave. Slave Laws United States Virginia 1660 A Connecticut law prohibits African Americans from serving in the militia. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Connecticut 1662 Virginia reverses the presumption of English law that the child follows the status of his father, and enacts a law that makes the free or enslaved status of children dependent on the status of the mother. Slave Laws Colonial America Virginia 1663 Black and white indentured servants plan a rebellion in Gloucester County, Virginia. Their plans are discovered and the leaders are executed. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America Virginia 1663 Maryland slave laws rules that all Africans arriving in the colony are presumed to be slaves. Free European American women who marry enslaved men lose their freedom. Children of European American women and enslaved men are enslaved. Other North American colonies develop similar laws. Slave Laws Colonial America Maryland 1663 In South Carolina every new white settler is granted twenty acres for each black male slave and ten acres for each black female slave he or she brings into the colony. Colonial Slavery Colonial America South Carolina 1663 A planned revolt of enslaved Africans and indentured servants is uncovered in Gloucester County, Virginia. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America Virginia 1664 In Virginia, the enslaved African's status is clearly differentiated from the indentured servant's when colonial laws decree that enslavement is for life and is transferred to the children through the mother. Black and slave become synonymous, and enslaved Africans are subject to harsher and more brutal control than other laborers. Slave Laws Colonial America Virginia 1664 Maryland establishes slavery for life for persons of African ancestry. Slave Laws Colonial America Maryland 1664 New Jersey and New York also recognize the legality of slavery. Slave Laws Colonial America New Jersey 1664 Maryland enacts the first law in Colonial America banning marriage between white women and black men. Racial Restrictions United States Maryland 1667 England enacts strict laws regarding enslaved Africans in its colonies. An enslaved African is forbidden to leave the plantation without a pass, and never on Sunday. An enslaved African may not possess weapons or signaling mechanisms such as horns or whistles. Punishment for an owner who kills an enslaved African is a 15-pound fine. Slave Laws Colonial America n. a. 1667 Virginia declares that baptism does not free a slave from bondage, thereby abandoning the Christian tradition of not enslaving other Christians. Slave Laws Colonial America Virginia 1670 The Massachusetts legislature passes a law that enables its citizens to sell the children of enslaved Africans into bondage, thus separating them from their parents. Slave Laws Colonial America Massachusetts 1670 Massachusetts permits the separate sale of children of enslaved parents. Slave Laws United States Massachusetts 1670 The Virginia Assembly enact law that allows all non-Christians who arrive by ship to be enslaved. Slave Laws United States Virginia 1671 A Maryland law states that the conversion of enslaved African Americans to Christianity does not affect their status as enslaved people. Slave Laws Colonial America Maryland 1672 King Charles II of England charters the Royal African Company, which dominates the slave trade to North America for the next half century. The Slave Trade Colonial America n. a. 1672 Virginia law now bans prosecution for the killing of a slave if the death comes during the course of his his or her apprehension. Slave Laws United States Virginia 1673 The Massachusetts legislature passes a law that forbids European Americans from engaging in any trade or commerce with an African American. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Massachusetts 1675 An estimated 100,000 Africans are enslaved in the West Indies and another 5,000 are in British North America. Black Population Colonial America n. a. 1676 Nathaniel Bacon leads an unsuccessful rebellion of whites and blacks against the English colonial government in Virginia. Africans in Colonial America Colonial America Virginia 1680 Virginia enacts a law that forbids all blacks from carrying arms and requires enslaved blacks to carry certificates at all times when leaving the slaveowner's plantation. Racial Restrictions United States Virginia 1681 Maryland laws mandate that children of European servant women and African men are free. Emancipation Colonial America Maryland 1682 A new slave code in Virginia prohibits weapons for slaves, requires passes beyond the limits of the plantation and forbids self-defense by any African Americans against any European American. Slave Laws Colonial America Virginia 1682 New York enacts its first slave codes. They restrict the freedom of movement and the ability to trade of all enslaved people in the colony. Slave Laws United States New York 1685 New York law forbids enslaved Africans and Native Americans from having meetings or carrying firearms. Slave Laws Colonial America New York 1688 Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania denounce slavery in the first recorded formal protest in North America against the enslavement of Africans. The Abolition Movement Colonial America Pennsylvania 1690 By this year, all English colonies in America have enslaved Africans. Colonial Slavery Colonial America n.a. 1690 Enslaved Africans and Native Americans in Massachusetts plan a rebellion. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America Massachusetts 1690 South Carolina enacts its first laws regulating slave movement and behavior. Slave Laws United States South Carolina 1691 Virginia enacts a new law which punishes white men and women for marrying black or Indians. Children of such interracial liaisons become the property of the church for 30 years. Racial Restrictions United States Virginia 1694 The success of rice cultivation in South Carolina encourages the importation of larger numbers of enslaved laborers especially from Senegal and other rice producing regions of West Africa. Agricultural Development United States South Carolina 1695 Rev. Samuel Thomas, a white cleric in Charleston, South Carolina, establishes the first school for African Americans in the British North American colonies. Black Education United States South Carolina 1696 Quaker religious leaders warn that members who own slaves may be expelled from the demonination. Anti-Slavery Campaign United States Pennsylvania 1700 The publication of Samuel Sewall's The Selling of Joseph, is considered the first major condemnation of slavery in print in British North America. Anti-Slavery Campaign United States Massachusetts - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1600-1700#sthash.8tXeznTf.dpuf African American History Timeline: 1701-1800 1702 The New York Assembly enacts a law which prohibits enslaved Africans from testifying against whites or gathering in groups larger than three on public streets. Slave Laws United States New York 1704 French colonist Elias Neau opens a school for enslaved African Americans in New York City. Black Education Colonial America New York 1705 The Colonial Virginia Assembly defined as slaves all servants brought into the colony who were not Christians in their original countries as well as Indians sold to the colonists by other Native Americans. Slave Laws United States Virginia 1708 Africans in South Carolina outnumber Europeans, making it the first English colony with a black majority. Black Population Colonial America South Carolina 1711 Great Britain's Queen Anne overrules a Pennsylvania colonial law prohibiting slavery. Colonial Slavery Colonial America Pennsylvania 1711 A public slave market opens in New York City at the east end of Wall Street. The Slave Trade United States New York 1712 The New York City slave revolt begins on April 6. Nine whites are killed and an unknown number of blacks die in the uprising. Colonial authorities execute 21 slaves and six commit suicide. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America New York 1712 New York City enacts an ordinance that prevents free blacks from inheriting land. Racial Restrictions United States New York 1713 England secures the exclusive right to transport slaves to the Spanish colonies in America. Colonial Slavery Colonial America n. a. 1716 The first enslaved Africans arrive in Louisiana. Colonial Slavery United States Louisiana 1718 New Orleans is founded by the French. By 1721 the city has more enslaved black men than free white men. Colonial Slavery United States Louisiana 1721 South Carolina limits the vote to free white Christian men. Racial Restrictions Colonial America South Carolina 1724 Boston imposes a curfew on non-whites. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Massachusetts 1724 The French colonial government in Louisiana enacts the Code Noir, the first body of laws that govern both slaves and free blacks in North America. Racial Restrictions United States Louisiana 1727 Enslaved Africans and Native Americans revolt in Middlesex and Gloucester Counties in Virginia. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America Virginia 1735 South Carolina passes laws requiring enslaved people to wear clothing identifying them as slaves. Freed slaves are required to leave the colony within six months or risk reenslavement. Racial Restrictions Colonial America South Carolina 1737 An indentured black servant petitions a Massachusetts Court and wins his freedom after the death of his master. Emancipation Colonial America Massachusetts 1738 The first permanent black settlement in what will become the United States is established by fugitive slaves at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), Florida. Free Blacks in Colonial America United States Florida 1739 The first major South Carolina slave revolt takes place in Stono on September 9. A score of whites and more than twice as many black slaves are killed as the armed slaves try to flee to Florida. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America South Carolina 1739 Nineteen white citizens of Darien, Georgia petition the colonial governor to continue the ban on the importation of Africans into the colony, calling African enslavement morally wrong. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America Georgia 1741 During the New York Slave Conspiracy Trials, New York City officials execute 34 people for planning to burn down the town. Thirteen African American men are burned at the stake and another 17 black men, two white men and two white women are hanged. Seventy blacks and seven whites are permanently expelled from the city. Resistance to Enslavement Colonial America New York 1741 South Carolina's colonial legislature enacts the most extensive slave restrictions in British North America. The laws ban the teaching of enslaved people to read and write, prohibits their assembling in groups or earning money for their activities. The law also permits slaveowners to kill rebellious slaves. Racial Restrictions Colonial America South Carolina 1746 Lucy Terry, a slave, composes Bars Fight, the first known poem by an African American. A description of an Indian raid on Terry's hometown in Massachusetts, the poem will be passed down orally and published in 1855 Enslaved People in Colonial America Colonial America Massachusetts 1750 Anthony Benezet persuades fellow Philadelphia Quakers to open the first free school for black children in the colonies. Black Education United States Pennsylvania 1752 Twenty-one year old Benjamin Banneker of Maryland constructs one of the first clocks in Colonial America, the first of a long line of inventions and innovations until his death in 1806. Free Blacks in Colonial America Colonial America Maryland 1758 The African Baptist or Bluestone Church is founded on the William Byrd plantation near the Bluestone River, in Mecklenburg, Virginia, becoming the first known black church in North America 18th Century Black Religion Colonial America Virginia 1758 A school for free black children is opened in Philadelphia. Black Education Colonial America Pennsylvania 1760 Briton Hammon publishes A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon in Boston. This is believed to be the first autobiographical work written by an enslaved African living in British North America. Art and Literature United States Massachusetts 1761 Jupiter Hammon, a Long Island enslaved person, publishes a book of poetry. This is believed to be the first volume of poetry written and published by an African American. Art and Literature Colonial America New York 1762 Virginia restricts voting rights to white men. Racial Restrictions Colonial America Virginia 1770 On March 5, Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave of African and Native American ancestry, becomes the first Colonial resident to die for American independence when he is killed by the British in the Boston Massacre. American Revolution Colonial America Massachusetts 1773 Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, written by Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved Bostonian, is published in that city. It is the first book written by an African American woman published in the United States and only the second book in the nation's history authored by a woman to be published. Art and Literature Colonial America Massachusetts 1773 The Silver Bluff Baptist Church, the oldest continuously operating black church, is founded in Silver Bluff, South Carolina near Savannah, Georgia. 18th Century Black Religion Colonial America Georgia 1774 A group of enslaved blacks petition the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) insisting they too have a natural right to their freedom. Emancipation Colonial America Massachusetts 1774 First African Baptist Church, one of the earliest black churches in the United States, is founded in Petersburg, Virginia. Africans in Colonial America United States Virginia 1775 African Americans participate on the Patriot side in the earliest battles of the Revolution, Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill. Two of the first of these Patriot soldiers were Peter Salem at the Battle of Concord and Salem Poor at the Battle of Bunker Hill. African Americans in the Military Colonial America Massachusetts 1775 General George Washington reverses his earlier policy of rejecting the services of slaves and free blacks in the army. Five thousand African-Americans serve during the Revolutionary War including two predominantly black units in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island. African Americans in the Military Colonial America Connecticut 1775 The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage holds the first of four meetings in Philadelphia on April 14. This is the first abolitionist meeting in North America. In 1784 the organization becomes the Pennsylvania Abolition Society with Benjamin Franklin as its first president. The Abolition Movement Colonial America Pennsylvania 1775 On Nov. 7, Lord Dunmore, British Governor of Virginia declares all slaves free who come to the defense of the British Crown against the Patriot forces. Dunmore eventually organizes the first regiment of black soldiers to fight under the British flag. African Americans in the American Revolution Colonial America Virginia 1775-1781 The American War of Independence. Approximately 450,000 enslaved Africans comprise 20% of the population of the colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence. African Americans in the American Revolution Unied States n. a. 1776 A passage in the Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson at the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, condemned the slave trade. The controversial passage is removed from the Declaration due to pressure from the southern colonies. African Americans in the American Revolution United States Pennsylvania 1776 Approximately 100,000 enslaved people flee their masters during the Revolution. African Americans in the American Revolution The United States n. a. 1777 On July 8, Vermont becomes the first political jurisdiction in the United States to abolish slavery. Emancipation United States Vermont 1778 Boston businessman Paul Cuffe and his brother, John, refuse to pay taxes, claiming as blacks not allowed to vote they suffer taxation without representation. African Americans in the American Revolution United States Massachusetts 1778 The 1st Rhode Island Regiment comprised of enslaved and free black men is formed. It is the first and only all-black military unit to fight on the Patriot side in the American Revolution African Americans in the American Revolution United States Rhode Island 1780 Massachusetts abolishes slavery and grants African American men the right to vote. Emancipation United States Massachusetts 1780 The Free African Union Society is created in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the first cultural organization established by blacks in North America. Black Organizations United States Rhode Island 1780 Pennsylvania adopts first gradual emancipation law. All children of enslaved people born after Nov. 1, 1780 will be free on their 28th birthday. Gradual Emancipation United States Pennsylvania 1780 Paul Cuffee, a Boston merchant and shipowner, leads six other free blacks in petitioning the Massacusetts to end their taxation without representation. Free Blacks in Colonial America United States Massachusetts 1781-1783 Twenty thousand black loyalists depart with British Troops from the newly independent United States. Approximately 5,000 African Americans served with Patriot forces. Three times that many served with the British although not all of them leave the new nation. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island adopt gradual emancipation laws. Gradual Emancipation United States Connecticut 1784 Congress rejects Thomas Jefferson's proposal to exclude slavery from all western territories after 1800. The Slavery Controversy United States New Jersey 1784 The New York African Society, a spiritual and benevolent association, is created by free blacks in New York City. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States New York 1784 Prince Hall establishes the first black Masonic lodge in the United States. African Lodge #459 is granted a Masonic charter by the Grand Lodge of England. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States Massachusetts 1785 New York frees all slaves who served in the Revolutionary Army. Emancipation United States New York 1785 The New York Society for the Promoting of the Manumission of Slaves is founded by prominent New Yorkers including John Jay and Alexander Hamilton. Anti-Slavery Campaign United States New York 1787 On July 13, Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, which establishes formal procedures for transforming territories into states. It provides for the eventual establishment of three to five states in the area north of the Ohio River, to be considered equal with the original 13. The Ordinance includes a Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of religion, the right to trial by jury, public education and a ban on slavery in the region. Emancipation United States New York 1787 The U.S. Constitution is drafted. It provides for the continuation of the slave trade for another 20 years and required states to aid slaveholders in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It also stipulates that a slave counts as three-fifths of a man for purposes of determining representation in the House of Representatives. The Slavery Controversy United States New York 1787 Free blacks in New York City found the African Free School, where future leaders Henry Highland Garnett and Alexander Crummell are educated. Black Education United States New York 1787 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones form the Free African Society in Philadelphia. Black Organizations United States Pennsylvania 1788 In Massachusetts, following an incident in which free blacks were kidnapped and transported to the state from the island of Martinique, the Massachusetts legislature declares the slave trade illegal and provides monetary damages to victims of kidnappings. Emancipation United States Massachusetts 1790 Free African Americans in Charleston form the Brown Fellowship Society. Black Organizations United States South Carolina 1790 Census of 1790 (First Census of the U.S. Population): Total population, 3,929,214, Black Population: 757,208 (19.3%) including 59,150 free African Americans. Black Population United States New York 1791 In February Major Andrew Ellicott hires Benjamin Banneker to assist in a survey of the boundaries of the 100-square-mile federal district that would later become the District of Columbia. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States District of Columbia 1792 Benjamin Banneker's Almanac is published in Philadelphia. It is the first book of science published by an African American. Exploration and Discovery United States Pennsylvania 1793 The United States Congress enacts the first Fugitive Slave Law. Providing assistance to fugitive slaves is now a criminal offense. Racial Restrictions United States Pennsylvania 1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in Georgia which he patents on March 13. The development of the cotton gin provides a major boost to the slave-based cotton economy of the South. Antebellum Slavery United States Georgia 1794 Mother Bethel AME Church is established in Philadelphia by Richard Allen. 18th Century Black Religion United States Pennsylvania 1794 New York adopts a gradual emancipation law. Gradual Emancipation United States New York 1795 Bowdoin College is founded in Maine. It later becomes a center for Abolitionist activity; Gen. Oliver O. Howard (Howard University) graduated from the college; Harriet Beecher Stowe taught there and began to write Uncle Tom's Cabin while there (in 1850) The Abolition Movement United States Maine 1796 On August 23, The African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized in Philadelphia. 18th Century Black Religion United States Pennsylvania 1798 Joshua Johnston of Baltimore, Maryland becomes the first black portrait painter to gain widespread recognition in the United States Art and Literature United States Maryland 1798 Venture Smith's A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America appears as the first slave narrative written by the person in bondage. Earlier narratives were written by white authors as dictated by enslaved people. Art and Literature United States Connecticut 1800 On August 30, Gabriel Prosser attempts a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. Resistance to Enslavement United States Virginia 1800 The United States Congress rejects 85 to 1 an antislavery petition offered by free Philadelphia African Americans. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States Pennsylvania 1800 Census of 1800, U.S. Population: 5,308,483, Black Population: 1,002,037 (18.9%) including 108,435 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1700-1800#sthash.rP1mkwFg.dpuf African American History Timeline: 1801 - 1900 1802 The Ohio Constitution outlaws slavery. It also prohibits free blacks from voting. Antebellum Slavery United States Ohio 1802 James Callender claims that Thomas Jefferson has for many years past kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves, Sally Hemings. His charge is published in the Richmond Recorder that month, and the story is soon picked up by the Federalist press around the country. Black Women United States Virginia 1803 On April 30, Louisiana is purchased from the French. The new territory nearly doubles the size of the United States. U.S. Expansion United States District of Columbia 1804 Lemuel Haynes is the first African American to receive an honorary degree in U.S. history when Middlebury College awards him a Master's Degree at its second commencement. Humanitarian Honors United States Vermont 1804 In 1804 the Ohio legislature passes the Ohio Black Codes and in doing so becomes the first non-slaveholding state to place restrictions exclusively on its African American residents. Racial Restrictions United States Ohio 1804-1806 The Lewis and Clark Expedition explores newly purchased Louisiana and the Pacific Northwest. An African American, York, is prominent in the expedition. Exploration and Discovery United States Oregon 1807 New Jersey disfranchises black voters. Black Politics United States New Jersey 1808 The United States government abolishes the importation of enslaved Africans when it enacts the Slave Importation Ban. The ban, however, is widely ignored. Between 1808 and 1860, approximately 250,000 blacks are illegally imported into the United States. Slave trading within the states (the domestic trade) continues until the end of the Civil War. The Slave Trade United States District of Columbia 1809 New York recognizes marriage within the African American community. Family and Interpersonal Relationships United States New York 1810 Census of 1810, U.S. Population: 7,239,881, Black Population: 1,377,808 (19 percent) including 186,446 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1810 The U.S. Congress prohibits African Americans from carrying mail for the U.S. Postal Service. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States District of Columbia 1810 By 1810, 75 percent of the African Americans in Delaware are free. This is the largest percentage of free blacks in a slave state. Emancipation United States Delaware 1810 The African Insurance Company of Philadephia is the first black-owned insurance company in the United States. Black Business United States Pennsylvania 1811 Andry's Rebellion on January >8-11. A slave insurrection led by Charles Deslondes, begins on the Louisiana plantation of Manual Andry. Resistance to Enslavement United States Louisiana 1812 Previously independent African American schools become part of the Boston public school system. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1812 Two African American regiments are formed in New York to fight in the War of 1812. African Americans and the Military United States New York 1814 Six hundred African American troops are among the U.S. Army of 3,000 led by General Andrew Jackson which defeats British forces at the Battle of New Orleans. The black troops were led by Major Joseph Savary, the highest ranking black officer in the history of the U.S. Army. African Americans and the Military United States Louisiana 1815 Richard Allen officially creates the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first wholly African American church denomination in the United States. 19th Century Black Religion United States Pennsylvania 1815 Abolitionist Levi Coffin establishes the Underground Railroad in Indiana. Eventually it will spread across the North with routes originating in the South and stretching to British Canada. Resistance to Enslavement United States Indiana 1816 The American Colonization Society is founded by Bushrod Washington (the nephew of George Washington) and other prominent white Americans who believe enslaved African Americans should be freed and settled in Africa. Gradual Emancipation United States District of Columbia 1817 Francis Johnson of Philadelphia becomes the first black bandleader and composer to publish sheet music. In 1837 he becomes the first American to perform before Queen Victoria in England. 19th Century Black Music United States Pennsylvania 1817-1818 Escaped slaves from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama join the military campaign of the Florida Seminoles to keep their homelands. Resistance to Enslavement United States Florida 1818 Connecticut disfranchises black voters. Black Politics United States Connecticut 1818 Thomas Day of North Carolina is considered the first widely known furniture and cabinet maker in the United States. Business and Labor United States North Carolina 1820 Census of 1820, U.S. Population: 9,638,452, Black Population: 1,771,656 (18.4 percent) including 233,504 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1820 The Compromise of 1820 allows Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also sets the boundary between slave and free territory in the West at the 36th parallel. The Slavery Controversy United States District of Columbia 1821 New York maintains property qualifications for African American male voters while abolishing the same for white male voters. Missouri disfranchises free black male voters. Black Politics United States New York 1821 Thomas Jennings of New York City became the first African American to receive a patent from the United States government. His patent came because he developed a process for dry cleaning clothes. Exploration and Discovery United States New York 1821 The African Grove Theater Group, the first black acting company, is founded in New York City. Art and Literature United States New York 1822 Denmark Vesey is arrested for planning a slave rebellion in South Carolina. Resistance to Enslavement United States South Carolina 1822 Rhode Island disfranchises black voters. Black Politics United States Rhode Island 1823 The African Grove Theater performs The Drama of King Shotaway, the first play written by an African American, Wiliam Henry Brown. Art and Literature United States New York 1827 Freedom's Journal begins publication on March 16 in New York City as the first African American owned newspaper in the United States. The editors are John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish. The Black Press United States New York 1827 Slavery is officially abolished in New York. Gradual Emancipation United States New York 1828 Theodore Sedgewick Wright is the first black graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Black Education United States New Jersey 1829 More than half of Cincinnati's African American residents are driven out of the city by white mob violence. The Cincinnati riots usher in a more than century-long period of white violence against Northern black urban communities. Racial Violence United States Ohio 1829 David Walker of Boston publishes An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World which calls for a slave uprising in the South. Resistance to Enslavement United States Massachusetts 1829 The Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first permanent order of black Catholic nuns, is founded in Baltimore, Maryland. 19th Century Black Religion United States Maryland 1830 Census of 1830, U.S. Population: 12,866,020, Black Population: 2,328,842 (18.1 percent) including 319,599 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1830 African American delegates from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia meet in Philadelphia in the first of a series of National Negro Conventions to devise ways to challenge slavery in the South and racial discrimination in the North. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States Pennsylvania 1831 North Carolina enacts a statute that bans teaching slaves to read and write. Antebellum Slavery United States North Carolina 1831 Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia, killing at least 57 whites. Resistance to Enslavement United States Virginia 1831 Alabama makes it illegal for enslaved or free blacks to preach. Antebellum Slavery United States Alabama 1831 William Lloyd Garrison of Boston founds The Liberator, the first abolitionist newspaper in the United States. The Abolition Movement United States Massachusetts 1831 Jarena Lee's The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, was the first autobiography by an African American woman. Art and Literature United States Pennsylvania 1832 Oberlin College is founded in Ohio. It admits African American men, black women and white women. By 1860 one third of its students are black. Black Education United States Ohio 1832 The Female Anti-Slavery Society, the first African American women's abolitionist society, is founded in Salem, Massachusetts. The Abolition Movement United States Massachusetts 1832 The Georgia Infirmary, founded by white philanthropists in Savannah, is the first hospital in the United States dedicated to black patient care. Health and Medicine United States Georgia 1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society is established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Abolition Movement United States Pennsylvania 1834 African Free Schools are incorporated into the New York Public School system. Black Education United States New York 1834 Henry Blair of Maryland received a patent from the U.S. government for developing a mechanical corn planter. Exploration and Discovery United States Maryland 1834 South Carolina bans the teaching of blacks, enslaved or free, in its borders. Antebellum Slavery United States South Carolina 1834 David Ruggles, abolitionist activist, opens the first African American bookstore in the nation, in New York City. Black Business United States New York 1836 Texas declares its independence from Mexico. In its Constitution as an independent nation, Texas recognizes slavery and makes it difficult for free blacks to remain there. Antebellum Slavery United States Texas 1836-1844 The Gag Rule prohibits Congress from considering petitions regarding slavery. The Slavery Controversy United States District of Columbia 1837 The Institute for Colored Youth is founded in Southeastern Pennsylvania. It later becomes Cheyney University. Black Education United States Pennsylvania 1837 The Philadelphia Vigilence Committee is organized to help fugitive slaves escape their pursuers. Anti-Slavery Campaign United States Pennsylvania 1838 Pennsylvania disfranchises black voters. Black Politics United States Pennsylvania 1839 On August 29, American vessels tow the Spanish ship the Amistad and its 53 slaves into New London, Connecticut. Their fate is decided by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. The Amistad on March 9, 1841 when the Court rules them free and they return to Africa. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1840 Census of 1840, U.S. Population: 17,069,453, Black Population: 2,873,648 (16.1 percent) including 386,293 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1842 Frederick Douglass leads a successful campaign against Rhode Island's proposed Dorr Constitution which would continue the prohibition on black voting rights. Black Politics United States Rhode Island 1842 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Prigg v. Pennsylvania that states did not have to offer aid in the hunting or recapture of fugitive slaves within their borders. Anti-Slavery Campaign United States District of Columbia 1843 Rev. Henry Highland Garnet delivers his controversial "Address to the Slaves" at the National Negro Convention meeting in Buffalo, New York, which calls for a servile insurrection. Resistance to Enslavement United States New York 1843 Sojourner Truth and William Wells Brown begin their campaigns against slavery. The Abolition Movement United States New York 1844 On June 25, the Legislative Committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon enacts the first of a series of black exclusion laws. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States Oregon 1845 Texas is annexed to the United States. Antebellum Slavery United States Texas 1845 Frederick Douglass publishes his autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. The Abolition Movement United States Massachusetts 1845 Macon B. Allen of Worcester, Massachusetts is the first African American admitted to the bar in any state when he is allowed to practice law in Massachusetts. The Legal System United States Massachusetts 1845 William Henry Lane (Master Juba) of New York City is the first acclaimed black dance performer. Dance and Theater United States New York 1846-1848 War with Mexico. The Slavery Controversy United States District of Columbia 1847 Frederick Douglass begins publication of The North Star in Rochester, New York. The Black Press United States New York 1847 Missouri bans the education of free blacks. Antebellum Slavery United States Missouri 1847 Missouri abolitionists file a lawsuit on behalf of Dred Scott to gain his freedom. The case is eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court a decade later. The Abolition Movement United States Missouri 1847 David Jones Peck is the first African American graduate of a U.S. medical school. He graduates from Rush Medical College in Chicago. Health and Medicine United States Illinois 1848 On February 2 in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico cedes California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah and gives up claim to Texas at conclusion of War in exchange for $20 million. U.S. Expansion United States District of Columbia 1848 On July 19-20, Frederick Douglass is among the handful of men who attend the first Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York. The Abolition Movement United States New York 1849 The California Gold Rush begins. Eventually four thousand African Americans will migrate to California during this period. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States California 1849 Harriett Tubman escapes from slavery and begins her efforts to rescue enslaved people. Resistance to Enslavement United States Maryland 1849 On December 4, Benjamin Roberts files a school desegregation lawsuit on behalf of his daughter, Sarah, who is denied admission to a Boston school. The lawsuit is unsuccessful. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1850 Census of 1850, U.S. Population: 23,191,876, Black Population: 3,638,808 (15.7 percent) including 433,807 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1850 The Compromise of 1850 revisits the issue of slavery. California enters the Union as a free state, but the territories of New Mexico and Utah are allowed to decide whether they will enter the Union as slave or free states. The 1850 Compromise also allowed passage of a much stricter Fugitive Slave Law. The Slavery Contoversy The United States District of Columbia 1850 On August 27, Lucy Stanton of Cleveland completes the course requirements for Oberlin Collegiate Institute (now Oberlin College) and becomes the first African American woman to graduate from an American college or university. Black Education United States Ohio 1850 The American League of Colored Workers, formed in New York City, is the first African American labor union in the United States. Black Labor United States New York 1851 Sojourner Truth delivers her famous "Aren't I a Woman" speech at the Women's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio on May 29. The Abolition Movement United States Ohio 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which becomes a best selling book and a major influence on the Anti-Slavery Movement. The Abolition Movement United States New York 1852 Martin R. Delany publishes The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States. Free Blacks in Antebellum America United States New York 1852 The Jackson Street Hospital in Augusta, Georgia is established as the second medical facility dedicated solely to the care of African American patients. Health and Medicine United States Georgia 1853 Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (the Black Swan) debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and performs before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace a year later. Black Entertainment United States New York 1853 William Wells Brown of Buffalo, New York, becomes the first African American novelist when he publishes Clotel, or the President's Daughter. The novel is published in England, however and thus he is not considered the first published black novelist in the United States. Art and Literature United States New York 1854 On May 24, Virginia fugitive slave Anthony Burns is captured in Boston and returned to slavery under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act. Fifty thousand Boston residents watch his transport through the streets of the city in shackles. A Boston church raises $1,500 to purchase his freedom and Burns returns to the city in 1855, a free man. Resistance to Enslavement United States Massachusetts 1854 On May 30, the Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed by Congress. The Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and permits the admission of Kansas and Nebraska Territories to the Union after their populations decide on slavery. The Slavery Controversy United States District of Columbia 1854 The Republican Party is formed in Jackson, Michigan in the summer in opposition to the extension of slavery into the western territories. The Slavery Controversy United States Michigan 1854 Bleeding Kansas is an outgrowth of the controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Between 1854 and 1858 armed groups of pro- and anti-slavery factions often funded and sponsored by organizations in the North and South, compete for control of Kansas Territory, initiating waves of violence that killed 55 people. Bleeding Kansas was seen as a preview of the U.S. Civil War. The Slavery Controversy United States Kansas 1854 On October 13, Ashmun Institute, the first institution of higher learning for young black men, is founded by John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson. In 1866 it is renamed Lincoln University (Pa.) after President Abraham Lincoln Black Education United States Pennsylvania 1854 James A. Healy is ordained in France as the first black Jesuit priest. He becomes Bishop of Portland, Maine in 1875, a diocese that includes all of Maine and New Hampshire, and holds that post for 25 years. 19th Century Black Religion United States Maine 1855 The Massachusetts Legislature outlaws racially segregated schools. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1855 William C. Nell of Boston publishes The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, considered the first history of African Americans. Art and Literature United States Massachusetts 1855 In November, John Mercer Langston is elected town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio, becoming the first black elected official in the state of Ohio. Black Politics United States Ohio 1855 Frederick Douglass is nominated by the Liberty Party of New York for the office of secretary of state. He is the first black candidate in any state to be nominated for a statewide office. Black Politics United States New York 1856 Wilberforce University becomes the first school of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans. It is founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Daniel A. Payne becomes the institution's first president. Black Education United States Ohio 1857 On March 6, the Dred Scott Decision is handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1858 Arkansas enslaves free blacks who refuse to leave the state. Antebellum Slavery United States Arkansas 1859 On October 16, John Brown leads twenty men, including five African Americans (John Copeland, Shields Green, Lewis S. Leary, Dangerfield Newby, and Osborne Anderson), in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) to inspire a servile insurrection. Resistance to Enslavement United States West Virginia 1859 Harriett Wilson of Milford, New Hampshire publishes Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, the first novel by an African American woman. Art and Literature United States New Hampshire 1860 Census of 1860, U.S. Population: 31,443,321, Black Population: 4,441,830 (14.1 percent) including 488,070 free African Americans. Black Population United States District of Columbia 1860 On November 6, Abraham Lincoln is elected president. The Civil War United States District of Columbia 1860 On December 20, South Carolina secedes from the Union. The Civil War United States South Carolina 1861 Congress passes the First Confiscation Act which prevents Confederate slave owners from reenslaving runaways. African Americans and the Civil War United States District of Columbia 1861 On May 2, black men in New Orleans organize the First Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army. In doing so they create the first and only military unit of black officers and enlisted men to pledge to fight for Southern independence. By February 1862, after New Orleans is occupied by Union forces, the Louisiana Native Guard becomes a military unit in the United States Army. Black Soldiers in the Civil War United States Louisiana 1861 By February, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas secede. They form the Confederate States of America on March 4. After the firing on Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina secede. The Civil War United States n.a. 1861-1865 The Civil War. Approximately 200,000 blacks (most are newly escaped/freed slaves) serve in Union armed forces and over 20,000 are killed in combat. African Americans in the Civil War United States n.a. 1862 The Port Royal (South Carolina) Reconstruction Experiment begins in March. African Americans in the Civil War United States South Carolina 1862 On April 16, Congress abolishes slavery in the District of Columbia. Emancipation United States District of Columbia 1862 In May the coastal pilot Robert Smalls escapes Charleston, South Carolina with The Planter, a Confederate vessel and sixteen enslaved people. African Americans in the Civil War United States South Carolina 1862 Congress permits the enlistment of African American soldiers in the U.S. Army on July 17. African Americans in the Military United States District of Columbia 1862 With the southern states absent from Congress, the body recognizes Haiti and Liberia, marking the first time diplomatic relations are established with predominately black nations. African Americans in the Civil War United States District of Columbia 1862 On September 22, President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation and announces that it will go into effect on July 1, 1863 if the states then in rebellion have not by that point returned to the Union. Emancipation United States District of Columbia 1862 Educator Mary Jane Patterson is generally recognized as the first African American woman to receive a B.A. degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. Lucy Stanton Day Sessions graduated from Oberlin twelve years earlier but was not in a program that awarded official bachelor's degrees. Black Education United States Ohio 1863 Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on January >1, legally freeing slaves in areas of the South still in rebellion against the United States. Emancipation United States District of Columbia 1863 The New York City draft riots erupt on July 13 and continue for four days, during which at least 100 of the city's residents are killed. This remains the highest death toll in any urban conflict in the 19th or 20th Centuries. Racial Violence United States New York 1863 On July 18, the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, the first officially recognized all-black military unit in the Union army, assaults Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina in an unsuccessful effort to take the fortification. Sergeant William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery under fire. African Americans in the Military United States South Carolina 1863 Robert Smalls of Charleston, South Carolina, is the first and only African American to be commissioned a captain in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Black Soldiers in the Civil War United States South Carolina 1863 Susie King Taylor of Savannah is the first black Army nurse in U.S. history. Health and Medicine United States Georgia 1864 The Fort Pillow Massacre takes place in West Tennessee on April 12. Approximately 300 of the 585 soldiers of the Union garrison at Fort Pillow are killed including many after the Union forces surrender. Only 14 Confederate soldiers die in the battle. Afrrican Americans in the Military United States Tennessee 1864 In June Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler of Boston is the first African American woman to earn a medical degree when she graduates from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. Health and Medicine United States Massachusetts 1864 On June 15, Congress passed a bill authorizing equal pay, equipment, arms, and health care for African American troops in the Union Army. African Americans in the Military United States District of Columbia 1864 On October 4, La Tribune de la Nouvelle Orleans (the New Orleans Tribune) begins publication. The Tribune is the first black-owned daily newspaper. The Black Press United States Louisiana 1865 On February 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery throughout the United States. Reconstruction Amendments United States District of Columbia 1865 On March 3, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau to provide health care, education, and technical assistance to emancipated slaves. Congress also charters the Freedman's Bank to promote savings and thrift among the ex-slaves. African Americans and Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. The Civil War United States Virginia 1865 On April 15, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Washington, D.C. Political Assassinations United States District of Columbia 1865 On June 19, enslaved African Americans in Texas finally receive news of their emancipation. From that point they commemorate that day as Juneteenth. Emancipation United States Texas 1865 Between September and November, a number of ex-Confederate states pass so called Black Codes. Jim Crow Legislation United States n.a. 1865 The Ku Klux Klan is formed on December 24th in Pulaski, Tennessee by six educated, middle class former Confederate veterans. The Klan soon adopts terror tactics to thwart the aspirations of the formerly enslaved and their supporters. African Americans and Reconstruction United States Tennessee 1865 Twenty thousand African American troops are among the 32,000 U.S. soldiers sent to the Rio Grande as a show of force against Emperor Maximilian's French troops occupying Mexico. Some discharged black soldiers join the forces of Mexican resistance leader Benito Juarez. African Americans and the Military United States Texas 1865 John S. Rock is the first African Americdan to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Legal System United States District of Columbia 1865 Martin R. Delany's appointment as Major by President Abraham Lincoln makes him the highest ranking African American officer during the Civil War. Black Soldiers in the Civil War United States District of Columbia 1865 On January >16, General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 which gives 400,000 acres of abandoned coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to formerly enslaved people. This order becomes the basis for subsequent "40 acres and a mule" demands by former slaves and their supporters. Reconstruction United States South Carolina 1865 With the approval of the Georgia Legislature on December 6, the 13th Amendment took effect and outlawed slavery throughout the United States and its possessions. Reconstruction Amendments United States Georgia 1866 Fisk University is founded in Nashville, Tennessee on January >9. Black Education United States Tennessee 1866 On April 9, Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The act confers citizenship upon black Americans and guarantees equal rights with whites. African Americans and Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1866 On May 1-3, white civilians and police in Memphis, Tennessee kill forty-six African Americans and injure many more, burning ninety houses, twelve schools, and four churches in what will be known as the Memphis Massacre. Racial Violence United States Tennessee 1866 On June 13, Congress approves the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law to all citizens. The amendment also grants citizenship to African Americans. African Americans and Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1866 Congress authorizes the creation of four all-black regiments in the United States Army. Two cavalry regiments, the 9th and 10th and two infantry regiments, the 24th and 25th will become the first and only units in which black soldiers can serve until the Spanish American War. They will be known as Buffalo Soldiers. African Americans and the Military United States District of Columbia 1866 Police in New Orleans supporting the Democratic Mayor storm a Republican meeting of blacks and whites on July 30, killing 34 black and 3 white Republicans. Over 150 people are injured in the attack. Racial Violence United States Louisiana 1867 On January >8, overriding President Andrew Johnson's veto, Congress grants the black citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote. Two days later it passes the Territorial Suffrage Act which allows African Americans in the western territories to vote. African Americans and Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1867 Morehouse College is founded in Atlanta on February 14. Black Education United States Georgia 1867 The Reconstruction Acts are passed by Congress on March 2. Congress divides ten of the eleven ex-Confederate states into military districts. These acts also reorganize post-war Southern governments, disfranchising former high ranking Confederates and enfranchising former slaves in the South. African Americans and Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1867 On March 2, Howard University is chartered by Congress in Washington, D.C. The institution is named after General Oliver O. Howard who heads the Freedman's Bureau. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1868 On July 21, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States. Reconstruction Amendments United States District of Columbia 1868 Opelousas, Louisiana is the site of the Opelousas Massacre on September 28, in which an estimated 200 to 300 black Americans are killed by whites opposed to Reconstruction and African American voting. Racial Violence United States Louisiana 1868 On November 3, Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) is elected president. Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1868 On November 3, John Willis Menard is elected to Congress from Louisiana's Second Congressional District. Menard is the first African American elected to Congress. However, neither he nor his opponent will be seated due to disputed election results. Black Politics United States Louisiana 1868 Howard University Medical School opens on November 9. It is the first medical school in the United States established for the training of African American doctors. Health and Medicine United States District of Columbia 1869 On February 26, Congress sends the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to the states for approval. The amendment guarantees African American males the right to vote. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1869 On April 6, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett is appointed minister to Haiti. He is the first black American diplomat and presidential appointee. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1869 Isaac Myers organizes the Colored National Labor Union in Baltimore. Black Labor United States Maryland 1869 George Lewis Ruffin is the first African American to receive a law degree from any institution when he graduates from Harvard Law School. The Legal System United States Massachusetts 1870 Census of 1870, U.S. population: 39,818,449, Black population: 4,880,009 (12.7 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1870 Hiram R. Revels (Republican) of Mississippi takes his seat in the U.S. Senate on February 25. He is the first black United States senator, though he serves only one year, completing the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. Black Politics United States Mississippi 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified on March 30. Reconstruction Amendments United States District of Columbia 1870 In June Richard T. Greener becomes the first African American undergraduate to graduate from Harvard University. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1870 The Preparatory High School for Colored Youth opens in Washington, D.C. It is the first public high school for African Americans in the nation. The institution is later named the M Street High School and finally Dunbar High School in honor of Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1871 In February Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1871 popularly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1871 On October 6, Fisk University's Jubilee Singers begin their first national tour. The Jubilee Singers become world-famous singers of black spirituals, performing before the Queen of England and the Emperor of Japan. The money they earn finances the construction of Jubilee Hall on the Fisk University campus. Black Entertainment United States Tennessee 1871 George Washington, an early black settler in Washington Territory becomes the first African American to found a predominately white town when he establishes Centerville, later Centralia, Washington. Municipal Affairs United States Washington 1872 Lt. Governor Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback of Louisiana serves as governor of the state for one month from December 1872 to January >1873. He is the first African American to hold that position. Black Politics United States Louisiana 1872 Charlotte Ray of Washington, D.C. is the first African American woman and only the third woman admitted to the bar to practice law in the U.S. The Legal System United States District of Columbia 1873 The 43rd Congress has seven black members. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1873 On April 14, the U.S Supreme Court in the Slaughterhouse Cases rules that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment protects national, not state, citizenship. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1873 Bishop Patrick Healy serves as President of Georgetown University from 1873 to 1881. He is the first African American to preside over a predominately white university. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1873 On Easter Sunday more than 100 African Americans were killed in northwest Louisiana while defending Republicans in local office against white militia. The incident became known as the Colfax Massacre. Later that year in what would be known as the Coushatta Massacre 30 people including white and black Republican officeholders and their supporters were killed by white militia. Racial Violence United States Louisiana 1874 The Freedman's Bank closes after African American depositors and investors lose more than one million dollars. Black Business United States District of Columbia 1875 Federal troops are sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi in January >to protect African Americans attempting to vote and to allow the safe return of the African American sheriff who had been forced to flee the city. African Americans and Reconstruction United States Mississippi 1875 On February 23rd Jim Crow laws are enacted in Tennessee. Similar statutes had existed in the North before the Civil War. Jim Crow Legislation United States Tennessee 1875 Congress enacts the Civil Rights Act of 1875 on March 1, guaranteeing equal rights to black Americans in public accommodations and jury duty. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1875 Blanche Kelso Bruce (Republican) of Mississippi becomes the first African American to serve a full six year term as senator when he takes his seat in the United States Senate on March 3. Black Politics United States Mississippi 1875 The 44th Congress has eight black members. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1875 Jockey Oliver Lewis wins the first Kentucky Derby race. Over the next 27 years fourteen black jockeys would ride the wining horse at the Derby. African American Athletes United States Kentucky 1876 Lewis H. Latimer, while working for the Boston patent attorney office of Crosby and Gould, assists Alexander Graham Bell in obtaining a patent for the telephone on March 7. Exploration and Discovery United States Massachusetts 1876 In May, Edward Alexander Bouchet receives a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from an American university and only the sixth American to earn a Ph.D. in physics. Black Education United States Connecticut 1876 Race riots and other forms of terrorism against black voters in South Carolina over the summer including the infamous Hamburg Massacre where blacks are killed while celebrating the Fourth of July, prompt President Grant to sent federal troops to restore order. Racial Violence United States South Carolina 1876 On October 13 Meharry Medical College is founded in Nashville by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Church. Health and Medicine United States Tennessee 1876 The presidential election of 1876, pitting Samuel Tilden (Democrat) against Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican), is inconclusive when the votes in the Electoral College are disputed. Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1877 The Compromise of 1877 (also known as the Wormley House Compromise because the meeting takes place in a black-owned hotel in Washington, D.C.) is an arrangement worked out in January >of that year which effectively ends Reconstruction. Although Democratic Presidential candidate Samuel Tilden won the popular vote, Southern Democratic leaders agree to support Rutherford Hayes's efforts to obtain the disputed electoral votes of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina in exchange for the withdrawal of the last federal troops from the South and the end of federal efforts to protect the civil rights of African Americans. Reconstruction United States District of Columbia 1877 The 45th Congress has three black members. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1877 On June 15, Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate from West Point. African Americans and the Military United States New York 1877 In July, 30 African American settlers from Kentucky establish the town of Nicodemus in western Kansas. This is the first of hundreds of all or mostly black towns created in the West. Black Settlement in the West United States Kansas 1877 George Washington Henderson of the University of Vermont is the first African American elected to Phi Beta Kappy, the oldest humanities honor society in the U.S. Black Education United States Vermont 1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass as the first black U.S. Marshal. His jurisdication is the District of Columbia. Pre-1970 Politics United States District of Columbia 1878 Marie Selika Williams becomes the first African American woman entertainer to perform at the White House when she presents a musical program to President Rutherford B. Hayes and assembled guests. Black Entertainment United States District of Columbia 1879 Mary Eliza Mahoney becomes the first African American professional nurse, graduating from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston. Blacks in the Professions United States Massachusetts 1879-1880 Approximately six thousand African Americans leave Louisiana and Mississippi counties along the Mississippi River for Kansas in what will be known as the Exodus. Henry Adams and Benjamin "Pap" Singleton were two of the major leaders of the Exodus. Black Settlement in the West United States Kansas 1880 Census of 1880, U.S. population: 50,155,783, Black population: 6,580,793 (13.1 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1880 On May 14, Sgt. George Jordan of the Ninth Cavalry, commanding a detachment of Buffalo Soldiers, leads a successful defense of Tularosa, New Mexico Territory, against Apache Indians. African Americans and the Military United States New Mexico 1880 The U.S. Supreme Court in Strauder v. West Virginia rules that African Americans cannot be excluded from juries solely on the basis of race. Civil Rights United States District of Columbia 1881 In January >the Tennessee State Legislature votes to segregate railroad passenger cars. Tennessee's action is followed by Florida (1887), Mississippi (1888), Texas (1889), Louisiana (1890), Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia (1891), South Carolina (1898), North Carolina (1899), Virginia (1900), Maryland (1904), and Oklahoma (1907). Jim Crow Legislation United States Tennessee 1881 Spelman College, the first college for black women in the U.S., is founded on April 11 by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles. Black Education United States Georgia 1881 On the Fourth of July 25-year-old Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute in central Alabama. Black Education United States Alabama 1882 The Virginia State Assembly established the first state mental hospital for African Americans and locates it near Petersburg. Health and Medicine United States Virginia 1882 George Washington Williams's History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 is considered teh first history of African Americans that met the standards of professionally written history of that era. Art and Literature United States Massachusetts 1883 The 50th Congress has no black members. Intimidation keeps most black voters from the polls. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1883 On October 16, U. S. Supreme Court in a decision known as the Civil Rights Cases declares invalid the Civil Rights Act of 1875, stating the Federal Government cannot bar corporations or individuals from discriminating on the basis of race. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1883 On November 3, white conservatives in Danville, Virginia, seize control of the local racially integrated and popularly elected government, killing four African Americans in the process. Racial Violence United States Virginia 1884 Judy W. Reed of Washington D.C. becomes the first African American woman to receive a patent. She is granted patent number 305,474 on September 23 for her creation of a dough kneader and roller. Exploration and Discovery United States District of Columbia 1884 Granville Woods founds the Woods Railway Telegraph Company in Columbus, Ohio. The company manufactured and sold telephone and telegraph equipment. Exploration and Discovery United States Ohio 1885 On June 25, African American Priest Samuel David Ferguson is ordained a bishop of the Episcopal Church at a ceremony at Grace Church, New York City. 19th Century Black Religion United States New York 1886 The Knights of Labor, founded and headquartered in Philadelphia, reaches it peak membership of 700,000 with approximately 75,000 African American members. Black Labor United States Pennsylvania 1886 The American Federation of Labor is organized on December 8 in Columbus, Ohio. All major unions of the federation excluded black workers. Black Labor United States Ohio 1886 Norris Wright Cuney becomes chairman of the Texas Republican Party. He is the first African American to head a major political party at the state level in U.S. history Pre-1970 Politics United States Texas 1887 On July 14, 1887, the directors of the International League (Major League Baseball) voted to prohibit the signing of additional black players while allowing those under contract such as Frank Grant of Buffalo and Moses Fleetwood Walker of Syracuse franchise, to remain with their teams through the 1888 season. By 1889 blacks were no longer players in Major League Baseball. African American Athletes United States n.a. 1887 The National Colored Farmers' Alliance is formed in Houston County, Texas. Black Farmers United States Texas 1888 On April 11, Edward Park Duplex is elected mayor of Wheatland, California. He is believed to be the first African American mayor of a predominantly white town in the United States. Black Politics United States California 1888 Two of America's first black-owned banks, the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of the Reformers, in Richmond, Virginia, and Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C, open their doors. Black Business United States Virginia 1889 Florida becomes the first state to use the poll tax to disenfranchise black voters. Black Politics United States Florida 1889 Frederick Douglass is appointed Minister to Haiti. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1890 Census of 1890, U.S. population: 62,947,714, Black population: 7,488,676 (11.9 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1890 The Afro-American League is founded on January >25 in Chicago under the leadership of Timothy Thomas Fortune. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1890 On November 1, the Mississippi Legislature approves a new state Constitution that disenfranchises virtually all of the state's African American voters. The Mississippi Plan used literacy and understanding tests to prevent African Americans from casting ballots. Similar statutes were adopted by South Carolina (1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma (1910). Jim Crow Legislation United States Mississippi 1890 William Henry Lewis and William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson were the first known black players on a white college football team when they played at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Lewis was team captain for the 1891-92 season. African American Athletes United States Massachusetts 1891 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founds Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first African American-owned hospital in the nation. Health and Medicine United States Illinois 1892 On June 15 operatic soprano Sissieretta Jones becomes the first African American to perform at Carnegie Hall. Black Entertainment United States New York 1892 On July 14 three companies of the 24th Infantry occupy the Coeur d'Alene Mining District in northern Idaho which has been declared under martial law following a violent strike by silver miners. They remain for four months. African Americans and the Military United States Idaho 1892 In October activist Ida B. Wells begins her anti-lynching campaign with the publication of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law and in All Its Phases and a speech in New York City's Lyric Hall The Civil Rights Movement United States New York 1892 The National Medical Association is formed in Atlanta by African American physicians because they are barred from the American Medical Association. Health and Medicine United States Georgia 1892 First intercollegiate football game between African American colleges takes place between Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) and Livingston College. African American Athletes United States North Carolina 1892 A record 230 people are lynched in the United States this year, 161 are black and 69 white. In the period between 1882 and 1951, Tuskegee Institute compiled nationwide lynching statistics. In that 69 year period, 4,730 people were lynched including 3,437 blacks and 1,293 whites. Ninety-two women were victims of lynching, 76 were black and 16 were white. Although southern states accounted for 90 percent of the lynchings, every state in the continental U.S., with the exception of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont, reported lynching deaths sometime during the 69 year period. Racial Violence United States n.a. 1892 The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper is founded by former slave John H. Murphy, Sr. The Black Press United States Maryland 1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful operation on a human heart in his Chicago hospital. The patient, a victim of a chest stab wound, survives and lives for twenty years after the operation. Health and Medicine United States Illinois 1894 The Church of God in Christ is founded in Memphis by Bishop Charles Harrison Mason. 19th Century Black Religion United States Tennessee 1895 White terrorists attack black workers in New Orleans on March 11-12. Six blacks are killed. Racial Violence United States Louisiana 1895 In June, W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1895 Booker T. Washington delivers his famous Atlanta Compromise address on September 18 at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition. He says the Negro problem would be solved by a policy of gradualism and accommodation. Segregated America United States Georgia 1895 Three black Baptist organizations, the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention of the United States (1880), the American National Baptist Convention (1886) and the Baptist National Educational Convention (1893) combined at Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta to form the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. The National Baptist Convention is the largest black religious denomination in the United States. 19th Century Black Religion United States Georgia 1896 Plessey v. Ferguson is decided on May 18 when the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Southern segregation laws and practices (Jim Crow) do not conflict with the 13th and 14th Amendments. The Court defends its ruling by articulating the separate but equal doctrine. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1896 On July 21 the National Association of Colored Women is formed in Washington, D.C. Mary Church Terrell is chosen as its first president. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1896 In September George Washington Carver is appointed director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advances peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming. Exploration and Discovery United States Alabama 1896 John Shippen became the first black professional golfer when he participated in a tournament in England. African American Athletes United States District of Columbia 1897 The American Negro Academy is established on March 5 in Washington, D.C. to encourage African American participation in art, literature and philosophy. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1897 The first Phillis Wheatley Home is founded in Detroit. These homes, established in most cities with large African American populations, provide temporary accommodations and social services for single African American women. Black Organizations United States Michigan 1898 In January >the Louisiana Legislature introduces the Grandfather Clause into the state's constitution. Only males whose fathers or grandfathers were qualified to vote on January >1, 1867, are automatically registered. Others (African Americans) must comply with educational or property requirements. Jim Crow Legislation United States Louisiana 1898 The Spanish-American War begins on April 21. Sixteen regiments of black volunteers are recruited; four see combat in Cuba and the Philippines Five African Americans win Congressional Medals of Honor during the war. A number of black officers command troops for the first time. African Americans and the Military United States n.a. 1898 The National Afro-American Council is founded on September 15 in Rochester, New York. The organization elects Bishop Alexander Walters as its first president. Black Organizations United States New York 1898 On November 10, in Wilmington, North Carolina, eight black Americans were killed as white conservative Democrats forcibly removed from power black and white Republican officeholders in the city. The episode would be known as the Wilmington Riot. Racial Violence United States North Carolina 1898 The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Insurance Company of Durham, North Carolina and the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington, D.C. are established. Black Business United States North Carolina 1898 The U.S. Supreme Court in Williams v. Mississippi upholds the provisions of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 which effectively disfranchises virtually all of the black voters in the state. Civil Rights United States District of Columbia 1899 In May, the 24th Infantry returns to occupy the Coeur d'Alene Mining District in northern Idaho after violence again erupts. African Americans and the Military United States Idaho 1899 The Afro-American Council designates June 4 as a national day of fasting to protest lynching and massacres. Black Organizations United States New York 1899 Scott Joplin composes the Maple Leaf Rag, which introduces ragtime music to the United States. 19th Century Black Music United States Missouri 1900 Census of 1900, U.S. population: 75,994,575, Black population: 8,833,994 (11.6 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1900 In January >James Weldon Johnson writes the lyrics and his brother John Rosamond Johnson composes the music for Lift Every Voice and Sing in their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The song is eventually adopted as the black national anthem. 19th Century Black Music United States Florida 1900 The New Orleans Race Riot (also known as the Robert Charles Riot) erupts on July 23 and lasts four days. Twelve African Americans and seven whites were killed. Racial Violence United States Louisiana 1900 On August 23, the National Negro Business League is founded in Boston by Booker T. Washington to promote business enterprise. Black Business United States Massachusetts 1900 In September Nannie Helen Burroughs leads the founding of the Women's' Convention of the National Baptist Convention at its meeting in Richmond, Virginia. Black Organizations United States Virginia 1900 This year marks the beginning of significant West Indian immigration to the United States. Black Immigrants United States n. a. 1900 By 1900 nearly two-thirds of the landowners in the Mississippi Delta were black farmers, most of whom had bought and cleared land after the Civil War. African American Farmers United States Mississippi 1900 An estimated 30,000 black teachers have been trained since the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865. They are a major factor in helping more than half the black population achieve literacy by this date. Black Education United States n.a. - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1800-1900#sthash.2d47mmTt.dpuf African American History Timeline: 1901 - 2000 Yearsort icon Events Subject Country State Era 1901 The last African American congressman elected in the 19th Century, George H. White, Republican of North Carolina, leaves office. No African American will serve in Congress for the next 28 years. Black Politics United States North Carolina 1901 On October 11, when Bert Williams and George Walker record their music for the Victor Talking Machine Company, they become the first African American recording artists. Black Entertainment United States New York 1901 On October 16, only one month after becoming President, Theodore Roosevelt holds an afternoon meeting at the White House with Booker T. Washington. At the end of the meeting the President informally invites Washington to remain for dinner, making the Tuskegee educator the first black American to dine at the White House with a president. Roosevelts casual act generates a national furor. Segregated America United States District of Columbia 1901 Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery is published. Art and Literature United States Alabama 1902 In May jockey Jimmy Winkfield wins the Kentucky Derby in an era when African American jockeys dominate the sport. African American Athletes United States Kentucky 1903 W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folks is published on April 27. In it Du Bois rejects the gradualism of Booker T. Washington, calling for agitation on behalf of African American rights. Segregated America United States New York 1903 Maggie Lena Walker founds St. Lukes Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia. Black Business United States Virginia 1904 Educator Mary McLeod Bethune founds a college in Daytona Beach, Florida that today is known as Bethune-Cookman University. Black Education United States Florida 1904 Sigma Pi Phi (the Boule) is founded in Philadelphia on May 15 by four wealthy African American college graduates. Black Organizations United States Pennsylvania 1904 Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, who trains at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Munich with Dr. Alois Alzheimer, becomes a widely published pioneer in Alzheimers disease research. Fuller also becomes the nations first black psychiatrist. Health and Medicine United States New York 1905 The black weekly newspaper, The Chicago Defender, is founded by Robert Abbott on May 5. The Black Press United States Illinois 1905 The Niagara Movement is created on July 11-13, by African American intellectuals and activists, led by W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. Black Organizations United States New York 1905 Nashville African Americans boycott streetcars to protest racial segregation. The Civil Rights Movement United States Tennessee 1906 The Azusa Street Revival begins in the former African Methodist Episcopal Church building at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles in April. The revival, led by black evangelist William J. Seymour, is considered the beginning of the worldwide Pentecostal Movement. 20th Century Black Religion United States California 1906 On August 13 in Brownsville, Texas, approximately a dozen black troops riot against segregation and in the process kill a local citizen. When the identity of the killer cannot be determined, President Theodore Roosevelt discharges three companies of black soldiers on November 6.The episode would be called the Brownsville Affray. African Americans and the Military United States Texas 1906 The Atlanta Race Riot on September 22-24 produces twelve deaths; ten blacks and two whites. Racial Violence United States Georgia 1906 On December 4, seven students at Cornell University form Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first college fraternity for black men. Black Organizations United States New York 1907 Alain Locke of Philadelphia, a Harvard graduate, becomes the first African American Rhodes Scholar. Black Education United States Pennsylvania 1907 The Pittsburgh Courier is established by Edwin Harleston, a security guard and aspiring writer. Three years later attorney Robert Vann takes control of the paper as its editor-publisher. The Black Press United States Pennsylvania 1907 Madam C.J. Walker of Denver develops and markets her hair straightening method and creates one of the most successful cosmetics firms in the nation. Black Business United States Colorado 1908 On January >15, Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first black sorority, is founded on the campus of Howard University. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1908 On August 14, the Springfield Race Riot breaks out in Springfield, Illinois, the home town of Abraham Lincoln. Two blacks and four whites are killed. This is the first major riot in a Northern city in nearly half a century. Racial Violence United States Illinois 1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed on February 12 in New York City, partly in response to the Springfield Riot. Black Organizations United States New York 1909 On April 6, Admiral Robert E. Peary and African American Matthew Henson, accompanied by four Eskimos, become the first men known to have reached the North Pole. Exploration and Discovery United States New York 1909 On December 4, the New York Amsterdam News begins publication. The Black Press United States New York 1909 The Knights of Peter Claver, the first permanent national black Catholic fraternal order, is founded in Mobile, Alabama. 20th Century Black Religion United States Alabama 1910 Census of 1910: U.S. population: 93,402,151, Black population: 9,827,763 (10.7 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1910 The National Urban League is founded in New York City on September 29. The League is organized to help African Americans secure employment and to adjust to urban life. Black Organizations United States New York 1910 The first issue of Crisis, the official publication of the NAACP, appears on November 1. W.E.B. Du Bois is the first editor. The Black Press United States New York 1910 On December 19, the City Council of Baltimore approves an ordinance segregating black and white neighborhoods. This ordinance is followed by similar statutes in Dallas, Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Norfolk, Virginia, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Richmond, Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia, and St. Louis, Missouri. Jim Crow Legislation United States Maryland 1911 Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is founded at Indiana University on January >5. Black Organizations United States Indiana 1911 Omega Psi Phi Fraternity is founded at Howard University on November 17. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1912 W.C. Handy published "Memphis Blues" sheet music in Memphis 20th Century Black Music United States Tennessee 1913 The Jubilee year, the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, is celebrated throughout the nation over the entire year. Black Holidays and Celebrations United States n. a. 1913 Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is founded at Howard University on January >13. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1913 On April 11, the Woodrow Wilson administration initiates the racial segregation of work places, rest rooms and lunch rooms in all federal offices across the nation. Segregated America United States District of Columbia 1913 Bert Williams plays the lead role in Darktown Jubilee, making him the first African American actor to star in a motion picture. Black Hollywood United States California 1913 Noble Drew Ali founds the Moorish Science Temple in Newark, New Jersey. 20th Century Black Religion United States New Jersey 1914 Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity is founded at Howard University on January >9. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1914 Cleveland inventor Garrett Morgan patents a gas mask called the Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. The mask, initially used to rescue trapped miners, is eventually adopted by the U.S. Army. Exploration and Discovery United States Ohio 1914 On August 1, World War I began in Europe. African Americans in World War I United States n. a. 1915 The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities begins. Black Migration United States n. a. 1915 On June 21, the Oklahoma Grandfather Clause is overturned in Guinn v. United States. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1915 In September, Carter G. Woodson founds the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in Chicago. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1916 Marcus Garvey founds the New York Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association with sixteen members. Four years later the UNIA holds its national convention in Harlem. At its height the organization claims nearly two million members. Black Organizations United States New York 1916 On July 25, Garrett Morgan uses his newly invented gas mask to rescue men trapped after an explosion in a tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. Exploration and Discovery United States Ohio 1916 In January >the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) begins publishing the Journal of Negro History which becomes the first scholarly journal devoted to the study of African American history. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1917 The United States enters World War I on April 6. Some 370,000 African-Americans join the armed forces with more than half serving in the French war zone. Over 1,000 black officers command these troops. The French government awards the Croix de Guerre to 107 African American soldiers. African Americans in World War I United States n. a. 1917 The East St. Louis Race Riot begins on July 1 and continues to July 3. Forty people are killed, hundreds more injured, and 6,000 driven from their homes. Racial Violence United States Illinois 1917 Nearly 10,000 African Americans and their supporters march down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on July 28 as part of a silent parade, an NAACP-organized protest against lynchings, race riots, and the denial of rights. This is the first major civil rights demonstration in the 20th Century. Racial Violence United States New York 1917 In August, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen found The Messenger, a black socialist magazine, in New York City. The Black Press United States New York 1917 On August 23, the Houston Mutiny and subsequent riot erupts between black soldiers and white citizens; two blacks and 11 whites are killed. Twenty-nine black soldiers are executed for participation in the riot. Racial Violence United States Texas 1917 On November 5, the Supreme Court in Buchanan v. Warley strikes down the Louisville, Kentucky ordinance mandating segregated neighborhoods. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1918 On July 25-28, a race riot in Chester, Pennsylvania claims five lives, three blacks and two whites. Racial Violence United States Pennsylvania 1918 On July 26-29, in nearby Philadelphia, another race riot breaks out killing four, three blacks and one white. Racial Violence United States Pennsylvania 1918 The Armistice on November 11 ends World War I. However, the northern migration of African Americans continues. By 1930 there were 1,035,000 more black Americans in the North than in 1910. Black Migration United States n. a. 1919 The Ku Klux Klan is revived in 1915 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and by the beginning of 1919 operates in 27 states. Eighty-three African Americans are lynched during the year, among them a number of returning soldiers still in uniform. Racial Violence United States Georgia 1919 The West Virginia State Supreme Court rules that an African American is denied equal protection under the law if his jury has no black members. Major Judicial Decisions United States West Virginia 1919 The Associated Negro Press is established in Chicago by Claude A. Barnett on March 2. The Black Press United States Illinois 1919 The twenty five race riots that take place throughout the nation prompt the term, Red Summer. The largest clashes take place on May 10 in Charleston, South Carolina, July 13 in Longview, Texas, July 19-23 in Washington, D. C, July 27-Aug. 1 in Chicago, September 28 in Omaha, and October 1-3 in Elaine, Arkansas. Racial Violence United States Illinois 1919 Claude McKay publishes "If We Must Die," considered one of the first major examples of Harlem Renaissance writing. Art and Literature United States New York 1919 Father Divine founds the Peace Mission Movement at his home in Sayville, New York. 20th Century Black Religion United States New York 1919 South Dakota resident Oscar Micheaux releases his first film, The Homesteader, in Chicago. Over the next four decades Micheaux will produce and direct 24 silent films and 19 sound films, making him the most prolific black filmmaker of the 20th Century. Black Hollywood United States South Dakota 1920 Census of 1920, Black population: 10,463,131 (9.9 percent), U.S. population: 105,710,620 Black Population United States District of Columbia 1920 The decade of the 1920s witnesses the Harlem Renaissance, a remarkable period of creativity for black writers, poets, and artists, including among others Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Art and Literature United States New York 1920 On January >16, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is founded at Howard University. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1920 Andrew Rube Foster leads the effort to establish the Negro National (Baseball) League on February 14 in Kansas City. Eight teams are part of the league. African American Athletes United States Missouri 1920 On August 26, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified giving all women the right to vote. Nonetheless, African American women, like African American men, are denied the franchise in most Southern states. Black Women United States District of Columbia 1920 Marcus Garvey leads the first international convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association which he calls the International Convention of Negro Peoples of the World. The meeting is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States New York 1920 Former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson opens the Club Deluxe in Harlem. Two years later gangaster Owney Madden buys the club and changes its name to the Cotton Club. Black Entertainment United States New York 1921 Shuffle Along by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake opens on Broadway on May 23. This is the first major play of the Harlem Renaissance. Black Entertainment United States New York 1921 On May 31-June 1, at least 60 blacks and 21 whites are killed in the Tulsa Race Riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The violence destroys a thriving African American neighborhood and business district called Deep Greenwood. Racial Violence United States Oklahoma 1921 In June Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander of the University of Pennsylvania, Eva B. Dykes of Radcliff and Georgiana R. Simpson of the University of Chicago become the first African American women to earn Ph.D. degrees. Black Education United States n. a. 1921 Harry Pace forms Black Swan Phonograph Corporation, the first African American-owned record company in Harlem. His artists will include Mamie and Bessie Smith. Black Business United States New York 1921 One of the earliest exhibitions of work by African American artists, including Henry Ossawa Tanner and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, is held at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. Art and Literature United States New York 1921 Jesse Binga founds the Binga State Bank in Chicago. It will become the largest African American bank in the nation before it collapses during the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Black Business United States Illinois 1922 In September William Leo Hansberry of Howard University teaches the first course in African history and civilization at an American university. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1922 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority is founded on November 12 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Black Organizations United States Indiana 1922 The Harmon Foundation is established in New York City to promote African American participation in the fine arts. Art and Literature United States New York 1923 On January >4, the small, predominately black town of Rosewood, Florida is destroyed by a mob of white residents from nearby communities. The attack would be known as the Rosewood Massacre. Racial Violence United States Florida 1923 Marcus Garvey is imprisoned for mail fraud. He is sent to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta in 1925. Crime and Punishment United States Georgia 1923 In September, the Cotton Club opens in Harlem. Black Entertainment United States New York 1923 Bessie Smith signs with Columbia Records to produce race records. Her recording, "Down-Hearted Blues," becomes the first million-selling record by an African American artist. Two years later she records "St. Louis Blues" with Louis Armstrong. 20th Century Black Music United States District of Columbia 1923 On November 20, Garrett T. Morgan patents a caution light which improves the traffic signal. Exploration and Discovery United States Ohio 1923 The National Urban League publishes its first issue of Opportunity, A Journal of Negro Life. The magazine, edited by Charles S. Johnson, quickly becomes a forum for artists and authors of the Harlem Renaissance. The Black Press United States New York 1923 Rojo Jack is the first African American to particiapte in professional car racing when he competes in a race in Honolulu Hawaii. African American Athletes United States Hawaii 1924 Photographer James Van Der Zee begins his career by capturing images of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA. Art and Literature United States New York 1925 The New Negro by Alain Locke is published in New York City. Art and Literature United States New York 1925 The National Bar Association, an organization of black attorneys, is established on August 1 in Des Moines, Iowa. Black Organizations United States Iowa 1925 On August 2, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids is organized with A. Philip Randolph as its first president. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1925 On September 9, Ossian Sweet, a Detroit physician, is arrested for murder after he and his family kill a member of a white mob while defending their home. The Sweet family is represented at their trial by Clarence Darrow and acquitted of the charge. Racial Violence United States Michigan 1925 The American Negro Labor Congress is founded in Chicago in October. Blacks and Organized Labor United States Illinois 1925 Although African Americans have been serving as U.S. ambassadors since 1869, Clifton Reginald Wharton becomes the first African American to permanently enter the U.S. Foreign Service. International Diplomacy United States District of Columbia 1926 Carter G. Woodson establishes Negro History Week in February between the Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass Birthdays. Black Holidays and Celebrations United States District of Columbia 1926 Dr. Mordecai Johnson becomes the first African American president of Howard University in September. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1926 The Carnegie Corporation purchases Arturo Schomburg's collection of books and artifacts on African American life. The collection becomes the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City. Art and Literature United States New York 1927 Chicago businessman Abe Saperstein forms the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in Chicago on January >30. African American Athletes United States Illinois 1927 On December 2, Marcus Garvey is deported from the United States. Crime and Punishment United States n. a. 1927 Floyd Joseph Calvin, a Pittsburgh Courier journalist, becomes the first black radio talk show host when he begins broadcasting from WGBS in Pittsburgh. Radio and Television United States Pennsylvania 1928 On November 6, Oscar DePriest, a Republican, is elected to Congress from Chicagos South Side. He is the first African American to represent a northern, urban district. Black Politics United States Illinois 1928 The Atlanta Daily World begins publication in November. The Black Press United States Georgia 1929 Fats Waller's musical, Aint Misbehavin, opens on Broadway. Black Entertainment United States New York 1930 Census of 1930, Black population: 11,891,143 (9.7 percent), U.S. population: 122,775,046 Black Population United States District of Columbia 1930 James V. Herring establishes the Howard University Gallery of Art, the first gallery in the United States directed and controlled by African Americans. It is also one of the earliest galleries to highlight African American art. Art and Literature United States District of Columbia 1930 Wallace Fard Muhammad founds Black Muslim movement in Detroit in 1930. Four years later Elijah Muhammad assumes control of the movement and transfers the headquarters to Chicago. 20th Century Black Religion United States Michigan 1931 Walter White is named NAACP executive secretary. Soon afterwards the NAACP mounts a new strategy primarily using lawsuits to end racial discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement United States New York 1931 The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama. Their trial begins on April 6. Crime and Punishment United States Alabama 1931 William Grant Still becomes the first black symphony composer to have his music performed by a major symphony orchestra when the Rochester, New York, Philharmonic Orchestra presets "The Afro-American Symphony" in concert. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment begins under the direction of the U.S. Public Health Service. The experiment ends in 1972. Health and Medicine United States Alabama 1932 Gospel Composer Thomas Dorsey writes "Take My Hand, Precious Lord." 20th Century Black Music United States Illinois 1932 Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president of the United States in November. Blacks and the Great Depression United States n. a. 1932 The Los Angeles Sentinel is founded by Leon H. Washington. The Black Press United States California 1932 Dudley Murphy releases the film The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson. Black Entertainment United States California 1934 W.E.B. Du Bois resigns from the NAACP in a dispute over the strategy of the organization in its campaign against racial discrimination. Roy Wilkins becomes the new editor of Crisis magazine. The Civil Rights Movement United States New York 1934 The Southern Tenant Farmers Union is organized by the Socialist Party. Racial Alliances United States Arkansas 1934 Zora Neale Hurston's first novel, Jonahs Gourd Vine, is published. Art and Literature United States New York 1934 After operating under a number of names, the Apollo Theater opens under its current name in Harlem. Black Entertainment United States New York 1935 On March 20, the Harlem Race Riot, a one day riot erupts leaving two people dead. Racial Violence United States New York 1935 On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Norris v. Alabama that a defendant has a right to trial by a jury of his or her peers. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1935 The Michigan Chronicle is founded in Detroit by Louis E. Martin. The Black Press United States Michigan 1935 On November 5, the Maryland Supreme Court rules in Murray v. Pearson that the University of Maryland must admit African Americans to its law school or establish a separate school for blacks. The University of Maryland chooses to admit its first black students. Major Judicial Decisions United States Maryland 1935 On December 24, Mary McLeod Bethune calls together the leaders of 28 national womens organizations to found the National Council of Negro Women in New York City. Black Organizations United States New York 1936 The first meeting of the National Negro Congress takes place in Chicago on February 14, 1936. Nearly 600 black organizations are represented. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1936 On June 24, Mary McLeod Bethune is named Director of the Division of Negro Affairs, the National Youth Administration. She is the highest ranking black official in the Roosevelt Administration and leads the Black Cabinet. She is also the first black woman to receive a presidential appointment. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1936 Track star Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics between August 3 and August 9. African American Athletes United States n. a. 1936 Dr. William Augustus Hinton's book, Syphilis and Its Treatment, is the first published medical textbook written by an African American. Exploration and Discovery United States Massachusetts 1937 William H. Hastie, former advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, is confirmed on March 26 as the first black federal judge after his appointment by Roosevelt to the federal bench in the Virgin Islands. Judicial Appointments United States Virgin Islands 1937 The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids is recognized by the Pullman Company. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1937 On June 22, boxer Joe Louis wins the heavyweight championship in a bout with James J. Braddock in Chicago. African American Athletes United States Illinois 1937 In October, Katherine Dunham forms the Negro Dance Group, a company of black artists dedicated to presenting aspects of African American and African-Caribbean Dance. The company eventually becomes the Katherine Dunham Group. Art and Literature United States Illinois 1937 Hugh Morris Gloster founds the College Language Association (CLA) in Atlanta, Georgia. Black Education United States Georgia 1938 On June 22, Joe Louis beats Max Schmeling in a rematch of his 1936 defeat by the German boxer. African American Athletes United States New York 1938 Jacob Lawrence holds his first solo exhibition at the Harlem YMCA and completes his Toussaint L'Overture series. Art and Literature United States New York 1938 In November Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia becomes the first African American woman elected to a state legislature when she is chosen to serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Black Politics United States Pennsylvania 1938 On December 12, the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada rules that a state that provides in-state education for whites must provide comparable in-state education for blacks. Major Judicial Decisions United States Missouri 1939 Popular contralto Marian Anderson sings at Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people on Easter Sunday after the Daughters of the American Revolution refuse to allow her to perform at Constitution Hall. Art and Literature United States District of Columbia 1939 Bill Bojangles Robinson organizes the Black Actors Guild. Black Hollywood United States New York 1939 World War II begins in Europe on September 1 when Germany invades Poland African Americans in World War II United States n. a. 1939 Jane M. Bolin becomes the first African American woman judge in the United States when she is appointed to the domestic relations court of New York City. Judicial Appointments United States New York 1940 Census of 1940, U.S. population 131,669,275, Black population: 12,865,518 (9.8 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia. 1940 On February 29, Hattie McDaniel receives an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her role in Gone With the Wind. She becomes the first black actor to win an academy award. Black Hollywood United States California 1940 Richard Wright publishes his first novel, Native Son. Art and Literature United States New York 1940 Dr. Charles R. Drew presents his thesis, Banked Blood at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The thesis includes his research which discovers that plasma can replace whole blood transfusions. Exploration and Discovery United States New York 1940 In October, Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr., is named the first African American general in the regular army. African Americans and the Military United States District of Columbia 1940 The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is established in New York City. Black Organizations United States New York 1941 Mary Lucinda Dawson founds the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh. Art and Literature United States Pennsylvania 1941 The U.S. Army creates the Tuskegee Air Squadron who will soon be known as the Tuskegee Airmen. African Americans and the Military United States Alabama 1941 On June 25, President Franklin Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802, desegregating war production plants and creating the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). African Americans in World War II United States District of Columbia 1941 On December 8, the United States enters World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Dorris "Dorie" Miller is later awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism during that battle. African Americans in World War II United States Hawaii 1941-1945 The desperate need for factory labor to build the war machine needed to win World War II leads to an unprecedented migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West. This migration transforms American politics as blacks increasingly vote in their new homes and put pressure on Congress to protect civil rights throughout the nation. Their activism lays much of the foundation for the national Civil Rights Movement a decade later. African Americans in World War II United States n. a. 1942 While teaching at Livingstone College in North Carolina, Margaret Walker publishes For My People, which she began as her master's thesis at the University of Iowa. Art and Literature United States North Carolina 1942 The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago by James Farmer, Jr., George Houser, Bernice Fisher, James Russell Robinson, Joe Guinn, and Homer Jack. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1942 The U.S. Marine Corps accepts African American men for the first time at a segregated training facility at Camp Montford Point, North Carolina. They will be known as the Montford Point Marines. African Americans and the Military United States North Carolina 1942 Charity Adams Earley becomes the first black woman commissioned officer in the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) while serving at Fort Des Moines. African Americans and the Military United States Iowa 1942 Hugh Mulzac becomes the first African American captain in the American Merchant Marine. African Americans in World War II United States New York 1943 The Naval Academy at Annapolis and other naval officer schools accept African American men for the first time. African Americans and the Military United States Maryland 1943 The Detroit Race Riot, June 20-21, claims 34 lives including 25 African Americans. Other riots occur in Harlem, Mobile, Alabama, and Beaumont, Texas. Racial Violence United States Michigan 1943 The first black cadets graduate from the Army Flight School at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama. African Americans and the Military United States Alabama 1943 By summer, fourteen thousand African American soldiers of the 93rd Infantry Division and the 32nd and 33rd companies of the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (approximately 300 women) are stationed in the Arizona desert at Fort Huachuca for training. They are the largest concentration of black military personnel in the history of the nation. African Americans and the Military United States Arizona 1943 Two American Navy Destroyer ships, the USS Mason, and the submarine chaser, PC1264, are staffed entirely by African American crews. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1943 The black 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen) flies its first combat mission in Italy. African Americans and the Military United States Alabama 1944 On April 3, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Allwright declares white only political primaries unconstitutional. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1944 Frederick Douglass Patterson establishes the United Negro College Fund on April 25 to help support black colleges and black students. The fund is incorporated in New York. Black Organizations United States New York 1944 Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, is elected to Congress from Harlem in November. Black Politics United States New York 1944 Swedish Nobel Prize winner Gunnar Myrdal publishes An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy after being commissioned in 1938 by the Carnegie Corporation to study African American issues. Segregated America United States n. a. 1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12. African Americans in World War II United States Georgia 1945 The United Nations is founded in San Francisco on April 25. African Americans in World War II United States California 1945 On May 8, Germany surrenders on Victory in Europe (VE) day. African Americans in World War II United States n. a. 1945 Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. is named commander of Goodman Field, Kentucky. He is the first African American to command a military base. African Americans and the Military United States Kentucky 1945 Japan surrenders on Victory over Japan (VJ) day ending World War II on September 2. By the end of the war one million African American men and women have served in the U.S. military. African Americans in World War II United States n. a. 1945 Nat King Cole becomes the first African American to have a radio variety show. The show airs on NBC. African Americans and the Media United States New York 1945 Ebony magazine, created by Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, published its first issue on November 1. The Black Press United States Illinois 1946 Dr. Charles S. Johnson becomes the first African American president of Fisk University in Nashville. Black Education United States Tennessee 1946 The U.S. Supreme Court in Morgan v. Virginia rules that segregation in interstate bus travel is unconstitutional. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1946 Charles Spurgeon Johnson, President of Fisk University in Nashville, becomes the first African American President of the Southern Sociological Society. Black Education United States Tennessee 1946 Channing H. Tobias is the first African American to head the Phelps-Stokes Fund, a philanthropic organization that supports black education. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1947 On April 10, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers becomes the first African American to play major league baseball in the 20th Century. African American Athletes United States New York 1947 The NAACP petition on racism, An Appeal to the World, is presented to the United Nations. The Civil Rights Movement United States New York 1947 John Hope Franklin's From Slavery to Freedom is published. The work will become the most popular textbook on African American history published in the 20th Century. Black Education United States New York 1948 On July 26, President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 directing the desegregation of the armed forces. African Americans and the Military United States District of Columbia 1948 Alice Coachman becomes the first African American woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal. She wins the high jump competition in the London Olympics. African American Athletes United States n. a. 1948 On October 1, the California Supreme Court voids the law banning interracial marriages in the state. Major Judicial Decisions United States California 1948 On May 3, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that state and local governments cannot enforce racially restrictive housing covenants. housing segregation United States District of Columbia 1948 Timmie Rogers, comedian, dancer, and singer, launches the first all-black variety show, Sugar Hill Times, on CBS Television. Radio and Television United States New York 1948 E. Franklin Frazier of Howard University becomes the first African American President of the American Sociological Association. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1949 In June Wesley Brown becomes the first African American to graduate from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. African Americans and the Military United States Maryland 1949 Businessman Jesse Blayton, Sr., establishes WERD-AM, the first black owned radio station. It begins broadcasting in Atlanta on October 3. African Americans and the Media United States Georgia 1949 William A. Hinton is the first black professor at the Harvard University Medical School. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1950 U.S. Census, U.S. population: 150,697,361, Black population: 15,044,937 (10 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1950 On May 1, Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago becomes the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. She wins the prize in Poetry. Art and Literature United States New York 1950 Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Earl Lloyd become the first African Americans to play professional basketball in the modern National Basketball Association (NBA). Cooper played for the Boston Celtics; Clifton played for the New York Knicks, and Lloyd played for the Washington Capitols. African American Athletes United States n.a. 1950 Juanita Hall became the first African American to win a Tony award. She was honored for her role in the Broadway play, South Pacific. Black Entertainment United States New York 1951 On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court rules racial segregation in District of Columbia restaurants is unconstitutional. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1951 On May 24, a mob of 3,500 whites attempt to prevent a black family from moving into a Cicero, Illinois apartment. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson calls out the Illinois National Guard to protect the family and restore order. Racial Violence United States Illinois 1951 Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP official, is killed by a bomb in Mims, Florida, on December 25. Political Assassinations United States Florida 1951 Johnson Publishing Company publishes the first issue of Jet, a weekly news magazine for an African American audience. Black Publications United States Illinois 1952 Tuskegee Institute reported no lynchings in the United States for the first time in 71 years of tabulation. Racial Violence United States Alabama 1952 Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. is appointed commander of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing in Korea. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1952 Ralph Ellison publishes Invisible Man. Art and Literature United States New York 1953 On June 19, Baton Rouge, Louisiana African Americans begin a boycott of their city's segregated municipal bus line. The Civil Rights Movement United States Louisiana 1953 On December 31, Hulan Jack becomes the first African American borough president of Manhattan. At the time he is the highest ranking black elected official in the nation. Black Politics United States New York 1953 James Baldwin publishes his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Go Tell It On The Mountain. Art and Literature United States New York 1953 When he joins the Chicago Bears Willie Thrower becomes the first black NFL quarterback in the modern era. African American Athletes United States Illinois 1953 Ralph Bunche becomes the first African American president of the American Political Science Association. Black Education United States New York 1954 On May 17, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declares segregation in all public schools in the United States unconstitutional, nullifying the earlier judicial doctrine of separate but equal. Black Education United States District of Columbia 1954 On October 27, Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr., becomes the first black Air Force general after serving in the Korean War, appointed to brigadier general by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He also is the first African American to command an airbase. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1954 Malcolm X becomes Minister of the Nation of Islam's Harlem Temple 7. 20th Century Black Religion United States New York 1954 On May 3 in Hernandez v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups in the U.S. are entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Civil Rights United States District of Columbia 1954 Attorney Frankie Muse Freeman (born Marie Frankie Muse) was the lead attorney for the NAACP in Davis et al. v. the St. Louis Housing Authority which ended racial discrimination in public housing in the city. Freeman was the first black woman to win a major civil rights case. housing segregation United States Missouri 1955 Fourteen-year-old Chicago resident Emmett Till is lynched while vacationing in Money, Mississippi on August 28. Racial Violence United States Mississippi 1955 Chuck Berry, an early breakthrough rock and roll artist, records "Maybellene" with Chicago's Chess Records. 20th Century Black Music United States Illinois 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her bus seat to a white man on December 1, initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Soon afterwards Dr. Martin Luther King becomes the leader of the Boycott. The Civil Rights Movement United States Alabama 1955 On May 7 Reverend George W. Lee, an NAACP activist, is killed in Belzoni, Mississippi. Racial Violence United States Mississippi 1955 On January >7 Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera Black Entertainment United States New York 1955 On January >15 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10590 which creates the President's Committee on Government Policy to enforce the federal government's policy of nondiscrimination in federal employment. Civil Rights United States District of Columbia 1955 On May 31 the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown II that public school desegregation must occur with all deliberate speed. Civil Rights United States Dustrict of Columbia 1955 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the 26 year old pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association which leads the year-long boycott against the city's racially segregated bus line. Civil Rights Era United States Alabama 1956 Autherine Lucy is admitted to the University of Alabama on February 3. She is suspended on February 7 after a riot ensues at the university to protest her presence. Lucy is expelled on February 29. Black Education United States Alabama 1956 On November 11, Nat King Cole becomes the first African American to host a prime time variety show on national television. He appears on NBC. African Americans and the Media United States New York 1956 Harry Belafonte's "Calypso," released by RCA Records, is the first album in history to sell more than one million copies. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1956 On November 13, the U.S. Supreme Court in Gayle v. Browder bans segregation in intrastate travel, effectively giving a victory to those supporting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1956 On April 10 popular entertainer Nat King Cole is assaulted on stage during a segregated performance at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama. Racial Violence United States Alabama 1956 The Mississippi Sovereignty Commisison is formed in Jackson, the state captial, to maintain racial segregation in Mississippi. Segregated America United States Mississippi 1957 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first legislation protecting black rights since Reconstruction. The act establishes the Civil Rights section of the Justice Department and empowers federal prosecutors to obtain court injunctions against interference with the right to vote. It also creates the federal Civil Rights Commission with the authority to investigate discriminatory conditions and recommend corrective measures. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1957 Dorothy Irene Height is appointed president of the National Council of Negro Women, a position she holds for 41 years. She later launches a crusade for justice for black women and works to strengthen the black family. Black Women United States District of Columbia 1957 In September President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to ensure the enforcement of a Federal court order to desegregate Central High School and to protect nine African American students enrolled as part of the order. The troops remain at the high school until the end of the school year. Black Education United States Arkansas 1957 The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was founded at a mass meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Black Organizations United States Alabama 1957 Perry H. Young becomes the first black pilot for a commercial passenger airline (New York Airways). The following year, 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor becomes the first commercial passenger airline flight attendant (Mohawk Airlines). Black Transportation United States New York 1958 On January >12, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is organized in Atlanta with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its first President. Black Organizations United States Georgia 1958 The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is formed in New York. Art and Literature United States New York 1958 Louis E. Lomax becomes the first African American newscaster for a major network station. He is hired by WNTA-TV in New York City. African Americans and the Media United States New York 1958 Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to win the U.S. Open tennis championship in Forest Hills. African American Athletes United States New York 1959 On January >12, Berry Gordy, Jr., founds Motown Records in Detroit. Black Business United States Michigan 1959 Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" opens in New York on March 11 with Sidney Poitier in the starring role. It is the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Art and Literature United States New York 1959 On April 26, Mack Charles Parker is lynched near Poplarville, Mississippi. Racial Violence United States Mississippi 1959 Ella Fitzgerald and William "Count" Basie become the first African American performers to win Grammy awards. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1960 Census of 1960, U.S. population: 179,323,175, Black population: 18,871,831 (10.6 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1960 On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro begin a sit-in at Woolworth's Drug Store to protest company policy which bans African Americans from sitting at its counters. The Civil Rights Movement The United States North Carolina 1960 On April 15, 150 black and white students gather at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The Civil Rights Movement United States North Carolina 1960 The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 6. The Act established federal inspection of local voter registration rolls and introduces penalties for anyone who obstructs a citizen's attempt to register to vote or to cast a ballot. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1960 On Nov. 8, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in history. Many observers credit African American voters with Kennedy's narrow margin of victory. Black Politics United States n. a. 1961 On May 4, seven blacks and four whites leave Washington, D.C., for the Deep South on the first Freedom Ride for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The Civil Rights Movement United States District of Columbia 1961 Riots on the University of Georgia campus in September fail to prevent the enrollment of the institutions first two African American students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (Gault). Black Education United States Alabama 1962 Ernie Davis, a running back at Syracuse University, becomes the first African American athlete to receive college football's Heisman Trophy. African American Athletes United States New York 1962 On October 1, James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. On the day he enters the University, he is escorted by U.S. marshals after federal troops are sent in to suppress rioting and maintain order. Black Education United States Mississippi 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. writes his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on April 16. The Civil Rights Movement United States Alabama 1963 On May 3, Birmingham police use dogs and fire hoses to attack civil rights demonstrators. The Civil Rights Movement United States Alabama 1963 Despite Governor George Wallace's vow to block the schoolhouse door to prevent their enrollment on June 11, Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes at the University of Alabama. They are the first African American students to attend the university. Black Education The Civil Rights Movement Alabama 1963 On June 12, Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers is assassinated outside his home in Jackson. Political Assassinations United States Mississippi 1963 Over 200,000 people gather in Washington, D.C. on August 28 as part of the March on Washington, an unprecedented demonstration demanding civil rights and equal opportunity for African Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech here. The Civil Rights Movement United States District of Columbia 1963 Former tennis champion Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to compete in a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament in Cincinnati. African American Athletes United States Ohio 1963 On September 15, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, ages 11-14. Racial Violence United States Alabama 1963 Iota Phi Theta Fraternity is founded on September 19 at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Black Organizations United States Maryland 1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas on November 22. Political Assassinations United States Texas 1963 Wendell Oliver Scott became the first black driver to win a major NASCAR race, the Grand National (now Winston Cup) race. African American Athletes United States Virginia 1963 Marian Anderson and Ralph Bunche are the first black winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Humanitarian Awards United States District of Columbia 1964 On January >8, President Lyndon Johnson in his first State of the Union Address declares unconditional war on poverty in America, thus initiating a broad array of government programs designed to assist the poorest citizens of the nation including a disproportionate number of African Americans. War on Poverty United States District of Columbia 1964 The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. The Civil Rights Movement United States Mississippi 1964 On February 25, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) wins the first of three world heavyweight championships in a bout with Sonny Liston in Miami, Florida. African American Athletes United States Florida 1964 Sidney Poitier wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film, "Lilies of the Field." He is the first African American male actor to win in that category. Black Hollywood United States California 1964 On March 12, Malcolm X announces his break with the Nation of Islam and his founding of the Muslim Mosque in Harlem. On June 28 he founds the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City. 20th Century Black Religion United States New York 1964 On June 21 civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are abducted and killed by terrorists in Mississippi. Racial Violence United States Mississippi 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed by Congress on July 2. The act bans discrimination in all public accommodations and by employers. It also establishes the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) to monitor compliance with the law. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1964 The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegation led by Fannie Lou Hamer is denied seating at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City in August. The Civil Rights Movement United States New Jersey 1964 On August 20, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, initiating the federally-sponsored War on Poverty. The act includes Head Start, Upward Bound, and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). War on Poverty United States District of Columbia 1965 Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, New York on February 21. Political Assassinations United States New York 1965 On March 7, six hundred Alabama civil rights activists stage a Selma-to-Montgomery protest march to draw attention to the continued denial of black voting rights in the state. The marchers are confronted by Alabama State Troopers whose attack on them at the Edmund Pettus Bridge is carried on national television. On March 21, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a five-day, 54-mile march retracing the route of the original activists. The 3,300 marchers at the beginning of the trek eventually grow to 25,000 when they reach the Alabama capitol on March 25. After the protest march, President Lyndon Johnson proposes the Voting Rights Act to guarantee black voting throughout the South. The Civil Rights Movement United States Alabama 1965 In March, the White House releases "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," popularly known as the Moynihan Report. The Black Family United States District of Columbia 1965 Alex Haley publishes The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Art and Literature United States New York 1965 The Voting Rights Act is signed into law on August 6. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1965 The Watts Uprising (also known as the Watts Rebellion) occurs in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles on August 11-16. Thirty four people are killed and one thousand are injured in the five day confrontation. Racial Violence United States California 1965 Maulana Karenga founds the black nationalist organization US in Los Angeles following the Watts Uprising. Black Organizations United States California 1966 On January >13, Robert Weaver, President Lyndon Baines Johnsons nominee to head the newly created Department of Housing and Urban Development, is confirmed for the post by the U.S. Senate. Weaver becomes the first African American to hold a cabinet post. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1966 On January >25th Constance Baker Motley is appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Federal Bench in New York City. She becomes the first African American woman elevated to a Federal judgeship. Judicial Appointments United States New York 1966 In May, Stokely Carmichael becomes chairman of SNCC at its headquarters in Atlanta and publicly embraces the concept of black power. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States Georgia 1966 On June 5, James Meredith begins a solitary "March Against Fear" for 220 miles from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi to protest racial discrimination. Soon after crossing into Mississippi Meredith is shot by a sniper. Civil Rights leaders including Martin Luther King (SCLC), Floyd McKissick (CORE) and Stokely Carmichael (SNCC) vow to continue the march which eventually reaches Jackson. While in Greenwood, Carmichael gives his first Black Power speech on June 26. The Civil Rights Movement United States Mississippi 1966 On October 15, The Black Panther Party is formed in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. Black Organizations United States California 1966 Andrew F. Brimmer is appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to be the first African American to serve on the Federal Reserve Board. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1966 James T. Whitehead, Jr., becomes the first African American to pilot a U-2 spy plane. African Americans and the Military United States n.a. 1966 On November 8, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first African American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate. Black Politics United States Massachusetts 1966 On November 8, Julian Bond wins a seat in the Georgia State Senate. However he is denied the seat by the Georgia Legislature because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond is eventually seated after a bitter court battle. Black Politics United States Georgia 1966 Ruby Doris Smith Robinson becomes Executive Director of SNCC. The Civil Rights Movement U.S. Georgia 1967 On April 4, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church, New York City. It is his first public criticism of the Vietnam War. The Civil Rights Movement United States New York 1967 H. Rap Brown becomes chairman of SNCC on May 12 at its headquarters in Atlanta. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States Georgia 1967 On June 12, the U.S. Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia strikes down state interracial marriage bans. Major Judicial Decisions United States District of Columbia 1967 The six-day Newark Riot begins on July 12 and claims 23 dead, 725 injured and 1,500 arrested. Racial Violence United States New Jersey 1967 Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall takes his seat as the first African American Justice on the United States Supreme Court on July 13. Judicial Appointments United States District of Columbia 1967 On July 23, the Detroit Race Riot erupts. Between July 23 and July 28, 43 are killed, 1,189 are injured and over 7,000 are arrested. Racial Violence United States Michigan 1967 On November 13, Carl Stokes and Richard G. Hatcher are elected the first black mayors of Cleveland and Gary, Indiana, respectively. Black Politics United States Indiana 1967 Renee Powell becomes the first African American woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour. African American Athletes U.S. Florida 1967 Albert William Johnson is the first African American awarded a dealership from a major automaker when he opens an Oldsmobile dealership in a predominately black neighborhood in Chicago. Black Business U.S. Illinois 1968 On February 8, three students at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg are killed by police in what will be known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Racial Violence United States South Carolina 1968 The "Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders," popularly known as the "Kerner Report," is released in March. Racial Violence United States District of Columbia 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4. In the wake of the assassination 125 cities in 29 states experience uprisings. By April 11, 46 people are killed and 35,000 are injured in these confrontations. Political Assassinations United States Tennessee 1968 In April Congress enacts the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which outlaws discrimination in the sale and rental of housing. Civil Rights Legislation United States District of Columbia 1968 New York Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated on June 5 in Los Angeles. Political Assassinations United States California 1968 On June 19, the Poor Peoples Campaign brings 50,000 demonstrators to Washington, D.C. War on Poverty United States District of Columbia 1968 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the Men's Singles competition in the U.S. Open. African American Athletes United States New York 1968 San Francisco State University establishes the nations first Black Studies Program in September. Black Education United States California 1968 In November Shirley Chisholm of New York is the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Black Politics United States New York 1968 Elizabeth Duncan Koontz becomes the first African American to serve as president of the National Education Association (NEA). Black Education U.S. District of Columbia 1969 The Ford Foundation gives one million dollars to Morgan State University, Howard University, and Yale University to help prepare faculty members to teach courses in African American studies. Black Education United States New York 1969 On May 5, Moneta Sleet, Jr. of Ebony magazine, becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Photography. Art and Literature United States New York 1969 On September 22, the African American Studies Program begins offering courses at Harvard University. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1969 Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare publish the first issue of The Black Scholar in November. Black Education United States California 1969 Howard N. Lee becomes the first African American mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At the time he is the first African American mayor of a predominately white Southern city. Black Politics United States North Carolina 1969 On December 4, Chicago police kill Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States Illinois 1969 Jimi Hendrix headlines the Woodstock Musical Festival near Bethel, New York between August 15 and August 18. Over 500,000 people attend what is to that point the largest musical concert in history. Black Entertainment United States New York 1970 Census of 1970, U.S. population: 204,765,770, Black population: 22,580,289 (11.1 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1970 Dr. Clifton Wharton, Jr., is named president of Michigan State University on January >2. He is the first African American to lead a major, predominately white university in the 20th Century. Black Education United States Michigan 1970 On February 18, Bobby Seale and six other six defendants (popularly known as the Chicago Seven) are acquitted of the charge of conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States New York 1970 The first issue of Essence magazine appears in May. The Black Press United States New York 1970 On May 15, two students, Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, are killed by police in a confrontation with students at Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi. Racial Violence United States Mississippi 1970 On July 1, Kenneth Gibson becomes the first black mayor of an eastern city when he assumes the post in Newark, New Jersey. Black Politics United States New Jersey 1970 The first issue of Black Enterprise magazine appears in August. The Black Press United States New York 1970 The San Rafael, California courthouse shooting on August 7 results in the death of Judge Harold Haley and three others including Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of imprisoned Black Panther George Jackson. UCLA Philosophy Professor Angela Davis is implicated in the shooting and becomes the subject of a nationwide FBI-led search. Davis is captured and brought to trial. She is acquitted of all charges on June 4, 1972. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States California 1970 On October 12, Charles Gordone becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play, "No Place to Be Somebody." Art and Literature United States New York 1970 The Joint Center for Political Studies is established in Washington, D.C. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1971 On January >12th the Congressional Black Caucus is formed in Washington, D.C. Black Organizastions United States District of Columbia 1971 In July Captain Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. is promoted to Rear Admiral. He becomes the first African American to achieve Flag Rank in the U.S. Navy. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1971 On September 9, nearly 1,200 inmates seize control of half of the New York State Prison at Attica in what will be known as the Attica Prison Riot. Four days later 29 inmates and ten hostages are killed when state troopers and correctional officers suppress the uprising. Crime and Punishment United States New York 1971 On December 18, Rev. Jesse Jackson founds People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) in Chicago. Black Organizations United States Illinois 1971 Johnson Products, a hair care company, becomes the first black-owned company to be listed on a major U.S. stock exchange (AMEX). Black Business United States Illinois 1971 Leroy Satchel Paige becomes the first former Negro Leagues baseball player inducted int the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. Black Athletes United States New York 1971 Beverly Johnson is the first black woman to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine (Glamour). Black Entertainment United States New York 1972 On March 10-12 several thousand African Americans gather in Gary, Indiana, for the first National Black Political Convention. Black Politics United States Indiana 1972 Over the summer New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm makes an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She is the first African American to campaign for the nomination. Black Politics United States New York 1972 In November Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta become the first black Congressional representatives elected from the U.S. South since 1898. Black Politics United States n. a. 1972 The first Haitian boat people arrive in south Florida. 20th Century Black Immigrants United States Florida 1972 Wilt Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the first National Basketball Association player to score over 30,000 points during his career. Black Athletes United States California 1973 On May 29, Thomas Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles in the modern era. He is reelected four times and thus holds the mayors office for 20 years. Black Politics United States California 1973 The National Black Feminist Organization is established by Eleanor Holmes Norton. Black Organizations United States New York 1973 Marion Wright Edelman creates the Children's Defense Fund. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1973 On October 16, Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. is elected the first black mayor of Atlanta. Black Politics United States Georgia 1973 On Nov. 6, Coleman Young is elected the first black mayor of Detroit. Black Politics United States Michigan 1974 On April 8, Henry (Hank) Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th home run surpassing Babe Ruth to become the all-time leader in home runs in major league baseball. African American Athletes United States Georgia 1974 On June 21, U.S. District Judge W. Arthur Garrity issues a court order in Morgan v. Hennigan that initiates a busing program, involving several thousand students. The order is designed to desegregate the public schools of Boston. Black Education United States Massachusetts 1974 The largest single gift to date from a black organization is the $132,000 given by the Links, Inc., to the United Negro College Fund on July 1. Black Organizations United States New York 1974 On November 5, Mervyn Dymally is elected Lieutenant Governor of California along with George Brown who is elected Lieutenant Governor of Colorado the same day. They are the first African Americans to hold these posts in the 20th century. Black Politics United States California 1975 The Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta) becomes the only black medical school established in the United States in the 20th Century. The first dean and president of the Morehouse School of Medicine is Dr. Louis Sullivan who later becomes the U.S. Surgeon General. Black Education United States Georgia 1975 Wallace D. Muhammad assumes control of the Nation of Islam after the death of his father, Elijah Muhammad. He changes the organizations direction and its name to the World Community of al-Islam. 20th Century Black Religion United States Michigan 1975 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the British Men's Singles at Wimbledon. African American Athletes United States n. a. 1975 General Daniel Chappie James of the Air Force becomes the first African American four star general. African Americans and the Military United States Colorado 1975 On October 12, Frank Robinson becomes the first black Major League Baseball manager when he takes over the Cleveland Indians. African American Athletes United States Ohio 1975 Lee Elder becomes the first African American golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Black Athletes United States Georgia 1975 William Venoid Banks becomes the first African American to own a television station when he launches WGPR-TV in Detroit. Radio and Television United States Michigan 1975 John Hope Franklin is the first African American elected president of the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Four years later he will be the fiirst African American elected president of the American Historical Association (AHA). Black Education United States New York 1976 The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis admits women for the first time in June. Janie L. Mines becomes the first African American women cadet to enter. She graduates in 1980. African Americans and the Military United States Maryland 1976 College and university enrollment for African American students rises sharply from 282,000 in 1966 to 1,062,000 in 1976. Black Education United States n. a. 1976 Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan becomes the first African American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention which meets that year in New York City. Black Politics United States New York 1976 Clara Stanton Jones of Detroit becomes the first African American elected President of the American Library Association. Black Education United States Michigan 1977 In January, Patricia Harris is appointed by President Jimmy Carter to head Housing and Urban Development. She becomes the first African American woman to hold a cabinet position. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1977 In January, Congressman Andrew Young is appointed by President Jimmy Carter to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He is the first African American to hold that post. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1977 The eighth and final night for the miniseries based on Alex Haley's Roots is shown on February 3. This final episode achieves the highest ratings to that point for a single television program. African Americans and the Media United States n. a. 1977 On March 8, Henry L. Marsh III became the first African American mayor of Richmond, Virginia Black Politics United States Virginia 1977 In September, Randall Robinson founds TransAfrica (now TransAfrica Forum), a lobbying group for Africa, in Washington, D.C. Black Organizations United States District of Columbia 1978 Minister Louis Farrakhan breaks with the World Community of al-Islam and becomes the leader of the revived Nation of Islam. 20th Century Black Religion United States Chicago 1978 On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California Regents v. Bakke narrowly uphold affirmative action as a legal strategy for addressing past discrimination. Affirmative Action United States District of Columbia 1978 On September 15, Muhammad Ali becomes the first boxer to win the heavyweight championship three times when he defeats Leon Spinks at the Superdome in New Orleans. African American Athletes United States Louisiana 1978 Max Robinson becomes the first black network anchor when he begins broadcasting for ABC-TV News from Chicago. Radio and Television United States Illinois 1978 Faye Wattleton becomes the first black woman to head Planned Parenthood. Health and Medicine United States District of Columbia 1978 Jill Brown becomes the first black female pilot for a commercial passenger airline (Texas International Airlines). Black Transportation United States Texas 1979 The Sugar Hill Gang records "Rappers Delight" in Harlem. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1979 Franklin Thomas is named president of the Ford Foundation. Black Education United States New York 1979 Frank E. Petersen, Jr. becomes the first African American to earn the rank of General in the United States Marines. African Americans and the Military United States n. a. 1979 In September Hazel W. Johnson becomes the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of General in the United States Army. African Americans and the Military United States District of Columbia 1979 Richard Arrington, Jr. is elected the first African American mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Black Politics United States Alabama 1979 The Nobel Prize in Economics goes to Sir Arthur Lewis of Princeton University. He is the first black person to win the award in a category other than peace. Black Education United States New Jersey 1980 Census of 1980, U.S. population: 226,504,825, Black population: 26,482,349 (11.8 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1980 In January >Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. becomes the first African American Speaker in a state legislature when he is selected for the post in the California Assembly. Brown holds the Speakership until 1995 when he is elected Mayor of San Francisco. Black Politics United States California 1980 On May 17-18 rioting breaks out in Liberty City, Florida (near Miami) after police officers are acquitted for killing an unarmed black man. The riot which generates 15 deaths is the worst in the nation since Detroit in 1967. Racial Violence United States Florida 1980 Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters wins the American Book Award. Art and Literature United States Georgia 1980 Robert L. Johnson begins operation of Black Entertainment Television (BET) out of Washington, D.C. African Americans and the Media United States District of Columbia 1980 The Mariel boatlift transports 125,000 Cubans to Florida including a large number of Afro-Cubans. International Refugees United States Florida 1982 The struggle of Rev. Ben Chavis and his followers to block a toxic waste dump in Warren County, North Carolina launches a national campaign against environmental racism. The Enviroment United States North Carolina 1982 Bryant Gumbel is named anchor of The Today Show, becoming the first African American to hold the post on a major network. African Americans and the Media United States New York 1982 Michael Jackson's album, Thriller, is released. It will eventually sell 45 million copies worldwide, becoming the best selling album in music history. 20th Century Black Music United States California 1983 Vanessa Williams becomes the first African American crowned Miss America on September 18 in Atlantic City. In July 1984 she relinquishes her crown to Suzette Charles when nude photos of her appear in Penthouse magazine. Beauty Pageants United States New Jersey 1983 On April 12, Harold Washington is elected the first black mayor of Chicago. Black Politics United States Illinois 1983 On August 30, Guion (Guy) S. Bluford, Jr., a crew member on the Challenger, becomes the first African American astronaut to make a space flight. Exploration and Discovery United States Florida 1983 On November 2, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing January >20 as a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Black Holidays and Celebrations United States District of Columbia 1983 Alice Walker's The Color Purple wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Art and Literature United States New York 1983 Harvey Bernard Gantt becomes the first African American mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. Black Politics United States North Carolina 1983 Robert C. Maynard become the first African American to own the major daily newspaper in a large city when he becomes the majority stockholder of the Oakland Tribune. Newspapers and Other Print Media United States California 1984 On January >2, W. Wilson Goode becomes the first African American mayor of Philadelphia. Black Politics United States Pennsylvania 1984 Rev. Jesse Jackson wins approximately one fourth of the votes cast in the Democratic primaries and caucuses and about one eighth of the convention delegates in a losing bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Black Politics United States n. a. 1984 In August Carl Lewis wins four Gold Medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles, matching the record set by Jesse Owens in 1936. African American Athletes United States California 1984 In September The Cosby Show starring Bill Cosby makes its television debut. The show runs for eight seasons and will become the most successful series in television history featuring a mostly African American cast. African Americans and the Media United States California 1984 Russell Simmons forms Def Jam Records in Harlem. Black Business United States New York 1985 In May, Philadelphia's African American mayor, Wilson Goode, orders the Philadelphia police to bomb the headquarters of MOVE, a local black nationalist organization. The bombing leaves 11 people dead and 250 homeless. Black Nationalism and Black Power United States Pennsylvania 1985 Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago is named U.S. Poet-Laureate. She is the first African American to hold that honor. Art and Literature United States Illinois 1985 Grambling State University's football coach Eddie Robinson becomes the coach with the most wins in college football history. Black Athletes United States Louisiana 1986 On January >20, the first national Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is celebrated. Black Holidays and Celebrations United States n. a. 1986 On January >28, Dr. Ronald McNair and six other crew members die when the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Exploration and Discovery United States Florida 1986 The Oprah Winfrey Show with Oprah Winfrey as the talk show host, becomes nationally syndicated. African Americans and the Media United States Illinois 1986 Spike Lee releases his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, initiating a new wave of interest in black films and African American filmmakers. Black Hollywood United States New York 1986 On November 22 Mike Tyson defeates Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship in a title fight in Las Vegas. At the age of 20, Tyson is the youngest fighter to win the crown. Black Athletes United States Nevada 1987 Rita Dove wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Art and Literature United States New York 1987 On August 6, Reginald Lewis orchestrates the leveraged buyout of Beatrice Foods to become the first African American CEO of a billion dollar corporation. Black Business United States New York 1987 Neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson makes medical history when he leads a seventy-member surgical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in a 22 hour operation separating Siamese twins (the Binder twins) joined at the cranium. Health and Medicine United States Maryland 1987 On October 28, Brigadier General Fred A. Gordon is appointed Commandant of the Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. African Americans and the Military United States New York 1987 On December 8, Kurt Lidell Schmoke became the first African American elected mayor of Baltimore by popular vote. Black Politics United States Maryland 1987 Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole becomes the first African American woman president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Black Education United States Georgia 1987 August Wilson's play, Fences, wins a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award. Art and Literature United States New York 1987 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. 20th Century Black Music United States Ohio 1988 In his second try for the Democratic Presidential nomination Jesse L. Jackson receives 1,218 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention on July 20. The number needed for the nomination, which goes to Michael Dukakis, was 2,082. Black Politics United States n. a. 1988 In September, Temple University offers the first Ph.D. in African American Studies. Black Education United States Pennsylvania 1988 On November 4, Comedian Bill Cosby announces his gift of $20 million to Spelman College. This is the largest donation ever made by a black American to a college or university. Black Education United States Georgia 1989 On January >29, Barbara C. Harris is installed as the first woman bishop in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church. 20th Century Black Religion United States Massachusetts 1989 On February 7, Ronald H. Brown is elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to head one of the two major political parties. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1989 In March Frederick Drew Gregory becomes the first African American to command a space shuttle when he leads the crew of the Discovery. Exploration and Discovery United States Florida 1989 On August 10, General Colin L. Powell is named chair of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first African American to hold the post. African Americans and the Military United States District of Columbia 1989 On November 7, L. Douglas Wilder wins the governorship of Virginia, making him the first African American to be popularly elected to that office. On the same day David Dinkins and Norm Rice are the first African Americans elected as mayors of New York and Seattle respectively. Black Politics United States Virginia 1989 Bill White becomes the first African American league president when he is chosen to head Major League Baseball's National League. African American Athletes United States New York 1989 Art Shell becomes the first African American head coach in National Football League (NFL) in the post-World War II era when he is hired to lead the Oakland Raiders. African American Athletes United States California 1989 Mahlon Martin becomes the first African American to head the Rockefeller Foundation. Black Education United States New York 1990 Census of 1990, U.S. population: 248,709,878, Black population: 29,986,060 (12 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 1990 August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for the play The Piano Lesson. Art and Literature United States New York 1990 In November when Sharon Pratt Kelly is elected mayor of Washington, D.C., she becomes the first African American woman to lead a large American city. Black Politics The United States District of Columbia 1990 Marcelite Jordan Harris is the first black woman brigadier general in the U.S. Army and the first woman to command a mostly male battalion. African Americans in the Military United States Virginia 1990 Walter E. Massey is the first African American to head the National Science Foundation. Science and Technology United States District of Columbia 1990 Donna Marie Cheek becomes the first black member of the U.S. Equestrian Team. African American Athletes United States California 1990 Carole Ann-Marie Gist of Detroit, Michigan becomes the first African American to win the Miss USA pageant. Beauty Pageants United States Kansas 1991 On January >15, Roland Burris becomes the first black attorney general of Illinois. From 2009 to 2011 he serves as U.S. Senator from Illionis, completing the unexpired term of Barack Obama who is elected President of the United States. Black Politics United States Illinois 1991 On March 3, Los Angeles police use force to arrest Rodney King after a San Fernando Valley traffic stop. The beating of King is captured on videotape and broadcast widely prompting, an investigation and subsequent trial of three officers. Crime and Punishment United States California 1991 On April 10, Emanuel Cleaver II is sworn in as the first African American mayor of Kansas City, Missouri. Black Politics United States Missouri 1991 On June 18, Wellington Webb becomes the first African American mayor of Denver, Colorado. Black Politics United States Colorado 1991 On October 23, Federal Judge Clarence Thomas, nominated by President George H.W. Bush, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate and takes his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Judicial Appointments United States District of Columbia 1991 Julie Dash releases Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film by an African American woman. Black Hollywood United States New York 1991 Physicist Walter Massey becomes the first African American director of the National Science Foundation. Exploration and Discovery United States District of Columbia 1992 In March Willie W. Herenton was elected the first African American mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. Black Politics United States Tennessee 1992 On April 29, a Simi Valley, California jury acquits the three officers accused of beating Rodney King. The verdict triggers a three day uprising in Los Angeles called the Rodney King Riot that results in over 50 people killed, over 2,000 injured and 8,000 arrested. Crime and Punishment United States California 1992 On September 12, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African American woman in space when she travels on board the space shuttle Endeavor. Exploration and Discovery United States Florida 1992 On November 3, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois becomes the first African American woman elected to the United States Senate. Black Politics United States Illinois 1992 William "Bill" Pinkney becomes the first African American and only the fourth American to singlehandedly navigate a sailboat around the world. African American Athletes United States New York 1993 In April Freeman Robertson Bosley Jr. becomes the first African American mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. Black Politics United States Missouri 1993 Joycelyn M. Elders becomes the first African American and the first woman to be named United States Surgeon General on September 7. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1993 On October 7, Toni Morrison becomes the first black American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The work honored is her novel, Beloved. Art and Literature United States n. a. 1994 On June 12, O.J. Simpson's former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman are found stabbed to death. O.J. Simpson emerges as the leading suspect and is subsequently arrested on June 17 after a two hour low speed pursuit of Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings that is seen on television by an estimated 95 million people. Crime and Punishment United States California 1994 Corey D. Flourney is elected president of the 400,000 member Future Farmers of America convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Agricultural Development United States Missouri 1995 On May 6, Ron Kirk won the mayoral race in Dallas, becoming the first African American mayor of the city. Black Politics United States Texas 1995 On October 3, after an eight month televised trial, O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the charges of murder in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Crime and Punishment United States California 1995 The Million Man March organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan and other political activists is held in Washington, D.C. on October 17. Black Men United States District of Columbia 1995 Dr. Helene Doris Gayle becomes the first woman and the first African American Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Health and Medicine United States Georgia 1995 Lonnie Bristow is the first African American president of the American Medical Association. Health and Medicine United States District of Columbia 1996 Commerce Secretary Ron Brown is killed in a plane crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia on April 3. Black Politics United States n. a. 1996 On April 9, George Walker becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. The winning composition, "Lilies for Soprano or Tenor and Orchestra," is based on a poem by Walt Whitman. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1996 In May, President Bill Clinton signs into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with state block grants. It also substantially cuts programs designed to help the poor. The Black Family United States District of Columbia 1996 On November 5, California voters pass Proposition 209 which outlaws affirmative action throughout the state. Affirmative Action United States California 1996 Margaret Dixon is the first African American elected president of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Health and Medicine United States Distict of Columbia 1997 On April 13, golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. At 21 he is the youngest golfer ever to win the title. He is also the first African American to hold the title. African American Athletes United States Georgia 1997 In June, Harvey Johnson, Jr. was sworn in as the first black mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Black Politics United States Mississippi 1997 On October 25 African American women participate in the Million Woman March in Philadelphia, focusing on health care, education, and self-help. Black Women United States Pennsylvania 1997 In December, Lee Patrick Brown becomes Houston's first African American mayor. Black Politics United States Texas 1997 Wynton Marsalis's "Blood on the Fields" becomes the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer Prize in Music. 20th Century Black Music United States New York 1997 President Bill Clinton makes a formal apology to black men exploited in the U.S. Public Health Service Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Health and Medicine United States District of Columbia 1997 Lois Jean White is the first African American to be elected president of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Black Education United States Virginia 1998 On June 7, churchgoers discover the dismembered body of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas. It is later determined that three white supremacists chained Byrd, who is black, to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged him to his death. Racial Violence United States Texas 1998 President Bill Clinton appoints prominent historian John Hope Franklin to lead the President's Commission on Race to promote a national dialogue on issues affecting African Americans in the United States, and to ease racial tensions. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 1998 Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins becomes the first African American president of the National League of Women Voters. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 1999 On January >13, after thirteen seasons and six NBA championships, professional basketball star Michael Jordan retires from the game as a player. African American Athletes United States Illinois 1999 On September 10, Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open Womens Singles Tennis Championship in Flushing Meadows, the first African American woman to do so since Althea Gibson's win in 1958. African American Athletes United States New York 1999 Maurice Ashley becomes the world's first black chess grandmasters, the game's highest rank. African American Athletes United States New York 2000 Census of 2000, U.S. population: 281,421,906, Black population: 34,658,190 (12.3 percent) Black Population United States District of Columbia 2000 Rev. Vashti M. McKenzie becomes the first woman bishop of the African Methodist Zion Church. 20th Century Black Religion United States Maryland 2000 Lillian Elaine Fishbourne is the first black woman admiral in the U.S. Navy. African Americans in the Military United States Virginia - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-1900-2000#sthash.guBNdpJw.dpuf African American History Timeline: 2001 - African Americans in the West Timeline 2001 In January President-elect George W. Bush nominates Colin Powell to be Secretary of State. Condoleezza Rice is also appointed to the positon of National Security Advisor for the Bush Administration. This is the first time either post has been held by African Americans. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 2001 In November Shirley Clarke Franklin becomes the first African American woman to head the government of a major Southern city whe she is elected mayor of Atlanta. Black Politics United States Georgia 2002 In March, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars for best actress and best actor for their portrayals in Monster’s Ball and Training Day respectively. Black Hollywood United States California 2002 Dennis Archer, former Mayor of Detroit, becomes the first African American to be elected President of the American Bar Association. The Legal System United States District of Columbia 2003 Significant population shifts and reduced resistance to residential integration result in more African Americans living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Seattle than in their city limits. Black Population United States California 2003 On June 23 the U.S. Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds the University of Michigan Law School's admission policy which supports affirmative action. In the simultaneously heard Gratz v. Bollinger case, the Supreme Court requires the University of Michigan to dismantle its affirmative action policy for undergraduate admissions. Affirmative Action United States Distict of Columbia 2004 On November 2, State Senator Barack Obama is elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. He becomes the second African American elected to the Senate from that state and only the fifth black senator in U.S. history. Black Politics United States Illinois 2005 In January >Condoleezza Rice becomes Secretary of State. She is the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post. Presidential Appointments United States District of Columbia 2005 On August 30, Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast, taking an estimated 1,700 lives. The vast majority of the deaths are in Louisiana including heavily African American New Orleans. The Environment United States Louisiana 2006 With the Democratic takeover of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in the November mid-term elections, for the first time in U.S. history four African American members of Congress chair full committees in the House: Rep. John Conyers (Mi.), Judiciary, Rep. Juanita Millender McDonald (Ca.), House Administration Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.), House Ways and Means, and Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (Ms.), Homeland Security. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 2006 On November 7 Deval Patrick is elected Governor of Massachusetts. He becomes the second African American in the nation, after L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989, to be popularly elected to this position. Black Politics United States Massachusetts 2007 The U.S. Supreme Court in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, and Meredith v. Jefferson County (Kentucky) Board of Education, rules that race cannot be a factor in the determination of school assignments. Affirmative Action United States District of Columbia 2008 On March 17, David A. Paterson, is sworn in as Governor of New York upon the resignation of the prior governor, Elliott Spitzer. Paterson is the first legally blind American Governor, the first black Governor of New York State, and only the fourth black Governor of any state. Black Politics United States New York 2008 On November 4, Barack Obama of Illinois, the only sitting African American U.S. Senator, is elected President of the United States. Obama wins the election decisively and becomes the first African American elected to this office. Black Politics United States District of Columbia 2009 Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January >20. Post-1970 Politics United States District of Columbia 2009 Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele becomes Chairman of National Republican Committee and thus effectively heads the Republican Party. Post-1970 Politics United States District of Columbia - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-2001#sthash.GX4nrwnS.dpuf http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-timeline-2001 African American History in the West Timeline: 800 (ca.) BCE Evidence suggests that African travelers may have come to the Americas before Europeans. One indication is the great stone carvings of the Olmec era in Mexico, bearing African facial features. Mexico n. a. Exploration and Discovery 1492-1493 A black navigator, Pedro Alonso Nino, travels with Christopher Columbus' first expedition to the New World. The Bahamas n. a. Exploration and Discovery 1494 The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons. Dominican Republic n.a. The New World 1501 The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved Africans into Spain's American colonies. Dominican Republic n. a. Spanish Slavery 1511 The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola. Dominican Republic n. a. Spanish Slavery 1513 Thirty Africans accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his trip to the Pacific Ocean. Panama n. a. Exploration and Discovery 1517 Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas petitions Spain to allow the importation of 12 enslaved Africans for each household immigrating to America's Spanish colonies. De Las Casas later regrets this plea, and becomes a strong opponent of slavery. Spain n.a. Spanish Slavery 1519 Hernan Cortez begins his conquest of the Aztec Empire. Black Spaniards are among the Conquistadors. Mexico n. a. The New World 1520s Enslaved Africans are used as laborers in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico. Cuba n. a. Spanish Slavery 1522 Juan Garrido, a member of the Hernan Cortes expediton that conquered the Aztec Empire, is granted land by the Spanish Crown, becomes a farmer, and produces the first wheat crop in the New World Mexico Colonial Conquest 1528 Esteban, a Morocco-born Muslim slave, is one of four survivors washed ashore near present-day Galveston, Texas. He is the first known person of African ancestry to enter what is now the western United States. United States Texas Exploration and Discovery 1539 Esteban is part of an expedition led by Friar Marcos de Niza from Mexico City into the far north of New Spain (Colonial Mexico). Esteban, who moves ahead of the main expedition, is killed at the Zuni town of Hawikuh, just east of the present-day border of Arizona and New Mexico. United States New Mexico Exploration and Discovery 1541 Persons of African ancestry accompany the expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado from Mexico City to what is now central Kansas. Some Africans remain behind in Kansas and New Mexico. United States Kansas Exploration and Discovery 1542 The Spanish Crown abolishes Indian slavery in its colonial possessions. Mexico n. a. Spanish Slavery 1570 New Spain's (Colonial Mexico) population includes 20,569 blacks and 2,439 mulattoes. Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1571 Free and enslaved black or mulatto women can no longer wear gold, silk or pearls unless they are married to a Spaniard. Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1573 Professor Bartolome de Albornoz of the University of Mexico writes against the enslavement and sale of Africans. Mexico n. a. Spanish Slavery 1598 Isabel de Olvera, a free mulatto, accompanies the Juan Guerra de Resa Expedition which colonizes what is now New Mexico. United States New Mexico Africans in Colonial New Spain 1600-1790s Persons of African ancestry are among the founders or early settlers of numerous towns in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California including San Antonio, Laredo, El Paso, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Tucson, San Diego, Monterey and San Francisco. 1601-1700 United States Texas Africans in Colonial New Spain 1602 By Spanish law, mulattoes (people of combined African and European ethnicity), convicts, and idle Africans may be shipped to Latin America and forced to work in the mines there. 1601-1700 Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1609 Fugitive slaves in Mexico, led by Gaspar Yanga, sign a truce with Spanish colonial authorities and obtain their freedom and a town of their own. 1601-1700 Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1617 The town of San Lorenzo de los Negros receives a charter from Spanish colonial officials in Mexico and becomes the first officially recognized free settlement for blacks in the New World. 1601-1700 Mexico n. a Africans in Colonial New Spain 1619 Approximately 20 blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies. 1601-1700 United States Virginia English Slavery 1646 New Spain's (Colonial Mexico) population includes 35,089 blacks and 116,529 mulattoes. 1601-1700 Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1750 The census of Albuquerque reveals that 25 percent of the families have some African ancestry. 1701-1800 United States New Mexico Africans in Colonial New Spain 1778 A census of San Antonio, Texas shows 759 male residents including 151 blacks and mulattoes but only four are enslaved. 1701-1800 United States Texas Africans in Colonial New Spain 1781 Los Angeles is founded by 44 settlers including 26 who have some African ancestry. 1701-1800 United States California Africans in Colonial New Spain 1793 New Spain's (Colonial Mexico) population includes 6,100 blacks and 369,790 mulattoes. 1701-1800 Mexico n. a. Africans in Colonial New Spain 1803 On April 30, Louisiana is purchased from the French. The new territory nearly doubles the size of the United States. United States Louisiana U.S. Expansion 1804-1806 The Lewis and Clark Expedition explores newly purchased Louisiana and the Pacific Northwest. An African American, York, is prominent in the expedition. United States Oregon U.S. Expansion 1806 Edward Rose travels up the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains to become the first of dozens of black fur trappers and traders in the region. United States Montana Mountain Men and Fur Trappers 1820 The Compromise of 1820 allows Missouri into the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. It also sets the boundary between slave and free territory in the West at the 36th parallel. United States Missouri Antebellum Slavery 1820-1825 Free African Americans from the United States settle in Mexican Texas. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1822 Bernardo, the first cotton plantation with enslaved people is established in Texas by former Georgia resident Jared E. Groce on the Brazos River. Mexico Texas Slavery in Mexican Texas 1824 A new Mexican Constitution adopted on October 4 outlaws slavery throughout Mexico including Mexican Texas. Mexico Texas Slavery in Mexican Texas 1825 James Beckwourth, the most famous of the African American fur trappers and traders, enters the Rocky Mountains for the first time as a member of the William Henry Ashley Fur Trapping Expedition. Beckwourth will operate throughout much of the West from Montana south to New Mexico and west to California for the next 40 years. United States Colorado Mountain Men and Fur Trappers 1825 Sixty nine of 1,347 residents of the Austin colony in Mexican Texas are slaveholders. They own 443 enslaved people. Mexico Texas Slavery in Mexican Texas 1828 The contract labor system is introduced in Texas. It is quickly revealed as a subterfuge to get around Mexico's ban on slavery. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1829 On September 15, Mexican President Vicente Ramon Guerrero issues the Guerrero Decree which prohibits slavery in any form in Mexico. Guerrero however issues a subsequent decree on December 2 which exempts Texas from the ban. Mexico Texas Slavery in Mexico 1831 Pio Pico, a descendant of persons of African ancestry, becomes governor of Mexican California after overthrowing Colonel Manuel Victoria, another person of African ancestry. Mexico California Africans in Mexican California 1831-1842 The Trail of Tears brings Native Americans and their black slaves, approximately seventy thousand people, from Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida to their new home in the Indian Territory. United States Oklahoma Slavery in Indian Territory 1835 At the beginning of the year there are approximately 25,000 English-speaking inhabitants of Mexican Texas including 5,000 enslaved African Americans. The Tejano population is approximately 6,000 and there are 14,500 Indians. Mexico Texas Slavery in Mexican Texas 1835 On November 7, Anglo-Texans meet at San Felipe de Austin to establish a provisional government in Mexican Texas and elect a general council to govern the area north of the Rio Grande. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1836 On March 2, the General Council of Texas declares the province's independence from Mexico. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1836 The Alamo is captured by the Mexican Army led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna on March 6. Hundreds of enslaved Texans leave the farms and plantations to join or support the Mexican Army. Far more take advantage of the war of independence to escape south across the Rio Grande, or north across the Red River into the sparsely populated Indian Territory. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1836 On April 22, General Santa Anna surrenders to Texan forces led by General Sam Houston. Mexico Texas Mexican Texas 1839 California Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado appoints Allen Light comisario general to patrol California's coastal waters to halt illegal otter hunting. Light, a former New Englander who arrived in Santa Barbara in 1835, is believed to be the first U.S. born-black to serve as a Mexican official. Mexico California Africans in Mexican California 1842 The largest of three servile uprisings in the Indian Territory begins in early November when 33 fugitive slaves from the Creek, Cherokee and Choctaw Nations attempt to escape to Mexico. On November 26, the Cherokee mounted militia captured 31 of the fugitives about five miles north of the Red River. United States Oklahoma Slaverry in Indian Territory 1844 On June 25, the Legislative Committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon enacts the first of a series of black exclusion laws. United States Oregon The Oregon Country 1844 In the summer George Bush, a free African American, travels with a party of Missouri emigrants on the Oregon Trail. When Bush reaches Oregon City in November, he decides to move to the sparsely populated area north of the Columbia to avoid the exclusion law. His decision encourages other settlers to follow. Eventually they petition Congress to create Washington Territory. United States Washington Oregon Country 1845 Texas is annexed to the United States. United States Texas U.S. Expansion 1845 Pio Pico again serves as Governor of Mexican California. He is the last governor during Mexican rule. Mexico Texas Africans in Mexican California 1846-1848 War with Mexico. United States n. a. U.S Expansion 1847 Three African Americans, Green Flake, Oscar Crosby, and Hark Lay, accompany Brigham Young who leads the first Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. The slaves of Southern Mormons, these men are sent ahead to help prepare for Mormon settlers to follow. Today, their names are inscribed on the Brigham Young monument in downtown Salt Lake City. United States Utah Slavery in Utah Territory 1847 William A. Leidesdorff, who arrived in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in 1841, is elected to the town council. One year later he becomes treasurer of the town. Mexico California African Americans in Mexican California 1847 Tennessee-born Hiram Young purchases his freedom and settles in Independence, Missouri. His business, making yokes and wagons for the travelers on the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, is one of the largest in western Missouri by 1860. United States Missouri African Americans in Antebellum Missouri 1848 On February 2, Mexico and the United States sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty transfers control of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah from Mexico to the United States. Mexico also relinquishes its claim to Texas in exchange for $20 million. United States n. a. U.S. Expansion 1849 The California Gold Rush begins. Eventually four thousand African Americans will migrate to California during this period. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1849 Early African American settlers in San Francisco create the first two mutual aid associations for blacks in the far west, the West Indian Benevolent Association and the Mutual Benefit and Relief Society. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1850 The Compromise of 1850 revisits the issue of slavery. California enters the Union as a free state, but the territories of New Mexico and Utah are allowed to decide whether they will enter the Union as slave or free states. The 1850 Compromise also allows passage of a much stricter Fugitive Slave Law. Despite California's status as a nominally free state, approximately 1,000 blacks are in slavery with most of the bondspeople brought in from slaveholding states. United States California Slavery in California 1850 Coacoochee (Wild Cat), a Seminole Chief, leads a band of 200 Indians and blacks from the Indian Territory into Coahuila, Mexico where they will establish a colony with the support of the Mexican government. Mexico n. a. Slavery in Indian Territory 1851 Beginning with the defense of a fugitive slave known as Frank in 1851 and ending with the Archy Lee Case in 1857, California's black and white abolitionists use legal challenges to prevent the enslavement or the return to enslavement of various individuals. United States California Slavery in Califronia 1851 Abner Hunt Francis mounts a successful campaign to prevent his brother, O. H. Francis, a Portland merchant, from being expelled from the Oregon Territory under the provisions of the black exclusion law. United States Oregon The Oregon Country 1851 St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church of Sacramento is the first black church west of Texas. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1852 San Francisco has 464 African Americans, the largest urban black population in the Far West. Sacramento with 338 black residents has the second largest population. Among the black-owned businesses in San Francisco at that point are the New England Soap Factory established by James P. Dyer and Pioneer Boot and Shoe Emporium owned by Mifflin Gibbs and Peter Lester. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1852 The Utah Territorial Legislature passes a slave code called An Act in Relation to Service which governs relations between slaveowners and the enslaved. United States Utah Slavery in Utah Territory 1852 Clement Shattio, a white farmer and his free black wife, Ann Davis Shattio, are the first residents of Topeka, Kansas Territory. United States Kansas Blacks in Antebellum Kansas 1852 Brigham Young, the leader of the Church of Latter Day Saints begins to preach the Curse of Cain doctrine which justifies the denial of the priesthood to African American males. Although African Americans had been among the first converts to the Mormon faith, few will join the church during the 126 year priesthood ban. United States Utah Blacks in Antebellum Utah Territory 1853 Elijah Abel, an African American Mormon pioneer, arrives in Salt Lake City. A carpenter by trade, Abel had been an associate of Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of the LDS Church. He was ordained to the LDS Melchizedek priesthood in 1836, and helped to erect the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s. Abel and his sons are the last African Americans to hold the priesthood in the church until 1978. United States Utah Blacks in Antebellum Utah Territory 1853 In July, George A. Williams, Chief Justice of the Oregon Territorial Supreme Court, rules in Holmes v. Ford that slavery is illegal in the territory. United States Oregon Slavery in the Oregon Country 1854 On May 30, the Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed by Congress. The Act repeals the Missouri Compromise and permits the admission of Kansas and Nebraska Territories to the Union after their populations decide on slavery. United States n. a. Slavery for the West 1854 The Republican Party is formed in the summer in opposition to the extension of slavery into the western territories. United States Michigan Slavery in the West 1854 Bleeding Kansas is an outgrowth of the controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Between 1854 and 1858 armed groups of pro- and anti-slavery factions, often funded and sponsored by organizations in the North and South, compete for control of Kansas Territory, initiating waves of violence that kill 55 people. Bleeding Kansas becomes a preview of the U.S. Civil War. United States Kansas Slavery in the West 1855 Approximately 4,000 escaped slaves live in or near Matamoros, Mexico just south of Brownsville, Texas. Mexico n. a. Slavery in the West 1855 In October one hundred thirty Texas Rangers illegally enter Mexico in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy Coacoochee's colony. They are thwarted by a combined force of Indians, blacks and Mexicans who drive the Rangers back across the Rio Grande. Mexico n. a. Slavery in the West 1855 In November forty nine delegates representing ten of California's twenty-seven counties meet at St. Andrews AME Church in Sacramento in the first of four California Colored Conventions. The delegates laud their economic progress in the state but remind white California of their numerous legal and political restrictions. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1856 In January >Los Angeles District Court Judge Benjamin Hayes frees Bridget Biddy Mason and her thirteen extended family members. United States California Blacks in Antebellum California 1856 Mirror of the Times, founded in San Francisco, becomes the first African American newspaper west of St. Louis. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1857 Oregon Territory voters overwhelmingly support a constitution that bans both slavery and the settlement of African Americans in the new state. United States Oregon Slavery in the Oregon Country 1858 On Christmas night John Brown leads a group of Jayhawkers (abolitionists) into Missouri to rescue eleven enslaved Missourians. Before and after the Christmas Night Raid, however, fugitive black slaves make their way to freedom in Kansas Territory. United States Missouri Blacks in Antebellum Kansas 1859 New Mexico Territory enacts a slave code. United States New Mexico Slavery in Antebellum New Mexico Territory 1860 The U.S. Census of 1860 shows Texas with 182,556 black bondspeople, about 30 percent of the state's population. There are only 355 free blacks in the state. Ten Texas counties have more enslaved people than free people. Slavery is also legal in the Indian Territory where 7,000 enslaved people comprise 14 percent of the territory's population and in Utah Territory where 29 of its 59 black inhabitants are enslaved. United States Texas Slavery in the West 1860 On November 6, Abraham Lincoln is elected president. United States District of Columbia The Civil War in the West 1860 On December 20, South Carolina secedes from the Union. United States South Carolina The Civil War in the West 1861 On March 4, Texas joins Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana in creating the Confederate States of America. United States Texas The Civil War in the West 1861 The Civil War begins on April 12 when Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, a federal garrison in the harbor of Charleston United States South Carolina The Civil War in the West 1861 In August, Kansas Senator and General James H. Lane, commanding Union troops, occupies Springfield, Missouri. As fugitive slaves enter his camp, Lane without authorization from Washington, enlists in his command the able bodied black males and sends the women and children to Kansas. Some of the first slaves liberated during the Civil War are freed by this impetuous and largely symbolic action which also places the first black troops in the Union Army. United States Missouri The Civil War in the West 1861 By September the Civil War divides three of the nations of the Indian Territory. There are Union and Confederate supporters among the Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles. The Choctaws and Chickasaws are united in their support of the Confederacy. United States Oklahoma The Civil War in the West 1861 The Cherokees and Creeks organize army regiments for the Union and the Confederacy. By October, the Cherokee and Creek Union regiments welcome black men into their ranks. The First Indian Home Guard, for example, is about 25 percent African American by 1864. United States n. a. The Civil War in the West 1862 San Francisco blacks organize the Franchise League to campaign for voting rights and to end courtroom testimony restrictions. United States California Black Western Politics 1862 The Kansas Emancipation League is founded in February by black and white abolitionists meeting at the First Colored Baptist Church in Leavenworth. United States Kansas African Americans in the Civil War West 1862 In June Congress abolishes slavery in the territories of the United States. United States District of Columbia African Americans in the Civil War West 1862 African Americans are among the first residents of Helena, Montana Territory, established shortly after a gold discovery in August. United States Montana African Americans in Montana Territory 1862 On October 17, the First Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment is organized at Fort Lincoln in Bourbon County, Kansas. United States Kansas African Americans in the Civil War West 1862 In November, Leland Stanford becomes the first Republican Governor of California. Stanford and the Republican dominated legislature begin repealing many of the racially discriminatory laws directed at the state's African American population. United States California African Americans in the Civil War West 1863 Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect on January >1, legally freeing slaves in areas of the South in rebellion including Texas and the Indian Territory. United States District of Columbia African Americans in the Civil War West 1863 On February 21, the pro-Union Cherokee government meets at Cowskin Prairie, Oklahoma and issues the Cherokee Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery in the Nation. The Cherokees are the only Indian Nation to end slavery before 1865. United States Oklahoma African Americans in the Civil War West 1863 On April 17, Charlotte Brown files the first of several lawsuits that challenge black exclusion from San Francisco streetcars. By the late 1860s the streetcar companies end their discriminatory policies. United States California African Americans in the Civil War West 1863 On July 17, the First Kansas Colored Infantry, fighting with the Cherokee Indian and white Colorado Union regiments, defeat Confederate forces at the Battle of Honey Springs in Oklahoma, the largest military engagement in the Indian Territory during the Civil War. United States Oklahoma African Americans in the Civil War West 1863 In October twenty three delegates representing approximately seven thousand black Kansans gather in Leavenworth for the first Kansas State Colored Convention. United States Kansas African Americans in the Civil War West 1865 San Francisco has two African American newspapers, The Pacific Appeal owned and edited by Peter Anderson and Philip A. Bell's The Elevator. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1865 Twelve thousand African Americans reside in Kansas, comprising 9 percent of the state's population. Only 627 blacks were in the territory at the time of the Census of 1860. United States Kansas African Americans in the Civil War West 1865 Over the summer former slaves from central and east Texas gather in a section of Houston they will call Freedmantown which will be the nucleus for the African American urban community called Fourth Ward. Similar post-Civil War black communities will emerge in Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and other Texas cities. United States Texas The Urban West 1865 African Americans from Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver City, Nevada form the Nevada Executive Committee to petition for the right to vote. United States Nevada Black Western Politics 1865 Twenty thousand African American troops are among the 32,000 U.S. soldiers sent to the Rio Grande as a show of force against Emperor Maximilian's French troops occupying Mexico. Some discharged black soldiers join the forces of Mexican resistance leader Benito Juarez. Mexico n. a. Black Soldiers in the West 1865 On February 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery throughout the United States. United States District of Columbia The Civil War in the West 1865 On June 19, General Gordon Granger leads Union forces ashore at Galveston, Texas where he issues the Texas Emancipation Proclamation. From that point the freedpeople of Texas and their descendants commemorate that day as Juneteenth. United States Texas African Americans in The Civil War in the West 1866 Texas enacts a series of black codes designed to limit the freedom of the ex-slaves. They include among other measures, a child apprenticeship law, a contract labor code, a vagrancy act and the convict leasing system. United States Texas Reconstruction in the West 1866 Congress authorizes the strength of the regular (post-Civil War) army at 25,000 men in ten cavalry regiments and twenty five infantry regiments. It also designates four of those units, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry and Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry as all-black enlisted men led mostly by white officers. These men, eventually called Buffalo Soldiers, will initiate the first period in U.S. history when African American soldiers are a permanent component of the U.S. military. United States District of Columbia Black Soldiers in the West 1866 Antioch Missionary Baptist Church is organized in Houston. It is the oldest continually operating African American church in the city. United States Texas The Urban West 1866 New treaties negotiated between the Federal Government and the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles let each Nation decide if and in what manner it will incorporate its ex-slaves into tribal society. The Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles incorporate their ex-slaves. The Choctaws and Chickasaws do not. United States District of Columbia African Americans in Reconstruction Era Indian Territory 1866 In November Mifflin W. Gibbs is elected to the City Council of Victoria, British Columbia He becomes the second African American (after John Mercer Langston) to be elected to public office in North America. Canada n. a. Black Western Politics 1867 In November, white male voters in Kansas overwhelmingly reject efforts by both black males and all women to obtain the ballot. Black suffrage fails by 19,421 to 10,438 while women's suffrage is defeated by 19,857 to 10,070. United States Kansas Blacks in Reconstruction Era Kansas 1867 On January >10, Congress passes the Territorial Suffrage Act which allows African Americans in the western territories to vote. The act immediately enfranchises about 800 black male voters in those territories. United States District of Columbia Reconstruction in the West 1867 The Reconstruction Acts are passed by Congress on March 2. Congress abolishes civilian government and places Texas in a military district. These acts abolish the state's post-Civil War governments and call for the creation of new governments elected by all of the state's male voters. United States Texas Reconstruction in the West 1867 On July 4, one hundred fifty black and twenty white delegates meet in Houston to form the Texas Republican Party. They select Elisha M. Pease as chairman of the Party. Pease is eventually appointed Governor by General Philip Sheridan, the regional military commander. United States Texas Reconstruction in the West 1868 Beginning with the cattle drive of William G. Butler that summer, African American cowboys will participate for the next two decades in trail drives from central Texas to the railheads at Abilene, Dodge City, Denver, Cheyenne and other central plains towns. United States Kansas Black Cowboys 1868 On July 21, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States. United States District of Columbia Reconstruction in the West 1869 The transcontinental railroad is joined at Promontory, Utah Territory in 1869. Approximately three hundred African Americans are employed on the Union Pacific's work crews in 1865. Few African American rail construction workers are present at the Last Spike ceremony at Promontory although there are some Buffalo Soldiers on hand as they are transferred from military posts in Kansas to new assignments in California. United States Utah Migration and Settlement to 1900 1869 After the completion of the transcontinental railroad, a small black community of railroad construction and repair workers emerges in Oakland. Their numbers are dramatically augmented when the Pullman Company decides to require an African American male porter in each of its cars and many of these porters settle in Oakland. United States California The Urban West 1869 Walter Moses Burton is elected sheriff of Fort Bend County, Texas. He becomes the first African American in the West to hold that post. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1869 On February 26, Congress sends the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to the states for approval. The amendment guarantees African American males the right to vote. United States District of Columbia Reconstruction in the West 1869 In November Matthew Gaines of Washington County and George T. Ruby of Galveston become the first African Americans elected to the Texas State Senate. Twelve other African Americans will serve in the State House of Representatives. By 1898, forty-two black men will have served in the Texas Legislature. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1869 In November African American women in Wyoming Territory are the first black women in the nation to gain the right to vote. United States Wyoming Reconstruction in the West 1870 By the middle of the year forty-six Freedman's Bureau-sponsored schools are operating in Texas for black children. The largest numbers are in Galveston, Houston, San Antonio and Brownsville. The Bureau reports 5,182 black pupils attending these schools in contrast to the 11 black children enrolled in schools in the state in 1860. United States Texas Black Education in the West 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified on March 30, granting 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. United States District of Columbia Reconstruction in the West 1870 On June 28, twenty-three-year-old Emanuel Stance of F Troop, Ninth Cavalry becomes the first Buffalo Soldier to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. The award is given for his action against Apache Indians at Kickapoo Springs, Texas on May 20, 1870. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1871 In November Newton Booth is elected the second Republican governor of California. At the time of his election he resides at the boarding house owned by wealthy black San Francisco businesswoman Mary Ellen Pleasant. United States California Reconstruction in the West 1872 Bridget Biddy Mason of Los Angeles establishes First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest African American church in the city. United States California The Urban West 1873 Wiley College is founded in Marshall, Texas. It is the first institution of higher education for African Americans in the West. United States Texas Black Education in the West 1874 Denver businessman Barney L. Ford builds the Inter-Ocean Hotel, which for a period is the largest hotel in the city. United States Colorado The Urban West 1875 On January >8, George Washington and his wife, Mary Jane Washington found the town of Centerville (later Centralia), Washington Territory. United States Washington African Americans in Washington Territory 1875 Bass Reeves is sworn in at Fort Smith, Arkansas as the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal. His jurisdication is the Indian Territory. United States Arkansas Pre-1970 Politics 1876 In November Jesse Franklin, a freedperson, is elected to the Creek Tribal Supreme Court. By this point a number of African American men are serving in the tribal governments of the Creek, Cherokee and Seminole Nations. Between 1868 and 1900, sixty-eight black men serve in the tribal legislatures of the three Indian nations. United States Olahoma Black Western Politics 1877 On June 15, Henry O. Flipper becomes the first African American to graduate from West Point. He will be followed at the academy by John Hanks Alexander (1887) and Charles Young (1889). Flipper is assigned to the Tenth Cavalry at Fort Concho, Texas, becoming the first black officer to command Buffalo Soldiers. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1877 Early in the year six African American men led by W.H. Smith and Benjamin Carr found the Nicodemus Town Company which plans an agricultural colony west of the 100th meridian near the Kansas frontier. On July, 30 African American settlers from Kentucky arrive to establish the town of Nicodemus. This is the first of hundreds of all or mostly black western towns. United States Kansas Migration and Settlement to 1900 1877 On December 19, Col. Edward Hatch leads the Ninth Cavalry into El Paso to end the Salt War, a racial and economic conflict between the Latino majority and Anglo minority in the city. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1878 Edward McCabe, formerly of Chicago, arrives in Nicodemus advertising himself as an attorney and land agent. In April 1880 Kansas Governor John P. St. John appoints McCabe first clerk of newly organized Graham County. In November 1881, he is elected to a full term as county clerk. United States Kansas Black Western Politics 1878 William L. Eagleson founds the Colored Citizen, the first black newspaper in Topeka. United States Kansas Western Blacks and the Media 1878 Benjamin Pap Singleton leads his first group of Tennessee emigrants to Kansas. The party of 200 settlers establish the Dunlop Colony on the east bank of the Neosho River in Morris County. United States Kansas Migration and Settlement to 1900 1879 U.S. Attorney General Charles Devens rules that Cherokee freedman Allen Wilson should be allowed to keep his farm near Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation despite an earlier tribal decision that Wilson was no longer a citizen. United States Oklahoma Reconstruction in the West 1879 African American parents in Topeka begin a campaign to desegregate the local schools. They receive a setback in 1890 when the Kansas Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Board of Education of Topeka decides the state's school segregation law is constitutional. Their multigenerational efforts continue until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. United States Kansas Black Education in the West 1879 John J. Neimore founds the Los Angeles Owl which in 1892 becomes the California Eagle. The newspaper will continue in operation until 1966. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1879 In November William Jefferson Hardin is elected to the Wyoming Territorial Legislature from Cheyenne. United States Wyoming Black Western Politics 1879 In November L. W. Winn is the first African American elected to the Kansas State Senate. United States Kansas Black Western Politics 1879-1880 Approximately six thousand African Americans leave Louisiana and Mississippi counties along the Mississippi River for Kansas in what will be known as the Exodus. In response to the Exodus, Kansas Governor John P. St. John creates the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association (KFRA) to provide assistance for the mostly destitute refugees. The Association receives nationwide support including donations from pre-Civil War abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison who leads fundraising efforts in Boston and from Philip D. Armour, the Chicago meat packer. United States Kansas Migration and Settlement to 1900 1880 On May 14, Sgt. George Jordan of the Ninth Cavalry, commanding a detachment of Buffalo Soldiers, leads a successful defense of Tularosa, New Mexico Territory, against Apache Indians. Jordan will later receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. United States New Mexico Black Soldiers in the West 1881 In November John T. Gunnell becomes the first African American to sit in the Colorado Legislature. United States Colorado Black Western Politics 1881 Tillotson College is founded in Austin, Texas by the Congregational Church in 1877. It opens its doors in 1881. United States Texas Black Education in the West 1882 Edward P. McCabe of Nicodemus is elected the state auditor of Kansas at the age of thirty-two. He is the first African American elected to a statewide office outside the South. United States Kansas Black Western Politics 1882 Lt. Henry O. Flipper is court-martialed at Fort Davis, Texas for accounting irregularities as commissary officer. After leaving the Army, Flipper works for the next thirty seven years as a mining engineer in New Mexico and Mexico, becoming the first African American to gain distinction in that profession. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1885 Former California Governor Pio Pico recruits one hundred African Americans to work for his Pico House hotel. United States California African Americans in California 1886 Young George Washington Carver homesteads 160 acres in Ness County, Kansas for two years before leaving the area to continue his education at Iowa State University. United States Kansas Migration and Settlement to 1900 1886 Norris Wright Cuney becomes chairman of the Texas Republican Party. He is the first African American to head a major political party at the state level in U.S. history United States Texas Black Western Politics 1887 The National Colored Farmers' Alliance is formed in Houston County, Texas. United States Texas Migration and Settlement to 1900 1888 Helena, Montana Territory blacks under the leadership of Rev. James Hubbard, establish the St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church. United States Montana African Americans in Montana Territory 1888 On April 11, Edward Park Duplex was elected mayor of Wheatland, California. He may have been the first African American mayor of a predominately white town in the United States. United States California Black Western Politics 1889 Edward McCabe creates the Oklahoma Immigrant Association, headquartered in Topeka, to encourage African American migration from the South to the new Territory. McCabe and his wife Sarah arrive in Oklahoma in April 1890 and help found Langston City, which they name after Virginia Congressman John Mercer Langston. United States Kansas African Americans in Oklahoma Territory 1889 William Owen Bush becomes the first African American to serve in the Washington State Legislature. United States Washington Black Western Politics 1890 Green Jacob Currin becomes the first African American to serve in the Oklahoma Territory Legislature. United States Oklahoma Black Western Politics 1890 The African American community of Five Points emerges in the eastern section of Denver. United States Colorado The Urban West 1890 In June, troops of the Ninth Cavalry are sent from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to reestablish order during the Johnson County, Wyoming Range War. United States Wyoming Black Soldiers in the West 1891 President Benjamin Harrison appoints Topeka attorney and political activist John L. Waller as U.S Consul to Madagascar. United States Kansas African Americans in Kansas 1892 John B. Rayner and Melvin Wade lead many black Republicans into the Populist Party. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1892 Dr. Matthew Oliver Ricketts becomes the first African American to sit in the Nebraska Legislature. United States Nebraska Black Western Politics 1892 Newspaper editor Roscoe Dunjee arrives in Oklahoma City from Minnesota. After working for various newspapers he founds the Oklahoma City Black Dispatch in 1915. The Dispatch eventually becomes the largest African American newspaper in the state. United States Oklahoma Western Blacks and the Media 1892 On July 14 three companies of the Twenty-fourth Infantry occupy the Coeur d'Alene Mining District in northern Idaho which has been declared under martial law following a violent strike by silver miners. They remain for four months. United States Idaho Black Soldiers in the West 1893 The Texas Freeman is established in Houston by Charles and Lilla Love. It eventually evolves into the Houston Informer which is the oldest continuously operating black newspaper in Texas. United States Texas Western Blacks and the Media 1894 Montana's first black newspaper, the Colored Citizen is founded by Ohio-born photographer J.P. Ball, Jr. United States Montana Western Blacks and the Media 1895 The African American population of Salt Lake City supports two black newspapers, The Utah Plain Dealer, edited by William W. Taylor and the Broad Ax, managed by Julius F. Taylor. United States Utah Western Blacks and the Media 1895 The Kansas Industrial and Educational Institute is founded as a kindergarten, sewing school and reading room by Elizabeth Reddick and Edward Stephens, two African American elementary school teachers in Topeka. The Institute will eventually become, after the endorsement of Booker T. Washington and a substantial donation from Andrew Carnegie, a major facility for the teaching of industrial arts and scientific agriculture to black Kansans. In 1919 the state of Kansas assumes control of the facility and renames it the Kansas Vocational Institute. United States Kansas Black Education in the West 1899 In May, the Twenty-fourth Infantry returns to occupy the Coeur d'Alene Mining District in northern Idaho after violence again erupts. United States Idaho Black Soldiers in the West 1900 Taking advantage of the various federal land openings in Oklahoma Territory, through the 1890s, approximately eight thousand African Americans acquire 1.5 million acres of land in the Territory valued at $11 million dollars. United States Oklahoma African Americans in Oklahoma Territory 1900 Black women's clubs in Kansas create the first statewide federation in the west. By 1925, similar federations exist in Colorado (1903), Texas and Nebraska (1905), California (1906), Oklahoma (1910), Oregon and Montana (1912), Arizona (1915), Washington (1917), New Mexico (1923) and Wyoming (1925). United States Kansas Black Women in the West 1900 Buffalo Soldiers are among the U.S. military forces sent to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in Peking, China. China n. a. Black Soldiers in the West 1903 Los Angeles minister, J. E. Edwards, newspaper editor Jefferson Lewis Edmonds and attorney Frederick M. Roberts create a local civil rights organization called the Forum. Three years later the Forum gives its first scholarship to Ruth Temple who becomes the first black woman physician in Southern California. United States California The Urban West 1903 Watts is founded as a racially integrated suburban community of blacks, whites and Latinos seven miles south of downtown Los Angeles. United States California The Urban West 1904 The town of Boley, the most famous of the all-black communities in the Indian Territory, is founded in the Creek Nation by two white entrepreneurs, William Boley and Lake Moore. By 1907 Boley has over 1,000 residents. United States Oklahoma African Americans in Indian Territory 1904 Shortly after the enactment of the Kinkaid Homestead Act of 1904, two hundred African Americans settle in the Sand Hills district of north-central Nebraska, claiming nearly 40,000 acres. They create the town of Dewitty which they later rename Audacious. United States Nebraska Migration and Settlement to 1920 1904 Oscar Micheaux moves from Chicago to homestead land in South Dakota near the Rosebud Indian Reservation. In 1913 he publishes The Conquest, the first of three novels depicting his life of high plains farming. United States South Dakota Migration and Settlement to 1920 1905 Los Angeles businessman Robert C. Owens, grandson of Bridget Biddy Mason, constructs a six-story, $250,000 building on the Mason homestead in Los Angeles. The building is the largest black-owned structure west of the Mississippi River. United States California The Urban West 1906 The Azusa Street Revival begins in Los Angeles in a former African Methodist Episcopal Church building at 312 Azusa Street in April. The revival, led by black evangelist William J. Seymour, is considered the beginning of the worldwide Pentecostal Movement. United States California Black Religion in the West 1906 On August 13 in Brownsville, Texas, approximately a dozen black troops riot against segregation and in the process kill a local citizen in an incident that will be called the Brownsville Affray. When the identity of the killer cannot be determined President Theodore Roosevelt discharges three companies of black soldiers on November 6. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1907 Madame C.J. Walker of Denver develops and markets her hair straightening method and creates one of the most successful cosmetics firms in the nation. United States Colorado The Urban West 1907 On November 16, the twin territories, Indian Territory and Oklahoma, are admitted to the Union as the state of Oklahoma. The Democratic-dominated state legislature quickly disfranchises black voters and segregates public schools and accommodations. United States Oklahoma African Americans in Oklahoma 1908 On December 26, Jack Johnson of Galveston, Texas, defeats Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia to become the first African American heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Australia n. a. Black Athletes in the West 1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed on February 12 in New York City. United States New York The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1910 Ohio-born Oliver Toussaint Jackson and his wife Minerva file a desert claim for 320 acres in Weld County, Colorado where they establish the Dearfield Colony for African Americans. United States Colorado Migration and Settlement to 1920 1913 A west coast tour by W.E.B. DuBois prompts the creation of NAACP chapters in Los Angeles, Oakland-San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. By 1919 NAACP branches also exist in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. United States n. a. The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1915 Throughout the summer NAACP Chapters in Seattle, Portland, Oakland-San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Topeka and Wichita protested the film, The Birth of a Nation. United States n. a. The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1915 George and Noble Johnson found the Lincoln Motion Picture Company in Omaha to produce black films. In less than a year they relocate to Los Angeles. United States Nebraska Black Hollywood 1915 On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court in Guinn v. United States overturns the Oklahoma Grandfather Clause. United States Distrrict of Columbia The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1916 In March the Tenth Cavalry is one of two cavalry units under the command of General John J. Pershing given the assignment to capture Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa. The Seventh Cavalry is the other. They are unsuccessful. Mexico n. a. Black Soldiers in the West 1917 On August 23, a riot erupts in Houston between black soldiers and white citizens; two blacks and 11 whites are killed. Twenty nine black soldiers are executed for participation in what will be known as the Houston Mutiny. United States Texas Black Soldiers in the West 1918 In November, attorney and newspaper editor Frederick M. Roberts (Republican) of Los Angeles becomes the first African American elected to the California Assembly. United States California Black Western Politics 1919 The twenty five race riots that take place throughout the nation prompting the term, Red Summer, including clashes on July 13 in Longview, Texas, and September 28 in Omaha. United States Nebraska The Urban West 1919 South Dakota resident Oscar Micheaux releases his first film, The Homesteader, in Chicago. Over the next four decades Micheaux will produce and direct 24 silent films and 19 sound films, making him the most prolific black filmmaker of the 20th Century. United States Illinois Black Hollywood 1920 On August 26, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified giving all women the right to vote. Black women already have the right to vote in Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, California and other western states. United States District of Columbia Black Women in the West 1921 On May 31-June 1, at least 60 blacks and 21 whites are killed in the Tulsa Race Riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The violence destroys a thriving African American neighborhood and business district called Deep Greenwood. United States Oklahoma The Urban West 1921 Bessie Coleman of Atlanta, Texas, the first black female pilot, also becomes the first woman to receive an international pilot's license when she graduates from the Federation Aeronautique International in France. United States Texas Black Women in the West 1921 The one thousand member Los Angeles division (chapter) of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), led by Noah Thompson and Charlotta Bass, is the largest in the nation west of Chicago. United States California Black Power in the West 1924 On July 26, El Paso dentist Lawrence Aaron Nixon attempts to vote in the Texas Democratic Primary. He is denied a ballot because of his race. Nixon initiates an NAACP-supported lawsuit, and a twenty year campaign, to test the constitutionality of the state statute that bans African Americans from voting in the primary. United States Texas The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1925 Authors Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Arna Bontemps write and publish in Los Angeles before going on to greater fame in the Harlem Renaissance. United States California Black Western Literature 1925 Kansas City (Missouri and Kansas) becomes the center of a black jazz network that will stretch throughout the West and eventually include Shanghai, Hong Kong and Manila. United States Missouri Black Music in the West 1928 The Hotel Somerville (later renamed the Dunbar) opens in Los Angeles in 1928 to hosts the first NAACP national convention held in the West. United States California Black Urban History 1928 The first National Urban League affiliate in the West is established in Omaha. United States Nebraska The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1933 The Los Angeles Sentinel is founded by Leon H. Washington. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1934 California Republican Assemblyman Frederick Roberts is defeated by 27 year-old Democrat Augustus Hawkins who will continue to hold this assembly seat until he is elected to the U.S. Congress in 1962. United States California Black Western Politics 1936 Dallas political leaders Rev. Maynard H. Jackson, Sr. and Antonio Maceo Smith organize the Progressive Citizens' League which is soon renamed the Progressive Voters' League. The League initially challenges restrictions on African American voting in the city and eventually becomes one of the most effective black political organizations in Texas. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1939 Dancer and actor Bill Bojangles Robinson of Los Angeles serves as the first honorary president of the Negro Actors Guild of America. United States California Black Hollywood 1940 On February 29, Hattie McDaniel receives an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Gone With the Wind. She becomes the first black actor to win an Academy Award. United States California Black Hollywood 1941 Rev. Clayton Russell forms the Negro Victory Committee in Los Angeles to use mass civil disobedience tactics to challenge racial discrimination. United States California The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1941 On June 25, Executive Order 8802 desegregates war production plants throughout the West and creates the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC). United States District of Columbia The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1941 On December 8, the United States enters World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Doris "Dorie" Miller of Waco is awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism during that battle. United States Hawaii World War II in the West 1941-1945 The desperate need for factory labor to build the war machine needed to win World War II led to an unprecedented migration of African Americans from the South to the West. This migration transforms politics, particularly in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington as blacks increasingly vote in their new homes and put pressure on Congress to protect civil rights throughout the nation. Their activism lays much of the foundation for the national Civil Rights Movement a decade later. United States n. a. World War II in the West 1942 Three African American soldiers are killed in Phoenix, Arizona during the Thanksgiving Day Riot against what local residents and black military personnel term brutality by the Phoenix police force. United States Arizona Black Soldiers in the West 1942 Los Angeles newspaper editor Charlotta Bass, California Assemblyman Augustus Hawkins and the actors Hattie McDaniel and Lena Horne join the Citizens' Committee for the Defense of Mexican American Youth formed by actor Anthony Quinn and Josephine Fierro de Bright of the Spanish-Speaking People's Congress. The organization is created to defend eight Mexican American men charged with the murder of Jose Diaz. United States California World War II in the West 1943 The Zoot Suit Riot begins on June 3 in Los Angeles when white sailors, soldiers and marines attack local youth who wear Zoot Suits. The riot continues for four days. Most of those assaulted are young Mexican American men but some African American and Filipino American men are attacked as well. Only nine white sailors were arrested by authorities in comparison to several hundred Zoot Suiters, some of whom die in jail of injuries sustained during the assaults. United States California World War II in the West 1943 On June 15, a false story of a rape of the wife of a white shipyard worker prompts the Beaumont Race Riot, an attack by nearly 2,000 European American shipyard workers in Beaumont, Texas against their African American counterparts. When the riot ends 24 hours later three black workers and one white worker are dead and over four hundred are injured. United States Texas World War II in the West 1943 By summer fourteen thousand African American soldiers of the 93rd Infantry Division and the 32nd and 33rd companies of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (approximately 300 women) are stationed in the Arizona desert at Fort Huachuca for training. They are the largest concentration of black military personnel in the history of the nation. United States Arizona Black Soldiers in the West 1943 The recently formed Denver chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality organizes one of the West's first successful protest demonstrations when it pickets a Denver movie theater that segregates its black and white patrons. United States Colorado The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1944 On April 3, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smith v. Allwright, a case from Houston, Texas, declares that state's white only political primary unconstitutional. United States Texas The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1944 The Port Chicago Mutiny evolves after an horrendous explosion on an ammunition ship docked at the Port Chicago Naval Base on San Francisco Bay. The explosion on July 17 kills 320 men including 202 African American sailors who comprise half of the black personnel at the naval facility. When 50 black sailors refuse to return to the ships until their safety concerns are addressed, the Navy court-martials them for mutiny. All are convicted and sentenced to prison. After World War II ended, most of the convicted sailors are quietly released. United States California Black Soldiers in the West 1944 On August 14, African American soldiers initiate the Ft. Lawton Riot in a military base in Seattle because they believe Italian POW's are receiving better treatment and facilities. One Italian POW is lynched during the riot prompting an investigation that results in the court martial and conviction of 23 black soldiers. United States Washington Black Soldiers in the West 1944 The California Supreme Court in James v. Marinship rules that the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers can no longer maintain a segregated auxiliary for African American workers in the state's shipyards. United States California The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1945 World War II ends with the Japanese surrender on September 2. The demobilization of both the civilian and military populations which began before the war ended is now intensified. Thousands of African American soldiers who are discharged from the armed forces, and tens of thousands of black defense workers who are laid off, nonetheless choose to remain in the West. United States n. a. World War II in the West 1947 On April 10, longtime Pasadena, California resident Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers and becomes the first African American to play major league baseball in the 20th Century. United States California Black Athletes in the West 1947 In September black, white and Latino students at the University of New Mexico led by George Long, an African American undergraduate, began a boycott of local restaurants that discriminate against black patrons. The campaign eventually leads to the Albuquerque civil rights ordinance enacted on February 12, 1952 and a state wide law created three years later. United States New Mexico The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1948 On July 26, President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 directing the desegregation of the armed forces. United States District of Columbia Black Soldiers in the West 1948 On October 1, the California Supreme Court voids the law banning interracial marriages in the state. United States California The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1949 The state of Washington will enact the Washington State Law Against Discrimination, the first fair employment practices law in the West. Over the next decade Oregon, New Mexico and California will pass similar legislation. United States Washington The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1950 Beginning in the Spring of 1950, the De Porres Club, an interracial organization of students at Creighton University in Omaha, will over the next decade mount a series of non-violent direct action protests against housing segregation and employment discrimination in the Omaha area. Their goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of civil rights activists throughout the nation in the 1960s. United States Nebraska The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1950 On September 22, Ralph Bunche of Pasadena, California becomes first African American recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize because of his mediation of a settlement between Arabs and Israelis in the 1947-48 Mideast Crisis. United States California Black Internationalism 1951 On February 28, thirteen African American families in Topeka, Kansas file a lawsuit against the local school board for its policies that permit racially segregated schools. The case will eventually be known as Brown v. Board of Education. United States Kansas Black Education in the West 1952 Maricopa County (Arizona) Court Judge Frederic C. Struckmeyer, Jr. rules against school segregation in Phoenix in response to a lawsuit brought on behalf of three black high school students, Robert B. Phillips, Jr., Tolly Williams, and David Clark. United States Arizona Black Education in the West 1952 Los Angeles newspaper editor Charlotta Bass receives the Progressive Party nomination for Vice President. She is the first African American woman to be placed on a national party ticket. United States California Black Politics 1954 On May 17, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declares segregation in all public schools in the United States unconstitutional, nullifying the earlier judicial doctrine of separate but equal. United States District of Columbia Black Education in the West 1958 On July 19, Ronald Walters, a Wichita State College freshman and president of the Wichita NAACP Youth Council, leads the city's first sit-in demonstration. The group protests Dockum Drugstore's ban on black customers using the lunch counter. The protest ends a few days later when the drugstore officials promise to end the discriminatory policy. United States Kansas The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1958 On August 19, Clara Luper, advisor to the Oklahoma City Youth Council, initiates a similar protest at Katz's Drugstore in that city. This effort evolves into a six year campaign against segregated facilities throughout the city that includes dozens of protest marches and hundreds of demonstrations. Finally on June 6, 1964, the Oklahoma City Council enacts an ordinance that outlaws racial discrimination in public accommodations. United States Oklahoma The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1960 For the next five years dozens of civil rights demonstrations will take place in cities throughout the West including Denver, Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Reno, Seattle, San Diego, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. United States n. a. The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1960 On September 8, first grader Tyronne Raymond Day takes his seat with twenty-nine white classmates to become the first African American to attend a desegregated school in Houston. United States Texas Black Education in the West 1962 In November California Assemblyman Augustus Hawkins become the first African American elected to Congress from the West. United States California Black Western Politics 1963 On August 28, the same day as the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, the Seattle Public School District becomes the first major school system in the country to initiate a voluntary desegregation plan. United States Washington Black Education in the West 1964 In February Sidney Poitier wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Lilies of the Field. United States California Black Hollywood 1964 In March eighteen-year-old Tracy Simms, a Berkeley High School student, leads 1,500 demonstrators in a protest against the hiring policies of San Francisco's Sheraton Palace, in what is to that point the largest non-violent protest in the West. Eventually the Sheraton Palace and other major San Francisco hotels agree to hire personnel on a non racially-discriminatory basis. One of the arrested demonstrators, Mario Savio, will within six months become the leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. United States California The Civil Rights Movement in the West 1964 In September the Berkeley Public School System begins the first voluntary busing plan to promote school desegregation. United States California Black Education in the West 1965 The Watts Uprising occurs in the Los Angeles South Central neighborhood of Watts on August 11-16. Thirty four people are killed and one thousand are injured in the five day confrontation. United States California Black Power in the West 1965 Maulana Karenga founds the black nationalist group, US, in Los Angeles following the Watts Uprising. United States California Black Power in the West 1966 On October 15, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton form the Black Panther Party in Oakland. United States California Black Power in the West 1966 Maulana Karenga creates the Pan-African and African American holiday, Kwanzaa, in Los Angeles. United States California Black Holidays and Celebrations 1967 The mistaken entrance of armed Black Panthers into the California State Assembly chamber in front of news reporters and photographers on May 2 gives the young organization world wide publicity and prompts a surge of membership growth. Twenty six Panthers are arrested at the state capitol including co-founder Bobby Seale. United States California Black Power in the West 1968 On March 16, the Black Panther Party and the Peace and Freedom Party announce a political coalition. The Peace and Freedom Party slate of candidates includes Black Panthers Kathleen Cleaver who is nominated to run in California's 18th Assembly District (San Francisco) and Bobby Seale, a candidate for the 17th Assembly District seat (Oakland). This will be the first of a decade long effort by various Panthers to will electoral office. United States California Black Power in the West 1968 In September San Francisco State University establishes the nation's first Black Studies Program. United States California Black Education in the West 1968 The Black Panther Party announces its "serve the people" program which includes a free breakfast for children on welfare. United States California Black Power in the West 1969 On January >17, a confrontation between Black Panthers and members of the US organization on the UCLA campus erupts into a gun battle which leaves two Panthers, Alprentice (Bunchy) Carter and John Huggins dead. United States California Black Power in the West 1969 Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare of San Francisco publish the first issue of The Black Scholar in November. United States California Black Education in the West 1970 On February 18, Bobby Seale and six other six defendants (popularly known as the Chicago Seven) are acquitted of the charge of conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention. United States Illinois Black Power in the West 1970 The San Rafael, California courthouse shooting on August 7 results in the death of Judge Harold Haley and three others including Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of imprisoned Black Panther George Jackson. UCLA Philosophy Professor Angela Davis is implicated in the shooting and becomes the subject of a nationwide FBI-led search. Davis is captured and brought to trial. She is acquitted of all charges on June 4, 1972. United States California Black Power in the West 1972 In November Yvonne Brathwaite Burke of Los Angeles is elected to Congress from California. She and Barbara Jordan of Texas become the first African American elected to Congress from the West. United States California Black Western Politics 1973 Black Panthers Elaine Brown and Bobby Seale run campaigns for the Oakland City Council and for Oakland Mayor respectively. Both are defeated. United States California Black Western Politics 1973 On May 29, Thomas Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles in the modern era. Bradley is reelected four times, thus holding the post longer than any other mayor. He retires from office in 1993. United States California Black Western Politics 1974 On November 5, Mervyn Dymally is elected Lieutenant Governor of California. He and George Brown who is elected on the same day in Colorado, become the first African Americans to hold these posts anywhere in the nation in the 20th century. United States Colorado Black Western Politics 1977 Judge Lionel Wilson is elected the first African American mayor of Oakland. United States California Black Western Politics 1978 The Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormon) drops it 126 year old ban on African American men in the priesthood. United States Utah Black Religion in the West 1978 On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke narrowly uphold affirmative action as a legal strategy for addressing past discrimination. United States District of Columbia Affirmative Action in the West 1978 In September Seattle becomes the largest city in the United States to institute a program of mandatory busing to desegregate its public schools without a court order. Nearly 25 percent of the district's students are bused as part of the Seattle Plan to promote school desegregation. The school district ends the mandatory busing program in October 1997. United States Washington Black Education in the West 1979 Robert C. Maynard is named editor of the Oakland Tribune. He is the first African American to hold the position at a major daily newspaper in the West. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1980 In January >Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. becomes the first African American Speaker in a state legislature when he is selected for the post in the California Assembly. Brown holds the Speakership until 1995 when he is elected Mayor of San Francisco. United States California Black Western Politics 1982 In November California Attorney General George Deukmejian narrowly defeats Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley for governor of the state of California. Bradley, then a three term mayor of the largest city in the state, had hoped to become the first African American popularly elected chief executive of a state. United States California Black Western Politics 1983 Robert C. Maynard and his wife, Nancy, purchase the Oakland Tribune. The Maynards are the first African Americans to own a major daily newspaper. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1984 In August Carl Lewis of Houston wins four Gold Medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles, matching the record set by Jesse Owens in 1936. United States California Black Athletes in the West 1984 In September The Cosby Show makes its television debut. The show runs for eight seasons and will become the most successful series in television history featuring a mostly African American cast. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1986 Filmmaker Spike Lee releases his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, initiating a new wave of interest in black films and African American filmmakers. United States California Black Hollywood 1986 William A. Hilliard becomes editor of the Portland Oregonian. United States Oregon Western Blacks and the Media 1986 The 1986 California gubernatorial election is a rematch of the 1982 campaign although now Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley opposes the incumbent governor, George Deukmejian. In this contest Governor Deukmejian wins by a 61 percent to 37 percent margin. United States California Black Western Politics 1989 Houston, Texas Congressman George Thomas "Mickey" Leland is killed in a plane crash near Gambela, Ethiopia on August 7. Ethiopia Texas Black Western Politics 1989 On November 7, Norm Rice is elected the first African American mayor of Seattle. United States Washington Black Western Politics 1989 Martinique-born Euzhan Palcy directs the anti-apartheid film, A Dry White Season. In doing so she becomes the first woman of African descent to direct a Hollywood studio movie. United States California Black Hollywood 1990 Seattle playwright August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for the play, The Piano Lesson. United States Washington Art and Literature 1991 Julie Dash releases Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film by an African American woman. United States California Black Hollywood 1991 On March 3, Los Angeles police use force to arrest Rodney King after a San Fernando Valley traffic stop. The beating of King is captured on videotape and broadcast widely, prompting an investigation and subsequent trial of three officers. United States California Crime and Punishment 1991 On June 18, Wellington Webb becomes the first African American mayor of Denver, Colorado. United States Colorado Black Western Politics 1992 On April 29, a Simi Valley, California Jury acquits the three officers accused of beating Rodney King. The verdict triggers a three day uprising in Los Angeles called the Rodney King Riot that results in over 50 people killed, over 2,000 injured and 8,000 arrested. United States California Crime and Punishment 1992 In November Pearl Stewart is named editor of the Oakland Tribute. She is the first black woman to hold that post in a major daily newspaper. United States California Western Blacks and the Media 1994 On June 12, O.J. Simpson's former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman are found stabbed to death. Simpson, a leading sports and film celebrity, emerges as the leading suspect and is subsequently arrested on June 17 after a two hour low speed pursuit of Simpson and his friend, Al Cowlings, which is seen on television by an estimated 95 million people. United States California Crime and Punishment 1995 On October 3, after an eight month televised trial, O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the charges of murder in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. United States California Crime and Punishment 1995 Ronald "Ron" Kirk is elected the first African American mayor of Dallas, Texas. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1996 On November 5, California voters pass Proposition 209 which outlaws affirmative action throughout the state. United States California Affirmative Action in the West 1996 Willie Brown, Jr. is elected the first African American mayor of San Francisco. United States California Black Western Politics 1997 Lee P. Brown is elected as the first African American mayor of Houston. United States Texas Black Western Politics 1998 On November 4, Washington voters pass Initiative 200, which like the California measure, effectively ends government-sponsored affirmative action programs in the state. United States Washington Affirmative Action in the West 2002 In March, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars for best actress and best actor for their portrayals in Monster’s Ball and Training Day respectively. United States California Black Hollywood 2003 Significant population shifts and reduced resistance to residential integration result in more African Americans living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Seattle than in their city limits. United States Washington The Urban West 2007 Carl Brewer becomes the first African American elected mayor of Wichita, Kansas. United States Kansas Black Western Politics 2008 Former NBA basketball player Kevin M. Johnson is elected the first African American mayor of Sacramento. United States California Black Western Politics - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-american-west-timeline#sthash.RDyS6JVN.dpuf http://www.blackpast.org/timelines/african-american-history-american-west-timeline Major African American Office Holders Since 1641 http://www.blackpast.org/aah/major-african-american-office-holders The election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as President of the United States in 2008 has focused attention on the history of black office holding. The list below represents the most significant of the thousands of African American elected officials from 1641 until today. Most of the names below are linked to their profiles on BlackPast.org. First Person of African Ancestry Elected to a Public Office in British North America: Matthias de Souza, Colonial Maryland Legislature, 1641-1642 First Person of African Ancestry Elected to a State Office in the United States: Alexander Twilight, Vermont Legislature, 1836-1837 First African American Woman Elected to a State Legislature: Crystal Bird Fauset, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1938-1940 First African American Woman Elected to a State Senate: Cora Brown, Michigan State Senate, 1953-1956 FEDERAL OFFICIALS President of the United States: Barack Obama, 2009-- United States Senate: Hiram Rhodes Revels, Mississippi, 1870-1871 Blanche K. Bruce, Mississippi, 1875-1881 Edward W. Brooke, Massachusetts, 1967-1979 Carol Moseley Braun, Illinois, 1993-1999 Barack Obama, Illinois, 2005-2009 Roland Burris, Illinois, 2009-2011 Tim Scott, South Carolina, 2013-- Cory Booker, New Jersey, 2013-- United States House of Representatives: John Willis Menard, Louisiana, 1868 (elected but not seated) Joseph H. Rainey, South Carolina, 1869-1879 Jefferson F. Long, Georgia, 1870-1871 Josiah T. Walls, Florida, 1871-1876 Benjamin S. Turner, Alabama, 1871-1873 Robert Carlos DeLarge, South Carolina, 1871-1873 Robert B. Elliott, South Carolina, 1871-1874 Richard H. Cain, South Carolina, 1873-1875, 1877-1879 Alonzo J. Ransier, South Carolina, 1873-1875 James T. Rapier, Alabama, 1873-1875 John R. Lynch, Mississippi, 1873-1877, 1882-1883 Jeremiah Haralson, Alabama, 1875-1877 John Adams Hyman, North Carolina, 1875-1877 Charles E. Nash, Louisiana, 1875-1877 Robert Smalls, South Carolina, 1875-1879, 1881-1887 James E. O'Hara, North Carolina, 1883-1887 John M. Langston, Virginia, 1889-1891 Henry P. Cheatham, North Carolina, 1889-1893 Thomas E. Miller, South Carolina, 1890-1891 George W. Murray, South Carolina, 1893-1895, 1896-1897 George Henry White, North Carolina, 1897-1901 Oscar S. DePriest, Illinois, 1929-1935 Arthur W. Mitchell, Illinois, 1935-1943 William L. Dawson, Illinois, 1943-1970 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., New York, 1945-1971 Charles C. Diggs, Michigan, 1955-1980 Robert N.C. Nix, Pennsylvania, 1958-1979 Augustus F. Hawkins, California, 1963--1991 Geraldine W. Travis, Montana, 1967-1989 John Conyers, Jr., Michigan, 1965-- William Lacey Clay, Missouri, 1969-2001 Louis Stokes, Ohio, 1969-1999 Shirley Chisholm, New York, 1969-1983 George Collins, Illinois, 1970-1972 Ronald Dellums, California, 1971-1998 Ralph Metcalfe, Illinois, 1971-1978 Parren Mitchell, Maryland, 1971-1987 Charles B. Rangel, New York, 1971-- Yvonne Braithwaite Burke, California, 1973-1979 Cardiss Collins, Illinois, 1973-1997 Barbara Jordan, Texas, 1973-1979 Andrew Young, Georgia, 1973-1977 Harold Ford, Sr., Tennessee, 1975-1997 Julian C. Dixon, California, 1979-2000 William H. Gray, III, Pennsylvania, 1979-1991 Mickey Leland, Texas, 1979-1989 Bennett M. Stewart, Illinois, 1971-1981 George W. Crockett, Jr., Michigan, 1980-1991 Mervyn M. Dymally, California, 1981-1993 August (Gus) Savage, Illinois, 1981-1993 Harold Washington, Illinois, 1981-1983 Katie Hall, Indiana, 1982-1985 Major Robert Owens, New York, 1983-2007 Edolphus Towns, New York, 1983-- Alan Wheat, Missouri, 1983-1995 Charles Hayes, Illinois, 1983-1993 Alton R. Waldon, Jr., New York, 1986-1987 Mike Espy, Mississippi, 1987-1993 Floyd H. Flake, New York, 1987-1998 John R. Lewis, Georgia, 1987-- Kweisi Mfume, Maryland, 1987-1996 Donald M. Payne, New Jersey, 1989-2012 Craig Anthony Washington, Texas, 1989-1995 Barbara-Rose Collins, Michigan, 1991-1997 Gary Franks, Connecticut, 1991-1997 William J. Jefferson, Louisiana, 1991-2009 Maxine Waters, California, 1991-- Lucien E. Blackwell, Pennsylvania, 1991-1995 Eva M. Clayton, North Carolina, 1992-2003 Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., Georgia, 1993-- Corrine Brown, Florida, 1993-- James E. Clyburn, South Carolina, 1993-- Cleo Fields, Louisiana, 1993-1997 Alcee Hastings, Florida, 1993-- Earl Hilliard, Alabama, 1993-2003 Eddie Bernice Johnson, Texas, 1993-- Cynthia McKinney, Georgia, 1993-2003, 2005-2007 Carrie M. Meek, Florida, 1993-2003 Mel Reynolds, Illinois, 1993-1995 Bobby Rush, Illinois, 1993-- Robert C. Scott, Virginia, 1993-- Walter Tucker, California, 1993-1995 Mel Watt, North Carolina 1993-- Albert Wynn, Maryland, 1993-2008 Bennie Thompson, Mississippi, 1993-- Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania, 1995-- Shelia Jackson-Lee, Texas, 1995-- J.C. Watts, Oklahoma, 1995-2003 Jessie Jackson, Jr., Illinois, 1995-2012 Juanita Millender-McDonald, California, 1996-2007 Elijah Cummings, Maryland, 1996-- Julia Carson, Indiana, 1997-2007 Danny K. Davis, Illinois, 1997-- Harold Ford, Jr., Tennessee, 1997-2007 Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Michigan, 1997-- Gregory W. Meeks, New York, 1998-- Barbara Lee, California, 1998-- Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio, 1999-2008 William Lacy Clay, Jr., Missouri, Black History Month 2014: 101 African American Firsts - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/101-african-american-firsts#sthash.xCKYx8Ht.dpuf African American history is about much more than chronicling a series of "firsts." The time and place of a breakthrough reflects not only remarkable individual achievement but is itself an indication of the progress or lack of progress of black people in realizing the centuries-old intertwined goals of freedom, equality, and justice. Our 2014 Black History Month Observance examines the progreess toward those goals by acknowledging those who were the first in their fields of endeavor. We at BlackPast.org have assembled the following list which provides the names of the first African Americans in a variety of areas of achievement in government, law, diplomacy, the military, science and medicine, sports, literature, and other fields. Some of the names below like Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, Halle Berry, or Barack Obama will be known to most who read this list. Other names are less well known. Regardless of their fame, we applaud the efforts of all on this list as we encourage many, many others to follow in their footsteps. African-American Firsts: Government Officeholder in colonial America: Matthias de Souza, 1641 George Edwin Taylor Image Ownership: Public Domain Click here to learn more information State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836. Municipal elected official: John Mercer Langston, 1855. County sheriff: Walter Burton, 1869. State Supreme Court Justice: Jonathan Jasper Wright, 1870. City mayor: Robert Wood, 1870. U.S. Representative: Joseph Rainey,1870. U.S. Senator (appointed): Hiram Revels, 1870. Governor (appointed): P.B.S. Pinchback, 1872. Person to run for the presidency: George Edwin Taylor, 1904. Woman legislator: Crystal Bird Fauset, 1938. U.S Senator (elected) Edward Brooke, 1966. U.S. cabinet member: Robert C. Weaver, 1966. Mayor of major city: Carl Stokes, 1967. Woman U.S. Representative: Shirley Chisholm, 1969. Woman cabinet officer: Patricia Harris, 1977. Governor (elected): L. Douglas Wilder, 1989. Woman mayor of a major U.S. city: Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly, 1991. Woman U.S. Senator: Carol Mosely Braun, 1992. U.S. Secretary of State: Colin Powell, 2001. Woman Secretary of State: Condoleezza Rice, 2005. Major party nominee for President: Sen. Barack Obama, 2008. U.S. President: Barack Obama, 2009. Woman U.S. Attorney General: Loretta E. Lynch, 2015. African-American Firsts: Law Admitted to the Bar: Macon B. Allen, 1845. Woman admitted to the bar:Charlotte Ray, 1872. Elected municipal judge: Mifflin W. Gibbs, 1873 Editor, Harvard Law Review: Charles Hamilton Houston, 1919. Federal Judge: William Henry Hastie, 1946. Woman federal judge: Constance Baker Motley, 1966. Condoleeza Rice Image Ownership: Public Domain Click here to learn more information U.S. Supreme Court Justice: Thurgood Marshall, 1967. President of the American Bar Association: Dennis Archer, 2002. African-American Firsts: Diplomacy U.S. ambassador: Ebenezer D. Bassett, 1869. Nobel Peace Prize winner: Ralph J. Bunche, 1950. Woman U.S. ambassador:Patricia Harris, 1965. U.S. Representative to the UN: Andrew Young, 1977. African-American Firsts: Military U.S Army unit to have black men comprise more than half of its troops: 1st Rhode Island Regiment, 1778. Commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy: Robert Smalls, 1863. Commissioned officer above the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army: Major Martin R. Delany, 1865. West Point graduate: Henry O. Flipper, 1877. Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy: Wesley A. Brown, 1949. Congressional Medal of Honor winner: Sgt. William H. Carney, 1900. Combat pilot: Eugene Jacques Bullard, 1917. General: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., 1940. Woman general: Hazel W. Johnson, 1979. Woman to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy: Janie L. Mines, 1980. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Colin Powell, 1989–1993. Woman Rear Admiral in the United States Navy: Lillian Fishburne, 1998. African-American Firsts: Science and Medicine Patent holder: Thomas L. Jennings, 1821. Hospital dedicated to black patient care: The Georgia Infirmary, 1832. M.D. degree: James McCune Smith, 1837. M.D. degree from a U.S. Medical School: David Jones Peck, 1847. Woman to receive an M.D. degree: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, 1864. Eugene Jacques Bullard Image Ownership: Public Domain Click here to learn more information Woman patent holder: Judy Reed, 1884. Female Dental Surgeon: Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, 1890. Black-owned hospital: Provident Hospital founded by Daniel Hale Williams, 1891. Heart surgery pioneer: Daniel Hale Williams, 1893. Developer of the blood bank: Dr. Charles Drew, 1940. Member of the National Academy of Sciences: David Harold Blackwell, 1965. Astronaut: Robert H. Lawrence, Jr., 1967. Implantation of heart defibrillator: Levi Watkins, Jr., 1980. Astronaut to travel in space: Guion Bluford, 1983. Head of the National Science Foundation: Walter E. Massey, 1990. Woman astronaut: Mae Jemison, 1992. President of the American Medical Association: Lonnie Bristow, 1995 Space Shuttle Commander: Frederick D. Gregory, 1998. African-American Firsts: Scholarship College graduate (B.A.): John Chavis, 1799. Graduate of an Ivy League School: Theodore Sedgewick Wright, 1828 College professor: Charles Lewis Reason, 1849. Woman to graduate from a college, Lucy Stanton, 1850. College president: Daniel A. Payne, 1856. Non-white public high school: Paul Lawrence Dunbar High, 1870. Ph.D.: Edward A. Bouchet, 1876. . Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, George Washington Henderson, 1877. Rhodes scholar: Alain L. Locke, 1907. Women Ph.D's: Georgiana Simpson, Sadie Tanner Mossell and Eva Beatrice Dykes, 1921. Ivy League University president: Ruth Simmons, 2001. African-American Firsts: Art and Literature Poet: Lucy Terry, 1746. Published autobiography: Briton Hammon, 1760. Lucy Stanton Day Sessions Image Ownership: Public Domain Click here to learn more information Poet (published): Phillis Wheatley, 1773. Recognized artist: Joshua Johnston, 1790, portraiture. Woman's autobiography: Jarena Lee, 1831. Male Novelist: William Wells Brown, 1853. Woman novelist, Harriett Wilson, 1859. Recognized photographer: James Conway Farley, 1885 Pulitzer prize winner: Gwendolyn Brooks, 1950. Pulitzer prize winner in Drama: Charles Gordone, 1970 Poet Laureate: Robert Hayden, 1976. Nobel Prize for Literature winner: Toni Morrison, 1993. Woman Poet Laureate: Rita Dove, 1993. African-American Firsts: Newspapers and Other Print Media Newspaper: Freedom's Journal, 1827. Daily newspaper: New Orleans Tribune, 1864. Mass Circulation Magazine: Ebony, 1945 African-American Firsts: Music and Dance Published musical composition: Francis Johnson, 1817. Theatrical company: The African Company, 1821. Nationally recognized dance performer: William Henry Lane (Master Juba), 1845. Member of the New York City Opera: Todd Duncan, 1945. Member of the Metropolitan Opera Company: Marian Anderson, 1955. Male Grammy Award winner: Count Basie, 1958. Woman Grammy Award winner: Ella Fitzgerald, 1958. Principal dancer in a major dance company: Arthur Mitchell, 1959, New York City Ballet. Toni Morrison Image Courtesy of Timothy Greenfied- Sanders Click here to learn more information African-American Firsts: Film and Theater First African American film company: Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1916. Film director: Oscar Micheaux, 1919. First Oscar winner: Hattie McDaniel, 1940. First Honorary Oscar: James Baskett, 1948. Tony Award Winner: Juanita Hall, 1950. Oscar, Best Actor: Sidney Poitier 1963. Director for a major Hollywood studio: Gordon Parks, 1969. Woman director for a major Hollywood Studio: Julie Dash, 1991. Oscar, Best Actress: Halle Berry, 2001. First President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars): Cheryl Boone Isaacs, 2013. African-American Firsts: Radio and Television Radio broadcaster: Jack L. Cooper, 1925. Black-owned radio station: WERD, purchased by Jesse B. Blayton, Sr., 1949. Network television show host: Nat King Cole, 1956. Star of a network television show: Bill Cosby, 1965. Black-owned television station: WGPR-TV, 1975 First Evening New Anchor: Max Robinson, 1978. Woman television show host: Oprah Winfrey, 1986. African-American Firsts: Sports Jockey to Win Kentucky Derby: Oliver Lewis, 1875. Professional baseball player: Moses Fleetwood Walker, 1884 Professional Golfer: John Matthew Shippen, Jr., 1896. World cycling champion: Marshall W. "Major" Taylor, 1899. Olympic medalist (Summer games): George Poage, 1904. Olympic gold medalist (Summer games): John Baxter "Doc" Taylor, 1908. World Heavyweight boxing champion: Jack Johnson, 1908. Marian Anderson Image Ownership: Public Domain Click here to learn more information NFL football coach: Fritz Pollard, 1922–1937. Professional Race Car Driver, Rajo Jack De Soto, 1923 Olympic gold medalist (Summer games; individual): DeHart Hubbard, 1924. Major league baseball player in the 20th Century: Jackie Robinson, 1947. Woman gold medalist (Summer games; individual): Alice Coachman, 1948. NFL quarterback: Willie Thrower, 1953. Wimbledon tennis champion: Althea Gibson, 1957. NHL hockey player: Willie O'Ree, 1958, Boston Bruins. NASCAR stock car driver to win a major race: Wendell Oliver Scott, 1963. Male tennis champion: Arthur Ashe, 1968. Professional Bowlers Association Champion: George Branham III, 1985 Olympic medalist (Winter games): Debi Thomas, 1988. Golf champion: Tiger Woods, 1997. Chess Grandmaster: Maurice Ashley, 1999 Olympic gold medalist (Winter games): Vonetta Flowers, 2002. Olympic gold medalist (Winter games; individual): Shani Davis, 2006. African-American Firsts: Religion Baptist Church:David George and the Silver Bluff Baptist Church, 1773. African Episcopal (AME) Church: Mother Bethel AME Church, 1794. Church-Sponsored African American College: Wilberforce University, 1856. Episcopal Church Bishop: James Theodore Holly, 1879 Pentecostal Faith Revival: William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival, 1906. National Black Catholic Fraternal Order: Knights of St. Peter Claver, 1909. Woman Bishop in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church: Barbara Harris, 1989. Woman Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church: Vashti Murphy McKenzie, 2000. President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Fred Luter, Jr., 2012 African-American Firsts: Business and Labor Landowners: Anthony and Mary Johnson, 1640. Black-owned insurance company: The African Insurance Company, 1810. Black Labor Union: American League of Colored Laborers, 1850. Frederick Patterson and His Company's Auto Chasiss, 1916 Click here for more information Paste over your article text here Black-owned Bank: True Reformers Bank, 1889. Black-owned resort: Highland Beach, Maryland, 1893. Millionaire: Robert Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender in 1905. Automobile manufacturing company: C.R. Patterson & Sons, 1915. Record Company: Black Swan Records, 1921. Black-owned Youth Camp: Camp Atwater, 1921. Black-owned metropolitian newspaper: Robert Maynard and the Oakland Tribune, 1983 Billionaire: Robert Johnson, 2001, owner of Black Entertainment Television. Other African-American Firsts: Explorer, North Pole: Matthew Henson, 1909. First Secret Service Agent, Charles LeRoy Gittens, 1956. Licensed Pilot: Bessie Coleman, 1921. Explorer, South Pole: George Gibbs, 1939–1941. Captain of an American Merchant Marine ship: Hugh Mulzac, 1942. Pilot for commercial airline: Perry Young, Jr., 1957. Flight Attendant: Ruth Carol Taylor, 1958. President of Girl Scouts, USA, Gloria Dean Randall Scott, 1975 Woman commercial airline pilot: Jill Elaine Brown, 1978. Miss America: Vanessa Williams, 1984. Sail solo around the world: William Pinkney, 1990-1992 Miss USA: Carole Ann-Marie Gist, 1990. President of the National League of Women Voters, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, 1994. President of the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA): Lois Jean White, 1995 Flight around the world: Barrington Irving, 2007. Explorer, North Pole: Barbara Hillary, 2007. Sources: Jessie Carney Smith, Black Firsts: 4,000 ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events (Detroit, Visible Ink Press, 2003); Charles M. Christian, Black Saga: The African American Experience, A Chronology (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995); Factmonster.com, http://www.factmonster.com/spot/bhmfirsts.html - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/101-african-american-firsts#sthash.xCKYx8Ht.dpuf |