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Slaves Arrive in America
398 Years ago -
First African contracted servants arrive in American colonies -
Period: to
Slaves Arrive in America
398 Years ago -
First African contracted servants arrive in American colonies -
Every American Colony had slaves
327 years ago -
By this year, just about every colony in America had slaves brought from Africa -
Period: to
Every American Colony had slaves
327 years ago - By this year, just about every colony in America had slaves brought from Africa -
The Stono Rebellion
278 years ago -
Slave rebellion that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave uprising -
Slave importing Banned
209 years ago -
American congress bans further importation of slaves -
Liberator
186 years ago -
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
156 years ago -
Emancipation was the freeing of 3 million slaves in the rebel states of the civil war -
Separate but Equal
121 years ago -
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
108 years ago -
Establishment of political protest movement who demanded civil rights for blacks -
African Americans in WWII
76 years ago -
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 even while they lacked those freedoms at home. 3 million+ blacks registered for service during the war, with 500,000+ seeing action overseas. Enlisted blacks and whites were put into separate units. Frustrated black servicemen were forced to combat racism even as they sought to protect the U.S -
Jackie Robinson
70 years ago -
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 honourable discharge after facing a court–martial for refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus) -
Brown V. Board of Education
63 years ago -
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. -
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
62 years ago - An African-American named Rosa Parks was on a bus in Alabama when the driver told her to give up her seat to a white. She refused and was arrested for violating the city’s racial laws, which was that blacks sit in the back of public buses and give up their seats for whites if it were full. Parks, was also the secretary of Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed. -
Central High School Integrated
60 years ago -
Central High School, located in the state capital of Little Rock was integrated -
Core and Freedom Rides
56 years ago - Founded in 1942 by the civil rights leader James Farmer, the Congress of Racial Equality 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 (a precursor to the successful sit–in movement of 1960) and organised a “Journey of Reconciliation,” in which a group of blacks and whites rode together on a bus in 1947, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel. -
Birmingham Church Bombed
56 years ago
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. -
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Voting Rights Act
52 years ago -
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.