008617_Timeline_poster_v3.pdf 1 2/22/17 1:12 PM

TIMELINE OF BLACK HISTORY IN THE U.S.

1804 Lemuel Haynes is the first African ROSA 2010 November 24, Democrat Kamala American to receive an honorary degree in PARKS 1983 Harris wins election as California's attorney general. In doing so, she becomes the U.S. history when Middlebury College Ella Fitzgerald and William "Count" 1959 November 2, President first woman, first African American and awards him a Master's Degree at its Basie become the first African American first Indian American in California history second commencement. performers to win Grammy awards. Ronald Reagan signs a bill to be elected state attorney general. 1815 Abolitionist Levi Coffin establishes 1960 The Civil Rights Act is signed into law establishing January 20 as the Underground Railroad in Indiana. by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on May 6. Eventually it will spread across the North a federal holiday in honor with routes originating in the South and 1961 May 4, seven blacks and four whites stretching to British Canada. leave Washington, D.C., for the Deep South of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the first Freedom Ride for the Congress 1842 Fredrick Douglas led a successful of Racial Equality (CORE). campaign against Rhode Island's proposed 2001 In January President-elect George W. Dorr Constitution which would continue the 1909 April 6, Admiral Robert E. Peary and 1963 Over 200,000 people gather in Bush nominates Colin Powell to be Secretary prohibition on black voting rights. African American Matthew Henson, accom- Washington, D.C. on August 28 as part of of State. panied by four Eskimos, become the first the March on Washington, an unprecedented 1849 Harriett Tubman emerged to rescue 2005 In January Condoleezza Rice becomes men known to have reached the North Pole. demonstration demanding civil rights and Secretary of State. She is the second woman 2010 December 8, President Obama enslaved people. equal opportunity for . November 20, Garrett T. Morgan and the first African American woman to hold signs legislation to pay black farmers 1923 Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his "I Have 1851 Sojourner Truth delivers her famous patents a caution light which improves the the post. and Indian tribes about $4.6 billion to "Aren't I a Woman" speech at the Women's a Dream" speech here. compensate for decades of discrimination traffic signal. 2008 November 4, Barack Obama of Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio on May 29. 1964 February 25, Cassius Clay (Muhammad suffered at the hands of government 1492 1941 The U.S. Army creates the Tuskegee Illinois, the only sitting African American entities like the U.S. Department of 1700 The publication of Samuel Sewall's Ali) wins the first of three world heavyweight 1862 September 22, President Abraham Air Squadron who will soon be known as U.S. Senator, is elected President of the Agriculture and the Department of , is considered the first championships in a bout with Sonny Liston First Africans come to The Selling of Joseph Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclama- the Tuskegee Airmen. United States. Obama wins the election the Interior. major condemnation of slavery in print in tion and announces that it will go into in Miami, Florida. decisively and becomes the first African America as free people Malcolm X becomes Minister of the British . effect on July 1, 1863 if the states then 1954 Malcolm X is assassinated at the American elected to this office. He is sworn Nation of Islam's Harlem Temple 7. 1965 with Christopher Columbus. in rebellion have not by that point returned Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights in as the 44th President of the United States to the Union. 1955 Rosa Park refuses to relinquish her section of Manhattan, New York on February 21. on January 20, 2009. 1739 bus seat to a white man on December 1, 1865 With the approval of the March 7, six hundred Alabama civil initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 1965 1526 Spanish colonists led by The , Legislature on December 6, the 13th rights activists stage a Selma-to-Montgomery Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon build the Amendment took effect and outlawed 1955 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is elected protest march to draw attention to the community of San Miguel de Gualdape one of the earliest slave slavery throughout the United States president of the Montgomery Improvement continued denial of black voting rights in in what is now Georgia. They bring revolts, occurs in Stono, and its possessions. Association which leads the year-long the state. The marchers are confronted by along enslaved Africans, considered to boycott against the city's racially segregated Alabama State Troopers whose attack on be the first in the present-day United 1895 Booker T. Washington delivers . his famous Atlanta Compromise address bus line. them at the Edmund Pettus Bridge is carried States. These Africans flee the colony, on national television. however, and make their homes with on September 18 at the Atlanta Cotton 1957 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, BARACK & local Indians. After Ayllon's death, States Exposition. He says the Negro the first legislation protecting black rights 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassi- MICHELLE the remaining Spaniards relocate to problem would be solved by a policy since Reconstruction. The act establishes nated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4. In OBAMA . of gradualism and accommodation. the Civil Rights section of the Justice the wake of the assassination 125 cities in 1619 The first African American indentured Department and empowers federal 29 states experience uprisings. By April 11, servants arrive in the American colonies. prosecutors to obtain court injunctions 46 people are killed and 35,000 are injured Less than a decade later, the first slaves are against interference with the right to vote. in these confrontations. brought into New Amsterdam (New York City). 1957 Dorothy Irene Height is appointed 1968 In November Shirley Chisholm of By 1690, every colony has slaves. president of the National Council of Negro New York is the first black woman elected Women. She later launches a crusade for to the U.S. Congress justice for black women and works to Michael Jackson's album, , BOOKER T. strengthen the black family. 1982 Thriller WASHINGTON becomes the best selling album in music history. 1500s 1600s 1700s 1800s 1900s 2000s