A short presentation timeline of African American history.

1. An American Journey
By: Violette L. Meier

2. “The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began
around the mid-fifteenth century when
Portuguese interests in Africa moved away
from the fabled deposits of gold to a much
more readily available commodity -- slaves.
By the seventeenth century the trade was in
full swing, reaching a peak towards the end of
the eighteenth century. It was a trade which
was especially fruitful, since every stage of
the journey could be profitable for merchants
-- the infamous triangular trade.”
http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm

4. “Expanding European empires in the New World
lacked one major resource -- a work force. In most
cases the indigenous peoples had proved unreliable
(most of them were dying from diseases brought over
from Europe), and Europeans were unsuited to the
climate and suffered under tropical diseases. Africans,
on the other hand, were excellent workers: they often
had experience of agriculture and keeping cattle, they
were used to a tropical climate, resistant to tropical
diseases, and they could be "worked very hard" on
plantations or in mines.”
http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm

6. African Americans have journeyed from
slavery to freedom. Through
emancipation, reconstruction, Jim Crow
Laws, civil rights, and affirmative action to
success, education, entertainment moguls,
and even American presidency, Black
Americans have proved resilient and
divinely favored.

8. 1619 – The first African
slaves arrive in Virginia.
1773 – Phillis Wheatley
becomes the first
published African
American.
1787- Slavery was
made illegal in the NW
territory but the US
Constitution forbad
congress to ban slavery
until 1808.

9. 1793- Eli Whitney’s cotton
gin creates more desire
for slave labor.
1800 – Gabriel Prosser
organizes a slave revolt in
Virginia. They are
eventually hanged and
slave laws tightened.
1808 – Congress bans
the importation of slaves
from Africa.
1820 – The Missouri
Compromise bans slavery
north of Missouri.

10. 1822-Demark Vasey, a free
black, planed a slave revolt
in South Carolina. He and
34 others were hanged.
1831- Nat Turner leads the
most successful slave revolt
in American history. Him and
his followers murdered 60
whites but were eventually
caught and hanged.
1846 – Frederick Douglass
starts his abolitionist
newspaper.

11. 1849 – Harriet Tubman
escapes slavery and
rescues many others using
the Underground Railroad.
1857 – the Dred Scott case
declares that slaves are not
citizens and that Congress
can’t ban slavery.
1859 – John Brown and 21
others capture the federal
arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in
an attempt to launch a slave
revolt.
1861- The Civil War begins

12. 1863 – President Lincoln issues
the Emancipation Proclamation
abolishing slavery.
1865 - Freedmen's Bureau
formed to protect the rights of
freed slaves. The Civil War ends.
Lincoln is assassinated. The Ku
Klux Klan is formed. Slavery in
the US has truly ended
when 250,000 slaves in TX
finally receive the news that the
Civil War had ended 2 months
earlier (June 19). Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution is
ratified, prohibiting slavery.

13. 1867 – 1877 Reconstruction.
1886 – The 14th Amendment
is ratified declaring former
slaves citizens.
1869 – Howard University
becomes the 1st US black law
school.
1870 - 15th Amendment is
ratified, giving blacks the right
to vote. Hiram Revels of
Mississippi is elected the
country's first black senator.
During Reconstruction, 16
blacks served in Congress
and about 600 served in
states legislatures.

14. 1881 – Spelman College,
the 1st black college for
women in the US is
formed. Booker T.
Washington forms
Tuskegee and George
Washington Carver
teaches there and reveals
his agricultural
advancements.
1896 – Plessey –v-
Ferguson declares
segregation legal. Makes
way for Jim Crow laws in
the south.

15. 1905 - W.E.B.
DuBois founds the
Niagara movement, a
forerunner to the NAACP
(1909). It is formed as a
protest to Booker T.
Washington's policy of
accommodation to whites.
1910 Madam CJ Walker
becomes the 1st black
millionaire.

16. 1914 - Marcus Garvey
forms Universal Negro
Improvement
Association to promote
black pride.
1920s-1930s – The
Harlem Renaissance.
1947 – Jackie Robinson
breaks Major League
baseball color barrier.

17. 1952 – Malcolm X becomes a
minister in the Nation of Islam.
Emmett Till, is brutally murdered
for allegedly whistling at a white
woman in MI. 2 white men are
acquitted by an all-white jury. They
later boast about committing the
murder. The public outrage helps
spur the civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her
seat at the front of a bus to a white
passenger. A successful year-long
bus boycott begins. Montgomery's
buses are desegregated in 1956.

18. 1957 – SCLC (Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference), a civil rights
organization, is formed.
1960 – SNCC (Student Non-
violent Coordinating
Committee) is formed.
1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr.
delivered the “I Have a
Dream” speech during the
March on Washington. In
1964 he gets the Nobel
Peace Prize.

19. 1965 – Malcolm X
assassinated. Congress
pass Voting Rights Act
1966 – Black Panthers
started by Huey Newton
and Bobby Seale.
1967 – Thurgood Marshall
becomes the 1st black
Supreme Court Justice.
1968 – MLK, Jr
Assassinated. Johnson
signs Civil Rights Act.

20. 1970s-1990s Drug
epidemic ravish the
black community.
1970s – present Hip-
hop permeates world
culture.
1983 – Guion Bluford
becomes the first black
man in space.
1992 – LA Riots
sparked because of
Rodney King beating.

21. 1998 – Robert Johnson
becomes the 1st black
billionaire.
2000s - present Oprah
Winfrey becomes the 1st
black woman billionaire
and the most influential
woman in the world.
2005 – Condoleezza Rice
appointed 1st black
woman Secretary of
State.
2009 – Barack Obama
becomes the 44th
president of the USA.

22. Reviewing black
history so that the
beloved community
can study the dark
past in order to move
forward into a bright
future.

23. http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/17/richest-
women-entertainment-tech-media-
cz_lg_richwomen07_0118womenstars_lan
der.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimelin
e.html#AAH-1960
http://billionairepost.blogspot.com/2007/12/
who-was-first-black-billionaire.html