Black History
- Timeline of Historical Events
1856
- Wilberforce
University was established. The African Methodist
Episcopal Church founded the first black school of higher learning.
Source:
Wilberforce University
1863
- January 1st, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation declaring "That all persons held as
slaves are, and henceforward shall be, free."
Source:
National Archives and Records Administration
1865
- Documented Abolition of Slavery, Amendment
XIII to the U.S. Constitution.
Source:
The Library of Congress
1870
- The first African American senator, Hiram
Revels takes oath of office.
Source:
National Archives and Records Administration
1915
- Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson establishes the Association for the Study of Afro-American
Life & History.
Source:
The Association for the Study of African American Life And
History
1926
- "Negro
History Week" declared by Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson
at the Wabash Street YMCA.
Source:
U.S. Department of State
1944
- Frederick Douglass Patterson established the United Negro College Fund.
Source:
The United Negro College Fund, Inc.
1954
- Brown versus
the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas. Supreme
Court rules unanimously that segregation in public schools is
unconstitutional.
Source:
National Archives and Records Administration
1955
- December 1st, Rosa
Parks refuses to give up her seat in the front of the bus
to a white passenger.
Source:
Time Magazine- Time 100
1957
January/February, Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles K. Steele,
and Fred L. Shuttlesworth established the SCLC-Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, a major force in organizing the
Civil Rights Movement.
Source:
SCLC Magazine
1963
- August 28th, about 250,000 people listen as
Reverend King delivered his famous, "I
Have a Dream" speech.
Source:
The History Channel - Great Speeches
1964
- July 2nd, President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of
1964, making segregation in public facilities and discrimination
in employment illegal.
Source:
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
1965
- August 10th, Congress passes the Voting
Rights Act making it easier for southern blacks to register
to vote.
Source:
U.S. Department of Justice
1968
- April 4th, Reverend King is shot and
killed. April 11th, president Johnson signs
the Civil
Rights Act of 1968
prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing
of housing.
Source:
EPA- Office of Civil Rights
1970
- The entire month of February is declared "Black
History Month."
Source:
The Gale Group
1988
- March 22nd, Congress passes the Civil
Rights Restoration Act expanding the reach of non-discrimination
laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.
Source:
Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division
1991
- President Bush signs the Civil Rights
Act of 1991 strengthening existing civil rights laws
and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment
discrimination.
Source:
National Archives and Records Administration
