Following the arrival of slaves in 1619, African Americans began fighting for their freedom. Congress intervened in the 19th century with three amendments, abolishing slavery, guaranteeing all citizens equal protection of the law, and prohibiting federal government to deny voting on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

August 20, 1619: First slaves arrive in the US in Jamestown

September 13, 1663: First documented slave rebellion

February 18, 1688: First formal antislavery resolution passed

September 9, 1739: Cato Revolt (first serious disturbance among slaves)

July 2, 1777: Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery

July 13, 1787: The Continental Congress forbids slavery in the northwest region by the Northwest Ordinance

January 1, 1808: A federal law prohibiting the importation of African slaves goes into effect

July 1849: Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery

January 1, 1863: Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation 

December 18, 1865: Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment [4] 

July 28, 1868: Congress passes the Fourteenth Amendment                                                                                                              13th Amendment [5]

March 30, 1870: Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment

March 1, 1875: Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 [6]

These decades demonstrate the pushback against black citizens as white supremacy began to take hold and lawful segregation is passed. The release of Birth of a Nation was one of many false portrayals of African Americans in the media, and blackface began to become a method of racial derision, stereotyping "blackness" through caricatures.

October 15, 1883: Supreme Court rules that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional

1892: Tuskegee Institute reports at least 161 lynchings, the most lynchings in a single year

May 18, 1896: Plessy v. Ferguson introduces segregation [7]

February 12, 1909: NAACP is founded

1914: Every Southern state has Jim Crow laws

February 8, 1915: Birth of a Nation is released

1915-1930: The Great Migration

1919: The Red Summer 

                “Birth of a Nation” by D.W. Griffith [8]

The Supreme Court rules that segregation in schools is unconstitutional as a result of several protests and remarkable individuals standing their ground. Black children begin attending schools, and the Civil Rights Act is passed once again.

1922-1929: Harlem Renaissance

June 1941: FDR issues Executive Order 8802

1952: Tuskegee reports the first year with no lynchings

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka makes racial segregation in public schools  unconstitutional [9]

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus

September 1957: The Little Rock Nine attend their first day of school

February 1, 1960: The Greensboro Four sit-in

November 14, 1960: Ruby Bridges attends her first day of school

April 3, 1963: Birmingham Demonstrations begin                                                                     Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 [10]

August 28, 1963: March on Washington

July 2, 1964: Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964                                      

Two figureheads of racial activism are assassinated, though their followers continue on the journey towards racial equality.

February 21, 1965: Malcolm X assassination

April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination

Mourners seeing King on April 5, 1968 before his body was sent for burial [11]

Several black politicians take up positions in office, beginning the journey of black representation in places of power.

April 11, 1968: Congress passes Fair Housing Act

August 30, 1967: Thurgood Marshall appointed to Supreme Court [12]

1968: Shirley Chisholm becomes the first black woman to serve on Congress

January 20, 2001: Colin Powell becomes the first black US Secretary of State

2008: Barack Obama becomes the first black President in US

                                                                                                                                                                                             Obama swears into office [13]

The BLM Movement is propelled as police brutality surfaces due to racial injustice towards African Americans being put under the spotlight.

​​​​​​​July 17, 2014: Eric Garner’s death [15] 

August 9, 2014: Michael Brown’s death

November 22 2014: Tamir Rice’s death

March 13 2020: Breonna Taylor’s death

May 25, 2020: George Floyd’s death

       Vandalized billboard of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY [14]   

[4] "Timeline of Events in African American History," Association of American State Geologists, accessed January 16, 2021, https://www.fs.fed.us/people/aasg/calendar/timeline.html.

[5] 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery, photograph, National Archives, January 31, 1865, accessed February 9, 2021, https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/13th-amendment.

[6]  Ferris State University, "Jim Crow Era," Jim Crow Museum, accessed January 16, 2021, https://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/timeline/jimcrow.htm.

[7]  "Timeline of Events in African American History," Association of American State Geologists, accessed January 16, 2021, https://www.fs.fed.us/people/aasg/calendar/timeline.html.

[8] DW Griffith followed up The Birth of a Nation with another epic a year later, in 1916 – Intolerance, a movie some see as his apology for his previous film's racism, photograph, BBC, February 6, 2015, accessed January 31, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150206-the-most-racist-movie-ever-made.

[9] "Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement," Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/list/timeline-of-the-american-civil-rights-movement.

[10] President Lyndon B Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act in a ceremony at the White House, Washington DC, July 2, 1964, photograph, TIME, July 2, 2015, accessed February 10, 2021, https://time.com/3911037/civil-rights-act-1964/.

[11] Bettman Archive and Getty Images, Assassinated in Memphis, photograph, History, April 1, 2021, accessed April 7, 2021, https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination.

[12] Erik Ponder, "African American Studies Research Guide: Milestones in Black History," Michigan State University Libraries, accessed February 10, 2021, https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95622&p=624423.

[13] J.M. Eddins, Jr, President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, at U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, January 20, 2009., photograph, Washington Times, October 19, 2017, accessed April 7, 2021, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/19/barack-obama-makes-history/.

[14] Lucas Aulbach, A vandalized Breonna Taylor billboard on Lexington Road near Spring Street in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 18, 2020., photograph, NBC News, August 20, 2020, accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/breonna-taylor-billboard-louisville-vandalized-red-paint-across-her-forehead-n1237442.

[15] 2021 BBC, "Breonna Taylor: Timeline of black deaths caused by police," BBC News, accessed February 10, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52905408.