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Timeline of Historical Events

1619

• History of Black America began with landing of twenty Blacks at Jamestown Virginia. John Rolfe said the ship arrived about the latter part of August and that it brought not anything but 20 odd Negroes. Surviving evidence suggests that the twenty Blacks were accorded the status of indentured servants.
  
  1624
  
• First Black child born in English America christened William at Jamestown
  
  1641
  
• Massachusetts became the first colony to give statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1644
  
• Eleven Blacks petioned for freedom in New Netherlands and were freed
  
  1649
  
• Virginia census reports 300 Negro servants
  
  1650
  
• Connecticutt gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1651
  
• Anthony Johnson, free Black given 250 acres land in Northampton County VA
  
  1652
  
• John Johnson, free Black, granted 550 acres in Northampton County VA
  
  1661
  
• Virginia gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1663
  
• Maryland gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
• Slave conspiracy in Gloucester County, VA
  
  1664
  
• New York and New Jersey gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1664
  
• Maryland enacted first antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black men and English women
  
  1682
  
• South Carolina gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1688
  
• First White formal protest against slavery by PA Quakers
  
  1691
  
• Virginia enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1700
  
• Rhode Island and Pennsylvania gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1704
  
• School for Blacks opened in New York by Elias Neau
  
  1705
  
• Massachusetts enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1708
  
• Slave revolt Long Island New York
  
  1712
  
• Slave revolt in New York City
  
  1715
  
• North Carolina gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
• North Carolina enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1717
  
• South Carolina enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1721
  
• Delaware enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1725
  
• Pennsylvania enacted antiamalgamation law to prevent intermarriage of Black and White
  
  1731
  
• Benjamin Banneker born in Maryland
  
  1739
  
• Slave revolt in Stono, SC
  
  1741
  
• Slave revolt in New York
  
  1746
  
• Absalom Jones born a slave in Sussex Delaware
  
  1750
  
• Georgia gave statutory recognition to slavery
  
  1760
  
• Richard Allen born in slavery in Philadelphia
  
• Jupiter Hammon published An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries
  
  1769
  
• Watt patents steam engine
  
  1770
  
• Crispus Attucks killed in Boston Massacre
  
• Quakers opened school for Blacks in Philadelphia
  
  1773
  
• Massachusetts slaves petioned the legislature for freedom
  
• Phillis Wheatley's book of poems published
  
• Pioneer Black church established at Silver Bluff, SC
  
  1775
  
• Prince Hall initiated into Masons at Ft. Independence, MA
  
  1776
  
• Revolutionary War Begins
  
  1777
  
• Vermont abolished slavery
  
  1781
  
• Los Angeles, California founded by 44 settlers including descendants of Africans
  
  1783
  
• Massachusetts abolished slavery
  
• New Hampshire abolished slavery
  
  1784
  
• Rhode Island abolished slavery
  
• Connecticut abolished slavery
  
  1789
  
• US Constution Adopted
  
  1790
  
• Black population of United States 757,208 (19.3%)
  
  1793
  
• First fugitive slave law enacted by Congress
  
  1794
  
• Cotton Gin patented by Eli Whitney
  
  1796
  
• Boston African Society was established
  
  1797
  
• Soujourner Truth born a slave in Hurley, NY
  
  1799
  
• New York abolished slavery (gradual emancipation)
  
  1804
  
• New Jersey abolished slavery
  
• Ohio passed Black Laws restricting rights of free Blacks
  
  1807
  
• US Congress banned the slave trade efective January 1808
  
  1810
  
• Black population of US 1,377,808 (19%)
  
• American Insurace Company of Philadelphia established, Black managed
  
  1811
  
• Louisiana slave revolt
  
  1816
  
• African Methodist Episcopal Church organized at Philadelphia
  
• American Colonization Society organized in House of representatives
  
  1817
  
• Frederick Douglass born in Talbot County Maryland
  
  1818
  
• First Seminole War ended. Indians and Blacks defeated
  
  1820
  
• US Black population 1,771,656 (18.4%)
  
• Mayflower of Liberia arived in Sierra Leone with 86 Blacks from New York
  
  1822
  
• Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy defeated. Charleston, SC
  
• Hiram revels born free Fayeteville, NC
  
  1827
  
• Slavery abolished in New York State
  
• First Black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, published in New York
  
  1829
  
• Race riot in Cincinatti, Ohio. Over 1,000 Blacks moved to Canada
  
• Walker's Appeal published in Boston by David Walker (Antislavery pamphlet)
  
  1830
  
• Black population of US 2,328,642 (18.1%)
  
• Blacks forcibly deported from Portsmouth Ohio by city officials
  
  1831
  
• Nat Turner rebellion, Southhampton County, VA
  
  1833
  
• American Anti-Slavery Society organized
  
  1834
  
• Slavery abolished in the British Empire
  
  1837
  
• Cheyney State Training School established in Pennsylvania
  
  1838
  
• Charles Lenox Redmon began his career as an anti-slavery agent
  
• Mirror of Liberty published
  
  1839
  
• Robert Smalls born in Beaufort, SC
  
• Amistad slave ship mutiny
  
• Seminoles and Black allies shipped from Tampa Bay, FL to the West
  
• Liberty Party organized at Warsaw, NY
  
  1841
  
• Blanche Kelso Bruce born a slave in Prince Edward County VA
  
• US Supreme Court freed Joseph Cinquez and Amistad rebels
  
• Slave revolt on the Creole en route from Hampton VA to New Orleans
  
  1845
  
• Macon B. Allen admitted to the bar passed exam in Worcester, MA
  
• Frederick Douglass published Narratives of Frederick Douglass
  
• GEORGE BENHAM born Laurens County SC
  
  1846
  
• HARRIET HENDRIX born Haralson County GA
  
  1847
  
• Liberia declared an independent republic by President Joseph Roberts
  
  1848
  
• Revolutions Sweep Europe, Marx publishes Communist Manifesto
  
  1850
  
• HARRIET BENHAM born Bartow County GA
  
  1852
  
• Uncle Tom's Cabin published
  
  1861
  
• US Civil War Begins
  
  1865
  
• US Civil War Ends
  
• EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION !!!!!
  
  1870
  
• Franco-Prussian war
  
  1871
  
• Darwin publishes "Descent of Man"
  
  1877
  
• Edison invents phonograph
  
  1885
  
• Benz builds first gasoline powered car
  
• Eastman invents box camera
  
  1892
  
• ETTA AUGUSTA BELL born Cleburne County AL
  
  1898
  
• US defeats Spain, recognized as world power
  
  1903
  
• Wright brothers fly for 12 seconds
  
  1908
  
• Model-T Ford built
  
  1913
  
• Mina Elizabeth BENHAM born Calhoun County AL
  
  1914
  
• WWI Begins
  
  1915
  
• Eastland sinks in Chicago River
  
  1918
  
• WWI Ends
  
  1919
  
• Clennon Washington King and Margaret Allegra Slater wed 18 August at Milledgeville
  
  1922
  
• Mussssolini comes to power in Italy
  
  1925
  
• Etta Augusta Bell married to Moultrie Benham at Anniston, AL
  
  1929
  
• October, Great Stock Market Crash Starts Depression
  
  1930
  
• The Green Pastures opened at Mansfield Theatre
  
• Delta Sigma Theta is incorporated
  
  1931
  
• Walter White named NAACP executive secretary
  
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett deceased
  
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected president
  
  1933
  
• Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
  
• Los Angeles Sentinel founded by Leon H. Washington.
  
  1934
  
• W.E.B. DuBois resigned from NAACP in policy strategy dispute
  
  1935
  
• Joe Louis defeated Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium
  
• Italy invaded Ethiopia
  
• Mary McLoud Bethune founded National Council of Negro Women
  
• Michigan Chronicle founded by Louis F. Martin.
  
  1936
  
• Jesse Owens won four gold medals at Olympics, Berlin
  
  1937
  
• Joe Louis defeated Jimmy Bradock
  
• William H. Hastie confirmed first Black federal Judge.
  
• Bessie Smith died near Clarksdale MS
  
• Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters recognized by Pullman Company
  
  1938
  
• MOULTRIE BENHAM , Sr., died November 17 at Anniston, AL
  
  1939
  
• September, WWII Begins In Europe
  
• Marian Anderson sang at Lincoln Monument on Easter Sunday
  
• Thurgood Marshall heads NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc
  
  1940
  
• Black population in US 12,865,518 (9.8%)
  
• Richard Wright published Native Son
  
• Marcus Garvey died at age 52 in London, England
  
• Benjamin Oliver Davis named 1st Black general in the regular army
  
  1941
  
• December, US Enters WWII
  
• Dorie Miller awarded the Navy Cross
  
  1945
  
• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died 12 April
  
• United Nations founded at San Francisco 25 April
  
• Germany surrendered 8 May
  
• Col. B.O. Davis Jr named commander of Goodman Field KY.
  
• Japanese surrendered on VJ day ending WWII 2 September
  
• Jesse James Payne lynched in Madison County FL 12 October
  
• Brooklyn Dodgers signs Jackie Robinson 23 October
  
• Ebony magazine publishes first issue by John H. Johnson 1 November
  
  1946
  
• Dr. Charles S. Johnson became first Black president of Fisk University
  
  1947
  
• NAACP petition on racisim "An Appeal to the World presented to United Nations"
  
  1948
  
• President Truman sent Congress a message urging adoption of a civil rights program
  
• Rosa Ingram and two teen sons condemmed to death for murder of white man
  
• President Truman issued Executive Order #9981 directing military equality of opportunity
  
• Ralph J. Bunche confirmed UN Mediator in Palestine, 18 September
  
• California Supreme Court voided Calif statue banning interracial marriages 1 October
  
• Channing H. Tobias (Slater kin) presented Spingarn 1 October
  
  1949
  
• Joe Louis retired 1 March
  
• Ezzard Charles defeated Jersey Joe Walcott 22 June
  
• WERD, first Black owned radio station opened in Atlanta
  
• Ralph Bunche received Spingarn Medal 25 November
  
  1950
  
• Black Population in U S 15,042, 286 ( 10%)
  
• Death of Charles R Drew 1 April
  
• Death of Carter G. Woodson, father of Black History 3 April
  
• U S Supreme Court undermines legal foundations of segregation in three land mark cases
  
• Sweatt v. Painter, McLaurin v. Oaklahoma state Regents and Henderson v. United States
  
• Charles H. Hamilton awarded the Spingarn Medal posthumously September
  
  1951
  
• Racial segregation in DC restaurants ruled illegal 24 May
  
• Mob of 3,500 tried to keep Black family out of Cicero IL. Gov call National Guard 24 May
  
• Jet magazine founded by John H. Johnson of Ebony 1 November
  
• Harry T. Moore, NAACP official killed by bomb in Mims, FL 25 December
  
• Spingarn Medal presented to Mabel K. Staupers for leadership in nursing
  
  1952
  
• Tuskegee Instute reported no lynchings in America for first time in 71 years of tabulation
  
• Spingarn presented to Harry T. Moore posthumously for civil rights leadership
  
  1953
  
• Spingarn presented to Paul R. Williams for achievements as an architect
  
  1955
  
• Death of Mary McLeod Bethune 18 May at Daytona Beach FL 18 May
  
• Supreme Court ordered school intergration "with all deliberate speed" 31 May
  
• Emmett Till lynched in Money, Mississippi 28 August
  
• Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man 1 Dec Montgomery, AL
  
• Spingarn presented Carl Murphy of Baltimore Afro-American for civil rights and publishing leadership
  
  1956
  
• First Satellite launched
  
• Martin Luther King, Jr., home in Montgomery, AL bombed 30 January
  
• Autherine Lucy admitted to University of Alabama 3 February. She was suspended 7 February after a riot at the University and expelled 29 February.
  
  1969
  
• Slater Hunter King, Sr. killed at Dawson, GA auto accident
  
  1971
  
• Whitney Young died
  
  1991
  
• Mina Benham Wood relocated to 516 Lara Lane March
  
  1995
  
• Mina Benham Wood Died 21 Sept in Anniston, AL
  
  1996
  
• Lines Choreography performed at Kennedy Center, DC
  

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