Important Events
| 1619 => Twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia aboard a Dutch ship. They were the first Blacks to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers in the North American British Colonies. |
| 1664 => Maryland passes the first British colonial law banning marriage between white women and black men |
| 1676 => Nathaniel Bacon leads an unsuccessful rebellion of white and black against the English colonial govenrment in Virginia. |
| 1739 => The Stono Rebellion (Cato Revolt), was the first serious disturbance among slaves. After killing more than 25 whites, most of the rebels, let by a slave named Cato, were rounded up as they tried to escape to Florida. More than 30 blacks were executed as participants. |
| 1777 => George Washington reversed previous policy that allowed the recruitment of blacks as soldiers. About 5,000 would participate on the American side before the end of the American Revolution. |
| 1793 => Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law |
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1829 => The first National Negro Convention met in Philadelphia. |
| 1857 => The Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court denied that blacks were citizens of the United States and denied the power of Congress to restrict slavery in any federal territory. |
| 1863 => January 1st, The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in the states in rebellion against the United States. |
| 1865 => 13th Amendment, abolition of slavery, was passed by Congress |
| 1868 => 14th Amendment was passed, extending liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to former slaves (made blacks citizens of the United States). |
| 1870 => 15th Amendment, which outlawed the denial of the right to vote was ratified. |
| 1896 => In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court upheld a Louisiana state law that allowed for "equal but separate accommodation for the white and colored races." |
| 1910 => The National Urban League was established |
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1918 => The first Pan-African Congress met in Paris, France under the guidance of W.E.B. Du Bois. |
| 1922-29 => Years known as the Harlem Renaissance |
| 1936 => Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. |
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1937 => Joe Louis defeated James J. Braddock to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. |
| 1944 => The United Negro College Fund was founded. |
| 1944 => Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances Wills graduated from the Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School. Commissioned as WAVES officers, they were the first female African-American U.S. Navy Officers. |
| 1947 => Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play major league baseball. |
| 1954 =>In Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court completed overturning legal school segregation at all levels. |
| 1955 => Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a Montgomery, Alabama bus. On December 5th, blacks began a boycott of the bus system which continued until just after December 13, 1956 - when the United States Supreme Court outlawed bus segregation in the city. |
| 1957=> The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed, with Martin Luther King, Jr. as president. Also this year, Congress passed the Voting Rights Bill of 1957, first major civil rights legislation in more than 75 years. |
| 1963=> The March on Washington was the largest civil rights demonstration ever. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech |
| 1964=> The Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in public spaces, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. |
| 1965 => Voting Rights Act prohibited discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. Malcolm X was assassinated in Harlem by members of the Nation of Islam. |
| 1968 => Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| 1969 => The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools had to end at once and that unitary school systems were required. |
| 1999 => Vice Admiral Michelle Howard became the first African-American woman to comman a ship in the U.S. Navy |
| 2001 => Colin Powell - first African American Secretary of State |
| 2005 => Condoleezza Rice -first African American Women Secretary of State |
| 2008 => Barack Obama (Presidential Election) was elected the 44th president of the United States and the first Black US. president. |
| 2021 => Kamala Harris was elected the vice president of the United States and the first Black and Asian American female vice president. |