African American History1787-Present DayJulie Duignan

First African Slave• 1619• First African Slaves arrive in Virginia

Slavery made illegal• 1787• Slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory• The U.S. Constitution states that Congress may not ban the

slave trade until 1808

Three-Fifths Compromise• 1787• Three-fifths of the state’s slaves to be counted in to population

for purposes of taxation and representation

Bans Import• 1808• Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa

Missouri Compromise• 1820• Bans slavery north of

Missouri

The Dred Scott Case• 1857• Holds that Congress does not

have the right to ban slavery in states and, furthermore, that slaves are not citizensAKA Dred Scott vs. Sanford

• Court upheld the exclusion of “Negroes” from the Declaration of Independence. It held that Scott lacked standing to sue for his freedom because he was a slave and therefore without rights unconditionally guaranteed U.S. citizens.

The Confederacy Secedes• 1861• The Confederacy is founded when the deep South secedes• The Civil War begins

The Emancipation Proclamation

• 1863• President Lincoln issues

declaring, "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

• Executive order issued by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in all regions behind Confederate lines

Freedman’s Bureau• March 1865• Established by Congress to

protect the rights of newly emancipated blacks

• Federal agency set up to help former slaves after the Civil War

• After the Civil War, but prior to Reconstruction, the Freedman’s Bureau assumed responsibility for former slaves from various departments of “Negro affairs,” created by President Lincoln

• Cleared and established land for newly freed slaves in the Southern states A racist political cartoon that attacked Radical

Republicans during the election of 1866.

The Civil War Ends• April 9, 1865• The Civil War officially ends

Thirteenth Amendment• December 6, 1865• Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

Civil Rights Act of 1866• April 8, 1866• African Americans citizenship forbidding states to pass

discriminatory laws.• These laws specifically targeted black codes, laws that

severely restricted African American’s lives such as prohibiting activities such as traveling without permits, carrying weapons, serving on juries, testifying against whites, marrying whites, and in some cases, owning land.

Fourteenth Amendment • 1868• Provided a constitutional basis for the Civil Rights Act.• This Amendment made “all persons born or naturalized in the

United States” citizens of the country. Now, all former slaves born in the U.S. received equal protection of the law this was no state could deprive any person of life, liberty, or property with process of law.

Fifteenth Amendment• 1870• Prohibited the denial of voting rights to people because of

their race or color or because they have previously been slaves

Jim Crow Laws• 1876• Laws enacted by Southern

state and local governments to separate white and black people in public and private facilities• The first Jim Crow law

enacted in Tennessee took effect requiring African Americans to travel in segregated railroad coaches.

Plessy v. Ferguson• 1896• This landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial

segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow Laws in the South.

• “Separate but Equal”

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• 1909• Organization founded to

promote full racial equality• Founded in New York by

prominent black and white intellectuals and led by W.E.B. DuBois. For the next half century, it would serve as the country's most influential African-American civil rights organization, dedicated to political equality and social justice

Harlem Renaissance

• 1920s and 1930s• Flowering of African-

American artistic creativity centered in the community of Harlem, New York City• This literary, artistic, and

intellectual movement fosters a new black cultural identity.

Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse, 1927, Watercolor

Harper Lee• Harper Lee is born on

April 28, 1926

Scottsboro, Alabama Boys• 1931• Nine black youths are indicted in

Scottsboro, Ala., on charges of having raped two white women.

• Evidence was slim but the southern jury sentenced them to death.

• The Supreme Court overturns their convictions twice; each time Alabama retries them, finding them guilty.

• In a third trial, four of the Scottsboro boys are freed; but five are sentenced to long prison terms.

• The case was tried several times between 1931 and 1937. Clarence Willie Norris, the last surviving member of the boys, served 15 years in prison before being paroled. Norris left Alabama for new York when he was freed and was pardoned in 1976 when the state of Alabama Pardon and Parole Board finally determined his innocence.

Brown vs. Board of Education• 1954• AKA Brown vs.

Topeka, Kansas Board of Education

• Declares that racial segregation in schools is unconstitutional

• “Separate but equal” education for black and white students was unconstitutional

Rosa Parks and Montgomery Bus Strike• December 1, 1956: Rosa

Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger

• In response to her arrest Montgomery's black community launch a successful year-long bus boycott. Montgomery's buses are desegregated on Dec. 21, 1956.

Little Rock Nine

• September 24, 1957• Nine black students are blocked

from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus.

• Federal troops and the National Guard are called to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the “Little Rock Nine”

• Despite a year of violent threats, several of the “Little Rock Nine” manage to graduate from Central High.

To Kill A Mockingbird• Harper Lee’s To Kill A

Mockingbird is published on July 11, 1960

March on Washington• August 28, 1963• Attended by about

250,000 people, the largest demonstration ever seen in the nation's capital.• Martin Luther King

delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” Speech• The march builds

momentum for civil rights legislation.

Civil Rights Act of 1964• 1964• Signed by President L.B.

Johnson.• The most sweeping civil

rights legislation since Reconstruction.• It prohibits discrimination

of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin in public places and most workplaces.

Jim Crow Appealed• 1956• Jim Crow Laws Appealed

Thurgood Marshall• 1967• President Johnson

appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. He becomes the first black Supreme Court Justice.

MLK, Jr. Assassinated• April 4, 1968• Martin Luther King,

Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee

Barak Obama• Barak Obama is

elected the 44th President of the United States of America• He is the first African

American president of the United States November 4, 2008

Today’s Civil Rights Movements: Gay Marriage• Gay Rights• Legal in 9 states• Massachusetts: May 17, 2004• Connecticut: November 12,

2008• Iowa: April 27, 2009• Vermont: September 1, 2009• New Hampshire: January 1,

2012• New York: July 24, 2011• November 6, 2012: Maine,

Maryland, Washingtonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

Today’s Civil Rights Movements: Health Care• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act• AKA “Obamacare”• is a US federal law signed into by President Obama on March

23, 2010. • Represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the US

healthcare system since Medicare and Medicade were passed in 1965

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

Works Cited• Klor De Alva, J. Jorge, Larry S. Krieger, Louis E. Wilson, and

Nancy Woloch. "Chapter 12: Section 1&2." The Americans. By Gerald A. Danzer. Evanston, Illinois, Boston, Dallas: McDougal Little, 2003. 379-87. Print.

• Brunner, Borguna. "African-American History Timeline A Chronology of Black History from the Early Slave Trade through Affirmative Action." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html>.

• Ross, Leon T., and Kenneth A. Mimms. African American Almanac :Day-by-Day Black History. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997. Print.