African American
History
1787-Present Day
Julie 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 AfricanAmerican civil rights
organization, dedicated to
political equality and social
justice
Harlem Renaissance
• 1920s and 1930s
• Flowering of AfricanAmerican 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, Washington
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa
mesex_marriage_in_the_United_St
ates
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_Afforda
ble_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.