1492-1967

1492 1526 1619 1645 1774 1775-1783 1776 1780 1793 1797 1798 1800 1803 1807 1811 1816 1817 1818 1820 1830 1831 1838 1845 1848 1847 1851 1852 1854 1855 1860 1861-1865 1862 1864 1865 1866 1868 1870 1875 1877 1881 1883 1891 1895 1896 1900 1902 1903 1905 1909 1914-1918 1920 1922-1933 1926 1930 1931 1935 1937 1939-1945 1940 1942 1950-1953 1954 1955 1957 1960 1961 1963 1966 1967 Pedro Alonzo Nino, considered the first of many New World explorers of African descent, sails with Christopher Columbus. First slaves brought by the Spanish from Africa to what is now the United States of America. Twenty African people brought to Jamestown, Virginia on a Dutch ship and sold as indentured servants. First American slave ships sail from Boston. African slaves brought to West Indies in exchange for sugar, tobacco, and wine, which are then sold for manufactured goods in Massachusetts to complete a triangular trade route. Continental Congress prohibits importation of slaves effective December 1, 1774. American Revolutionary War; African Americans fight in such battles as Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord. Declaration of Independence adopted without the antislavery statement proposed by Thomas Jefferson. Pennsylvania becomes the first state to allow interracial marriage. Free blacks in Massachusetts protest "taxation without representation" and petition for exemption from taxes. U.S. Congress passes first Fugitive Slave Law. The cotton gin is invented and increases the demand for slave labor in the South. Sojourner Truth born Isabella Bomefree in rural Hurley, in the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York. Georgia is the last state to abolish slave trade. U.S. citizens are prohibited from exporting slaves. Pennsylvania free blacks petition U.S. Congress to outlaw slavery. Gabriel Prosser and Jack Bowler organize 1,000 fellow slaves to seize Richmond, Va., but plan is quelled by militia and leaders are executed along with many others. Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States. United States outlaws importation of new slaves after January 1, 1808, but law is widely ignored. Britain abolishes slave trade. Slave revolt in Louisiana led by Charles Deslandres ends with over 100 slaves killed or executed by U.S. troops. American Colonization Society formed in Washington, D.C., to promote African repatriation of freed slaves to ease U.S. race problems; the society is supported by leading congressman. Over 3,000 free blacks in Philadelphia meet to oppose American Colonization Society. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (who later becomes Frederick Douglass) born in Talbot County, Maryland, to Harriet Bailey and an unknown white man. Missouri Compromise reached, allowing Maine into Union as free state, Missouri as slave state in 1821, and outlawing slavery in all new Northern Plains states. American Colonization Society send expedition to begin establishment of Liberia, a black republic in West Africa; first repatriation ship "Mayflower of Liberia" leaves from new York City with 86 blacks aboard. First National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia. Nat Turner leads slave uprising in Southampton County, Va.; at least 57 whites are killed; 3,000 soldiers and Virginia militiamen react by killing blacks indiscriminately; Turner is captured and hanged. Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery to freedom. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself published. Frederick Douglass speaks at the first Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. Liberia declares independence and becomes the first African republic. Sojourner Truth delivers "Ar'n't I a Woman?" at Women's Rights Conference in Akron, Ohio. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin published. Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise of 1820. Republican Party founded to oppose extension of slavery. Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom published. "Bleeding Kansas" fighting begins as antislavery and proslavery settlers hold separate state conventions. South Carolina is first state to secede from the Union. American Civil War. Congress bans slavery in District of Columbia and U.S. Territories. President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in rebel states. U.S. recognizes Liberia as a free nation. Ida B. Wells born in holly Springs, Mississippi. Fugitive Slave Laws repealed. Slavery outlawed by 13th Amendment. President Lincoln assassinated. Ku Klux Klan founded in Tennessee. Congress passes first Civil Rights Act declaring freed blacks U.S. citizens and nullifying black codes. Congress passes 14th Amendment, granting blacks equal citizenship and civil rights. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Congress passes 15th Amendment, guaranteeing suffrage to all male U.S. citizens. Congress passes Enforcement Acts to control Ku Klux Klan and to federally guarantee civil and political rights. Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1875, giving equal treatment in public places and access to jury duty. Federal troops withdraw from South, officially ending Reconstruction. Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Institute. 1883 Supreme Court overturns Civil Rights Act of 1875. Sojourner Truth dies in Battle Creek, Michigan at age eighty six. Zora Neale Hurston born Zora Lee Hurston in Notasulga, Alabama. Ida B. Wells-Barnett's A Red Record is published. Frederick Douglass dies. Supreme Court approves segregation with Plessy v. Ferguson. Washington's Up From Slavery published. James Langston Hughes born in Joplin, Missouri. W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk published Niagara Movement, dedicated to "aggressive action" for equal rights, is founded by Du Bois and others. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded by Du Bois. World War I. Du Bois's Darkwater published. Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues published. W.D. Fard founds Nation of Islam. Ida B. Wells-Barnett dies in Chicago. After her death, her autobiography Crusade for Justice is published by her daughter Alfreda Duster. Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men published. Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God published. World War II. Hughes's The Big Sea published. Hurston's Dust Tracks on A Road published. Korean War. Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision declares segregated schools unconstitutional, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up seat on bus to a white man, setting off bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till lynched in Mississippi. Supreme Court mandates integration of schools. Interstate Commerce Commission orders integration of buses, trains, and waiting rooms for interstate travel. Congress approves Civil Rights Act of 1957. Zora Neale Hurston dies in the Saint Lucie County Welfare Home and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Garden of Heavenly Rest, a segregated cemetery in Fort Pierce, Florida. Hughes's The Best of Simple published. W.E.B. Du Bois dies on the eve of the "March on Washington" which attracts over 200,000 demonstrators; King delivers "I Have a Dream" speech. President Kennedy assassinated. Black Panther Party founded. National Organization for Women founded. Supreme Court overturns law against interracial marriage. Langston Hughes dies in New York City.