Timeline of Black History

Before 1700

1. 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.
2. Mid-1700s Elizabeth Freeman Given, with her sister Lizzy, to Hannah and John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts.

18th century

1. 9 November 1731 Benjamin Banneker Born free in Baltimore County, Maryland.
2. c. 1735 Prince Hall Born; birthplace unknown.
3. 9 September 1739 The Stono Rebellion Enslaved Africans near the Stono River in South Carolina launch the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies, marching toward Spanish Florida.
4. c. 1744 Elizabeth Freeman Born enslaved in Claverack, New York.
5. c. 1753 Benjamin Banneker Builds a wooden striking clock that becomes a local landmark.
6. c. 1753 Phillis Wheatley Born in West Africa, probably in the Senegambia region.
7. 14 February 1760 Richard Allen Born enslaved in Philadelphia in the household of Benjamin Chew.
8. 25 December 1760 Jupiter Hammon Becomes the First Published Black Poet Jupiter Hammon, an enslaved man on Long Island, publishes 'An Evening Thought,' the first poem published by a Black author in America.
9. 11 July 1761 Phillis Wheatley Arrives in Boston aboard the slave ship Phillis; bought by John Wheatley.
10. 2 September 1766 James Forten Born free in Philadelphia.
11. 1767 Phillis Wheatley First poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” printed in the Newport Mercury.
12. Early 1770s Benjamin Banneker Befriends George Ellicott, who lends him astronomical instruments and books.
13. 5 March 1770 Crispus Attucks Killed in the Boston Massacre Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Native descent, is among the first killed when British soldiers fire on a Boston crowd.
14. 9 April 1770 Prince Hall Freed by William Hall of Boston.
15. October 1770 Phillis Wheatley Publishes her elegy on George Whitefield, which circulates throughout the colonies and in London.
16. 1773 Phillis Wheatley Sails to London with Nathaniel Wheatley.
17. Late 1773 Phillis Wheatley Freed by the Wheatley family after her return to Boston.
18. September 1773 Phillis Wheatley Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral published in London by Archibald Bell.
19. 1 September 1773 Phillis Wheatley Publishes Her Poems Phillis Wheatley's 'Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral' is published in London, the first book of poetry by an African American.
20. 1775–1776 Prince Hall Organizes African Lodge in Boston under a limited permit.
21. 6 March 1775 Prince Hall Initiated as a Freemason with fourteen other Black men by a British military lodge.
22. 14 April 1775 The First American Abolition Society Is Founded Anthony Benezet and other Quakers found the first abolition society in America in Philadelphia, later led by Benjamin Franklin.
23. 28 February 1776 Phillis Wheatley George Washington answers her poem and invites her to his Cambridge headquarters.
24. c. 1777 Richard Allen Converted by Methodist preachers in Delaware.
25. 13 January 1777 Prince Hall Signs petition asking the Massachusetts legislature to abolish slavery.
26. 1778 Phillis Wheatley Marries John Peters.
27. 1780 Elizabeth Freeman Massachusetts ratifies a constitution declaring all men born free and equal.
28. c. 1780–1783 Richard Allen Purchases his freedom from Stokeley Sturgis in installments.
29. 1781 Elizabeth Freeman Asks Theodore Sedgwick to bring suit for her freedom.
30. July 1781 James Forten Joins the privateer Royal Louis as a powder boy.
31. 22 August 1781 Elizabeth Freeman Jury in Great Barrington frees Brom and Bett in Brom and Bett v. Ashley.
32. October 1781 Elizabeth Freeman John Ashley drops his appeal and accepts the verdict.
33. October 1781 James Forten Captured by HMS Amphion; held on the prison ship Jersey.
34. 1782 James Forten Released in a prisoner exchange; returns to Philadelphia.
35. 1783 Elizabeth Freeman Quock Walker case: Chief Justice William Cushing declares slavery incompatible with the state constitution.
36. 29 September 1784 Prince Hall Grand Lodge of England warrants African Lodge No. 459.
37. 5 December 1784 Phillis Wheatley Dies in poverty in Boston.
38. 12 April 1787 Richard Allen Founds the Free African Society with Absalom Jones.
39. 17 October 1787 Prince Hall Petitions for schooling for Black children in Boston.
40. 27 February 1788 Prince Hall Leads petition against the kidnapping of free Black Bostonians.
41. 1789 Benjamin Banneker Correctly projects a solar eclipse.
42. 1791 Prince Hall Named Provincial Grand Master.
43. February 1791 Benjamin Banneker Joins Andrew Ellicott’s survey of the federal district boundary.
44. 15 April 1791 Benjamin Banneker First boundary stone set at Jones Point; Banneker soon returns home.
45. 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.
46. 19 August 1791 Benjamin Banneker Writes to Thomas Jefferson with his almanac calculations and an argument against slavery.
47. 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.
48. 30 August 1791 Benjamin Banneker Jefferson replies and forwards the almanac to Condorcet in Paris.
49. 1792 Benjamin Banneker First almanac published; annual editions follow through 1797.
50. 1793 Richard Allen Organizes Black nurses and workers during Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic.
51. July 1794 Richard Allen Bethel Church dedicated by Bishop Francis Asbury.
52. c. 1796 David Walker Born free in or near Wilmington, North Carolina.
53. c. 1797 Sojourner Truth Born Isabella Baumfree, enslaved, in Ulster County, New York.
54. 30 January 1797 The First Black Petition to Congress Four free Black men freed in North Carolina petition the U.S. Congress against laws threatening to re-enslave them; the House votes not to receive it.
55. 1798 James Forten Takes over Robert Bridges’s sail loft.
56. 1799 Richard Allen Ordained a deacon, the first Black man ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
57. 9 May 1800 John Brown Is Born Militant abolitionist John Brown is born in Torrington, Connecticut.
58. 2 October 1800 Nat Turner Born enslaved in Southampton County, Virginia.
59. 1 November 1800 The White House and Enslaved Labor The U.S. presidential mansion is first occupied; much of its construction was performed by enslaved Black laborers.

19th century

1. 24 July 1802 Alexandre Dumas Is Born Novelist Alexandre Dumas, grandson of an enslaved Haitian woman, is born in France.
2. 1 January 1804 Haiti Declares Independence Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the independence of Haiti, establishing the first Black republic and the only nation born of a successful slave revolt.
3. 9 October 1806 Benjamin Banneker Dies Self-taught astronomer, surveyor, and almanac author Benjamin Banneker dies in Maryland.
4. 9 October 1806 Benjamin Banneker Dies at his farm in Baltimore County.
5. 17 October 1806 Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haitian Independence Remembered Jean-Jacques Dessalines, leader of Haitian independence and the nation's first ruler, is assassinated.
6. 4 December 1807 Prince Hall Dies in Boston.
7. 1808 Elizabeth Freeman Buys a house in Stockbridge.
8. c. 1810 Sojourner Truth Sold to John Dumont of New Paltz, New York.
9. 8 January 1811 The German Coast Uprising Enslaved laborers led by Charles Deslondes launch the largest slave revolt in U.S. history, marching toward New Orleans along the German Coast of Louisiana.
10. 24 February 1811 Daniel Alexander Payne Born free in Charleston, South Carolina.
11. 14 June 1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe Is Born Author Harriet Beecher Stowe is born in Litchfield, Connecticut.
12. 6 May 1812 Martin R. Delany Born free in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia).
13. Fall 1813 Harriet Jacobs Born enslaved in Edenton, North Carolina.
14. 1813 James Forten Publishes Letters from a Man of Colour against a proposed registration law.
15. 21 September 1815 Andrew Jackson Commends Black Soldiers General Andrew Jackson issues a public commendation of the Black troops who fought in the defense of New Orleans.
16. January 1816 Richard Allen Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirms Bethel’s independence.
17. April 1816 Richard Allen Consecrated first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
18. January 1817 James Forten Chairs the Bethel Church meeting that rejects African colonization.
19. February 1818 Frederick Douglass Born enslaved in Talbot County, Maryland.
20. 14 February 1818 Frederick Douglass Is Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, later Frederick Douglass, is born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland; he chose February 14 as his birthday.
21. Early 1820s Nat Turner Runs away for about a month, then returns.
22. 7 October 1821 William Still Born in Burlington County, New Jersey.
23. c. March 1822 Harriet Tubman Born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland.
24. 30 May 1822 The Denmark Vesey Conspiracy Is Exposed Authorities in Charleston learn of Denmark Vesey's plan for a massive slave uprising, leading to mass arrests and executions.
25. By 1825 David Walker Settles in Boston and opens a used-clothing shop on Brattle Street.
26. 1825 Harriet Jacobs Willed to Mary Matilda Norcom; enters the household of Dr. James Norcom.
27. 24 September 1825 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Born free in Baltimore, Maryland.
28. 1826 David Walker Marries Eliza Butler; helps found the Massachusetts General Colored Association.
29. c. 1826 Frederick Douglass Sent to Baltimore; begins teaching himself to read.
30. Late 1826 Sojourner Truth Leaves Dumont with her infant daughter, Sophia.
31. 1827 – 1829 David Walker Serves as Boston agent for Freedom’s Journal.
32. 16 March 1827 Freedom's Journal, the First Black Newspaper Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm publish the first issue of Freedom's Journal, the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the United States.
33. 4 July 1827 Sojourner Truth New York’s gradual emancipation law frees enslaved adults in the state.
34. 27 September 1827 Hiram Revels Born free in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
35. 1828 Sojourner Truth Wins a lawsuit in Ulster County returning her son Peter from slavery in Alabama.
36. 12 May 1828 Nat Turner Reports a vision that the first shall be last and the last first.
37. December 1828 David Walker Addresses the General Colored Association on the need for Black unity.
38. 1829 Daniel Alexander Payne Opens a school for Black children in Charleston.
39. 28 September 1829 David Walker Dates the first edition of Walker’s Appeal in Boston.
40. December 1829 David Walker Police in Savannah, Georgia, seize sixty copies of the Appeal.
41. 14 December 1829 John Mercer Langston Is Born John Mercer Langston, future congressman and founder of Howard University's law school, is born free in Virginia.
42. 28 December 1829 Elizabeth Freeman Dies in Stockbridge; buried in the Sedgwick family plot.
43. 1830 David Walker Publishes revised second and third editions; North Carolina begins passing restrictive laws.
44. 6 August 1830 David Walker Dies in Boston; the recorded cause is consumption.
45. September 1830 Richard Allen Presides over the first national Colored Convention at Bethel.
46. 20 September 1830 The First National Negro Convention Black leaders convene the first National Negro Convention in Philadelphia to organize against slavery and for the rights of free Black Americans.
47. 1831 James Forten Helps finance William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator.
48. 1831 Martin R. Delany Walks to Pittsburgh; begins studying medicine and the classics.
49. 1831–1832 Nat Turner Virginia General Assembly debates slavery and rejects gradual emancipation.
50. 12 February 1831 Nat Turner Takes a solar eclipse as a sign to begin preparing a revolt.
51. 26 March 1831 Richard Allen Dies in Philadelphia.
52. 21 August 1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion Begins Nat Turner leads the most consequential slave uprising in U.S. history in Southampton County, Virginia.
53. 21–22 August 1831 Nat Turner Launches the revolt at the Travis farm.
54. 23 August 1831 Nat Turner Revolt is suppressed; reprisals against Black Virginians follow.
55. 30 October 1831 Nat Turner Captured by Benjamin Phipps near the Travis farm.
56. 1–3 November 1831 Nat Turner Interviewed in jail by the lawyer Thomas R. Gray.
57. 11 November 1831 Nat Turner Is Executed Nat Turner, leader of the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion, is hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia.
58. 11 November 1831 Nat Turner Hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia.
59. 24 December 1832 The Georgia Infirmary Is Chartered Georgia charters the Georgia Infirmary in Savannah, among the first hospitals established to care for Black patients.
60. 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.
61. December 1834 Daniel Alexander Payne South Carolina outlaws schools kept by free people of color; Payne closes his school in 1835.
62. 1835–1837 Daniel Alexander Payne Studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
63. Summer 1835 Harriet Jacobs Runs away and soon hides in the garret of her grandmother’s house.
64. 1838 James Forten Pennsylvania’s new constitution disfranchises Black men.
65. 3 September 1838 Frederick Douglass Escapes Slavery Disguised as a sailor, Frederick Douglass boards a train and escapes from slavery in Baltimore to freedom in the North.
66. 3 September 1838 Frederick Douglass Escapes to freedom by train and steamboat, reaching New York.
67. 5 April 1839 Robert Smalls Born enslaved in Beaufort, South Carolina.
68. 1841 Daniel Alexander Payne Joins the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
69. 9 March 1841 The Amistad Decision The Supreme Court rules that the Africans who revolted aboard the schooner La Amistad were illegally enslaved and are free.
70. August 1841 Frederick Douglass Speaks at the Nantucket anti-slavery convention; becomes a paid lecturer.
71. 1842 Harriet Jacobs Escapes by boat to the North after nearly seven years in hiding.
72. 4 March 1842 James Forten Dies in Philadelphia.
73. 1843 Martin R. Delany Founds The Mystery in Pittsburgh; marries Catherine Richards.
74. 1 June 1843 Sojourner Truth Takes the name Sojourner Truth and begins preaching.
75. 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.
76. c. 1844 Harriet Tubman Marries John Tubman, a free Black man, and takes the name Harriet.
77. 1844 William Still Moves to Philadelphia.
78. c. 1845 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Publishes her first collection, Forest Leaves.
79. 1845 Frederick Douglass Publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
80. 1845 Hiram Revels Ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore.
81. 1847 – 1849 Martin R. Delany Co-edits The North Star with Frederick Douglass.
82. 1847 William Still Hired as a clerk by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society; marries Letitia George.
83. 3 December 1847 Frederick Douglass Launches 'The North Star' Frederick Douglass publishes the first issue of his antislavery newspaper 'The North Star' in Rochester.
84. 3 December 1847 Frederick Douglass First issue of The North Star published in Rochester, New York.
85. 1848 Daniel Alexander Payne Appointed the church’s first historiographer.
86. 19 July 1848 Frederick Douglass at Seneca Falls Frederick Douglass, the only Black participant at the Seneca Falls Convention, speaks in support of women's suffrage.
87. 4 September 1848 Lewis Latimer Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to self-emancipated parents George and Rebecca Latimer.
88. 6 September 1848 Frederick Douglass Presides Over the Colored Convention Frederick Douglass is elected president of the National Colored Convention meeting in Cleveland.
89. 1849 Harriet Jacobs Works in an antislavery reading room in Rochester, New York; meets Amy Post.
90. Fall 1849 Harriet Tubman Escapes alone to Philadelphia.
91. c. 1850 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Becomes the first woman instructor at Union Seminary in Ohio.
92. 1850 – 1860 Harriet Tubman Makes about thirteen trips into Maryland, guiding roughly seventy people to freedom.
93. 1850 Sojourner Truth Narrative of Sojourner Truth, dictated to Olive Gilbert, published in Boston.
94. August 1850 William Still Recognizes his long-lost brother Peter among visitors to the society’s office.
95. 18 September 1850 The Fugitive Slave Act Is Enacted Congress passes a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act compelling citizens to assist in capturing escaped enslaved people.
96. November 1850 Martin R. Delany Admitted to Harvard Medical School; forced out weeks later after white students protest.
97. c. 1851 Robert Smalls Sent to Charleston to be hired out; becomes a sailor and harbor pilot.
98. 15 February 1851 The Rescue of Shadrach Minkins Abolitionists storm a Boston courtroom and free Shadrach Minkins, a fugitive from slavery seized under the Fugitive Slave Act.
99. May 1851 Sojourner Truth Speaks at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron.
100. 29 May 1851 Sojourner Truth Delivers 'Ain't I a Woman?' Sojourner Truth addresses the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, linking abolition and women's rights.
101. 11 September 1851 The Christiana Resistance A Black community in Christiana, Pennsylvania, defends fugitives from slavery against a Maryland slaveholder and federal marshals, killing the slaveholder.
102. 1852 Daniel Alexander Payne Elected sixth bishop of the AME Church.
103. 1852 Harriet Jacobs Cornelia Grinnell Willis purchases her freedom.
104. 1852 Martin R. Delany Publishes The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.
105. 1852 William Still Becomes chairman of the reorganized Philadelphia Vigilance Committee.
106. 20 March 1852 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' Is Published Harriet Beecher Stowe's antislavery novel appears in book form and becomes a publishing sensation.
107. 5 July 1852 Frederick Douglass: 'What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?' Frederick Douglass delivers his searing oration in Rochester, asking what the nation's independence day means to the enslaved.
108. 5 July 1852 Frederick Douglass Delivers “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
109. 1854 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Publishes Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects; begins lecturing for the Maine Anti-Slavery Society.
110. 24 May 1854 The Arrest of Anthony Burns Fugitive from slavery Anthony Burns is arrested in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act, sparking mass protest.
111. August 1854 Martin R. Delany Leads the National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
112. 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.
113. 1855 – 1857 Hiram Revels Studies at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
114. July 1855 William Still Helps Jane Johnson and her sons claim their freedom; later acquitted of riot and assault.
115. 10 September 1855 John Mercer Langston Is Elected to Office John Mercer Langston is elected township clerk in Brownhelm, Ohio, becoming one of the first Black Americans elected to public office.
116. 1856 Booker T. Washington Born enslaved near Hale’s Ford, Franklin County, Virginia.
117. 18 January 1856 Daniel Hale Williams Born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania.
118. 5 April 1856 Booker T. Washington Is Born Booker Taliaferro Washington is born into slavery in Franklin County, Virginia.
119. 23 April 1856 Granville T. Woods Is Born Inventor Granville T. Woods is born in Columbus, Ohio.
120. 1857 Harriet Jacobs Completes the manuscript of her autobiography.
121. 6 March 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford The Supreme Court rules that Black people are not citizens and that Congress cannot bar slavery from the territories.
122. 10 August 1858 Anna Julia Cooper Born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina (some sources give 1859).
123. 1859 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Publishes “The Two Offers” in the Anglo-African Magazine.
124. 1859 Harriet Tubman Buys a house and land in Auburn, New York, from William H. Seward.
125. 1859 William Still Begins campaigning against segregation on Philadelphia streetcars.
126. 16 October 1859 John Brown Raids Harpers Ferry Abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, hoping to spark a war to end slavery.
127. December 1859 Martin R. Delany Signs a settlement treaty with the Alake of Abeokuta in West Africa.
128. 2 December 1859 John Brown Is Executed Abolitionist John Brown is hanged in Charles Town, Virginia, for his raid on Harpers Ferry.
129. 22 November 1860 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Marries Fenton Harper.
130. 1861 Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl published in Boston, edited by Lydia Maria Child.
131. 1862 – 1865 Harriet Jacobs Relief work and a free school for freedpeople in Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia.
132. 1862 Harriet Tubman Arrives at Port Royal, South Carolina, to serve as nurse, scout, and spy.
133. 13 May 1862 Robert Smalls Seizes the Confederate steamer Planter and delivers sixteen people to the Union blockade.
134. 16 July 1862 Ida B. Wells Is Born Journalist and anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells is born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
135. 16 July 1862 Ida B. Wells Born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
136. 22 September 1862 Lincoln Issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Five days after Antietam, President Lincoln announces that enslaved people in rebelling states will be declared free on January 1, 1863.
137. 27 December 1862 An Independent Black Church Rises in the Occupied South Black worshippers in Union-occupied New Bern, North Carolina, organize an African Methodist Episcopal Zion congregation as freedom approaches.
138. 31 December 1862 Watch Night: Freedom's Eve Black congregations gather on New Year's Eve to await the Emancipation Proclamation taking effect at midnight on January 1, 1863.
139. 1863 Hiram Revels Founds a school for freedpeople in St. Louis; serves as chaplain to a Black regiment in Mississippi.
140. 1863 Robert Smalls Buys the McKee house in Beaufort, where he had been enslaved, at a tax sale.
141. 1 January 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation Takes Effect President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect, declaring that all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory 'shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.'
142. 10 March 1863 Daniel Alexander Payne Leads the AME purchase of Wilberforce University; becomes its president.
143. 22 May 1863 The Bureau of Colored Troops Is Established The War Department creates the Bureau of Colored Troops to organize the United States Colored Troops in the Union Army.
144. 27 May 1863 Black Troops Assault Port Hudson The Louisiana Native Guards, among the first Black units in the Union Army, lead a courageous assault at Port Hudson, Louisiana.
145. 2 June 1863 Harriet Tubman Leads the Combahee River Raid Harriet Tubman guides a Union raid up South Carolina's Combahee River that frees more than 700 enslaved people.
146. 1–2 June 1863 Harriet Tubman Guides the Combahee River Raid, freeing more than 700 enslaved people.
147. 13 July 1863 The New York City Draft Riots Mobs protesting the Civil War draft turn their violence on Black New Yorkers, lynching residents and burning the Colored Orphan Asylum.
148. 18 July 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Assaults Fort Wagner The Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry lead a courageous, costly assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina.
149. 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.
150. 10 August 1863 Frederick Douglass Meets President Lincoln at the White House about the treatment of Black soldiers.
151. 23 September 1863 Mary Church Terrell Is Born Educator and activist Mary Church Terrell is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
152. 23 September 1863 Mary Church Terrell Born in Memphis, Tennessee.
153. c. 1864 George Washington Carver Born enslaved near Diamond Grove, Missouri; exact date unknown.
154. 1864 Lewis Latimer Enlists in the Union Navy; serves aboard the USS Massasoit.
155. 1864 William Still Appointed post sutler at Camp William Penn.
156. 15 July 1864 Maggie Lena Walker Born in Richmond, Virginia.
157. 4 October 1864 The New Orleans Tribune Begins Publication The New Orleans Tribune becomes the first Black daily newspaper in the United States, published in French and English.
158. 29 October 1864 Sojourner Truth Meets President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.
159. 1865 Booker T. Washington Moves with his family to Malden, West Virginia, after emancipation.
160. 31 January 1865 House Passes the 13th Amendment The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, sending it to the states for ratification.
161. February 1865 Martin R. Delany Commissioned a major, the first Black field officer in the U.S. Army.
162. 3 March 1865 The Freedmen's Bureau Is Established Congress creates the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands to aid formerly enslaved people with food, schools, labor contracts, and land.
163. 14 April 1865 Robert Smalls Pilots the Planter to the flag-raising ceremony at Fort Sumter.
164. May 1865 Daniel Alexander Payne Organizes the AME Church’s South Carolina Conference in Charleston.
165. 19 June 1865 Juneteenth Union Major General Gordon Granger issues General Order No. 3 in Galveston, Texas, announcing that 'all slaves are free,' two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
166. 21 November 1865 Shaw University Is Founded Shaw University is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, becoming one of the first historically Black universities in the South.
167. 6 December 1865 The 13th Amendment Is Ratified The 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime throughout the United States.
168. 18 December 1865 Slavery Is Officially Declared Abolished Secretary of State William Seward certifies the ratification of the 13th Amendment, formally ending slavery in the United States.
169. 1866 Hiram Revels Settles in Natchez, Mississippi.
170. May 1866 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Delivers “We Are All Bound Up Together” at the National Woman’s Rights Convention in New York.
171. 30 July 1866 The New Orleans Massacre of 1866 White mobs and police attack a Black-and-Republican convention in New Orleans, killing dozens of Black delegates and supporters.
172. 8 August 1866 Matthew Henson Born near Nanjemoy, Charles County, Maryland.
173. 23 December 1867 Madam C.J. Walker Is Born Sarah Breedlove, later Madam C.J. Walker, is born to formerly enslaved parents on a Louisiana plantation.
174. 23 December 1867 Madam C. J. Walker Born Sarah Breedlove near Delta, Louisiana.
175. 1868 Anna Julia Cooper Enters Saint Augustine’s Normal School and Collegiate Institute.
176. 1868 Robert Smalls Delegate to the South Carolina constitutional convention; elected to the state house.
177. 23 February 1868 W.E.B. Du Bois Is Born Sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois is born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
178. 23 February 1868 W. E. B. Du Bois Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
179. 9 July 1868 The 14th Amendment Is Ratified The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to all persons born in the United States and guaranteeing equal protection of the laws.
180. 24 November 1868 Scott Joplin Is Born Composer Scott Joplin, the 'King of Ragtime,' is born around this time in northeast Texas.
181. 1869 Harriet Tubman Marries Nelson Davis; Sarah Bradford publishes Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman.
182. 27 February 1869 John Willis Menard Addresses Congress John Willis Menard becomes the first Black man to speak on the floor of the U.S. House, arguing for a contested seat he was ultimately denied.
183. 20 January 1870 Hiram Revels Elected to the U.S. Senate by the Mississippi legislature.
184. 3 February 1870 15th Amendment Is Ratified The 15th Amendment is ratified, prohibiting the denial of the vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
185. 25 February 1870 Hiram Revels Becomes the First Black U.S. Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi takes the oath of office, becoming the first African American seated in the United States Senate.
186. 25 February 1870 Hiram Revels Seated by a Senate vote of 48 to 8; becomes the first African American member of Congress.
187. 16 March 1870 Hiram Revels Delivers his first Senate speech, on the expulsion of Black legislators in Georgia.
188. 30 March 1870 The 15th Amendment Is Proclaimed in Effect The Secretary of State certifies the 15th Amendment as adopted, formally guaranteeing that the right to vote cannot be denied on account of race.
189. 31 March 1870 Thomas Mundy Peterson Casts the First Vote Under the 15th Amendment Thomas Mundy Peterson of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, becomes the first Black American to vote under the newly ratified 15th Amendment.
190. 1871 Hiram Revels Becomes the first president of Alcorn University.
191. 1872–1875 Booker T. Washington Studies at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.
192. 1872 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Publishes Sketches of Southern Life.
193. 1872 William Still Publishes The Underground Rail Road.
194. 27 June 1872 Paul Laurence Dunbar Is Born Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar is born in Dayton, Ohio, to formerly enslaved parents.
195. 5 October 1872 Booker T. Washington Enters Hampton Booker T. Washington arrives at Hampton Institute, working his way through the school that shaped his philosophy of education.
196. 9 December 1872 P.B.S. Pinchback Becomes Governor of Louisiana P.B.S. Pinchback becomes acting governor of Louisiana, the first Black person to serve as a U.S. state governor.
197. 1873 Lewis Latimer Marries Mary Wilson in Fall River, Massachusetts.
198. 13 April 1873 The Colfax Massacre A white militia attacks Black freedmen and state militia defending the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, killing as many as 150 in the deadliest single act of Reconstruction violence.
199. 16 November 1873 W.C. Handy Is Born Composer W.C. Handy, the 'Father of the Blues,' is born in Florence, Alabama.
200. 24 January 1874 Arturo Schomburg Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
201. 31 July 1874 Patrick Healy Leads Georgetown Patrick Francis Healy is inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, the first person of acknowledged African descent to head a major predominantly white university.
202. 1 March 1875 The Civil Rights Act of 1875 Is Signed President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Civil Rights Act of 1875, guaranteeing equal access to public accommodations regardless of race.
203. 4 March 1875 Robert Smalls Begins the first of five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
204. 10 July 1875 Mary McLeod Bethune Born near Mayesville, South Carolina.
205. 19 December 1875 Carter G. Woodson Is Born Historian Carter G. Woodson, the 'Father of Black History,' is born in New Canton, Virginia, to formerly enslaved parents.
206. 19 December 1875 Carter G. Woodson Born in New Canton, Buckingham County, Virginia.
207. 1876 Lewis Latimer Prepares drawings for Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent at Crosby & Gould.
208. 8 July 1876 The Hamburg Massacre White paramilitary 'Red Shirts' attack Black militiamen and residents of Hamburg, South Carolina, killing several in a campaign of political terror.
209. 4 March 1877 The End of Reconstruction With the disputed 1876 election resolved by the Compromise of 1877, a new administration takes office and federal troops are soon withdrawn from the South.
210. 24 April 1877 Federal Troops Withdraw from Louisiana The last federal troops are withdrawn from the South, leaving New Orleans and completing the collapse of Reconstruction.
211. 1878 Daniel Hale Williams Graduates from the Janesville Classical Academy; apprentices with Dr. Henry Palmer.
212. 1878 Ida B. Wells Loses both parents to yellow fever; begins teaching to support her siblings.
213. c. 1879 Matthew Henson Goes to sea as a cabin boy on the Katie Hines.
214. 1880 Lewis Latimer Joins Hiram Maxim’s United States Electric Lighting Company.
215. 4 July 1881 Tuskegee Institute Opens Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Normal School in Alabama with 30 students in a one-room church.
216. 4 July 1881 Booker T. Washington Tuskegee Normal School opens with Washington as principal.
217. 17 January 1882 Lewis Latimer Granted U.S. Patent No. 252,386 for a process of manufacturing carbon filaments.
218. 1883 Maggie Lena Walker Graduates from Richmond’s Colored Normal School after a protest over segregated commencement.
219. 7 February 1883 Eubie Blake Is Born Composer and pianist Eubie Blake is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
220. March 1883 Daniel Hale Williams Receives his M.D. from the Chicago Medical College.
221. 26 November 1883 Sojourner Truth Dies Abolitionist and women's-rights champion Sojourner Truth dies in Battle Creek, Michigan.
222. 26 November 1883 Sojourner Truth Dies at her home in Battle Creek, Michigan.
223. 15 December 1883 William A. Hinton Is Born Physician William A. Hinton, developer of a widely used test for syphilis, is born in Chicago.
224. 1884 Anna Julia Cooper Earns a B.A. from Oberlin College; M.A. follows in 1887.
225. c. 1884 Lewis Latimer Joins the Edison Electric Light Company in New York.
226. 1884 Mary Church Terrell Earns a B.A. from Oberlin College; M.A. follows in 1888.
227. May 1884 Ida B. Wells Forcibly removed from a first-class railroad car; sues the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad.
228. 15 November 1884 The Berlin Conference Partitions Africa European powers convene the Berlin Conference to divide the African continent among themselves with no African representation.
229. 1885 Madam C. J. Walker Daughter Lelia (later A’Lelia Walker) is born.
230. 24 January 1885 Martin R. Delany Dies in Ohio.
231. 14 July 1885 Sarah E. Goode Receives a Patent Inventor Sarah E. Goode is granted a U.S. patent for a folding cabinet bed, among the first patents awarded to a Black woman.
232. 1886 Maggie Lena Walker Marries Armstead Walker Jr. and leaves teaching.
233. 26 April 1886 Ma Rainey Is Born Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, the 'Mother of the Blues,' is born in Columbus, Georgia.
234. 13 September 1886 Alain Locke Is Born Philosopher Alain Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar, is born in Philadelphia.
235. 1887 Anna Julia Cooper Begins teaching at the Washington Colored High School (M Street).
236. 1887 Mary Church Terrell Joins the faculty of the M Street Colored High School in Washington, D.C.
237. 17 August 1887 Marcus Garvey Is Born Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey is born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.
238. 17 August 1887 Marcus Garvey Born in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.
239. 11 October 1887 Granville T. Woods Patents a Telegraph System Inventor Granville T. Woods patents an induction telegraph allowing communication with moving trains, improving railway safety.
240. November 1887 Matthew Henson Meets Robert E. Peary in Washington and joins his Nicaragua survey.
241. 1888 Daniel Alexander Payne Publishes Recollections of Seventy Years.
242. c. 1888 Madam C. J. Walker Moves to St. Louis and works as a laundress.
243. 1889 Frederick Douglass Appointed Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti.
244. 1889 Ida B. Wells Becomes part owner and editor of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight.
245. 1889 Robert Smalls Appointed collector of customs for the port of Beaufort.
246. 15 April 1889 A. Philip Randolph Born in Crescent City, Florida.
247. 1890 Lewis Latimer Publishes Incandescent Electric Lighting; moves to Edison’s legal department.
248. 1891 Arturo Schomburg Arrives in New York City.
249. 1891 George Washington Carver Transfers to Iowa State Agricultural College as its first Black student.
250. 1891 Mary Church Terrell Marries Robert Heberton Terrell.
251. 1891 Matthew Henson Sails on his first Arctic expedition with Peary, to northern Greenland.
252. 7 January 1891 Zora Neale Hurston Is Born Writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston is born; she was raised in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first incorporated Black towns.
253. 7 January 1891 Zora Neale Hurston Born in Notasulga, Alabama; the family soon moves to Eatonville, Florida.
254. 4 May 1891 Daniel Hale Williams Provident Hospital and Training School opens in Chicago.
255. 1892 Anna Julia Cooper Publishes A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South.
256. 1892 Arturo Schomburg Helps found Las Dos Antillas, a club for Cuban and Puerto Rican independence.
257. 1892 Carter G. Woodson Working as a coal miner in Fayette County, West Virginia.
258. 1892 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Publishes Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted.
259. 1892 Ida B. Wells Publishes Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.
260. 1892 Mary Church Terrell Lynching of her friend Thomas Moss in Memphis turns her toward activism.
261. 26 January 1892 Bessie Coleman Born in Atlanta, Texas; raised in Waxahachie.
262. 29 February 1892 Augusta Savage Born Augusta Christine Fells in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
263. 9 March 1892 Ida B. Wells Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell, and Will Stewart lynched in Memphis.
264. May 1892 Ida B. Wells Mob destroys the Free Speech office; Wells is exiled from Memphis.
265. 10 July 1893 Daniel Hale Williams Performs Pioneering Heart Surgery Surgeon Daniel Hale Williams performs one of the first successful operations on the human pericardium at Provident Hospital, which he founded.
266. 10 July 1893 Daniel Hale Williams Sutures the pericardium of stab victim James Cornish, who recovers.
267. November 1893 Daniel Alexander Payne Dies at Wilberforce, Ohio.
268. 1894 Daniel Hale Williams Appointed surgeon-in-chief of Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, D.C.
269. 1894 George Washington Carver Earns a B.S. from Iowa State; M.S. follows in 1896.
270. 1895 Daniel Hale Williams Helps found the National Medical Association.
271. 1895 Ida B. Wells Publishes A Red Record; marries Ferdinand L. Barnett in Chicago.
272. 1895 Robert Smalls Opposes Black disfranchisement at the South Carolina constitutional convention.
273. 1895 W. E. B. Du Bois Becomes the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard.
274. 20 February 1895 Frederick Douglass Dies Frederick Douglass dies in Washington, D.C., hours after attending a meeting of the National Council of Women.
275. 20 February 1895 Frederick Douglass Dies at Cedar Hill, Washington, D.C.
276. 29 July 1895 The First National Conference of Colored Women Black women leaders gather in Boston for the first national conference of Black women's clubs.
277. 18 September 1895 Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Address Booker T. Washington delivers his 'Atlanta Compromise' speech at the Cotton States Exposition, urging Black economic self-help and accommodation.
278. 18 September 1895 Booker T. Washington Delivers the Atlanta Exposition address.
279. 28 September 1895 The National Baptist Convention Is Organized Black Baptist organizations merge to form the National Baptist Convention, which becomes the largest Black religious body in the United States.
280. 1896 George Washington Carver Joins Tuskegee Institute at Booker T. Washington’s invitation.
281. 1896 Mary Church Terrell Becomes first president of the National Association of Colored Women.
282. 18 May 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Upholds Segregation The Supreme Court upholds 'separate but equal,' giving constitutional cover to racial segregation.
283. 21 July 1896 The National Association of Colored Women Is Founded Black women's clubs unite in Washington to form the National Association of Colored Women, electing Mary Church Terrell president.
284. 31 October 1896 Ethel Waters Is Born Singer and actress Ethel Waters is born in Chester, Pennsylvania.
285. 27 February 1897 Marian Anderson Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
286. 7 March 1897 Harriet Jacobs Dies in Washington, D.C.
287. 23 November 1897 Andrew Beard Patents the 'Jenny Coupler' Inventor Andrew Jackson Beard, born into slavery, patents an automatic railroad car coupler that spares workers from losing hands and lives.
288. 1898 Mary McLeod Bethune Marries Albertus Bethune; son Albert born the following year.
289. 9 April 1898 Paul Robeson Is Born Singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson is born in Princeton, New Jersey.
290. 9 April 1898 Paul Robeson Born in Princeton, New Jersey.
291. 3 May 1898 Septima Clark Born Septima Poinsette in Charleston, South Carolina.
292. 20 October 1898 North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Is Founded Black entrepreneurs in Durham found North Carolina Mutual Life, which becomes the largest Black-owned business in America.
293. 10 November 1898 The Wilmington Massacre and Coup White supremacists overthrow the elected biracial government of Wilmington, North Carolina, killing scores of Black residents and destroying Black businesses.
294. 1899 Maggie Lena Walker Elected Right Worthy Grand Secretary of the Independent Order of St. Luke.
295. 1899 W. E. B. Du Bois Publishes The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study.
296. 11 April 1899 Percy Julian Born in Montgomery, Alabama.
297. 29 April 1899 Duke Ellington Is Born Composer and bandleader Edward 'Duke' Ellington is born in Washington, D.C.
298. 29 April 1899 Duke Ellington Born in Washington, D.C.
299. 1 July 1899 Thomas A. Dorsey Is Born Composer Thomas A. Dorsey, the 'Father of Gospel Music,' is born in Villa Rica, Georgia.
300. 12 December 1899 George Grant Patents the Golf Tee Dentist and inventor George Franklin Grant patents an improved wooden golf tee.
301. 1900 Anna Julia Cooper Attends the first Pan-African Conference in London.
302. 1900 Booker T. Washington Founds the National Negro Business League.
303. 23 July 1900 The First Pan-African Conference Opens in London Trinidadian barrister Henry Sylvester Williams convenes the first Pan-African Conference in London.

20th century

1. 1901 Booker T. Washington Publishes Up from Slavery; dines at the White House with Theodore Roosevelt.
2. 16 January 1901 Hiram Revels Dies in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
3. 1 February 1901 Langston Hughes Born in Joplin, Missouri.
4. 4 August 1901 Louis Armstrong Is Born Trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong is born in New Orleans.
5. 4 August 1901 Louis Armstrong Born in New Orleans (date per baptismal record; he gave 4 July 1900).
6. 6 November 1901 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' Is Composed James Weldon Johnson and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson set to music the poem that becomes 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.'
7. 1902–1906 Anna Julia Cooper Serves as principal of M Street High School.
8. 1902 Maggie Lena Walker Founds the St. Luke Herald.
9. 1 February 1902 Langston Hughes Is Born Poet Langston Hughes is born in Joplin, Missouri.
10. 14 July 1902 William Still Dies in Philadelphia.
11. 13 October 1902 Arna Bontemps Is Born Writer Arna Bontemps, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, is born in Alexandria, Louisiana.
12. 1903 Carter G. Woodson Earns bachelor’s degree from Berea College; begins teaching in the Philippines.
13. c. 1903 Marian Anderson Begins singing in the junior choir of Union Baptist Church.
14. 1903 W. E. B. Du Bois Publishes The Souls of Black Folk.
15. November 1903 Maggie Lena Walker Opens the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank as its president.
16. 13 December 1903 Ella Baker Is Born Organizer Ella Baker is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
17. 13 December 1903 Ella Baker Born in Norfolk, Virginia.
18. 1904 Maggie Lena Walker Supports a Black boycott of Richmond’s segregated streetcars.
19. 1904 Mary Church Terrell Addresses the International Council of Women in Berlin in German.
20. 21 May 1904 Fats Waller Is Born Pianist and composer Thomas 'Fats' Waller is born in New York City.
21. 3 June 1904 Charles Drew Is Born Physician Charles Richard Drew is born in Washington, D.C.
22. 3 June 1904 Charles R. Drew Born in Washington, D.C.
23. 7 August 1904 Ralph Bunche Is Born Diplomat and scholar Ralph Bunche is born in Detroit, Michigan.
24. October 1904 Mary McLeod Bethune Opens a school for Black girls in Daytona, Florida.
25. 1905 Madam C. J. Walker Moves to Denver and develops her own scalp treatment.
26. 1905 Maggie Lena Walker Opens the St. Luke Emporium department store.
27. 1905 W. E. B. Du Bois Organizes the Niagara Movement.
28. 5 May 1905 The Chicago Defender Is Founded Robert S. Abbott founds the Chicago Defender, which becomes the most influential Black newspaper in America.
29. 11 July 1905 The Niagara Movement Is Founded W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter convene Black leaders near Niagara Falls to demand full civil and political rights.
30. 28 December 1905 Earl 'Fatha' Hines Is Born Jazz pianist Earl 'Fatha' Hines is born in Duquesne, Pennsylvania.
31. 1906 Arturo Schomburg Joins the Bankers Trust Company, where he works until 1929.
32. 1906 George Washington Carver Designs the Jesup Agricultural Wagon, a mobile farm school.
33. January 1906 Madam C. J. Walker Marries Charles Joseph Walker; launches Madam C. J. Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.
34. 21 January 1906 Willa Brown Is Born Aviator Willa Brown is born in Glasgow, Kentucky.
35. 7 July 1906 Satchel Paige Is Born Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige is born in Mobile, Alabama.
36. 4 December 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Founded Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate historically Black fraternity, is founded at Cornell University.
37. 12 August 1907 Gladys Bentley Is Born Blues singer and Harlem Renaissance performer Gladys Bentley is born in Philadelphia.
38. 8 September 1907 Buck Leonard Is Born Negro Leagues great Buck Leonard is born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
39. 1908 Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged formally opens in Auburn.
40. 1908 Madam C. J. Walker Opens Lelia College in Pittsburgh to train hair culturists.
41. 15 January 1908 Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Founded Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first historically Black sorority, is founded at Howard University.
42. 2 July 1908 Thurgood Marshall Is Born Thurgood Marshall is born in Baltimore, Maryland.
43. 2 July 1908 Thurgood Marshall Born in Baltimore, Maryland.
44. 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.
45. 29 November 1908 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Is Born Future congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. is born in New Haven, Connecticut.
46. 1909 Mary Church Terrell Charter member of the NAACP.
47. 1909–1910 W. E. B. Du Bois Co-founds the NAACP and launches The Crisis.
48. 12 February 1909 The NAACP Is Founded A coalition of Black and white reformers issues a call that founds the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, timed to the centennial of Lincoln's birth.
49. 6 April 1909 Matthew Henson Reaches the North Pole Explorer Matthew Henson, with Robert Peary's expedition, is among the first to reach the North Pole - and likely the first to stand at it.
50. 6 April 1909 Matthew Henson Member of the six-man party that Peary said reached the North Pole.
51. 1910 Madam C. J. Walker Moves the company’s headquarters and factory to Indianapolis.
52. 20 November 1910 Pauli Murray Born Anna Pauline Murray in Baltimore, Maryland.
53. 1911 A. Philip Randolph Moves to New York and settles in Harlem.
54. 1911 Arturo Schomburg Co-founds the Negro Society for Historical Research with John Edward Bruce.
55. 5 January 1911 Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Founded Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically Black intercollegiate fraternity, is founded at Indiana University in Bloomington.
56. 22 February 1911 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Dies in Philadelphia.
57. 8 May 1911 Robert Johnson Is Born Blues musician Robert Johnson is born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi.
58. 26 October 1911 Mahalia Jackson Is Born Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is born in New Orleans.
59. 17 November 1911 Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Founded Omega Psi Phi, the first historically Black fraternity founded at a historically Black university, is established at Howard University.
60. 21 December 1911 Josh Gibson Is Born Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson, often called the greatest power hitter in baseball history, is born in Georgia.
61. 1912 Booker T. Washington Begins collaboration with Julius Rosenwald on rural schools for Black children.
62. 1912 Carter G. Woodson Receives a Harvard PhD in history, the second African American to do so.
63. 1912 Madam C. J. Walker Addresses the National Negro Business League convention in Chicago.
64. 1912 Matthew Henson Publishes A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.
65. 17 March 1912 Bayard Rustin Is Born Strategist Bayard Rustin is born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
66. 17 March 1912 Bayard Rustin Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
67. 24 March 1912 Dorothy Height Born in Richmond, Virginia.
68. 27 September 1912 W.C. Handy Publishes 'Memphis Blues' W.C. Handy publishes 'Memphis Blues,' among the first blues compositions to appear in print.
69. 1913 Daniel Hale Williams Becomes the first African American member of the American College of Surgeons.
70. January 1913 Louis Armstrong Committed to the Colored Waif’s Home, where he learns the cornet.
71. 13 January 1913 Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Founded Twenty-two collegiate women found Delta Sigma Theta at Howard University; weeks later its members march in the 1913 woman suffrage parade.
72. 30 January 1913 Ida B. Wells Founds the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago.
73. 4 February 1913 Rosa Parks Is Born Rosa Louise McCauley Parks is born in Tuskegee, Alabama.
74. 4 February 1913 Rosa Parks Born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama.
75. 10 March 1913 Harriet Tubman Dies Harriet Tubman dies in Auburn, New York, decades after guiding scores of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
76. 10 March 1913 Harriet Tubman Dies of pneumonia in Auburn, New York.
77. 12 September 1913 Jesse Owens Born in Oakville, Lawrence County, Alabama.
78. c. 1914 Daisy Bates Born Daisy Lee Gatson in Huttig, Arkansas.
79. 9 January 1914 Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Founded Phi Beta Sigma is founded at Howard University on the principles of brotherhood, scholarship, and service.
80. 20 July 1914 Marcus Garvey Founds the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Kingston with Amy Ashwood.
81. c. 1915 Bessie Coleman Moves to Chicago and works as a manicurist.
82. 23 February 1915 Robert Smalls Dies at his home in Beaufort.
83. 7 April 1915 Billie Holiday Is Born Singer Billie Holiday is born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia.
84. 7 April 1915 Billie Holiday Born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia.
85. 9 September 1915 Carter G. Woodson Co-founds the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in Chicago.
86. 14 November 1915 Booker T. Washington Dies at Tuskegee, Alabama.
87. 1916 George Washington Carver Publishes How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing It for Human Consumption.
88. 1916 Septima Clark Graduates from Avery Normal Institute; begins teaching on Johns Island.
89. January 1916 Carter G. Woodson First issue of The Journal of Negro History published.
90. 24 March 1916 Marcus Garvey Arrives in New York.
91. 1917 A. Philip Randolph Co-founds The Messenger with Chandler Owen.
92. 7 June 1917 Gwendolyn Brooks Born in Topeka, Kansas; the family soon moves to Chicago.
93. 30 June 1917 Lena Horne Is Born Singer and actress Lena Horne is born in Brooklyn, New York.
94. 28 July 1917 The Silent Parade Roughly 10,000 Black New Yorkers march down Fifth Avenue in silence to protest lynchings and the East St. Louis massacre.
95. 6 October 1917 Fannie Lou Hamer Is Born Voting-rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer is born the youngest of 20 children in the Mississippi Delta.
96. 6 October 1917 Fannie Lou Hamer Born Fannie Lou Townsend in Montgomery County, Mississippi.
97. 10 October 1917 Thelonious Monk Is Born Pianist and composer Thelonious Monk is born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
98. 21 October 1917 Dizzy Gillespie Is Born Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina.
99. 1918 Lewis Latimer Becomes a charter member of the Edison Pioneers.
100. 29 March 1918 Pearl Bailey Is Born Singer and actress Pearl Bailey is born in Newport News, Virginia.
101. June 1918 Zora Neale Hurston Completes high school at Morgan Academy in Baltimore.
102. 17 August 1918 Marcus Garvey Publishes the first issue of the Negro World.
103. 26 August 1918 Katherine Johnson Born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
104. 1919 Augusta Savage Wins a prize for sculpture at a county fair in West Palm Beach.
105. 1919 Madam C. J. Walker Pledges $5,000 to the NAACP’s anti-lynching fund.
106. 1919 Marcus Garvey Launches the Black Star Line; the Yarmouth sails in November.
107. 1919 Paul Robeson Graduates from Rutgers as valedictorian after two All-American football seasons.
108. 1919 Septima Clark Gathers signatures on the NAACP petition to allow Black teachers in Charleston’s public schools.
109. 1919 W. E. B. Du Bois Organizes the Pan-African Congress in Paris.
110. 31 January 1919 Jackie Robinson Is Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson is born in Cairo, Georgia.
111. 31 January 1919 Jackie Robinson Born in Cairo, Georgia.
112. 19 February 1919 The First Pan-African Congress Opens in Paris W.E.B. Du Bois convenes the Pan-African Congress in Paris alongside the post-war peace conference.
113. 25 May 1919 Madam C. J. Walker Dies at Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York.
114. 27 July 1919 The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 The drowning of a Black teenager who drifted into a 'white' area of a Chicago beach ignites days of violence that leave 38 dead.
115. 1920 Arturo Schomburg Becomes president of the American Negro Academy.
116. 1920 Percy Julian Graduates from DePauw University as valedictorian and Phi Beta Kappa.
117. 11 January 1920 James Farmer Is Born Civil rights leader James Farmer is born in Marshall, Texas.
118. 16 January 1920 Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Founded Zeta Phi Beta is founded at Howard University as a constitutionally bound sister organization to Phi Beta Sigma.
119. 13 February 1920 The Negro National League Is Founded Andrew 'Rube' Foster organizes the Negro National League in Kansas City, the first enduring Black professional baseball league.
120. August 1920 Marcus Garvey First International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World adopts the Declaration of Rights.
121. 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.
122. 29 August 1920 Charlie Parker Is Born Saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker is born in Kansas City, Kansas.
123. November 1920 Bessie Coleman Sails for France to attend flight school.
124. 1921 Augusta Savage Studying at Cooper Union in New York.
125. 1921 Carter G. Woodson Founds Associated Publishers.
126. 1921 Maggie Lena Walker Runs for Virginia superintendent of public instruction on the Lily Black Republican ticket.
127. January 1921 George Washington Carver Testifies on the peanut before the House Ways and Means Committee.
128. 23 May 1921 'Shuffle Along' Opens on Broadway The musical 'Shuffle Along,' by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, opens and becomes a smash hit written, produced, and performed by Black artists.
129. 31 May 1921 The Tulsa Race Massacre Begins A white mob attacks the prosperous Black Greenwood district of Tulsa, killing as many as 300 people and burning 'Black Wall Street' to the ground over two days.
130. June 1921 Langston Hughes “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is published in The Crisis.
131. 1 June 1921 Black Wall Street Burns The second day of the Tulsa Race Massacre sees Greenwood's businesses, homes, churches, and hospital destroyed by mob and aerial firebombing.
132. 15 June 1921 Bessie Coleman Earns Her Pilot's License Denied training in the United States, Bessie Coleman earns an international pilot's license in France, becoming the first Black woman to do so.
133. 15 June 1921 Bessie Coleman Receives her pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
134. 14 September 1921 Constance Baker Motley Is Born Civil rights lawyer Constance Baker Motley is born in New Haven, Connecticut.
135. 14 September 1921 Constance Baker Motley Born in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents from Nevis.
136. 1922 Jesse Owens Family moves to Cleveland, Ohio.
137. Summer 1922 Louis Armstrong Joins King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago.
138. 22 April 1922 Charles Mingus Is Born Jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus is born in Nogales, Arizona.
139. 3 September 1922 Bessie Coleman First American air show at Curtiss Field, Long Island.
140. 9 November 1922 Dorothy Dandridge Is Born Actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge is born in Cleveland, Ohio.
141. 12 November 1922 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Founded Sigma Gamma Rho is founded by seven Black educators in Indianapolis, Indiana.
142. 1923 Augusta Savage Rejected from a Fontainebleau summer program because she is Black; protests publicly.
143. 1923 Bessie Coleman Seriously injured in a crash during an exhibition in California.
144. 1923 Duke Ellington Moves to New York with the musicians who become the Washingtonians.
145. 1923 George Washington Carver Receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
146. 1923 Mary McLeod Bethune School merges with Cookman Institute; renamed Bethune-Cookman College in 1929.
147. 1923 Paul Robeson Earns his law degree from Columbia Law School.
148. 1923 Percy Julian Earns a master’s degree at Harvard University.
149. 16 February 1923 Bessie Smith Makes Her First Recording Blues singer Bessie Smith records 'Down Hearted Blues,' which becomes a runaway hit for Columbia Records.
150. 21 June 1923 Marcus Garvey Sentenced to five years in prison after a mail-fraud conviction.
151. 20 November 1923 Garrett Morgan Patents the Traffic Signal Inventor Garrett Morgan receives a U.S. patent for a three-position traffic signal, having also invented an early gas mask.
152. 29 December 1923 Cheikh Anta Diop Is Born Historian and physicist Cheikh Anta Diop is born in Senegal.
153. 1924–1928 Mary McLeod Bethune Serves as president of the National Association of Colored Women.
154. 27 March 1924 Sarah Vaughan Is Born Jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan is born in Newark, New Jersey.
155. 5 May 1924 Paul Robeson Opens in The Emperor Jones with the Provincetown Players.
156. 2 August 1924 James Baldwin Is Born Writer James Baldwin is born in Harlem, New York.
157. 2 August 1924 James Baldwin Born at Harlem Hospital, New York City.
158. September 1924 Louis Armstrong Joins Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra in New York.
159. 30 November 1924 Shirley Chisholm Is Born Shirley Anita Chisholm is born in Brooklyn, New York.
160. 30 November 1924 Shirley Chisholm Born Shirley Anita St. Hill in Brooklyn, New York.
161. 1925 Anna Julia Cooper Receives a doctorate from the University of Paris at 66.
162. 1925 Zora Neale Hurston Moves to New York and enters Barnard College.
163. January 1925 Billie Holiday Sent to the House of the Good Shepherd in Baltimore after truancy.
164. February 1925 Marcus Garvey Enters the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
165. March 1925 Arturo Schomburg Publishes “The Negro Digs Up His Past” in Survey Graphic.
166. 19 May 1925 Malcolm X Is Born Malcolm Little, later Malcolm X, is born in Omaha, Nebraska.
167. 19 May 1925 Malcolm X Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska.
168. 19 June 1925 Bessie Coleman Flies her first Texas exhibition, in Houston.
169. 2 July 1925 Medgar Evers Born in Decatur, Mississippi.
170. 15 August 1925 Oscar Peterson Is Born Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson is born in Montreal, Canada.
171. 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.
172. 25 August 1925 A. Philip Randolph Launches the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
173. 26 August 1925 Marian Anderson Appears as soloist with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium after winning a competition.
174. 16 September 1925 B.B. King Is Born Blues legend B.B. King is born on a plantation near Itta Bena, Mississippi.
175. 12 November 1925 Louis Armstrong Hot Five holds its first recording session for OKeh in Chicago.
176. 8 December 1925 Sammy Davis Jr. Is Born Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. is born in Harlem, New York.
177. 1926 Charles R. Drew Graduates from Amherst College.
178. 1926 Langston Hughes Publishes The Weary Blues and “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”
179. February 1926 Carter G. Woodson Launches the first Negro History Week.
180. 1 February 1926 Negro History Week Is First Observed Historian Carter G. Woodson launches Negro History Week during the second week of February, chosen to align with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
181. 30 April 1926 Bessie Coleman Killed during a test flight in Jacksonville, Florida.
182. May 1926 Arturo Schomburg New York Public Library acquires his collection with a Carnegie Corporation grant.
183. 26 May 1926 Miles Davis Is Born Trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis is born in Alton, Illinois.
184. 18 October 1926 Chuck Berry Is Born Musician Chuck Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
185. 11 December 1926 Big Mama Thornton Is Born Blues singer Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton is born in Ariton, Alabama.
186. 1927 Ella Baker Graduates from Shaw University in Raleigh; moves to New York City.
187. 1927 Zora Neale Hurston Begins interviews with Cudjo Lewis (Kossola) in Africatown, Alabama.
188. 10 February 1927 Leontyne Price Is Born Operatic soprano Leontyne Price is born in Laurel, Mississippi.
189. 27 April 1927 Coretta Scott King Is Born Coretta Scott King is born in Marion, Alabama.
190. November–December 1927 Marcus Garvey Sentence commuted by President Coolidge; deported to Jamaica.
191. 4 December 1927 Duke Ellington Orchestra opens at the Cotton Club in Harlem.
192. 1928 Zora Neale Hurston Graduates from Barnard with a B.A. after study with Franz Boas.
193. 4 April 1928 Maya Angelou Is Born Writer and poet Maya Angelou is born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri.
194. 4 April 1928 Maya Angelou Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri.
195. 3 May 1928 Paul Robeson London Show Boat opens at Drury Lane, with Robeson singing “Ol’ Man River.”
196. 28 June 1928 Louis Armstrong Records “West End Blues.”
197. 11 December 1928 Lewis Latimer Dies in Flushing, Queens.
198. 30 December 1928 Bo Diddley Is Born Musician Bo Diddley is born in McComb, Mississippi.
199. 1929 Augusta Savage Gamin wins her a Rosenwald fellowship; studies in Paris until 1931.
200. 1929 Dorothy Height Turned away by Barnard College; enrolls at New York University.
201. 1929 Langston Hughes Graduates from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
202. 15 January 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Is Born Michael King Jr., later Martin Luther King Jr., is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
203. 15 January 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Born Michael King Jr. in Atlanta, Georgia.
204. 1930 Anna Julia Cooper Becomes president of Frelinghuysen University.
205. 1930s Ella Baker Serves as national director of the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League.
206. 1930 Langston Hughes Publishes his first novel, Not Without Laughter.
207. 1930 Paul Robeson Plays Othello at the Savoy Theatre, London, opposite Peggy Ashcroft.
208. 2 January 1930 Maggie Lena Walker Becomes chairman of the newly merged Consolidated Bank and Trust Company.
209. 19 May 1930 Lorraine Hansberry Born in Chicago, Illinois.
210. 22 November 1930 The Nation of Islam Is Established The Nation of Islam is founded in Detroit, blending Black nationalism with a distinctive religious teaching.
211. 1931 Malcolm X His father, Earl Little, is killed in Lansing, Michigan.
212. 22 January 1931 Sam Cooke Is Born Singer and songwriter Sam Cooke is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
213. 18 February 1931 Toni Morrison Is Born Novelist Toni Morrison is born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio.
214. 18 February 1931 Toni Morrison Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio.
215. 25 March 1931 The Scottsboro Boys Are Arrested Nine Black teenagers are arrested in Alabama and falsely accused of raping two white women, beginning a decade of trials.
216. 25 March 1931 Ida B. Wells Dies in Chicago.
217. 30 June 1931 Duke Ellington Leaves the Cotton Club and begins decades of touring.
218. 4 August 1931 Daniel Hale Williams Dies at Idlewild, Michigan.
219. September 1931 Percy Julian Receives his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna.
220. 1932 Arturo Schomburg Becomes curator of the Schomburg Collection at the 135th Street Branch.
221. 1932 Augusta Savage Opens the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts in Harlem.
222. 1932 Rosa Parks Marries Raymond Parks, a barber and NAACP member.
223. 12 October 1932 Dick Gregory Is Born Comedian and activist Dick Gregory is born in St. Louis, Missouri.
224. 1933 Billie Holiday Makes her first recordings, with Benny Goodman, arranged by John Hammond.
225. 1933 Carter G. Woodson Publishes The Mis-Education of the Negro.
226. 1933 Charles R. Drew Receives M.D. and C.M. degrees from McGill University, second in a class of 137.
227. 1933 Pauli Murray Graduates from Hunter College in New York.
228. 1933 Thurgood Marshall Graduates first in his class from Howard University School of Law.
229. 14 March 1933 Quincy Jones Is Born Producer, composer, and bandleader Quincy Jones is born in Chicago.
230. June 1933 Jesse Owens Equals the world record in the 100-yard dash at the National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago.
231. 1934 Augusta Savage First African American member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.
232. 1934 Gwendolyn Brooks A regular contributor to the Chicago Defender’s poetry column.
233. 1934 Shirley Chisholm Returns to Brooklyn after years of schooling in Barbados.
234. 5 February 1934 Hank Aaron Is Born Baseball legend Henry 'Hank' Aaron is born in Mobile, Alabama.
235. 15 December 1934 Maggie Lena Walker Dies in Richmond.
236. 1935 Billie Holiday Begins recording with Teddy Wilson; debuts at the Apollo Theater.
237. 1935 Charles R. Drew Joins the Howard University College of Medicine faculty.
238. 1935 Langston Hughes His play Mulatto opens on Broadway.
239. 1935 Marian Anderson Sings at the Salzburg festival during a triumphant European career.
240. 1935 Percy Julian Completes the total synthesis of physostigmine at DePauw with Josef Pikl.
241. 1935 W. E. B. Du Bois Publishes Black Reconstruction in America.
242. 1935 Zora Neale Hurston Publishes Mules and Men.
243. 4 January 1935 Floyd Patterson Is Born Boxer Floyd Patterson is born in Waco, North Carolina.
244. 19 March 1935 The Harlem Uprising of 1935 Rumors of police brutality against a Puerto Rican teenager spark unrest in Harlem, leaving several dead and exposing deep economic grievances.
245. 25 May 1935 Jesse Owens Sets five world records and equals a sixth in forty-five minutes at Ann Arbor.
246. 30 September 1935 Johnny Mathis Is Born Singer Johnny Mathis is born in Gilmer, Texas.
247. 5 December 1935 Mary McLeod Bethune Founds the National Council of Negro Women.
248. 1936 Gwendolyn Brooks Graduates from Wilson Junior College.
249. 1936 Percy Julian Becomes director of research for Glidden’s Soya Products Division in Chicago.
250. 1936 Thurgood Marshall With Charles Hamilton Houston, wins Pearson v. Murray, desegregating the University of Maryland School of Law.
251. 1936 Zora Neale Hurston Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in Jamaica and Haiti.
252. 21 February 1936 Barbara Jordan Is Born Barbara Charline Jordan is born in Houston, Texas.
253. 21 February 1936 Barbara Jordan Born in Houston, Texas.
254. August 1936 Jesse Owens Suspended by the Amateur Athletic Union after leaving a post-Olympic exhibition tour.
255. August 1936 Mary McLeod Bethune Organizes the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, the “Black Cabinet.”
256. 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.
257. 3–9 August 1936 Jesse Owens Wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics.
258. 22 October 1936 Bobby Seale Is Born Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale is born in Liberty, Texas.
259. 1937 Augusta Savage Becomes first director of the Harlem Community Art Center.
260. 1937 Katherine Johnson Graduates from West Virginia State College with degrees in mathematics and French.
261. 1937 Lorraine Hansberry Family moves into the restricted Washington Park subdivision on Chicago’s South Side.
262. 1937 Matthew Henson Admitted as a member of the Explorers Club.
263. 1937 Zora Neale Hurston Publishes Their Eyes Were Watching God.
264. 22 June 1937 Joe Louis Wins the Heavyweight Title Joe Louis defeats James Braddock to become world heavyweight champion, a title he would hold for nearly 12 years.
265. 25 August 1937 A. Philip Randolph The Brotherhood signs its first contract with the Pullman Company.
266. 26 September 1937 Bessie Smith Dies Blues 'Empress' Bessie Smith dies after a car accident in Mississippi at age 43.
267. 7 November 1937 Dorothy Height Meets Mary McLeod Bethune while escorting Eleanor Roosevelt to an NCNW meeting.
268. 1938 Billie Holiday Sings with Artie Shaw’s orchestra.
269. 1938 Pauli Murray Rejected by the University of North Carolina graduate school because of race.
270. January 1938 Paul Robeson Sings for the International Brigades in Spain.
271. 23 March 1938 Maynard Jackson Is Born Maynard Jackson is born in Dallas, Texas.
272. 10 June 1938 Arturo Schomburg Dies in Brooklyn, New York.
273. 26 June 1938 James Weldon Johnson Dies Writer, diplomat, and NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson dies in a car accident at age 67.
274. 8 November 1938 Crystal Bird Fauset Wins a Legislative Seat Crystal Bird Fauset is elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, the first Black woman elected to a state legislature in the United States.
275. 1939 Augusta Savage Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp) shown at the New York World’s Fair.
276. 1939 Duke Ellington Billy Strayhorn joins as composer and arranger.
277. 1939–1941 Jackie Robinson Letters in four sports at UCLA.
278. 1939 Katherine Johnson Selected as one of the first Black students admitted to West Virginia University’s graduate school.
279. January 1939 Mary McLeod Bethune Named director of the Division of Negro Affairs, National Youth Administration.
280. 2 April 1939 Marvin Gaye Is Born Singer and songwriter Marvin Gaye is born in Washington, D.C.
281. 9 April 1939 Marian Anderson Sings at the Lincoln Memorial After being barred from Constitution Hall, contralto Marian Anderson performs for 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
282. 9 April 1939 Marian Anderson Sings at the Lincoln Memorial after the DAR bars her from Constitution Hall.
283. 20 April 1939 Billie Holiday Records “Strange Fruit” for Commodore.
284. 18 June 1939 Lou Brock Is Born Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Brock is born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
285. July 1939 Marian Anderson Receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
286. 22 July 1939 Jane Bolin Becomes the First Black Woman Judge Jane Bolin is sworn in as a judge of New York City's domestic relations court, the first Black woman judge in the United States.
287. 5 September 1939 Claudette Colvin Is Born Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin is born in Montgomery, Alabama.
288. 1940 Booker T. Washington Becomes the first African American pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.
289. 1940 Pauli Murray Arrested in Petersburg, Virginia, for refusing to move to a segregated bus seat.
290. 1940 Thurgood Marshall Founds the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and becomes its director-counsel.
291. 21 February 1940 John Lewis Born near Troy, Pike County, Alabama.
292. 29 February 1940 Hattie McDaniel Becomes the First Black Oscar Winner Hattie McDaniel wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 'Gone with the Wind,' the first Oscar awarded to a Black performer - though she was seated apart at the segregated ceremony.
293. June 1940 Charles R. Drew Earns Doctor of Medical Science at Columbia with the dissertation “Banked Blood.”
294. 10 June 1940 Marcus Garvey Dies in London.
295. 23 June 1940 Wilma Rudolph Is Born Track star Wilma Rudolph is born in Clarksville, Tennessee.
296. August 1940 Charles R. Drew Becomes medical supervisor of the Blood for Britain project.
297. 12 November 1940 Lorraine Hansberry Supreme Court decides Hansberry v. Lee in the family’s favor.
298. 1941 Daisy Bates With L. C. Bates, founds the Arkansas State Press in Little Rock.
299. 1941 James Baldwin Graduates from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
300. February 1941 Charles R. Drew Named assistant director of the American Red Cross pilot blood bank program.
301. February 1941 Ella Baker Joins the NAACP staff as an assistant field secretary.
302. 22 March 1941 The Tuskegee Airmen Take Flight The U.S. Army Air Corps activates the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first Black flying unit, at Chanute Field, Illinois; its members soon move to Tuskegee, Alabama, to train as the first Black military aviators.
303. 25 June 1941 A. Philip Randolph Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8802; Randolph calls off the planned march.
304. 29 June 1941 Stokely Carmichael Is Born Activist Stokely Carmichael, later Kwame Ture, is born in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
305. 29 June 1941 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
306. September 1941 Bayard Rustin Joins the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
307. October 1941 Charles R. Drew Becomes chief of surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital and chair of surgery at Howard.
308. 3 October 1941 Chubby Checker Is Born Singer Chubby Checker is born in Spring Gully, South Carolina.
309. 8 October 1941 Jesse Jackson Is Born Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is born in Greenville, South Carolina.
310. 7 December 1941 Doris Miller's Heroism at Pearl Harbor Navy mess attendant Doris 'Dorie' Miller mans an anti-aircraft gun during the attack on Pearl Harbor despite having no training, then helps move wounded sailors.
311. 1942 Langston Hughes Begins his weekly column in the Chicago Defender.
312. 1942 Septima Clark Earns a bachelor’s degree from Benedict College; master’s from Hampton Institute follows in 1946.
313. 1942 Zora Neale Hurston Publishes her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road.
314. 17 January 1942 Muhammad Ali Is Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, later Muhammad Ali, is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
315. 17 January 1942 Muhammad Ali Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky.
316. 17 February 1942 Huey P. Newton Is Born Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton is born in Monroe, Louisiana.
317. 4 March 1942 Daisy Bates Marries L. C. Bates in Fordyce, Arkansas.
318. 25 March 1942 Aretha Franklin Is Born Singer Aretha Franklin is born in Memphis, Tennessee.
319. 27 November 1942 Jimi Hendrix Is Born Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle, Washington.
320. 1943 Ella Baker Becomes the NAACP’s national director of branches.
321. c. 1943–1946 Medgar Evers Serves in the U.S. Army in England and France during World War II.
322. 1943 Rosa Parks Joins the Montgomery NAACP and is elected branch secretary.
323. 5 January 1943 George Washington Carver Dies Agricultural scientist George Washington Carver dies at Tuskegee Institute.
324. 5 January 1943 George Washington Carver Dies at Tuskegee, Alabama.
325. 23 January 1943 Duke Ellington Premieres Black, Brown and Beige at Carnegie Hall.
326. 20 June 1943 The Detroit Race Riot of 1943 Wartime racial tensions erupt in Detroit, leaving 34 dead, most of them Black, after attacks and clashes spread through the city.
327. July 1943 George Washington Carver Congress authorizes the George Washington Carver National Monument.
328. 19 October 1943 Paul Robeson Opens in 'Othello' on Broadway Paul Robeson stars in a Broadway production of 'Othello' that becomes the longest-running Shakespeare play in Broadway history.
329. 19 October 1943 Paul Robeson Othello opens on Broadway; runs a record 296 performances.
330. 1944 Charles R. Drew Receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
331. 1944 Dorothy Height Joins the staff of the YWCA national board, where she works until 1977.
332. 1944 Fannie Lou Hamer Marries Perry “Pap” Hamer; settles on the Marlow plantation near Ruleville.
333. 1944 Matthew Henson Receives a congressional medal awarded to members of the Peary expedition.
334. 1944 Pauli Murray Graduates first in the class at Howard University School of Law.
335. 1944 Thurgood Marshall Wins Smith v. Allwright, outlawing the Texas white primary.
336. January 1944 Bayard Rustin Sentenced to three years in federal prison as a conscientious objector; released June 1946.
337. 12 January 1944 Joe Frazier Is Born Boxer Joe Frazier is born in Beaufort, South Carolina.
338. 26 January 1944 Angela Davis Is Born Scholar and activist Angela Davis is born in Birmingham, Alabama.
339. 9 February 1944 Alice Walker Is Born Writer Alice Walker is born in Eatonton, Georgia.
340. 26 March 1944 Diana Ross Is Born Singer Diana Ross is born in Detroit, Michigan.
341. 25 April 1944 The United Negro College Fund Is Founded Frederick D. Patterson and others establish the United Negro College Fund to pool fundraising for Black colleges.
342. 28 May 1944 Gladys Knight Is Born Singer Gladys Knight is born in Atlanta, Georgia.
343. 2 August 1944 Jackie Robinson Acquitted at court-martial after refusing to move to the back of an Army bus at Camp Hood, Texas.
344. 1945 Constance Baker Motley Begins work as a law clerk for Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
345. 1945 Gwendolyn Brooks Publishes A Street in Bronzeville.
346. October 1945 Jackie Robinson Signed by Branch Rickey to the Brooklyn Dodgers organization.
347. 1946 Constance Baker Motley Graduates from Columbia Law School and joins the LDF legal staff.
348. 1946 Medgar Evers Leads Black veterans in an attempt to vote in Decatur; they are turned away at gunpoint.
349. 1946 Shirley Chisholm Graduates from Brooklyn College.
350. February 1946 Malcolm X Begins serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts; converts to the Nation of Islam while incarcerated.
351. 1947 Dorothy Height Elected national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (serves until 1956).
352. 1947 Percy Julian Receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
353. April 1947 Bayard Rustin Co-organizes the Journey of Reconciliation; later serves twenty-two days on a North Carolina chain gang.
354. 15 April 1947 Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball's Color Barrier Jackie Robinson debuts at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first Black player in the modern major leagues.
355. 15 April 1947 Jackie Robinson Debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
356. 16 May 1947 Billie Holiday Arrested on narcotics charges; later sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp.
357. August 1947 Louis Armstrong Forms Louis Armstrong and His All Stars.
358. 23 October 1947 The NAACP Petitions the United Nations W.E.B. Du Bois presents 'An Appeal to the World,' the NAACP's petition charging the United States with denying Black citizens their human rights, to the UN.
359. 27 March 1948 Billie Holiday Sells out Carnegie Hall eleven days after her release.
360. June 1948 Martin Luther King Jr. Graduates from Morehouse College.
361. 26 July 1948 Truman Desegregates the Armed Forces President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981, ordering equal treatment and opportunity in the U.S. military.
362. 26 July 1948 A. Philip Randolph Truman issues Executive Order 9981 after Randolph’s civil-disobedience campaign.
363. November 1948 James Baldwin Leaves the United States for Paris.
364. 1949 Jackie Robinson Named National League Most Valuable Player.
365. 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks Wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Annie Allen, the first Black writer so honored.
366. 1950 Lorraine Hansberry Moves to New York; joins the staff of Paul Robeson’s Freedom.
367. 1950 Paul Robeson State Department cancels his passport.
368. Thanksgiving 1950 Percy Julian His new home in Oak Park, Illinois, is set on fire by arsonists.
369. 22 February 1950 Julius Erving Is Born Basketball icon Julius 'Dr. J' Erving is born in East Meadow, New York.
370. 28 February 1950 Mary Church Terrell Refused service at Thompson’s Restaurant, launching a test case.
371. 1 April 1950 Charles Drew Dies Pioneering blood-banking physician Charles Drew dies in a car accident in North Carolina at age 45.
372. 1 April 1950 Charles R. Drew Dies of injuries from a car accident near Burlington, North Carolina.
373. 3 April 1950 Carter G. Woodson Dies at his home in Washington, D.C.
374. 1 May 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks Wins the Pulitzer Prize Poet Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first Black American to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her collection 'Annie Allen.'
375. 3 July 1950 Hazel Scott Hosts Her Own TV Show Pianist Hazel Scott becomes the first Black American to host a nationally broadcast television show.
376. 10 December 1950 Ralph Bunche Wins the Nobel Peace Prize Diplomat Ralph Bunche becomes the first Black person awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for mediating armistice agreements in the Middle East.
377. 1951 Langston Hughes Publishes Montage of a Dream Deferred.
378. 1951 Pauli Murray Publishes States’ Laws on Race and Color.
379. 1951 W. E. B. Du Bois Indicted as an unregistered foreign agent; acquitted the same year.
380. 12 May 1951 Oscar De Priest Dies Oscar Stanton De Priest, the first Black member of Congress elected in the 20th century, dies in Chicago.
381. 24 December 1951 Medgar Evers Marries Myrlie Beasley.
382. 1952 Daisy Bates Elected president of the Arkansas State Conference of NAACP Branches.
383. 1952 Ella Baker Elected the first woman president of the NAACP’s New York branch.
384. 1952 Medgar Evers Graduates from Alcorn A&M College; begins selling insurance in Mound Bayou.
385. 1952 Shirley Chisholm Earns a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University.
386. 1952 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Joins his parents in New York City.
387. August 1952 Malcolm X Paroled; takes the name Malcolm X.
388. 1953 James Baldwin Publishes Go Tell It on the Mountain.
389. 1953 Jesse Owens Appointed head of the Illinois Youth Commission.
390. 1953 Toni Morrison Graduates from Howard University; earns M.A. from Cornell in 1955.
391. January 1953 Bayard Rustin Convicted on a morals charge in Pasadena, California.
392. June 1953 Katherine Johnson Joins the NACA’s Langley laboratory in the West Area Computing unit.
393. 8 June 1953 The Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Segregation The Supreme Court rules that segregated restaurants in Washington, D.C., are illegal, a victory for Mary Church Terrell's long campaign.
394. 8 June 1953 Mary Church Terrell Supreme Court decides District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., ending segregated dining in the capital.
395. 18 June 1953 Martin Luther King Jr. Marries Coretta Scott.
396. 19 November 1953 Roy Campanella Is Named League MVP Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella wins the National League Most Valuable Player award, one of three he would earn.
397. 1954 Malcolm X Becomes minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem.
398. 1954–1955 Maya Angelou Tours Europe with a production of Porgy and Bess.
399. 1954 Medgar Evers Applies to the University of Mississippi law school and is rejected.
400. 29 January 1954 Oprah Winfrey Is Born Oprah Winfrey is born in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
401. 17 May 1954 Brown v. Board of Education The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that 'separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,' overturning the doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson.
402. 17 May 1954 Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education.
403. 7 September 1954 Washington and Baltimore Schools Integrate Public schools in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore begin desegregation in the first fall after Brown v. Board.
404. 27 October 1954 Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Becomes the First Black Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who led the Tuskegee Airmen, is promoted to brigadier general, the first Black general in the U.S. Air Force.
405. 1955 A. Philip Randolph Becomes a vice president of the newly merged AFL-CIO.
406. 1955 Jackie Robinson Wins the World Series with Brooklyn.
407. 1955 James Baldwin Publishes the essay collection Notes of a Native Son.
408. Turn of 1955 Medgar Evers Becomes the NAACP’s first field secretary for Mississippi.
409. Summer 1955 Rosa Parks Attends a school-desegregation workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
410. 7 January 1955 Marian Anderson Debuts at the Metropolitan Opera as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera.
411. 2 March 1955 Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Seat Fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin is arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her bus seat, nine months before Rosa Parks.
412. 9 March 1955 Matthew Henson Dies in New York City.
413. 7 May 1955 The Rev. George Lee Is Assassinated The Rev. George W. Lee, one of the first Black people registered to vote in his Mississippi county, is shot and killed for refusing to stop his voter-registration work.
414. 18 May 1955 Mary McLeod Bethune Dies in Daytona Beach, Florida.
415. 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.
416. 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.
417. 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.
418. 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks Arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus.
419. 5 December 1955 The Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins Black residents of Montgomery launch a mass boycott of city buses and elect Martin Luther King Jr. to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association.
420. 5 December 1955 Martin Luther King Jr. Elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association as the bus boycott begins.
421. 5 December 1955 Rosa Parks Convicted and fined; the Montgomery Bus Boycott begins.
422. 1956 Barbara Jordan Graduates magna cum laude from Texas Southern University.
423. 1956 Billie Holiday Publishes Lady Sings the Blues with William Dufty.
424. 1956 Ella Baker Co-founds In Friendship with Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison.
425. 1956 James Baldwin Publishes Giovanni’s Room.
426. 1956 Septima Clark Fired by Charleston schools for refusing to renounce NAACP membership; joins Highlander Folk School.
427. February 1956 Bayard Rustin Arrives in Montgomery to advise Martin Luther King Jr. during the bus boycott.
428. 12 March 1956 The Southern Manifesto More than 100 members of Congress sign the Southern Manifesto, pledging resistance to school desegregation ordered by Brown v. Board.
429. 5 June 1956 A Federal Court Strikes Down Bus Segregation A federal district court rules in Browder v. Gayle that bus segregation in Montgomery is unconstitutional.
430. 12 June 1956 Paul Robeson Testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
431. 7 July 1956 Duke Ellington Newport Jazz Festival performance revives his career.
432. 17 October 1956 Mae Jemison Born in Decatur, Alabama; the family soon moves to Chicago.
433. 5 November 1956 Nat King Cole Hosts His Own Network Show Nat King Cole becomes the first Black American to host a network television variety show.
434. 13 November 1956 The Supreme Court Affirms Bus Desegregation The Supreme Court affirms Browder v. Gayle, ruling that segregation on Montgomery's buses is unconstitutional.
435. 20 December 1956 The Montgomery Bus Boycott Ends A federal desegregation order takes effect in Montgomery, ending the 381-day bus boycott; the city's buses are integrated the next morning.
436. 20 December 1956 Rosa Parks Boycott ends after the Supreme Court affirms Browder v. Gayle.
437. 1957 Dorothy Height Elected fourth national president of the National Council of Negro Women.
438. 1957–1958 Ella Baker Opens the Atlanta office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
439. 1957 Rosa Parks Moves with her family to Detroit, Michigan.
440. January 1957 Martin Luther King Jr. Helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and becomes its president.
441. 7 January 1957 Septima Clark First Citizenship School opens on Johns Island.
442. 10 January 1957 The SCLC Is Founded Black ministers led by Martin Luther King Jr. convene in Atlanta to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
443. 6 July 1957 Althea Gibson Wins Wimbledon Althea Gibson becomes the first Black champion at Wimbledon.
444. September 1957 Louis Armstrong Denounces federal inaction at Little Rock and cancels a Soviet tour.
445. 4 September 1957 The Little Rock Nine Are Blocked from School Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus deploys the National Guard to bar nine Black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.
446. 25 September 1957 Federal Troops Escort the Little Rock Nine Under orders from President Eisenhower, the 101st Airborne escorts nine Black students into Central High School.
447. 25 September 1957 Daisy Bates The Little Rock Nine enter Central High School under federal troop escort.
448. 1958 Daisy Bates Receives the NAACP Spingarn Medal jointly with the Little Rock Nine.
449. 1958 Marian Anderson Appointed a delegate to the United Nations.
450. 1958 Paul Robeson Publishes Here I Stand; recovers his passport.
451. January 1958 Malcolm X Marries Betty Sanders (Betty Shabazz).
452. 18 January 1958 Willie O'Ree Breaks the NHL Color Barrier Willie O'Ree debuts for the Boston Bruins, becoming the first Black player in the National Hockey League.
453. 7 June 1958 Prince Is Born Musician Prince Rogers Nelson is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
454. 2 September 1958 Frederick McKinley Jones Patents an Engine Control Device Prolific inventor Frederick McKinley Jones, pioneer of mobile refrigeration, receives a patent for an internal-combustion engine control device.
455. 1959 Barbara Jordan Receives her law degree from Boston University.
456. 1959 Daisy Bates An advertiser boycott forces the State Press to close.
457. 1959 Lorraine Hansberry Wins the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play.
458. 11 March 1959 'A Raisin in the Sun' Opens on Broadway Lorraine Hansberry's 'A Raisin in the Sun' opens, the first Broadway play written by a Black woman.
459. 11 March 1959 Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
460. 17 July 1959 Billie Holiday Dies at Metropolitan Hospital in New York while under arrest.
461. 31 July 1959 Septima Clark Arrested during the state raid on Highlander Folk School; charge later dropped.
462. 1960 Daisy Bates Supreme Court rules in Bates v. City of Little Rock.
463. 1960 Gwendolyn Brooks Publishes The Bean Eaters, including “We Real Cool.”
464. 1960 John Lewis Helps lead the Nashville sit-ins; joins the founding of SNCC.
465. 1960 Katherine Johnson Coauthors a Flight Research Division report on satellite placement.
466. 1960 Langston Hughes Receives the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal.
467. 1960 Maya Angelou Stages Cabaret for Freedom; becomes northern coordinator of the SCLC.
468. Early 1960s Maya Angelou Works as a journalist and editor in Cairo and Accra, Ghana.
469. 28 January 1960 Zora Neale Hurston Dies in Fort Pierce, Florida.
470. 1 February 1960 The Greensboro Sit-In Begins Four students from North Carolina A&T - Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond - sit at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter and refuse to leave when denied service.
471. 21 March 1960 The Sharpeville Massacre South African police open fire on a crowd protesting pass laws in Sharpeville, killing 69 people.
472. 17 April 1960 The SNCC Is Founded Student activists meeting at Shaw University form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, with Ella Baker's guidance.
473. 15–17 April 1960 Ella Baker Convenes the Shaw University conference that founds SNCC.
474. 19 April 1960 The Bombing of Z. Alexander Looby's Home A bomb destroys the Nashville home of Black attorney and councilman Z. Alexander Looby, who had defended sit-in students.
475. 6 May 1960 The Civil Rights Act of 1960 Is Signed President Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960, strengthening federal oversight of voter registration.
476. September 1960 Muhammad Ali Wins Olympic light heavyweight gold medal in Rome.
477. 14 November 1960 Ruby Bridges Integrates a New Orleans School Six-year-old Ruby Bridges, escorted by federal marshals, integrates William Frantz Elementary School.
478. 28 November 1960 Richard Wright Dies Novelist Richard Wright, author of 'Native Son' and 'Black Boy,' dies in Paris at age 52.
479. 22 December 1960 Jean-Michel Basquiat Is Born Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is born in Brooklyn, New York.
480. 1961 Constance Baker Motley Becomes the first Black woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court.
481. 1961 Lorraine Hansberry Film version, with her screenplay, is released.
482. 1961 Percy Julian Sells Julian Laboratories to Smith, Kline & French.
483. 1961 Septima Clark Citizenship Education Program moves to the SCLC; Clark becomes director of education and teaching.
484. 1961 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Freedom Rider; jailed in Mississippi, including at Parchman Farm.
485. 1961 Thurgood Marshall Named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; confirmed in September 1962.
486. January 1961 Constance Baker Motley University of Georgia admits her clients Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes.
487. 4 May 1961 The Freedom Rides Begin Interracial groups of Freedom Riders depart Washington to challenge segregation on interstate buses through the Deep South.
488. 5 May 1961 Katherine Johnson Her trajectory analysis supports Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight.
489. 9 May 1961 John Lewis Beaten by a mob in Rock Hill, South Carolina, during the Freedom Rides.
490. 14 May 1961 The Anniston Bus Firebombing A white mob firebombs a Freedom Riders' bus outside Anniston, Alabama, and beats the riders as they flee.
491. 20 May 1961 Freedom Riders Are Attacked in Montgomery A mob assaults Freedom Riders at the Greyhound station in Montgomery, beating riders and journalists as local police stand aside.
492. 15 July 1961 Forest Whitaker Is Born Actor and director Forest Whitaker is born in Longview, Texas.
493. 1962 Daisy Bates Publishes The Long Shadow of Little Rock.
494. 1962 Jackie Robinson Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
495. 1962 Septima Clark Publishes Echo in My Soul.
496. 20 February 1962 Katherine Johnson Verifies the orbital calculations for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission.
497. 26 March 1962 Augusta Savage Dies in New York City.
498. 5 August 1962 Nelson Mandela Is Arrested Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is captured by South African police, beginning 27 years of imprisonment.
499. 31 August 1962 Trinidad and Tobago Wins Independence Trinidad and Tobago becomes an independent nation, ending British colonial rule.
500. 31 August 1962 Fannie Lou Hamer Attempts to register to vote in Indianola; evicted from the plantation that night.
501. 29 September 1962 James Meredith and Ole Miss A federal court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith; his enrollment days later triggers deadly riots requiring federal intervention.
502. 1 October 1962 Constance Baker Motley James Meredith enrolls at the University of Mississippi after her successful litigation.
503. 1963 James Baldwin Publishes The Fire Next Time; meets Robert F. Kennedy in New York on 24 May.
504. 1963 John Lewis Elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
505. January 1963 Fannie Lou Hamer Passes the registration test on her second attempt.
506. 14 January 1963 'Segregation Forever' in Alabama Governor George Wallace declares 'segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever' at his Montgomery inauguration.
507. 16 April 1963 King Writes 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' Jailed for defying an injunction against protests, Martin Luther King Jr. writes his open letter defending nonviolent direct action against the 'white moderate.'
508. 16 April 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. Writes the “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
509. May 1963 Lorraine Hansberry Joins James Baldwin’s delegation to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
510. 2 May 1963 The Birmingham Children's Crusade Begins Thousands of Black schoolchildren march in Birmingham to protest segregation; hundreds are arrested as the campaign deliberately fills the jails.
511. 3 May 1963 Fire Hoses and Dogs in Birmingham Police commissioner Bull Connor turns high-pressure fire hoses and police dogs on child demonstrators in Birmingham.
512. 20 May 1963 Medgar Evers Delivers a televised address on segregation in Jackson on WLBT.
513. 9 June 1963 Fannie Lou Hamer Arrested and beaten in the Montgomery County jail in Winona, Mississippi.
514. 11 June 1963 Stand in the Schoolhouse Door Governor George Wallace blocks two Black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama until confronted by federalized troops; that night President Kennedy delivers a landmark civil rights address.
515. 12 June 1963 Medgar Evers Is Assassinated NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is shot in the back in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi, hours after President Kennedy's civil rights address.
516. 12 June 1963 Medgar Evers Assassinated in the carport of his home in Jackson.
517. 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.
518. 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.
519. 27 August 1963 W. E. B. Du Bois Dies in Accra, Ghana, the day before the March on Washington.
520. 28 August 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.
521. 28 August 1963 A. Philip Randolph Leads the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom as its director.
522. 28 August 1963 Bayard Rustin March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which he organized as deputy director.
523. 28 August 1963 Dorothy Height On the platform at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
524. 28 August 1963 John Lewis Youngest speaker at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
525. 28 August 1963 Marian Anderson Sings at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
526. 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers the “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington.
527. 15 September 1963 The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Ku Klux Klan members bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four Black girls preparing for Sunday service.
528. 19 September 1963 Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Is Founded Iota Phi Theta, the youngest of the Divine Nine organizations, is founded at Morgan State College.
529. 1964 Constance Baker Motley Elected to the New York State Senate, its first Black woman member.
530. 1964 Dorothy Height Launches Wednesdays in Mississippi with Polly Cowan.
531. 1964 Jackie Robinson Co-founds Freedom National Bank in Harlem.
532. 1964 James Baldwin Blues for Mister Charlie opens on Broadway.
533. 1964 Malcolm X Founds the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
534. 1964 Shirley Chisholm Elected to the New York State Assembly.
535. 1964 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Graduates from Howard University; directs Freedom Summer work in the Mississippi Delta.
536. 23 January 1964 24th Amendment Abolishes the Poll Tax The 24th Amendment is ratified, barring poll taxes in federal elections.
537. 25 February 1964 Muhammad Ali Defeats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach to become heavyweight champion.
538. 27 February 1964 Anna Julia Cooper Dies in Washington, D.C., at about 105.
539. March 1964 Malcolm X Announces his break with the Nation of Islam.
540. 6 March 1964 Muhammad Ali Receives the name Muhammad Ali from Elijah Muhammad.
541. April 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer Helps found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
542. April 1964 Malcolm X Makes the hajj to Mecca; adopts the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.
543. 9 May 1964 Louis Armstrong “Hello, Dolly!” reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
544. 10 June 1964 The Senate Breaks the Civil Rights Filibuster The U.S. Senate votes to end a 57-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act, clearing the way for passage.
545. 21 June 1964 Freedom Summer Murders in Mississippi Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner are abducted and murdered by Klansmen near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
546. 24 June 1964 Carl Rowan Named to Lead the USIA Journalist Carl Rowan is appointed director of the U.S. Information Agency, the highest-ranking Black official in the federal government at the time.
547. 2 July 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Is Signed President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin and ending segregation in public accommodations.
548. 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.
549. 22 August 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer Testifies before the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City.
550. 14 October 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. Wins the Nobel Peace Prize At 35, Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the youngest person to that point to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
551. 15 October 1964 Lorraine Hansberry The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opens on Broadway.
552. 10 December 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. Receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
553. 1965 Pauli Murray Earns J.S.D. at Yale; publishes “Jane Crow and the Law” with Mary Eastwood.
554. 1965 Rosa Parks Joins the staff of Congressman John Conyers, where she works until 1988.
555. 1965 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Begins organizing in Lowndes County, Alabama; helps found the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.
556. 1965 Thurgood Marshall Appointed Solicitor General of the United States.
557. 2 January 1965 King Launches the Selma Voting-Rights Campaign Defying an anti-meeting injunction, Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a mass meeting at Brown Chapel AME Church, opening the Selma campaign for voting rights.
558. 12 January 1965 Lorraine Hansberry Dies of pancreatic cancer in New York at thirty-four.
559. February 1965 Bayard Rustin Publishes “From Protest to Politics” in Commentary.
560. February 1965 Constance Baker Motley Becomes Manhattan borough president, the first woman in the office.
561. 21 February 1965 The Assassination of Malcolm X Malcolm X is shot and killed while addressing the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. He was 39.
562. 21 February 1965 Malcolm X Assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.
563. 7 March 1965 Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge State troopers and a mounted posse attack some 600 voting-rights marchers led by John Lewis and Hosea Williams at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
564. 7 March 1965 John Lewis Skull fractured by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday.
565. 15 March 1965 Johnson's 'We Shall Overcome' Address Days after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon Johnson asks Congress for a voting-rights act and adopts the movement's anthem: 'We shall overcome.'
566. 25 March 1965 The Selma-to-Montgomery March Reaches the Capitol After federal protection is secured, thousands complete the 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, where King delivers 'How Long, Not Long.'
567. 21–25 March 1965 Martin Luther King Jr. Leads the march from Selma to Montgomery.
568. 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.
569. 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.
570. 16 September 1965 Duke Ellington First Concert of Sacred Music at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.
571. 1966 Pauli Murray Co-founds the National Organization for Women.
572. 21 April 1966 Haile Selassie Visits Jamaica (Grounation Day) Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia visits Jamaica, an event of deep significance to the Rastafari movement, observed as Grounation Day.
573. May 1966 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Elected chairman of SNCC.
574. 16 May 1966 Janet Jackson Is Born Singer Janet Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana.
575. 6 June 1966 James Meredith Is Shot on the March Against Fear James Meredith is shot and wounded on the second day of his solo 'March Against Fear' through Mississippi.
576. 16 June 1966 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Calls for “Black Power” at a rally in Greenwood, Mississippi.
577. 30 August 1966 Constance Baker Motley Confirmed as U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
578. 15 October 1966 The Black Panther Party Is Founded Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California.
579. November 1966 Barbara Jordan Elected to the Texas Senate, its first Black member since 1883.
580. 26 December 1966 The First Kwanzaa Is Celebrated Maulana Karenga leads the first celebration of Kwanzaa, a week-long observance of African heritage and community values.
581. 1967 Gwendolyn Brooks Attends the second Black Writers’ Conference at Fisk University.
582. 1967 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Publishes Black Power with Charles V. Hamilton; leaves the SNCC chairmanship.
583. 1967 Toni Morrison Becomes a senior editor at Random House in New York.
584. 28 April 1967 Muhammad Ali Refuses Induction Muhammad Ali refuses induction into the U.S. Army on religious grounds and is immediately stripped of his heavyweight title.
585. 28 April 1967 Muhammad Ali Refuses induction into the U.S. Army in Houston; stripped of his title.
586. 22 May 1967 Langston Hughes Dies in New York City.
587. 12 June 1967 Loving v. Virginia Strikes Down Bans on Interracial Marriage The Supreme Court unanimously rules that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional.
588. 13 June 1967 Thurgood Marshall Is Nominated to the Supreme Court President Lyndon Johnson nominates Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, saying it is 'the right thing to do.'
589. 20 July 1967 The National Conference on Black Power Roughly a thousand delegates convene in Newark for the National Conference on Black Power, weeks after the city's uprising.
590. 30 August 1967 Thurgood Marshall Confirmed as the first Black Justice of the Supreme Court.
591. 2 October 1967 Thurgood Marshall Joins the Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by Chief Justice Earl Warren.
592. 1968 Gwendolyn Brooks Publishes In the Mecca; named poet laureate of Illinois.
593. 8 February 1968 The Orangeburg Massacre South Carolina highway patrolmen open fire on student protesters at South Carolina State College, killing three young men and wounding dozens.
594. 28 March 1968 King Leads the Memphis Sanitation March Martin Luther King Jr. leads a march in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers that is disrupted by violence, deepening the crisis that drew him back to the city.
595. 3 April 1968 King Delivers His 'Mountaintop' Speech Martin Luther King Jr. delivers 'I've Been to the Mountaintop' at Mason Temple in Memphis, supporting striking sanitation workers, the night before his assassination.
596. 4 April 1968 The Assassination of Dr. King Martin Luther King Jr. is killed by a single rifle shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had come to support striking sanitation workers.
597. 4 April 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
598. 11 April 1968 The Fair Housing Act Is Signed President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, whose Fair Housing Act bars discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing, days after King's assassination.
599. August 1968 Fannie Lou Hamer Seated as a Mississippi delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
600. 16 October 1968 Tommie Smith and John Carlos Raise Their Fists On the Olympic medal stand in Mexico City, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise black-gloved fists during the U.S. anthem.
601. 5 November 1968 Shirley Chisholm Elected to the U.S. House, the first Black woman elected to Congress.
602. 1969 Fannie Lou Hamer Founds the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County.
603. 1969 Maya Angelou Publishes I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
604. 1969 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Breaks with the Black Panther Party and settles in Conakry, Guinea.
605. 3 January 1969 Shirley Chisholm Is Sworn Into Congress Shirley Chisholm takes her seat in the U.S. House, becoming the first Black woman to serve in Congress.
606. 29 April 1969 Duke Ellington Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Nixon.
607. 29 October 1969 'Desegregate at Once': Alexander v. Holmes The Supreme Court orders Mississippi school districts to end segregation immediately, rejecting further delay.
608. 4 December 1969 Fred Hampton Is Killed in a Police Raid Black Panther leader Fred Hampton is shot dead in his bed during a pre-dawn raid by Chicago police and the FBI.
609. 1970 John Lewis Becomes director of the Voter Education Project.
610. 1970 Toni Morrison Publishes her first novel, The Bluest Eye.
611. 18 March 1970 Queen Latifah Is Born Rapper, actor, and producer Dana 'Queen Latifah' Owens is born in Newark, New Jersey.
612. 15 May 1970 The Jackson State Killings Police open fire on a student dormitory at Jackson State College, killing two Black students, days after the Kent State shootings.
613. 1971 Maya Angelou Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie is nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
614. 1971 Shirley Chisholm Helps found the Congressional Black Caucus.
615. 8 March 1971 The 'Fight of the Century' Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden in the first bout between two undefeated heavyweight champions.
616. 20 April 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Upholds Busing The Supreme Court unanimously upholds busing as a tool to desegregate public schools.
617. 28 June 1971 Ali's Conviction Is Overturned The Supreme Court unanimously reverses Muhammad Ali's conviction for refusing military induction.
618. 28 June 1971 Muhammad Ali Supreme Court reverses his conviction in Clay v. United States.
619. 6 July 1971 Louis Armstrong Dies at home in Corona, Queens.
620. January 1972 Shirley Chisholm Announces her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
621. 25 January 1972 Shirley Chisholm Launches Her Presidential Campaign Representative Shirley Chisholm announces her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination at Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
622. 27 January 1972 Mahalia Jackson Dies Gospel legend Mahalia Jackson dies near Chicago at age 60.
623. 4 June 1972 Angela Davis Is Acquitted A California jury acquits scholar-activist Angela Davis of all charges after a closely watched trial.
624. 10 June 1972 Barbara Jordan Serves as acting “governor for a day” of Texas.
625. 25 July 1972 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study Is Exposed An Associated Press story reveals that the U.S. Public Health Service had for 40 years withheld treatment from Black men with syphilis in Tuskegee.
626. 24 October 1972 Jackie Robinson Dies in Stamford, Connecticut.
627. November 1972 Barbara Jordan Elected to the U.S. House from Texas’s Eighteenth District.
628. 1973 Percy Julian Elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
629. 1974 James Baldwin Publishes If Beale Street Could Talk.
630. 8 April 1974 Hank Aaron Breaks the Home-Run Record Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth's record amid a barrage of racist threats.
631. 24 May 1974 Duke Ellington Dies in New York.
632. 25 July 1974 Barbara Jordan Delivers her statement on impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee.
633. 30 October 1974 The 'Rumble in the Jungle' Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, to reclaim the heavyweight title using his 'rope-a-dope' strategy.
634. 30 October 1974 Muhammad Ali Knocks out George Foreman in Kinshasa to regain the title.
635. 10 April 1975 Lee Elder Breaks the Masters Color Barrier Lee Elder becomes the first Black golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament at Augusta National.
636. 19 April 1975 Percy Julian Dies in Waukegan, Illinois.
637. 25 November 1975 Suriname Wins Independence Suriname gains independence from the Netherlands.
638. 23 January 1976 Paul Robeson Dies in Philadelphia.
639. 16 June 1976 The Soweto Uprising South African police open fire on Black students protesting the imposition of Afrikaans in schools in Soweto, killing many, including children.
640. 12 July 1976 Barbara Jordan Electrifies the Democratic Convention Barbara Jordan becomes the first Black woman to deliver a keynote address at a major party's national convention.
641. 12 July 1976 Barbara Jordan Delivers the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.
642. 5 August 1976 Jesse Owens Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald R. Ford.
643. 16 December 1976 Andrew Young Is Named U.N. Ambassador President-elect Jimmy Carter selects Andrew Young, a civil rights veteran, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
644. 1977 Mae Jemison Graduates from Stanford University with a degree in chemical engineering.
645. 1977 Toni Morrison Song of Solomon is published; it wins the National Book Critics Circle Award.
646. 8 January 1977 Pauli Murray Ordained an Episcopal priest at Washington National Cathedral.
647. 14 March 1977 Fannie Lou Hamer Dies in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
648. 15 September 1978 Muhammad Ali Defeats Leon Spinks to win the heavyweight title a third time.
649. 16 May 1979 A. Philip Randolph Dies in New York City.
650. 31 March 1980 Jesse Owens Dies of lung cancer in Tucson, Arizona.
651. 18 April 1980 Zimbabwe Wins Independence Zimbabwe achieves independence from white-minority rule, ending the state formerly known as Rhodesia.
652. 1981 John Lewis Elected to the Atlanta City Council.
653. 1981 Mae Jemison Receives her M.D. from Cornell University.
654. 1981 Maya Angelou Named first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
655. 11 May 1981 Bob Marley Dies Reggae icon Bob Marley dies of cancer at age 36.
656. 28 October 1981 Augusta Elects Its First Black Mayor Edward McIntyre is elected the first Black mayor of Augusta, Georgia.
657. January 1983 Mae Jemison Begins service as Peace Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia.
658. January 1983 Shirley Chisholm Retires from Congress after seven terms.
659. 12 April 1983 Harold Washington Is Elected Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington wins election as the first Black mayor of Chicago after a racially charged campaign.
660. 30 April 1983 Muddy Waters Dies Blues giant Muddy Waters dies near Chicago at age 70.
661. 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.
662. 17 September 1983 Vanessa Williams Is Crowned Miss America Vanessa Williams becomes the first Black woman crowned Miss America.
663. 2 November 1983 The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Is Signed Into Law President Reagan signs the bill establishing a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
664. 28 February 1984 Michael Jackson Wins a Record Eight Grammys Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards in one night for 'Thriller,' a record for a single ceremony.
665. 1985 Gwendolyn Brooks Appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
666. 13 May 1985 Philadelphia Police Bomb the MOVE House Philadelphia police drop a bomb on the headquarters of the Black liberation group MOVE, killing 11 people, including five children, and destroying 61 homes.
667. 1 July 1985 Pauli Murray Dies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
668. 1986 Dorothy Height Founds the National Black Family Reunion.
669. 1986 Katherine Johnson Retires from NASA Langley after 33 years.
670. 28 January 1986 Ronald McNair Dies in the Challenger Disaster Physicist and astronaut Ronald McNair is killed with his crewmates when the Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart shortly after launch.
671. 13 December 1986 Ella Baker Dies in New York City on her eighty-third birthday.
672. 17 December 1986 Max Robinson Dies Max Robinson, the first Black American to anchor a major network's nightly news, dies at age 49.
673. 1987 Toni Morrison Publishes Beloved, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.
674. 3 January 1987 John Lewis Sworn in as U.S. Representative for Georgia’s Fifth District.
675. June 1987 Mae Jemison Selected for NASA’s astronaut program.
676. 24 August 1987 Bayard Rustin Dies Civil rights strategist Bayard Rustin dies in New York at age 75.
677. 24 August 1987 Bayard Rustin Dies in New York City.
678. 1 December 1987 James Baldwin Dies at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France.
679. 15 December 1987 Septima Clark Dies on Johns Island, South Carolina.
680. 6 April 1988 Matthew Henson Reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
681. 1989 Toni Morrison Appointed Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton University.
682. 1 October 1989 Colin Powell Becomes Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell is sworn in as the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest military post.
683. 7 November 1989 L. Douglas Wilder Is Elected Governor L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia is elected the first Black governor in U.S. history.
684. 2 February 1990 South Africa Unbans the ANC President F.W. de Klerk lifts the ban on the African National Congress and other liberation movements, opening the path to Nelson Mandela's release.
685. 11 February 1990 Nelson Mandela Is Released from Prison Nelson Mandela walks free after 27 years of imprisonment under apartheid.
686. 28 March 1990 Jesse Owens Posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
687. 29 April 1992 The Los Angeles Uprising The acquittal of officers who beat Rodney King ignites days of unrest in Los Angeles that leave more than 50 dead.
688. 12 September 1992 Mae Jemison Becomes the First Black Woman in Space Physician and engineer Mae Jemison launches aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
689. 12 September 1992 Mae Jemison Launches aboard Endeavour on STS-47, becoming the first African American woman in space.
690. 25 October 1992 Cito Gaston Wins the World Series Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays becomes the first Black manager to win a World Series.
691. 3 November 1992 Carol Moseley Braun Is Elected to the Senate Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois becomes the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
692. 1993 Mae Jemison Elected to the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
693. 6 January 1993 Dizzy Gillespie Dies Jazz trumpeter and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie dies in Englewood, New Jersey.
694. 19 January 1993 Reginald F. Lewis Dies Reginald F. Lewis, who built TLC Beatrice into the first Black-owned billion-dollar company, dies in New York at 50.
695. 20 January 1993 Maya Angelou Reads “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Clinton’s inauguration.
696. 24 January 1993 Thurgood Marshall Dies Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice and architect of Brown v. Board, dies at 84.
697. 24 January 1993 Thurgood Marshall Dies in Bethesda, Maryland; buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
698. 6 February 1993 Arthur Ashe Dies Tennis champion and activist Arthur Ashe dies of AIDS-related illness at 49.
699. March 1993 Mae Jemison Leaves NASA and founds The Jemison Group.
700. 8 April 1993 Marian Anderson Dies in Portland, Oregon.
701. 7 October 1993 Toni Morrison Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature Toni Morrison becomes the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
702. 7 October 1993 Toni Morrison Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
703. 1994 Barbara Jordan Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
704. 5 February 1994 Medgar Evers Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of his murder.
705. 10 May 1994 Nelson Mandela Is Inaugurated President Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as the first Black president of South Africa after the country's first fully democratic election.
706. 18 November 1994 Cab Calloway Dies Bandleader and entertainer Cab Calloway dies at age 86.
707. 1995 Bessie Coleman U.S. Postal Service issues a Bessie Coleman commemorative stamp.
708. 16 October 1995 The Million Man March Hundreds of thousands of Black men gather on the National Mall for a day of atonement and unity.
709. 17 January 1996 Barbara Jordan Dies in Austin, Texas.
710. 15 November 1998 Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) Dies in Conakry, Guinea.
711. 4 November 1999 Daisy Bates Dies in Little Rock, Arkansas.
712. 3 December 2000 Gwendolyn Brooks Dies at home in Chicago.

21st century

1. 24 March 2002 Halle Berry Wins the Best Actress Oscar Halle Berry becomes the first Black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, for 'Monster's Ball.'
2. 2005 Muhammad Ali Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Muhammad Ali Center opens in Louisville.
3. 1 January 2005 Shirley Chisholm Dies in Ormond Beach, Florida.
4. 28 September 2005 Constance Baker Motley Dies in New York while serving as a senior federal judge.
5. 24 October 2005 Rosa Parks Dies Rosa Parks dies in Detroit at age 92, half a century after her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
6. 24 October 2005 Rosa Parks Dies in Detroit; lies in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda days later.
7. 2006 Bessie Coleman Inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
8. 4 November 2008 Barack Obama Is Elected President Barack Obama defeats John McCain to become the first Black person elected president of the United States.
9. 20 January 2009 Barack Obama Inaugurated as 44th President Barack Obama is sworn in as the first Black president of the United States before a record crowd at the U.S. Capitol.
10. 25 June 2009 Michael Jackson Dies Pop superstar Michael Jackson dies in Los Angeles at age 50, prompting worldwide mourning.
11. 20 April 2010 Dorothy Height Dies in Washington, D.C., at ninety-eight.
12. 15 February 2011 Maya Angelou Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
13. 2012 Mae Jemison Leads the DARPA-funded 100 Year Starship initiative.
14. 2012 Toni Morrison Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
15. 26 February 2012 Trayvon Martin Is Killed Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin is shot and killed in Sanford, Florida; the case and the 2013 acquittal of his shooter galvanized national protest.
16. 20 November 2013 Bayard Rustin Posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
17. 28 May 2014 Maya Angelou Dies at home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
18. 17 July 2014 Eric Garner Is Killed Eric Garner dies after a New York police officer places him in a chokehold; his words 'I can't breathe' become a rallying cry.
19. 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.
20. 17 June 2015 The Charleston Church Massacre A white supremacist murders nine Black worshippers during Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
21. 24 November 2015 Katherine Johnson Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
22. 3 June 2016 Muhammad Ali Dies in Scottsdale, Arizona.
23. 24 September 2016 The National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall.
24. 5 August 2019 Toni Morrison Dies in the Bronx, New York, at age 88.
25. 24 February 2020 Katherine Johnson Dies NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations guided early American spaceflight, dies at age 101.
26. 24 February 2020 Katherine Johnson Dies in Newport News, Virginia, at age 101.
27. 13 March 2020 Breonna Taylor Is Killed Breonna Taylor is shot and killed by police during a botched raid on her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky.
28. 25 May 2020 The Murder of George Floyd George Floyd is killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes; bystander video circulates worldwide.
29. 9 June 2020 George Floyd Is Laid to Rest George Floyd is buried in Houston after memorials drew worldwide mourning and weeks of protest.
30. 17 July 2020 John Lewis Dies Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis dies at 80, decades after leading marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
31. 17 July 2020 John Lewis Dies in Atlanta; lies in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
32. 20 January 2021 Kamala Harris Becomes Vice President Kamala Harris is sworn in as the first Black and first South Asian woman to serve as Vice President of the United States.
33. 13 July 2022 Mary McLeod Bethune Her statue is installed in National Statuary Hall, the first of an African American.
34. 21 August 2022 Elizabeth Freeman Statue of Freeman unveiled in Sheffield, Massachusetts.