1 August
- 1834 The British Empire Abolishes Slavery The Slavery Abolition Act takes effect, ending slavery across most of the British Empire and freeing hundreds of thousands in the Caribbean.
2 August
- 1924 James Baldwin Is Born Writer James Baldwin is born in Harlem, New York.
3 August
- 1936 Jesse Owens Wins Gold at the Berlin Olympics Jesse Owens wins the first of four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, undercutting Nazi propaganda of Aryan supremacy.
4 August
- 1901 Louis Armstrong Is Born Trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong is born in New Orleans.
5 August
- 1962 Nelson Mandela Is Arrested Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is captured by South African police, beginning 27 years of imprisonment.
6 August
- 1965 The Voting Rights Act Is Signed President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, banning literacy tests and authorizing federal oversight of elections in discriminating jurisdictions.
7 August
- 1904 Ralph Bunche Is Born Diplomat and scholar Ralph Bunche is born in Detroit, Michigan.
8 August
- 1863 The Eighth of August Emancipation Celebration Communities across Tennessee and beyond mark August 8 as Emancipation Day, tracing the date to 1863 when Andrew Johnson freed the people he had enslaved.
9 August
- 2014 Michael Brown Is Killed in Ferguson Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown is shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, and his body is left in the street for hours.
10 August
- 1854 James Conway Farley Is Born Photographer James Conway Farley, among the first Black Americans to win national acclaim in the field, is born.
11 August
- 1965 The Watts Uprising Begins A traffic stop in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles ignites six days of unrest leaving 34 dead and exposing deep racial and economic grievances.
12 August
- 1907 Gladys Bentley Is Born Blues singer and Harlem Renaissance performer Gladys Bentley is born in Philadelphia.
13 August
- 1955 The Rev. Lamar Smith Is Assassinated Voting-rights organizer Lamar Smith is shot dead in broad daylight on the courthouse lawn in Brookhaven, Mississippi.
14 August
- 1908 The Springfield Race Riot A white mob attacks the Black community of Springfield, Illinois, lynching residents and destroying homes and businesses in Lincoln's hometown.
15 August
- 1925 Oscar Peterson Is Born Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson is born in Montreal, Canada.
16 August
- 1843 Garnet's 'Address to the Slaves' At the National Convention of Colored Citizens in Buffalo, Henry Highland Garnet calls on the enslaved to resist and strike for their freedom.
17 August
- 1887 Marcus Garvey Is Born Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey is born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.
18 August
- 1963 James Meredith Graduates from Ole Miss James Meredith graduates from the University of Mississippi, a year after federal force secured his admission.
19 August
- 1791 Benjamin Banneker Writes to Thomas Jefferson Self-taught astronomer Benjamin Banneker sends Thomas Jefferson a letter and almanac challenging him to live up to the ideals of equality.
20 August
- 1619 The First Africans Arrive in Virginia A ship brings '20 and odd' enslaved Africans to Point Comfort in the English colony of Virginia.
21 August
- 1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion Begins Nat Turner leads the most consequential slave uprising in U.S. history in Southampton County, Virginia.
22 August
- 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer Testifies at the Democratic Convention Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party testifies before the convention's credentials committee about the violence she suffered for trying to vote.
23 August
- 1791 The Haitian Revolution Begins Enslaved Africans in the French colony of Saint-Domingue launch a mass uprising on the night of August 22-23, igniting the Haitian Revolution.
24 August
- 1987 Bayard Rustin Dies Civil rights strategist Bayard Rustin dies in New York at age 75.
25 August
- 1925 A. Philip Randolph Organizes the Pullman Porters A. Philip Randolph founds the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first major Black-led labor union.
26 August
- 1920 The 19th Amendment and the Unfinished Vote The 19th Amendment is certified, granting women the vote - though Black women across the South remained disenfranchised by Jim Crow barriers.
27 August
- 1963 W.E.B. Du Bois Dies W.E.B. Du Bois, the towering scholar and co-founder of the NAACP, dies in Accra, Ghana, the day before the March on Washington.
28 August
- 1955 Emmett Till Is Murdered Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till is abducted and lynched in Money, Mississippi, after being accused of offending a white woman.
- 1963 'I Have a Dream' Martin Luther King Jr. delivers the closing address at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to more than 250,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
29 August
- 1920 Charlie Parker Is Born Saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker is born in Kansas City, Kansas.
30 August
- 1983 Guion Bluford Becomes the First Black American in Space Guion 'Guy' Bluford launches aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, becoming the first African American to travel to space.
31 August
- 1962 Trinidad and Tobago Wins Independence Trinidad and Tobago becomes an independent nation, ending British colonial rule.