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Antonio Negro
The first African American stepped onto American soil as an indentured servant. -
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Top 20 Events
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Voting Rights
Voting Rights was limited to white men with land only. Blacks or white woment could not partake in any kind of voting for government officials. -
Abolishment of Slavery
Massachusetts abolishes slavery and grants African American men the right to vote. -
Imports of Slaves
The United States Government passes a law that states no one can import any new African for slaves. This did not mean the sale and practice of slavery was outlawed. -
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (1820 - 1913), born Araminta Ross escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most celebrated and effective leaders of the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman will guide hundreds of slaves to freedom before and during the war. She was never captured while rescuing slaves and as she was quoted she "never lost a passenger". -
Under Ground Railroad
The Underground Railroad is started by William Still. It is a network of secret routes, way-stations, safe havens and meeting points in which thousands of African-Americans will escape from slavery in the south. Some routes on the Underground Railroad traveled as far north as Canada and as far south as Mexico. -
Civil War
The Civil War begins when South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as their president. Later in the year Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia join them. Virginia was divided up - with the eastern portion seceding to the Confederacy and West Virginia remaining with the Union. It is the bloodiest war in American history, being fought entirely on American soil and re -
Black Soldiers
ongress allowed the enlistment of blacks in the Union Army. Some black units precede this date, but they were disbanded as unofficial. Some 186,000 blacks served; of these 38,000 died. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, a presidential order declaring the freedom of the slaves and makes the end of slavery a major goal of the Civil War. It was issued in two parts -the preliminary document on September 22, 1862 and the second on January 1st 1863. -
Civil War Ends/Lincoln Killed
In 1865 the Civil War ends andthe 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery. Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate spy, during a play at Ford's Theatre. -
Black Men Voting Rights
The 15th amendment took into place allowing all black men the right to vote but this was not even enforced like it should be by the year 1963 -
Segregation Legalized
The Supreme Court decides in the Plessy Vs. Ferguson case that "separate but equal" satisfies the 14th amendment which gives legal sanction to "Jim Crow" segregation laws. -
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, is founded by W.E.B Dubois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Henry Moscowitz , Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, and William English Walling as an interracial organization "to promote equality of rights and to eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States -
Harlem Renaissance
A period of almost fifteen years when some of the most important and prolific writers, artists and musicians such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Eugene O'Neill, to name a few, emerged in the African-American community and took up residence in New York's Harlem district. -
Brown vs Board
The Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka case in which thirteen parents in Topeka, Kansas file a class action law suit against the Board of Education results in the Supreme Court decision to outlaw segregation in public schools -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, a seamstress and NAACP secretary, refuses to give up her seat to a white patron on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She is arrested and tried sparking a much publicized and highly organized year-long boycott of the Montgomery buses. -
Emmett Till
A 14 year old boy who was murdered in Mississippi for "flirting" with a white woman in a convient store. His death was a leading event into the Civil Rights Movement. -
March on Washington
Over 200,000 people March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, convening at the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes a famous speech about racial harmony that begins with "I have a dream" -
Murders of Civil Rights Workers
Three Civil Rights workers were hung while on tour in Mississippi. One of the workers happend to be a black male and the other two were white males. Since the state would not charge them with murder the justice department charged 18 men on seperate accounts of other crimes. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X is assassinated on Feb. 21st 1965 at the Audobon ballroom in Harlem, New York.
