African American Timeline of Events

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African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

Timeline of Events

1820

2.6.1820

The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1863

5.28.1863

American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union.

1864

4.12.1864

American Civil War: The Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

1865

3.13.1865

American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.

1867

1.8.1867

African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

1868

7.9.1868

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.

1870

2.25.1870

Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

1877

6.15.1877

Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

1892

11.8.1892

The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.

1900

5.23.1900

American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.

1940

2.29.1940

For her role as Mammy in ''Gone with the Wind'', Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.

4.7.1940

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

10.16.1940

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army.

1943

7.14.1943

In Joplin, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.

1955

8.28.1955

Black teenager Emmett Till is murdered in Mississippi, galvanizing the nascent American Civil Rights Movement.

1966

1.13.1966

Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

11.8.1966

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.

1967

7.23.1967

12th Street Riot: in Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It will leave 43 killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.

8.30.1967

Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

11.7.1967

Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city.

1968

8.21.1968

James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.

1972

2.5.1972

Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

1975

4.8.1975

Frank Robinson manages the Cleveland Indians in his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.

1989

2.10.1989

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party.

11.7.1989

Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.

11.7.1989

David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.

1990

1.13.1990

L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

1995

2.9.1995

Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.