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Slaves arrive in America
First African contracted servants arrive in American colonies -
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Blues Music and History
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Every American Colony had Slaves
By this year, just about every colony in America had slaves brought from Africa -
The Stono Rebellion
Slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising -
Slave importing Banned
American Congress bans further importation of slaves -
Liberator
Anti-slavery newspaper the Liberator is published and becomes a leading voice in the Abolitionist movement (Movement that eventually saw slavery become illegal) -
Civil War and Emancipation
Emancipation was the freeing of 3 million slaves in the rebel states of the civil war -
Separate but Equal
The legislation was introduced (Laws)in the southern states which eventuated in separate schools for blacks and whites, “persons of colour” were required to be separate from whites in railroad cars, hotels, theatres, restaurants, hairdressing salons and other establishments -
NAACP Founded
Establishment of the political protest movement who demanded civil rights for blacks -
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
Bessie Smith releases the song "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out." -
African Americans in WWII
During World War II, many African Americans were ready to fight for what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the “Four Freedoms”— freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. More than 3 million blacks would register for service during the war, with some 500,000 seeing action overseas. According to War Department policy, enlisted blacks and whites were organized into separate units. -
Jackie Robinson
By 1900, the unwritten colour line barring blacks from white teams in professional baseball was strictly enforced. Jackie Robinson, a sharecropper’s son from Georgia, joined the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in 1945, after a stint in the U.S. Army (he earned an honorable discharge after facing a court–martial for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus) -
Black, Brown and White
"Black, Brown and White" is released by Big Bill Broonzy. -
Core and Freedom Rides
Founded in 1942 by the civil rights leader James Farmer, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sought to end discrimination and improve race relations through direct action. In its early years, CORE staged a sit-in at a Chicago coffee shop and organized a “Journey of Reconciliation,” in which a group of blacks and whites rode together on a bus through the upper South in 1947, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel. -
Brown V. Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment’s mandate of equal protection of the laws of the U.S. Constitution to any person within its jurisdiction. -
Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act, which Congress passed in August 1965. The Voting Rights Act sought to overcome the legal barriers that still existed at the state and local level preventing blacks from exercising the right to vote given them by the 15th Amendment. -
Mannish Boy
"Mannish Boy" by Muddy Waters is released. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
On December 1, 1955, an African–American woman named Rosa Parks was riding a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama when the driver told her to give up her seat to a white man. Parks refused and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws. As she later explained: “I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed. I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” -
Central High School Integrated
Central High School, located in the state capital of Little Rock was integrated -
Trouble so Hard
"Trouble so Hard" released by Vera Hall. -
At Last
The song by Etta James, "At last" was released. -
Birmingham Church Bombed
In mid-September, white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama during Sunday services; four young African-American girls were killed in the explosion. The church bombing was the third in 11 days after the federal government had ordered the integration of Alabama’s school system. -
I Have a Dream
The demonstrators gathered near the Lincoln Memorial, where a number of civil rights leaders addressed the crowd. The last leader to appear was the Baptist preacher Martin Luther King Jr. who spoke eloquently of the struggle facing black Americans. “I have a dream,” King intoned. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” -
9. Didn't it Rain Sister Rosetta Tharpe
"Didn't it Rain Sister" by Rosetta Tharpe is released. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Thanks to the campaign of nonviolent resistance by Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement had begun to gain serious momentum in the United States. John F. Kennedy made passage of new civil rights legislation part of his presidential campaign platform; he won more than 70% of the African-American vote. Congress was debating Kennedy’s civil rights reform bill when he was killed by an assassin’s bullet,1963. It was left to Lyndon Johnson to push the Civil Rights Act through Congress. -
Freedom Summer and the”Mississippi Burning” Murders
In the summer of 1964, civil rights organizations urged white students to travel to Mississippi, where they helped register black voters and build schools for black children. When three volunteers—Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, and James Chaney, a black Mississippian—disappeared on their way back from investigating the burning of an African–American church. Their bodies were discovered on August 4 buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia. -
Shot on James Meredith
The song "Shot on James Meredith" was released -
Hard Time Killin Floor Blues
Skip James, blues artist releases song called "Hard Time Killin Floor Blues." -
Da Thrill is Gone From Here
Chris Thomas King releases the song "Da Thrill is Gone From Here." -
Everything Gonna Be Alright Big Mama Thornton
Big Mama Thornton releases a song titled "Everything Gonna Be Alright."