Professional Documents
Culture Documents
African History
More than 3000 years before Christ and the Christian era, in a
time before the European and Asian Invasions, Arab Expansion,
British Colonization and Slavery, Ancient Egypt was the home to 30
Egyptian Dynasties from 2920 BC 332 BC before finally falling to
the Roman Empire. Nubians were the first human race on earth and
rulers of the Kingdom of Kush (Nubia). The ancient Egyptians
adopted most of the Kushite customs and traditions. Nubians lived
in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt along the Nile River. The
Egyptian Pyramids are one of the 7 wonders of the world. Egyptians
were Africans and their skin was Black just as that of the
Nubians. Once upon a time, Africans were the Kings and Queens of
Egypt and Nubia. The Egyptian pyramids were built to be tombs of
the Pharaohs while Nubian pyramids were symbols of wealth and
stature. The pyramids were aligned with the four corners of the
compass in order to reach the heavens and were the influence for
the pyramids found in China, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia and the tower
of Babel in Iraq. The greatness of Egypt is still being talked
about and studied to this day. Be proud of your heritage. Be proud
of your history. Be proud of being Black because we are the
children of the 1st and greatest civilization that has ever lived.
Joseph Campbell - 2003
4.5 Billion BC
* Planet Earth is formed from cosmic dust and meteor showers. This
is NOT to support or oppose GOD, creation or evolution. This a
starting point for the timeline to give it linear perspective.
2.5 Billion BC
* Stromatolite structures form in the oceans as blue-green algae
(cyanobacteria) begins oxygenation of the water and atmosphere.
1.0 Billion BC
* Continental drift occurs thru tectonic plate movement.
700 Million BC
* The first ice age begins.
600 Million BC
* The earliest date to which fossils can be traced.
240 Million BC
* Dinosaurs evolved and ruled the planet.
65 Million BC
* 75% of all life disappears when the six mile wide Chicxulub
Meteor hits the Mexico coast causing a massive dust cloud
coinciding with violent volcanic activity to end the Cretaceous
period.
50 Million BC
* Mammals begin to evolve and occupy the land.
4.4 Million BC
* Skeletons of pre-humans have been found that date back between 4
to 5 million years. The oldest known ancestral type of humanity is
thought to have been Australopithecus Ramidus.
2.5 Million BC
* Homo Habilis (skillful man) appears in Africa.
2 Million BC
* Earliest stone tools in Ethiopia and East Africa are used.
1.8 Million BC
* Homo Erectus (upright man) appears in Africa.
195,000 BC
* The human race comes from African origin. The oldest known
skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans (homo sapiens) were
excavated at sites in East Africa. Human remains were discovered
at Omo in Ethiopia that were dated at 195,000 years old and are
the oldest known in the world.
150,000 BC
* Homo Sapiens spread across Africa expanding migration.
90,000 BC
* Africans organize fishing expeditions in northeastern Zaire.
70,000 BC - 60,000 BC
* Neanderthal man appears in Africa using fire and advanced tools.
* The first humans left Africa migrating around the planet in
great numbers.
50,000 BC
* Upper Paleolithic Efflorescence occurs.
43,000 BC
* Cro-Magnon man appears in Africa.
35,000 BC
* Africans begin iron mining in the Nile Valley.
33,000 BC
* The Grimaldi Negroids expand into Europe.
30,000 BC
* Africans of Monomotapa create the 1st sculpture of a human
figure.
25,000 BC
* Africans develop basic arithmetic.
20,000 BC
* Intensive grass seed gathering of barley and wheat occurs and
the first Cro-Magnon appears in Europe.
15,000 BC
* Migrations across the Bering Straits into the Americas begin and
the domestication of cattle occurs.
12,000 BC
* Sebelian II rules in Pre-Dynastic Kemet. Africans cultivate
crops.
10,000 BC
* Africans of the Nile Valley introduce the 1st calendar.
9,000 BC
* Africans mummified their dead.
8000 BC
* Early spread of agriculture and first settlements in the Nile
Delta. Sebelian III rules in Pre-Dynastic Kemet.
7000 BC
* Earliest cave drawings are drawn in the Sahara. The Great Sphinx
of Giza was fashioned with the head of a man combined with the
body of a lion.
6000 BC
* River people emerge along the Niger and Congo Rivers.
5000 BC
* People begin to settle along the Nile River near Egypt.
4500 BC
* Ancient Egyptians begin using burial texts to accompany their
dead, first known written documents. Ancient Egyptians called their
land Kemet (Land of the Blacks).
4400 BC
* The Badarian culture forms and the people practice agriculture,
pottery and domesticate cattle, sheep and goats.
4100 BC
* The first solar calendar is introduced by Kemet and Kush.
4000 BC
* Amratian Society of Upper Egypt forms displaying the first signs
of a hierarchical civilization. Black Kingdoms form along the Nile
River.
3800 BC
* The Nubian civilization emerges in the Sudan.
3758 BC
* The first religious principals of right and wrong are written by
the Kushite King Ori.
3500 BC
* The first documented evidence of Egyptians using boats with
sails appears on pottery. The boats were made of wood probably
imported from Lebanon and covered with papyrus.
3400 BC
* The Nubian Kingdom of Ta-Seti (Kush) is founded in the Sudan.
3200 BC
* Hieroglyphics are developed as a form of written communication.
3150 BC
* Upper and Lower Egypt combine into one kingdom with the capitol
at Memphis under King Menes (Narmer). The Egyptian empire is
formed. Kemet begins after which 30 dynasties would follow.
3000 BC
* Irrigation of farmland is developed and the people begin to
worship the sun. Complex societies develop in Nigeria.
* The Olmec civilization began in Mexico. The Olmecs built the
first pyramids in Mexico and used the Olmec calendar, which was
made by Africans who migrated from Africa who had a connection to
Egypt. The language, art, customs and sculptures found from the
Olmec civilization closely resemble that found in Africa to
include dark skinned people. The step pyramids found in Mexico
resemble the step pyramids of Egypt and Kush. The pyramids of
Mexico were made flat on top to facilitate human sacrifices and
offerings to the gods while Egyptian pyramids are pointed on top
to point the way to heaven.
* The first Mesopotamian civilization were Black Sumerians.
2980 BC
King Khasekhemuwy rules Kemet (Egypt).
30 Egyptian Dynasties began in 2920 BC and Ended in 332 BC.
They Lasted over 2500 Years Before Falling Forever To Foreign
Invaders and Conquerors.
13th 17th Dynasties (1756-1540 BC) 216 years 50+ Kings Ruled
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22nd 25th Dynasties (945-653 BC) 292 years 20+ Kings Ruled
* Nubian Kings Kashta & Piankhy remove all foreigners from Egypt.
* The Nubians are conquered by an Assyrian invasion.
* The Greeks help to re-establish order.
* King Taharqa of Nubia invades and conquers Spain and Palestine.
* Kings from Sais began a revival in the arts returns to the Old
Kingdom style.
* The kingdom is in a constant state of chaos or war.
* African explorers reach the Americas and Mexico.
* Persia conquers Egypt.
* Victor I becomes the 1st Black Pope as the 15th Pope (189-199
A.D.) and is the reason Easter Day is celebrated on Sunday. Victor
served during the reign of Emperor Septimus Serverus who was one
of several African emperors that led the Roman Empire.
* St. Miltiades becomes the 2nd Black Pope as the 32nd Pope (311-314
A.D.) and led the church to a final victory over the Roman Empire
that allowed Christians to worship without persecution.
* Gelasius I becomes the 3rd Black Pope as the 49th Pope (492-496
A.D.) and took steps to establish a secure future for the Church.
432
* St. Patrick who was a ex-British slave goes to Ireland to build
Catholic Churches. St. Patrick (Maewyn Succat) is credited in
history for driving the snakes out of Ireland. This is symbolic
language. He didn't drive actual snakes out of Ireland, what he
did was kill over 200,000 Black pygmy people who had taken on and
understood the Ancient African philosophical system of MAAT. These
Twa (Pygmy people) wore the Uraeus/snake head dress worn by
Egyptian Kings and Queens who didn't accept St. Patrick's
teachings of Catholicism, so St. Patrick killed them. For
expanding the church and killing people who wouldn't take on the
Roman Catholic faith Pope Celestine V (1215-1296) coordinated and
made him a "Saint" because he set up over 300 churches in Ireland
after getting rid of the Druids and the Twa (Pygmy people). He
didn't drive out snakes as history would record, he committed
genocide on Black people. The symbolism of shamrocks as being good
luck (4 leaf clover) was used as a detoxifier and medicine made
into tea and the myth of leprechauns was the Twa (Pygmy people)
who migrated from Africa to northern Ireland thousands of years
earlier who stood less than 5 feet tall.
600
* A great African trading empire is formed in Ghana.
610
* The advent of Islam occurs with The decline of the Kush
civilization which led to a decentralization of power within the
Sudan.
640
* Arab conquerors led by Amribn al-As and Uqba ibn Nafi are
defeated in the battle of Dongola in the Nubian kingdom of
Makuria. 20,000 Arab horseman attempt to capture Nubian warriors
following their conquest of Egypt, but are defeated.
641
* Egyptian hieroglyphic writing is no longer used.
* Muslem Arabs conquer Egypt and Sudan and introduce Islam after
300 years of Christianity.
642-1290
* Arab rule, expansion and Moorish Dynasties flourish across
Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and Morocco for the next 648 years.
* Arab slave trade flourishes as approximately 14 million African
slaves are sold and exported to North Africa.
* Moors (Islamicized Africans) invade Spain developing Spain into
the center of culture and learning in Europe for almost 800 years.
* Zimbabwe forms a great trading empire which lasts 400 years.
1300
* Slave trade expands to northwest Africa from Muslems using
Africans as slaves to carry their goods and gold across the
desert.
1307
* King Mansa Mussa takes the throne of Mali and builds the Great
Mosque at Timbuktu. He is best known for his pilgrimage to Mecca
with 72,000 people and conquest of the Songhai Kingdom.
1311
* Islamic historians have recorded histories of voyages west from
Mali in West Africa to Mexico during the reign of Mansa Bakari
II.
* Malian sailors reached America 181 years before Columbus. An
Egyptian scholar, Ibn Fadi Al-Umari, published this around 1342.
1324
* On a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malian ruler, Mansa Musa brought so
much money with him that his visit caused the collapse of gold
* The Atlantic Slave Trade was the result of, among other
things, labor shortages, itself in turn created by the desire of
European colonists to exploit New World land and resources for
capital profits. Native people were at first utilized as slave
labor by Europeans, until a large number died from overwork
that era. The prisoners and captives that were sold were usually
from neighboring or enemy ethnic groups. These captive slaves were
not considered as part of the ethnic group or 'tribe' and kings
held no particular loyalty to them. At times, kings and
businessmen would sell the criminals in their society to the
buyers so that they could no longer commit crimes in that area.
Most other slaves were obtained from kidnappings, or through raids
that occurred at gunpoint through joint ventures with the
Europeans. Some African kings refused to sell any of their
captives or criminals. With the rise of a large commercial slave
trade, driven by European needs, kings enslaving their enemy
became less a consequence of war, and more and more a reason to go
to war. The map shows the Major Slave Trading Regions of Africa
during the 15th19th centuries.
9-11 million captured Africans died from slave wars and forced
marches en-route to the slave holding fortress and slave ships
from villages in Africa. Slave trade precipitated migrations
occurred as coastal tribes fled slave-raiding parties and capture
by other tribes motivated by trade with White slave traders for
self survival of their own tribe. Some slaves were redistributed
throughout Africa but eventually were sent to the slave coast.
African slave trade and slave labor on plantations, in seaports
and within families transformed the world. Slave trade stimulated
global expansion, trans-Atlantic commerce and agriculture while
supporting the booming capitalist economies of the 17th and 18th
centuries.
* As the slaves were captured, they were branded like cattle and
then shackled together before being loaded onto the slave ships.
Slave traders would torture and kill slaves aboard the ships as an
example to the others to keep them submissive and cooperative.
Whenever the ships ran short of food to feed the slaves, the
traders would tie the slaves together with ropes weighted on one
end and throw the slaves overboard or just let them starve to
death in the cargo hold of the ship. Slaves remained shackled
together below the deck in the dark without clothing or blankets
while eating and sleeping in their own feces, urine and vomit.
It's was impossible for slaves to run away and escape their
masters with shackles and hooks attached to their bodies. Disease
and dehydration was a frequent cause of death for slaves aboard
ships. Slaves were fed rotten food and given rancid water to
drink. The women were used as sex slaves for their White captors
while the men were beaten.
* The end of the fifteenth century was marked for Europe by Vasco
da Gama's successful voyage to India and the establishment of
sugar plantations on Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands.
Rather than trading slaves back to Muslem merchants, there was an
1469
* Isabella of Spain marries Ferdinand of Portugal and the two
countries form an alliance to unify Spain. Years later this would
become a devastating event for Africans and the spark that would
start another chapter of slavery.
1471
* The Portuguese arrive in the African Gold Coast.
1482
* The Portuguese build the Elmina Castle on the Gold Coast of
Africa. The castle is a slave fortress used to hold captured
Africans while they await the arrival of slave ships for their
journey through the middle passage. Thousands of Africans died in
the cells awaiting transport aboard ship. By the beginning of the
colonial era there were forty such forts operating along the
coast. Rather than being icons of colonial domination, the forts
1492
* Queen Isabella of Spain declared that all indigenous people in
her lands that Christopher Columbus discovered were her subjects.
Columbus mistakenly landed in America in his search for India. His
mistake opened a new world of discovery and conquest for the
Europeans and a world of devastation for the native Americans and
Africans. This decree saved Native Americans from becoming slaves
but it meant Spain would have to look elsewhere for cheap labor.
By 1501 Spain and Portugal were shipping Africans as slaves to the
Americas. By 1650, there were over 200,000 Africans in Mexico and
Peru alone.
* Black navigator Pedro A. Nino travels with Christopher Columbus
on his first expedition to the new world and reaches Haiti.
* King Askia Toure begins unification of the Sudan and establishes
a governmental system which resembles our modern day system having
governors, judges and a legal system.
1500
* In the 1500s, more than 240,000 Africans were sent to the
Caribbean as slaves.
* Portuguese trading becomes vigorous with Africans in the Congo.
Portugal begins exporting slaves by kidnapping them in mass.
1501
* The King of Spain allows the introduction of enslaved Africans
into Spains American Colonies.
1505
* Portuguese warships attack key African ports in order to control
trade and keep other countries away.
* Portuguese forces burned down the Swahili cities of Kilwa and
Mombasa. Kilwa Kisiwani is a city on an island off the southern
coast of Tanzania. In 1331, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta
described the city of Kilwa as one of the most beautiful and
well-constructed cities in the world, the whole of it is elegantly
built.
1510
* Slaves are shipped to the Spanish colonies in South America via
Spain.
1511
* The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola (Dominican
Republic / Haiti).
1513
* 30 Africans are taken as slaves for labor and accompany the
Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa to the Pacific Ocean.
1517
* The Turks of the Ottoman Empire conquer Egypt.
* Bishop De Las Casas petitions Spain to allow the importation of
12 slaves for each household immigrating to Americas Spanish
colonies.
1518
* King Charles I of Spain allows the Spaniards to begin importing
slaves for plantation labor and the Atlantic Slave trade is
started. Slaves are shipped directly to the Americas and the
Caribbean from Africa to replace American Indians who died from
1519
* The first African slaves are taken to Mexico via the port
of Veracruz to a villa which was turned into a slave town and
fortress. The salves had to work on sugarcane plantations and act
as personal servants of their masters. It is estimated that
between 250,000 500,000 slaves were transported to Mexico. As
the colonial period in Mexico unfolded, in particular during the
16th and 17th centuries, the indigenous population became
decimated by disease. To make up for this labor shortage, African
slaves were brought to Mexico to toil in sugar fields and work in
underground mines. Worth four times more than their indigenous
Indian counterparts, these African slaves were highly prized for
their reported physical endurance and stamina in the hot, tropical
sun. Maroon communities developed as early as 1523 in Oaxaca.
Maroon is the name given to an escaped slave; hence, these
communities were composed of slaves who fled from slavery. These
communities were established in remote areas, where maroons could
resist the attacks of armies and slave owners. Many of these
communities were eradicated, but some did survive and succeeded in
getting official recognition as legal communities. From their
mountain enclaves, the maroons sometimes attacked nearby
plantations and released enslaved Africans.
1520s
* African slaves were taken to and used as laborers in Puerto Rico
and Cuba.
1521
* Slaves are taken to Peru. Over the course of the slave trade,
approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last
group arriving in 1850.
1522
* Slaves revolt on Hispaniola (Haiti / Dominican Republic).
1526
* Spaniard Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon attempted to create a
settlement in South Carolina near the mouth of the Pee Dee River
and a community which became Georgia. He brought in 100 African
slaves to build it, but they rebelled, killed some of their
captors and sought refuge with Native American Indians becoming
the first non-native settlers of what will become the United
States. By then only 150 Spaniards survived, and they retreated to
Haiti which shares the island with the country that would become
the Dominican Republic, a Spanish settlement.
* King Affonso I of the Congo asks Portuguese King John to put a
stop to the kidnapping of his people for slavery. King Affonso was
the first ruler to resist the European slave trade.
* Patron Saint Benedict the Black was born a slave in Italy. At
age 18 he gained his freedom and entered the church hood where he
was taught by the friars of Palermo. Upon his death, King Phillip
III of Spain paid for a special tomb to burry the saint.
1527
* Estevanico, a Muslim slave from northern Africa, explores the
Southwestern US. By 1539 he has traveled from The Dominican
Republic to Florida along the coast to Texas across to Mexico and
upwards to Arizona and New Mexico.
1529
* Muslems declare a Jihad (holy war) against Africans in Ethiopia.
1538
* The Portuguese began shipping slaves to Brazil.
1540
* Africans serve in the expedition of Coronado and Hernando De
Alarcon.
1541
* Ethiopia defeats the Muslems and expels them from the region.
1543
* King Charles I of Spain allows the importation of slaves to
Spains American colonies.
1550
* Portuguese slave trade expands in Brazil as African slaves are
forced to work the sugar plantations in developing the newly
formed colony of Brazil. European discoverers needed more human
resources to use in the new continent, as the numbers of
native indigenous peoples began to decline. It is estimated that
over 3 million slaves were taken to Brazil.
1562
* John Hawkins, the first Englishman to become a slave trader,
sparks English interest in slave trade. Hawkins sailed on a ship
known as "The Good Ship Jesus" actually named Jesus of Lubeck
where the ship's crew practiced prayer to God daily. Hawkins
traveled to Sierra Leone capturing 300 slaves by plundering
Portuguese slave ships and taking them to Haiti by promising them
riches and free land in the new world. Hawkins returned to England
with ivory, sugar and animal hides.
1565
* Pedro Menendez De Aviles takes slaves to St. Augustine and
establishes a community in what would later become the state of
Florida.
* King Idris Alooma begins re-uniting the two African kingdoms of
Kanem and Bornu creating a lasting peace that lasted for
generations.
1571
* Portuguese forces invaded the city and destroyed the Mutapa
Empire. Munhumutapa was a Shona kingdom that was between the
Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of southern Africa in Zimbabwe and
Mozambique. In 1629, Emperor Mavhura took over on behalf of Spain.
1582
* King Philip II of Spain sends slaves to work in San Agustin, FL.
* Queen Nzigha of Matamba begins her rule by waging a 30 year war
against European slave hunters and Portuguese slave traders.
Nzigha was also a visionary leader that unified ethnic groups to
resist slave trade and form alliances to fight European expansion.
After her death in 1663, Portuguese slave trade had little
resistance.
1583
* Over the next 315 years it is estimated that over 12 million
slaves were transported on 15,790 ships from 20,528 trans-Atlantic
voyages. Several million died from their treatment and conditions
before reaching landfall.
1588
* Queen Amina of Zaria begins her reign by establishing a
successful trade route and being very involved her empires daily
life and politics after the collapse of the Songhai Empire to the
west. Amina also became a skilled military warrior that brought
her great wealth and power. Over her 34 year reign she built a
massive empire and proved she was just as capable as any man or
king in ruling her people.
1593
* Moroccans defeat the Muslems and expel them from the region. The
University of Sankore in Timbuktu is destroyed by Arabs and 1600
books are lost.
1596
* Askia Nuh forms a resistance against Arab occupation.
1600
* The Congo Kingdom comes to an end due to tribal wars started by
the Portuguese because of slavery. A divide and conquer strategy
was instituted to make tribes fight each which helped the
Portuguese gain control of the region.
* Records indicate there are approximately 900,000 slaves in Latin
America.
1605
* A settlement of fugitive slaves known as "Quilombo dos Palmares"
was established in Brazil around the regions of Pernambuco and
Alagoas. It is estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fugitive slaves
inhabited Palmares until 1694. Palmares was conquered and
destroyed by a military force under the command of Domingos Jorge
Velho.
1607
* English settlers from England formed the first colony in the New
World and called it Jamestown, Virginia. Soon there would be 13
English colonies stretching from Massachusetts to Georgia where
slavery would flourish. The 13 colonies were still under the rule
of England until the end of the American Revolution in 1783.
1612
* Colonist John Rolfe discovered and invented a process of
curing to make tobacco taste better. Europeans wanted this
better tasting tobacco, which caused an increase in slavery in the
colonies to harvest the crops to sell to Europe.
1619 The Start of Black History and Slavery in America
1635
* The French, arrived in the Polynesian islands. The native Carib
Indians were eliminated and African slaves were imported.
Guadeloupe was one of France's most valuable possessions while
sugar was an important crop during the 17th century.
1636
* Colonial North Americas slave trade begins when the first
American slave ship Desire is built and launched in
Massachusetts.
1638
* An African man could be sold
his entire life as a slave. In
European laborer could earn as
paying off his debt and ending
1640
* The 1st Black Codes are introduced in Boston used to control
Blacks by denying them rights or freedom.
* John Punch is the 1st documented slave for life.
1641
* The Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery.
1644
* The 1st Black legal protest in America occurs when 11 Blacks
successfully petition the government of New Amsterdam for their
freedom.
1645
* The slave ship Rainbowe sets sail for Africa to bring Africans
back to America as slaves. This was the first slave ship made in
the colonies.
1650
* Laws about Black indentured servants began to change to the
detriment of Blacks as slavery was on the increase due to its
popularity.
* The average price of a slave was about $200.00 dollars.
* Connecticut legalizes slavery.
* The Yoruba Oyo Empire forms in what would later become Nigeria.
1652
* The Dutch establish a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in
southern Africa.
1654
* Some free Black people in this country bought and sold other
Black people, and did so right through the Civil War (1861-1865).
Historians have argued for some time over whether free Blacks
purchased family members as slaves in order to protect them from
slavery motivated by benevolence and philanthropy, or on the other
hand, they purchased other Black people as an act of exploitation,
to exploit their free labor for profit, just as White slave owners
did. Evidence shows that both things are true. African-American
historian, John Hope Franklin, states this clearly: The majority
of Negro owners of slaves had some personal interest in their
property. But, he admits, There were instances, however, in
which free Negroes had a real economic interest in the institution
of slavery and held slaves in order to improve their economic
status.
1655
* 1500 slaves flee into the Jamaican mountains and form a free
community.
1657
* Virginia passes a fugitive slave law that allowed for the
capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the
United States.
1660
* The Trans-Atlantic slave trade through the "Middle Passage"
begins producing one of the largest forced migrations in history.
An estimated 12 million Africans were forcibly taken from their
homes in Africa and forced into slavery but an estimated 1.5
million died on board ship. Besides the slaves who died on the
Middle Passage, more Africans likely died during the slave raids
in Africa and forced marches to ports. Estimates are that 4
million died inside Africa after capture, and many more died
young. From the time of the first slave being captured in 1418, an
estimated 25 million Africans were captured and forced into
slavery until the practice stopped in the early 1900s.
1665
* Slave owners took devastating actions to convert their slaves to
Christianity.(1)The Promise of Heaven. This idea preached the
notion that for all the suffering that is done in the physical
world, their soul would be preserved and they would experience a
hardship-free spiritual life with the belief in heaven and the
afterlife.(2)Constant Work. The vigorous, constant plantation work
assigned by owners left the enslaved people barely any time for
themselves, and that included their natural religious activities,
softening them over time to accept whatever religion was presented
to them by the plantation owners.(3)Blocked Communication.
Plantation owners separated the slaves who spoke the same tribal
language so they could not worship together and could be taught
Christianity at the same time.(4)Separation of Families. Moving
family members away from one another broke down their spirit by
removing their family connection and African beliefs making them
more willing to accepting another religion.(5) Demonstration of
Power. Captured Africans often attributed the Europeans power to
the power of the Europeans God. Therefore, it was easy for
enslaved Africans to begin to worship the victorious Christian God
in place of their own gods.(6)Catholic Conversion. African
practices were brought into Christianity as a way of luring the
enslaved into Christianity and away from their religion. Enslaved
Africans converted easily because of Catholicisms ability to
accommodate and absorb other beliefs.(7)Mixing of Religious
Practices. Symbols and objects, such as crosses, were conflated
with charms carried by Africans to ward off evil spirits. Christ
was portrayed and interpreted as a healer similar to the priests
of Africa.(8)Missionary Work in West Indies. Missionaries engaged
in the process of Christianization of slaves in the West Indies
and argued to slave owners that the enslaved needed religion and
that planters also would benefit from the conversion.(9)Social
Control. Religion was taught to enslaved Africans as a means of
social control more than as a means to edify their souls.
Plantation owners used religion to teach obedience.
1666
* Maryland passes a fugitive slave law that allowed for the
capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the
United States.
1668
* New Jersey passes a fugitive slave law that allowed for the
capture and return of runaway slaves within the territory of the
United States.
1669
* The Virginia assembly enacted a law removing criminal penalties
for people who killed slaves that resisted authority. The
rationale was that such a killing could not be considered murder
because the premeditated malice element of murder could not be
formed against ones own property.
1672
* King Charles II of England forms the Royal African Company for
slave trading. During its 40-year business, more than 100,000
slaves were brought to the new world.
1676
* Bacons rebellion occurs when Blacks rise up against the
Colonial government in Virginia.
1680
* Virginia passes a law preventing Blacks from gathering in large
groups or carrying weapons.
* King Osei Tutu of the Asante Empire (Ghana) begins his rule and
unites six different nations, under his leadership, into one and
triples the size of the Asante Empire. The Asanti Empire would
flourish for two centuries.
1685
* Black codes are created in Louisiana by French King Louis XIV
(Louis Dieudonn) as a precautionary measure to prevent enslaved
Black people from harming their masters. The codes lasted for 100
years, but they evolved into laws that would restrict marriage and
miscegenation, and serve as gun control for Blacks. These codes
extended for French colonies in Haiti and the Caribbean.
1688
* Quakers in Philadelphia make the first protest against slavery.
1691
* South Carolina passes the first comprehensive slave codes.
1695
* The Portuguese kill King Zumbi of Palmares.
1700
* Slavery became legal in all English colonies and the practice of
making Blacks indentured servants was exchanged for slavery.
* Between 1701-1810, more than 7 million Africans were sent to the
Americas as slaves. During that time period more Africans were
made slaves than during any other time period of slavery.
* The Ashanti Empire begins to supply British and Dutch traders
with slaves in exchange for weapons to further their own expansion
and avoid war with the slave traders.
1704
* South Carolina put laws in place that would help capture
slaves. White plantation owners as well as other Whites were
offered rewards if they helped capture any runaway slaves. Slave
patrols where formed to capture runaway slaves. If these
individuals found slaves out past curfews the slaves were brutally
beaten, branded with hot irons and often had their noses slit, and
sometimes killed. By 1722 slave men were being castrated for
running off. Due to this brutality, slave uprisings were taking
place and slave owners were being murdered and massacres were
occurring.
1705
* Virginia passes slave codes which allow slave owners the right
to own slaves like property.
1708
* A slave revolt occurs in Long Island, New York. Seven Whites are
killed. After the incident, one Black is burned alive while two
Blacks and a Native American Indian are lynched.
1712
* 23 slaves' revolt
21 of the 23 slaves
suicide. Paul Cuffe
killed 9 Whites and
1724
* Thomas Fuller an African slave and mathematical genius was
shipped to America. Familiarly known as the Virginia Calculator or
"Negro Tom", was a native of Africa. At the age of 14 he was
stolen, and sold into slavery in Virginia, where he found himself
the property of a planter residing about four miles from
Alexandria. He did not understand the art of reading or writing,
but by a marvelous faculty was able to perform the most difficult
calculations. He had remarkable powers of calculation, and late in
his life was discovered by antislavery campaigners who used him as
a demonstration that Blacks are not mentally inferior to Whites.
1754
* Benjamin Banneker builds the 1st clock, made of wood, in the
United States. The clock kept correct time for 40 years. He was
one of America's best scientists.
1758
* Francis William graduates from Cambridge University becoming the
1st Black college graduate in the western hemisphere.
1760
* Jupiter Hammon writes an autobiography considered to be the 1st
written by a slave. He also wrote a poem An evening thought:
Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries.
1762
* James Derham, the 1st Black physician in America, is born a
slave in Philadelphia. Derham was owned by a doctor who encouraged
him to practice medicine. Working as a medical assistant and
apothecary, Derham saved enough money to buy his freedom in 1783
and he opened a medical practice in New Orleans and became a
leading physician by 1788.
1764
* Slaves revolt on a ship from Connecticut docked in Senegal.
Captain George Faggot and the crew were beaten to death by the
slaves who freed themselves and used clubs found on the ship. The
slaves abandoned the ship to freedom.
1765
* Jenny Slew files suit in Massachusetts for her freedom and wins
back wages.
1770
* Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, became the 1st Black and one
of the 1st casualties of the American Revolution when he was shot
and killed by British soldiers during an argument in Boston,
Massachusetts that erupted into the Boston Massacre.
1777
* Thomas Jefferson came up with a plan for freeing slaves and
sending them back to Africa. The plan did not work but some
Northern Whites liked the plan as a way a getting rid of free
Blacks who were bad examples for slaves.
* Vermont becomes the 1st state to abolish slavery.
* 5000 Africans fight in the Revolutionary war.
* The 1st Black church forms in Savannah, Georgia called the First
African Baptist Church.
1778
* The 1st Black U.S. military regiment forms called the 1st Rhode
Island Regiment.
1779
* A series of wars, lasting 100 years, known as the Cape Frontier
Wars is fought between White colonists and the Xhosa people of
South Africa.
* 500 free Haitian Blacks fought for American independence at the
siege of Savannah, Georgia.
1780
* Pennsylvania makes slavery illegal.
1781
* By the end of the war, over 5000 Blacks had served in the
American Continental Army.
* Massachusetts abolishes slavery.
* James Armistead, born into slavery in Virginia in 1748, enlisted
in the Revolutionary War under French General Marquis de
Lafayette. Working as a spy posing as a runaway slave hired by the
British to spy on the Americans, Armistead gained the trust of
British General Charles Cornwallis and turncoat soldier Benedict
Arnold, providing information that allowed American forces to
prevail at the Battle of Yorktown. Using the details of
Armistead's reports, Lafayette and General George Washington were
able to prevent the British from sending 10,000 reinforcements to
Yorktown, Virginia. The American and French blockade surprised
British forces and crippled their military.
1782
* Captain Luke Collingwood of the slave ship Zong was carrying
slaves from Liverpool to Jamaica and incurred a very high death
rate among the slaves in the hold of the ship because of a few
navigational errors and began to run low on food, water, and other
supplies. Upon reaching the sight of the coastline he panicked and
threw 97 dead bodies overboard. Another 36 were close to death and
scheduled to be thrown overboard. Collingwood had them shackled
1787
* Slavery was made illegal in the Northwest Territory being: Ohio,
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
* The U.S. Constitution is approved, extending slavery for 20
years. The Constitution viewed slaves as property and valued
Blacks as 3/5th the value of a White person.
* Prince Hall forms the 1st Black Masonic Temple to lobby against
slavery and discrimination.
* King Naimbana of Temnes allows a British colony to settle due to
a treaty with a local British Governor.
* The Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery by Quobna
O. Cugoano is published.
1788
* The British invaded Australia. Over the following years, the
invaders used all their manpower, resources and weaponry to
subjugate the indigenous Black people in a war referred to as the
1789
* The autobiography of former slave Olaudah Equiano aka: Gustavus
Vassa is published. Vassa was a prominent African in London and a
freed slave who supported the British movement to end the slave
trade. His autobiography attracted wide attention and was
considered highly influential in gaining passage of the Slave
Trade Act of 1807, which ended the African trade for Britain and
its colonies.
1790
* The first U.S. census records 757,181 Blacks to reside in the
U.S. of whom 59,557 are free.
* The colony at Sierra Leone fails due to disease and destruction
by the local people.
1791
* Toussaint LOuverture leads a rebellion in Haiti that overthrows
British, Spanish and French forces and frees Haiti despite
financial and military support from President George Washington to
stop the uprising. Haiti becomes the 1st Black ruled country in the
Western Hemisphere by 1803. There may be no man more important in
* Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, which increases U.S. cotton
planting and produces greater demand for slave labor to pick the
cotton in the South. The machine removed the seeds from the cotton
faster than the slaves could do by hand. He would patent his
machine by 1798.
providing for his slaves to be freed after his death. 122 of 314
slaves at Mount Vernon were freed; the rest were owned
Martha Washington and by law were owned by her heirs. Washington
left instructions for the care and education of his former slaves,
including financial support for the young and pensions for the
elderly.
* Sojourner Truth, a nationally known speaker on human rights for
slaves and women, is born Isabella Baumfree, a slave in Hurley,
New York.
1798
* Napoleon Bonaparte of France invades and conquers Egypt.
* Blacks fought in the American Revolution, but the Secretary of
War for the Army and Navy prohibits Blacks from serving.
1799
* Emancipation takes place in New York.
* The first President of the United States, George Washington,
dies at Mount Vernon, Virginia. Upon his death he owned 318
slaves.
* Richard Allen becomes the 1st ordained Black minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
* The Rosetta Stone is found by Napoleon Bonapartes army in the
Delta in the African village called Rosetta. The stone contained
the written language of hieroglyphics used by the ancient
Egyptians.
1800-1863: The Fight for Freedom
1800
* Gabriel Prosser and Jack Bowler planed a slave revolt in
Virginia with 1000-armed slaves. The two were arrested because
they were betrayed and their plan was revealed to the Whites. Both
Prosser and Bowler along with 35 slaves were lynched. From the
colonial times to 1800 there were about 250 slave revolts.
* Slaves in Philadelphia petition Congress to end slavery.
1801
1805
* Henri Christophe, a former African slave, became the 1st Black
King in the Western Hemisphere by proclaiming himself as the King
of Haiti. Christophe builds the Citadel fortress which is the
largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere. The Citadel, along
with two dozen other mountaintop forts was built and designed to
keep the newly-independent nation of Haiti safe from French
incursions to ensure the Haitian people never returned to slavery.
1806
* Norbert Rillieux is born. The son of a French planter and a
slave in New Orleans, Rillieux was educated in France. He
developed an evaporator for refining sugar, which he patented in
1846. Rillieuxs evaporation technique is still used in the sugar
industry and in the manufacture of soap and other products.
1807
* England abolishes slave trade because of the efforts of
politician William Wilberforce under the "Slave Trade Act of
1807" or the "Abolition of the Slave Trade Act" which was
an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the title of
"An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The act abolished
the slave trade in the British Empire, in particular the Atlantic
Slave Trade, and also encouraged British action to press other
European states to abolish their slave trades, but it did not
abolish slavery itself. Many of the Bill's supporters thought the
Act would lead to the death of slavery, but it was not until 26
years later that slavery itself was actually abolished.
* The U.S. prohibits the importation of Africans for slavery. The
U.S. Congress passed this piece of landmark legislation to end the
profitable international slave trade and President Thomas
Jefferson promptly signed the act, making it law. The act went
into effect prohibiting the importation of African slaves to the
United States, into any port or place within the jurisdiction of
the United States.
1808
* North America abolishes slave importation and trade but the law
is ignored and not enforced by the government. Smuggling and
* During the War of 1812, most Naval ship crews were 10-20 percent
Black, and as many as one-quarter of the Navy seamen were Black.
1813
* Sweden abolishes slave trade.
1814
* The Dutch outlaw slave trade.
1815
* Paul Cuffe, a rich Black ship owner, took 38 Blacks to West
Africa believing they could live better lives in Africa.
* King Moshoeshoe of Basutoland begins his rule by uniting many
diverse groups into a peaceful society where law and order
prevailed. He often avoided conflict through skillful
negotiations.
1816
* Andrew Jackson ordered the attack of Fort Gadsden, located along
the Apalachicola River, Florida. The abandoned fort, from the war
of 1812, was home to runaway slaves known as Prospect Bluff Fort
or Negro Fort. Warships fired 24-pound red hot cannon balls into
the fort which ignited the forts black powder supply killing 270
Blacks.
* The Bussa revolution occurs when African-born slave named Bussa,
led an uprising in Barbados and marched his army of thousands into
battle against White slave owners who occupied the island. The
fighters eventually killed several plantation owners and took over
half the island before the war was over. Bussas revolution was
the first of three large-scale slave revolts in the British West
Indies.
* Richard Allen becomes the 1st Black Bishop of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church.
1817
* Northern Black leaders spoke out against the idea of Black
colonization in Africa. Blacks wanted to stay in America but with
equal rights to Whites and ending slavery in the South.
1818
* The American Colonization Society was formed by Southern slave
owners. The society bought land in West Africa and formed a Black
colony called Liberia for free Blacks to colonize. Only about
15,000 Blacks settled in the new African colony. By 1820 most
African Americans had been born in the United States.
* African American leader and statesman Frederick Douglass is
born. Douglass was one of the leaders of the abolitionist
movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States in
the decades prior to the Civil War.
* King Khama, the good king of Bechuanaland, was a peace loving
king who enriched his people with technological innovations that
increased his countrys wealth and prestige.
* King Shaka of the Zulus begins his rule by revolutionizing
Bantu warfare tactics and weapons. Over time, Shakas army of over
a million strong had such a deadly reputation that they would
cause fear to any opposing force causing them to run away. Shaka
was able to unify many different ethnic groups to fight European
colonialism.
1819
* Florida became a territory of the U.S., but before that it was a
Spanish territory. Florida became a U.S. state in 1845. Spain did
not recognize the legality of slavery as it was practiced in the
U.S., therefore, many slaves escaped to Florida, where Spain freed
them and gave them land. A large Native American, Seminole
community had existed in Florida since 1750. Blacks and Seminoles
inter-married, worked together, and formed a community. The
existence of freed slaves angered Whites in neighboring states,
and the U.S. Army, acting on their behalf, waged war against the
Black-Seminole alliance in 1816-1818. An uneasy peace after the
war ended when a second war occurred in 1835-1838 against what had
become a mixed-race community. Many were killed. About 500 slaves
were returned to captivity, and many of the Seminoles, forcibly,
were moved west to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma. The Seminoles
were uneasy living in the Territory because they were regarded as
Blacks and subject to capture and sale. The mixed race nation
moved again, and this time to Mexico. The fighting abilities of
the Seminole Black Indian nation were legendary. The fighters
became known as Buffalo Soldiers because their matted hair
resembled the matted hair of buffaloes. In 1856, Mexican President
Ignacio Commonfort hired Seminole fighters to protect the state of
Coahuila from Comanches, and they were also recruited and paid to
fight against the Kickapoo Indians.
1823
* Mississippi enacts a law prohibiting the teaching of reading and
writing to Blacks and meetings of more than 5 slaves or free
Blacks at one time in the same place.
* Alexander L. Twilight graduates from Middlebury College and
becomes the 1st Black college graduate in the U.S.
1825
* Argentina, Peru, Chile and Bolivia abolish slavery.
1827
* The Freedoms Journal is the 1st African American owned and
operated newspaper published in the United States. The Journal was
published weekly in New York City from 1827 to 1829 and edited by
John Russworm.
* Mary R. Boegues forms the 1st Black congregation of Catholic
nuns, the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
* George M. Horton writes a book of poems called The Hope of
Liberty which becomes the first book of poems published by a
Black man in the U.S.
* England declares slave trade to be piracy.
1828
* Tarenorerer, leader of the Tommeginne people in Tasmania,
gathered a group of men and women from many bands of Aborigines
and initiated warfare against invading Europeans. Training her
warriors in the use of firearms, she ordered them to strike the
White men when they were at their most vulnerable, between the
time that their guns were discharged and before they were able to
reload. She was called Walyer by White seal hunters of the Bass
Strait Islands.
1829
* Mexico abolishes slavery and becomes a refuge for fugitive
slaves.
1830
United States. In 1802, the U.S. Army reported that 512 Blacks
lived in the Choctaw Nation. By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans from
the southeastern states had been removed from their homelands,
thereby opening 25 million acres for White settlement.
1831
* Nat Turner, The Black Prophet of South Hampton County,
Virginia, led a 2-day free will slave revolt of 70 slaves and
killed 60 Whites because he believed God wanted him to free the
slaves. Afterwards, hundreds of Blacks were caught, arrested and
tried. Turner and 30 of his followers were hung.
* William Lloyd Garrison, a White abolitionist, prints the 1st
copy of the anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator.
* Between 1831-1861 an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 slaves escape
to the North and freedom using the Underground Railroad. White
sympathizers would help and shelter slaves along the way to the
free states.
* The Underground Railroad is given its name as the Underground
Railroad.
* Jamaican Baptist preacher, Samuel Sharpe, led a 10-day revolt
in which 60,000 of Jamaicas 300,000 enslaved population engaged
in the conflict against plantation owners killing several and
burning the plantations causing $1,865,815.00 in damage.
1832
* The anti-slavery Abolitionist Party is founded in Boston
Massachusetts.
* Slavery enriched the South, but also drove the industrial boom
in the North. The steady stream of large quantities of cotton was
the lifeblood of textile mills in Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
and generated wealth for the owners of those mills. The mills
consumed 100,000 days of enslaved peoples labor every year.
Slavery in the South was also instrumental in changing the
demographic face of the North, as Europeans streamed in to work in
the regions factories.
1833
* Oberlin College is founded in Ohio, becoming the first college
in the U.S. with the mission to educate African Americans.
* A boarding school operated by Prudence Crandall in Canterbury,
Connecticut opened for Black girls. When citizens heard about the
new school, they gathered and tried to burn the school down and
threw manure at Crandall. Local doctors refused to treat her and
the grocers and other stores stopped allowing her to patron them.
A vagrancy law was enacted under which ten lashes on their bare
backs was invoked against the young Black students. This was
during a time when White mobs in several localities invaded Black
schools where books were burned and teachers who dared to teach
Blacks were ran out of town. Crandall wanted to protect her
students, so she made the decision to close the school and
ultimately moved away from the area.
1834
* Henry Blair of Greenross, Maryland becomes the 1st Black to be
granted a patent from the U.S. patent office for a seed planter.
* The British Empire outlaws slavery.
* A three-day riot occurs in Philadelphia and several homes were
burned to the ground. Free Black men were being kidnapped, beaten
and sold back into slavery in the south. Blacks living in a free
state did not have a guarantee of freedom. Even when freed Blacks
traveled with their freedom papers, they still had to be extremely
cautious. Free Blacks were often kidnapped and sold back into
slavery.
* The State vs. Negro named Will, celebrated a North
Carolina Supreme Court decision standing for the general
proposition that if a slave in self-defense, under circumstances
strongly calculated to excite passions of terror, resentment and
1840
* Slave trade superseded Zanzibar's traditional export of ivory,
rubber, cowries, furs and cloves. From 1840 to 1856 Zanzibar was
probably the most important trade city on the East African coast
with up to 50,000 African slaves per year being sold at the slave
market in the city.
1841
* Frederick Douglass becomes an abolitionist speaker against
slavery.
* 14 Africans revolt aboard the slave ship Creole from Richmond,
Virginia and seize the crew and sail to the Bahamas where all 135
slaves gain their freedom.
* William Liedesdorff becomes the 1st Black millionaire.
* King Behanzin Bowelle of West Africa begins his strong
resistance of European intervention into his country by having a
standing army including 5000 female warriors. Bowelle was known as
the King Shark who was fond of music.
1842
1846
* Rebecca Cole is born in Philadelphia. In 1867, Cole became the
2nd Black woman to graduate from medical school. She joined
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the 1st White woman physician, in New
York and taught hygiene and childcare to families in poor
neighborhoods.
* The Wilmot Proviso written by Democratic Representative David
Wilmot of Pennsylvania attempts to ban slavery in the territory
gained by the Mexican War. The proviso is blocked by Southerners,
but continues to enflame the debate over slavery.
* Sweden abolishes slavery.
1847
* David J. Peck graduates from Rush Medical College, becoming the
1st Black to graduate from an American Medical school of medicine.
* Joseph J. Roberts, the son of free Blacks, is elected the 1st
president of Liberia to become the 1st Black president of any
nation.
* Frederick Douglas begins publishing the anti-slavery newspaper
North Star in New York.
1848
* Lewis H. Latimer is born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Latimer
learned mechanical drawing while working for a Boston patent
attorney. He later invented an electric lamp and obtained a patent
for a carbon filament for light bulbs. Latimer was the only
African American member of Thomas Edisons engineering laboratory.
* Mary E. Pleasant, born a slave, moved out west during the
California gold rush. She started a restaurant / hotel in San
Francisco and helped change the law that wouldn't let Blacks speak
in court. She also led the fight that won Blacks the right to ride
on the San Francisco streetcars.
* The California gold rush started the era for Blacks to get their
freedom in the West and the right to business and land ownership.
Although they still faced prejudice, they had much more freedom
than they did on the East coast.
1854
* Ashmun Institute charted in Oxford, Pennsylvania becomes
Americas 1st Negro college founded in the U.S. to educate Blacks.
It was later renamed Lincoln University in 1866.
* The Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed which said people living in
Kansas or Nebraska could decide for them selves whether to own
slaves. This repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and renews
tensions between anti and pro slavery factions.
1855
* The 1st Black newspaper in the West was started.
* John M. Langston of Brownhelm, Ohio is elected to political
office and becomes the 1st Black to serve in the U.S. government
* The sale of African slaves continues. Males are called Bucks
while females are called Wenches. The descriptions are derogatory.
1856
* Wilberforce University, the 1st Black school of higher learning
in the United States, is founded by the African Methodist
Episcopal Church.
* Biddy Mason won her freedom from slavery, worked as a
nurse/midwife and then became a successful entrepreneur and a
generous contributor to social causes. She was born August 15,
1818 in Mississippi, as a slave on a plantation owned by Robert M.
Smith and Rebecca (Crosby) Smith. She had three daughters, Ellen,
Ann and Harriet, whose father was reputedly Smith himself. Mason
moved to California in 1851 which had been admitted to the Union
in 1850 as a free state and that slavery was forbidden there where
she became a successful real estate developer.
* Granville T. Woods is born in Columbus, Ohio. Largely selfeducated, he was awarded more than 60 patents. One of his most
important inventions was a telegraph that allowed moving trains to
communicate with other trains and train stations, thus improving
railway efficiency and safety.
* Daniel H. Williams is born in Pennsylvania. He attended medical
school in Chicago, where he founded Provident Hospital in 1891.
Williams performed the 1st successful open-heart surgery in 1893.
* Booker T. Washington was born in Franklin County, Virginia.
* The African American village known as "Seneca Village", founded
by African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in Manhattan, New
York, was destroyed to create central park covering 5 acres lands.
The City of New York acquired the village through eminent domain.
1858
* Senate hopeful, Abraham Lincoln gives a speech about slavery
saying, A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe
this government cannot endure half slave and half free. It will
become all one thing, or all the other.
* William W. Brown publishes the 1st Black drama titled A Leap for
Freedom.
* Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the Kansas-Missouri border
with a raiding party of twenty abolitionists to rescue a slave
named Daniels and neighboring slaves and their families. Eleven
slaves were freed during the raid.
1859
* Abolitionist John Brown raided the Federal arsenal along with 21
other Blacks and Whites at Harpers Ferry Virginia to obtain arms
1860
* Thomas Wiggins made history by being the first African American
man to perform at the White House after he was invited by
President James Buchanan. Thomas was born into slavery in 1849
with the added harshness of being blind and autistic. At the age
of 5 he was discovered to be a musical prodigy after hearing his
slave owner's daughter play the piano and he emulated what he
heard almost perfectly.
* George Washington Carver was born into slavery in Missouri.
Carver later earned a degree from the Iowa Agricultural College.
The director of agricultural research at the Tuskegee Institute
from 1896 until his death, Carver developed hundreds of
applications for farm products important to the economy of the
South, including the peanut, sweet potato, soybean and pecan.
* Cudjo Lewis (Oluale Kossola) is thought to be the last person
born on African soil to have been enslaved in the United States
making him the last survivor of the last slave ship to enter the
United States. Kossola was captured in Africa and sold to William
Foster, captain of the Clotilda. The Clotilda was the last slave
ship to bring slaves to the United States, arrived in Mobile Bay,
Alabama. Kossola was among 110 enslaved Africans spending an
estimated 45 days aboard the Clotilda crossing the ocean until
reaching Mississippi. Cudjo worked on a steamship and was subject
to overwork and poor living conditions for five years until being
informed he was free by Union soldiers. Cudjo died in 1935.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population is 4,441,790
being 14.1% of the U.S. population.
* The 1st African American baseball team to tour the country is
called the Brooklyn Excelsiors.
the child was born and grew to an age where he could work in the
fields, they would take the very same children (of their) own
blood and make slaves out of them.
* If an enslaved woman was considered pretty, she would be
bought by a plantation owner and given special treatment in the
house, but often subjected to horrifying cruelty by the masters
wife, including the beheading of Black children because they were
the product of an enslaved women and master's sexual affair.
1861
* The Confederacy is founded when the South secedes from the Union
and the American Civil War begins, pitting the slave States of the
South against the Free States of North. Jefferson Davis becomes
President of the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy
fires upon Ft. Sumter at Charleston South Carolina. The
Confederate 1st Louisiana Native Guard becomes the 1st U.S. military
unit to have Black officers.
* The $50 bill issued in Montgomery, Alabama, featured slaves
hoeing cotton. Like other vignettes it is a peaceful pastoral
scene that depicts slaves diligently working without any oversight
and in full view of the plantation mansion. These scenes provided
a stark contrast to how many White Southerners perceived their
Northern neighbors, who had embraced a morality associated with
industry and free labor. Issued a few months later, the $10 bill
once again depicts slaves in the field, this time during the
harvest season. Both bills introduce slaves that are well dressed
and working without any threats of physical violence, which by the
beginning of the war had defined many Northern accounts of the
Souths peculiar institution as they were unaware of the South's
brutal atrocities inflicted upon their slaves.
* 75,000 Blacks volunteered for the Union Army and were rejected
for fear of alienating pro-slavery sympathizers in the North and
the Border States. With time, though, this position weakened, and
African Americans, both free Northerners and escaped Southerners,
were allowed to enlist. By the end of the war four years later,
more than 186,000 African American soldiers had served, including
several officers, making up 10 percent of the Union army. More
than 38,000 lost their lives, and 21 were awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor, including Sergeant Major Christian
Fleetwood.
* John S. Rock becomes the 1st Black lawyer to argue cases before
the U.S. Supreme Court to end slavery.
* Nicholas Biddle becomes one of the 1st Blacks wounded during the
Civil War.
* William C. Nell is appointed postal clerk in Boston,
Massachusetts becoming the 1st Black to hold a federal civilian
post.
* Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the life of a slave girl becomes
the 1st published autobiography of a Black woman.
* Pickney Pinchback, born of a slave, runs the Confederate
blockade on the Mississippi River and recruits volunteers for the
Union Army called the Corps dAfrique.
1862
* President Abraham Lincoln felt that the only slaves that should
be free were the ones living in the Confederate states. In August,
Lincoln stated: "If I could save the Union without freeing any
slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the
slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and
leaving others alone I would also do that." In fact, by that time,
immense pressure was building to end slavery and Lincoln had
privately concluded that he could save the Union only by issuing
an Emancipation Proclamation, which he had already drafted. His
motivation was not the free slaves, but to unite the north and the
south.
* Edmonia Lewis discovered a talent for art after attending
Oberlin College in Ohio. She would go on to become a famous
sculptor who sculpted the head John Brown. Brown was a White man
who was killed because he tried to free some slaves. One of
Lewiss famous sculptures is named Forever Free.
* Elizabeth Keckley becomes the first Black designer for the White
House after spending 38 years as a slave before buying her freedom
for $1200. Keckley became the personal dressmaker for Mary Todd
Lincoln, President Lincoln's wife.
* 22 year old slave Robert Smalls and eight enslaved crew of the
Confederate steam ship Planter steal the ship near Fort Sumter,
South Carolina as General Roswell Ripley and his officers went
ashore to attend a party. Smalls and the crew sailed the ship,
fully stocked with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Howitzer guns
and other weapons, toward a fleet of Union ships blockading the
slaves were freed. Tubman became the 1st woman to lead a U.S. Army
raid.
* The New York City draft riots occur. Anti-Conscription riots
last for 4 days, during which hundreds of Blacks were killed or
wounded. Stemming from deep worker discontent with the inequities
of the first federally mandated conscription laws. In addition,
the White working class feared that emancipation of enslaved
Blacks would cause an influx of African-American workers from the
South.
1865
* The Fort Pillow massacre occurred during the Civil War as
Confederate troops slaughter Black Union troops stationed at Fort
Pillow, Tennessee. The action stemmed from Southern outrage at the
Norths use of Black soldiers. Confederate forces under
General Nathan B. Forrest captured the Fort and killed over 300
Black men, women and children after the Fort surrendered.
* On June 19th, Slavery in the U.S. effectively ends when 250,000
slaves in Texas received news that the Civil War ended two months
earlier. Union Major General Gordon Granger notified the slaves
that they were free. This occurred 30 months after the
Emancipation Proclamation speech was given ending slavery. This
day would go on to become known as Juneteenth Day or freedom day
to commemorate the day when the last slaves were notified of their
freedom. President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation had little
impact on the Texans up to this point due to the minimal number of
Union troops available to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.
* Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May 1st, in
Charleston, South Carolina to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who
had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They
dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper
burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held
a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 black children as Union
troops entered the city which included the Twenty First Colored
Infantry where they marched, sang and celebrated. Their
celebration called the first Decoration Day, later became
Memorial Day.
their responsibility to clear the way for Whites, build forts and
maintain order on a frontier overrun by outlaws and occupied by
Native Americans who were battling land-grabbing and murdering
White intruders.
* Black Codes were enacted and used as a unique way for White
southerners to maintain the way of life they had known prior to
the civil war. While freedom for Blacks had been won, ex-slaves
were restricted and opportunities very limited. The 1st States to
use the codes were Louisiana, Mississippi and Ohio. These codes
were used to keep Blacks on an economic and social level below
Whites.
* The 12 years following the Civil War (1865-1877) is called
Reconstruction. Its purpose was to rebuild the South and mend
relations with the North. Congress established the Freedmens
Bureau to provide health care, education and technical assistance
to 4 million emancipated slaves. Almost 250,000 Blacks were taught
to read and write.
* Black infantry regiments were called Buffalo Soldiers. The 25th
Infantry Regiment was stationed at Fort Keogh, Missouri. Black
troops earned the nickname "Buffalo Soldiers" from the Cheyenne
and Comanche Indians for their great ability in battle, for their
dark skin and their hair was like that of buffalo fur. The
Buffalo Soldiers made up 20% of the cavalry forces and lasted
into the early 1890s.
1866
* Congress overrides President Andrew Johnsons veto and passes
the Civil Rights Act, giving Blacks citizenship and equal rights
with Whites.
* The U.S. Army creates 6 Black cavalry and infantry regiments.
* White civilians and police in Memphis Tennessee kill 46 Blacks
and injure many more, then burn 90 houses, 12 schools and 4
churches in what is known as the Memphis Massacre.
* Congress approves the 14th Amendment to the Constitution,
guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law
to all citizens. The amendment also grants citizenship to Blacks.
* The Ku Klux Klan, a White organization formed to intimidate
Blacks and other ethnic and religious minorities, first meets in
the Maxwell house in Memphis, Tennessee. The Klan was the 1st of
many secret terrorist organizations organized in the South to
re-establish White authority. The Klan was founded by 6 former
Confederate soldiers. The name Ku Klux Klan is a distortion of the
Greek word Kuklos. The Klan grew from a group of men playing
pranks on Blacks in 1866 into the oppression, mayhem and murder of
Blacks by 1868. Former Confederate General, Nathan B. Forrest
became the 1st Grand Wizard of the KKK.
* Cathy Williams is the 1st recorded Black woman in the U.S. Army
by serving in the 8th Indiana volunteer infantry.
* The Carroll County Courthouse Massacre occurs in Mississippi
when more than one hundred African Americans were victims of
assault or murder. Approximately 50-100 White men on horseback
rode into town, stormed the courthouse and began shooting at Black
people. The massacre was a mass attack upon a group of African
Americans in the courtroom, or on the courthouse grounds. Ten
Blacks were killed and later thirteen more would die from their
wounds.
1867
* Charles H. Turner is born. Turner, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio,
became a noted authority on the behavior of insects and was the
first researcher to prove that insects can hear.
* Madame C.J. Walker is born. Widowed at 20, the Louisiana-born
Sarah B. Walker supported herself and her daughter as a
washerwoman. In the early 1900s she developed a hair-care system
and other beauty products. Her Indianapolis-based business amassed
a fortune and she became a patron of many Black charities. She
became the 1st women of any race to earn a million dollars.
* Congress overrides President Andrew Johnsons veto granting
Blacks the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
* Reconstruction begins. Reconstruction Acts were passed by
Congress calling for enfranchisement of former slaves in the
South.
* Robert T. Freeman becomes the 1st Black to graduate from Harvard
University.
* The Negro Baseball League begins.
* Morehouse College of Atlanta, Georgia is founded.
1868
* The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, granting
citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United
States. Blacks become citizens.
* Oscar Dunn of Louisiana becomes the 1st Black elected lieutenant
governor.
1870
* Hiram R. Revels of Mississippi becomes the 1st Black in congress
by being elected a U.S. Senator.
* The 15th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified guaranteeing
Black men the right to vote. Thomas M. Peterson is the 1st Black to
vote. Women do not get the right until 1920.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population is 4,880,009
being 12.7% of the U.S. population. This is the first time Blacks
are listed by name.
* Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina, becomes the 1st Black elected
to the House of Representatives.
* Richard T. Greener becomes the 1st Black to graduate from Harvard
University. He went on to become a professor of metaphysics.
* Mummy caches and tombs are found in Egypt.
1871
* The Fisk University Jubilee singers begin their 1st national tour
becoming world famous singers of Black spiritual music. The money
they earned built the Fisk University.
* Under President Ulysses S. Grant, congress passes a law (Ku Klux
Klan Act) making it illegal for the KKK to whip or kill Blacks for
the purpose of terrorizing them into not voting. The Klan would
evolve into the Red Shirt rifle club who continued the ways of the
Klan by killing Blacks and White Republicans for voting and
promoting equality. The law would expire in 1872 without renewal.
* Howard University establishes a law school.
* Brazil condemns slavery.
* James A. Healy becomes the 1st Black Roman Catholic Bishop in the
United States.
* The Colfax Massacre occurs in Alabama as Whites kill over 60
Blacks on Easter Sunday.
* W.C. Handy, credited for creating The Blues, is born.
* The slave market in Zanzibar is closed.
* Puerto Rico abolishes slavery.
1874
* Patrick F. Healy becomes the 1st Black President of a
predominantly White University, being the University of
Georgetown.
* Diamonds are discovered in South Africa.
* Edward A. Bouchet becomes the 1st Black to receive a doctorate
degree from an American university when he graduated from Yale.
* 16 Blacks are tortured and lynched in Tennessee.
* The KKK kills 75 Blacks for protesting the removal of a Black
Sheriff from office in Vicksburg, Michigan.
* The city of Kumasi was destroyed by British troops in the third
Anglo-Ashanti War of 1874. Kumasi was the capital of the Asante
Kingdom from the 10th century to 20th century. It is now a city in
the Ashanti Region, South Ghana, and is one of the largest
metropolitan areas of Ghana. It is known as The Garden City
because of its plethora of exotic plants.
1875
* Congress approved the Civil Rights Act guaranteeing Equal
Rights to Blacks in public accommodations and jury duty. The
Supremes Court invalidated the legislation in 1883.
* Mary McLeod Bethune is born in Mayesville, North Carolina. She
becomes an educator, government official and Black leader.
* Carter G. Woodson is born in New Canton, Virginia. He earned a
doctorate in history from Harvard University and became known as
the Father of Black History.
1876
* Edmund A. Bouchet becomes the 1st Black to be awarded a Ph.D. in
science. He earned his degree in physics from Yale University
Phi Beta Kappa, and was the 1st Black to graduate from Yale.
* A summer of race riots and terrorism directed at Blacks occurred
in South Carolina by the KKK. President Grant sent Federal Troops
in to restore order after more than 60 Blacks are killed.
* Isaiah Dorman was the only Black man to die at the Battle of
Little Bighorn. General George Armstrong Custer hired Dorman as an
interpreter for his expedition to the Little Bighorn Country.
Dorman worked as a messenger, carrying messages between military
forts while living with the Sioux. Dorman was fluent in Lakota and
the language of the Sioux people.
* Edward M. Bannister becomes the 1st Black to achieve full
recognition in America as a painter.
* The last full-blood Black person in Tasmania, Truganini, died at
73 years of age. Her mother had been stabbed to death by a
European. Her sister was kidnapped by Europeans. Her intended
husband was drowned by two Europeans in her presence, while his
murderers raped her.
1877
* Slavery and reconstruction comes to an end in America. The
chains are removed but racism, oppression and discrimination
continues through fraud, violence and intimidation. The Northern
capitalist establishment decisively turned their backs on
Reconstruction, striking a deal with the old slavocracy to return
the South to White supremacist rule in exchange for the Souths
acceptance of capitalist expansion.
1884
* 51 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Moses F. Walker becomes the 1st Black to play in professional
baseball. He was a catcher on the Toledo team of the American
Association.
* Henry V. Plummer becomes the 1st Black chaplain of the U.S. Army.
* British control of Nigeria is expanded.
* James C. Farley becomes the 1st Black to gain recognition as a
photographer.
* The Berlin Conference occurs which regulated European
colonization and trade in Africa. During this period, land was
divided amongst the European elite without African representation.
European countries divided and occupied Africa in the name of
progress. The scramble for Africa was the invasion, occupation,
colonization, exploitation and annexing of African territory
during the new imperialism period which led to the conquest of
Africa. European states had claimed nearly 90 percent of African
territory. Fourteen countries were represented at the conference
but seven became major players (Belgium, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Italy, Portugal and Spain) in the drawing of maps and
creating a hodgepodge of boundaries making fifty irregular
countries and combining different cultures, religions and ethnic
groups while at the same time forcing others to separate resulting
in poverty, homelessness and social displacement. The occupying
countries striped the land of natural resources (diamonds, gold,
iron, ivory, cobalt, uranium, copper, rubber, silver, petroleum,
salt, cocoa beans, wood and more) using forced African labor and
causing the deaths of untold millions of Africans and countless
thousands of animals from big game hunting safaris and exporting
animal products.
1885
* The 1st all-Black baseball team is formed and initially named
the Argyle Athletics. They toured the North East; often playing
the best White teams in the area, but are usually met with
resistance from White fans. With hopes of attracting more White
fans to the games, team owner Walter Cook attempts to fool the
public by changing the teams name to the Cuban Giants. The
* Sarah E. Goode becomes the 1st Black woman to hold a U.S. patent
by inventing a convertible cabinet / bed.
1886
* The original model and idea for the Statue of Liberty was of a
Black woman. The Statue of Liberty idea was conceived at a dinner
party in 1865 at the home of Edouard de Laboulaye, a prominent
French abolitionist, following the death of President Abraham
Lincoln and the end of the Civil War. The Statue of Liberty is
erected on Ellis Island, N.Y. as a gift from the French to
celebrate the 100th birthday of Americas Independence while the
original idea for the statue was to celebrate the end of slavery
in America. This twist on history perpetuates and promotes White
supremacy at the expense of Black pride. It was because the model
was Black that stimulated the original idea for the 151 foot
statue in the Harbor. Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was
known for drawing Black women of Egypt and once proposed a huge
statue of a robed women holding a torch symbolizing Egypt
Bringing the Light to Asia for the opening of the Suez Canal in
1869, but the idea was rejected. The idea for the creation
initially was for the part that Black soldiers played in the
ending of African-American Bondage in the United States during the
Civil War. It was created by French historian Edouard de Laboulaye
and French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi who were members of
the French Anti-slavery Society. The statues design went through
many evolutionary changes before Bartholdi settled on the final
design due in part to rejection of his earlier ideas. At first,
she held broken chains in her left hand and around her feet to
symbolize the broken chains of slavery and bondage. Bartholdi
later decided she would hold a tablet inscribed with the date of
the Declaration of Independence and a fragment of chain would be
on the ground, as if she had already thrown it there. The final
design was chosen to appease White Americans who refused to accept
a Black Liberty because it was a reminder of Blacks winning their
freedom and it was an insult to the Southern states that had lost
the war. By the time of its dedication in 1886, European
immigration to the United States had increased so substantially,
that earlier meanings associated with the statue were eclipsed and
lost. As time passed the predominant understanding of the statues
meaning evolved into being freedom, peace, liberty, justice and
friendship.
(This topic is widely disputed and many sources are quick to argue
that the notion and rumor of a Black model is completely false,
however articles from the National Park Service and the
Smithsonian lean toward supporting the story as likely being true
if you have an open mind. Those opposed to the idea use the
argument that there is no proof to support the story. Supporters
of the story view the story from the point of view and vision of
the sculptor along with the events of time period. The photo below
on the left is a statue on the island of St. Martin in the
Caribbean created to represent the idea of the original Statue of
Liberty. The photo on the right are the chains of the actual
Statue of Liberty that represent slavery. Given the amount of
racism against Blacks in America and the whitewashing of Black
history, it's easier to believe the story being true than not.)
1887
* John W.E. Bowen becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D in
vocational fields.
* 70 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Ethiopians defeat Italian invaders near Dogali.
1889
* Ida B. Wells and partners publish the Memphis Free Speech
newspaper.
1896
* The Supreme Court decides in Plessy vs. Ferguson that
Separate but Equal facilities are legal and satisfy 14th
Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow
segregation laws. Homer Plessy wanted to sit in the car for Whites
on a train. J.H. Ferguson was the Judge. The ruling stands until
1954.
* The National Association of Colored Women is formed. Mary C.
Terrell is elected the 1st president.
* Blacks lose their right to vote after the Poll Tax law is
enacted. Another law was passed requiring Blacks be able to read.
Because most Blacks were too poor to pay the tax and could not
read, they lost many of their rights. This was done purposely to
exclude Black from voting.
1898
* The Spanish-American War begins. 16 regiments of Black
volunteers were recruited and 4 saw combat. 5 Blacks won
The Congressional Medal of Honor.
* A sanctuary for former enslaved elderly women and slave
survivors known as the faith home is formed New Orleans, LA. The
old freed women had been worn out from years of slavery. They were
usually rag-pickers and had a little hut where they lodged at
night, and ate old scraps they had begged for during the day.
* The National Afro-American Council is founded. Alexander Walters
is elected president.
* The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Insurance Company and
the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington, D.C.
are established. Both companies were Black owned.
* 60 Blacks are known to have been killed during a race riot in
Wilmington, North Carolina. Unconfirmed Black deaths reach into
the hundreds as thousands were driven from the city.
* 101 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* David Crosthwait is born in Nashville, Tennessee. An expert on
heating, ventilation and air conditioning,(HVAC),designed the
heating system for Radio City Music Hall in New York. He received
40 U.S. patents relating to HVAC systems.
* Robert Cole produces A Trip to Coontown, the first full-length
musical by Blacks on Broadway.
* Louisiana disenfranchises Blacks by passing a grandfather
clause limiting the right to vote to Blacks. The clause allowed
any Black to vote whose father or grandfather was qualified to
vote on January 1, 1867. The problem is that no Blacks had the
right to vote in 1867.
1899
* Nineteen year old Frank Embree is accused of raping a 14-yearold White girl. Although he maintained that he was innocent, he
was whipped over 100 times until he confessed to the crime, saying
he would own up, if his captors would hang him or shoot him
instead or torturing him. Outnumbered and handcuffed, Embree was
paraded to his hanging in the nude and lynched without a trial.
lynch law was used for mob justice to lynch Blacks for any reason
Whites saw fit.
* The Bureau of the Census reported that 218,227 Negro washerwomen
worked as domestic servants.
* The Paris Exposition was held in the United States showing an
exhibition on African-Americans. The Exposition des Negres
dAmerique won several awards for excellence for the works of
Daniel A.P. Murray.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to be
8,833,994 being 11.6% of the U.S. population. The average life
expectancy of Blacks is 25% lower than Whites.
* 37 years after the battle of Fort Wagner, William H. Carney of
the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry is cited as the 1st
Congressional Medal of Honor winner for carrying the colors and
leading the charge into battle.
* 117 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Britain controls Nigeria.
* Booker T. Washington publishes his book Up from Slavery.
* James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson write the song Lift Every
Voice and Sing. It becomes the Black National Anthem.
* Historians estimate that between 650 and 1900 A.D., 10 to 20
million Africans were enslaved by Arab slave traders. Others
believe over 20 million enslaved Africans had been delivered
through the trans-Sahara route to the Islamic world. Dr. John
Alembillah Azumah reveals in his 2001 book, The Legacy of ArabIslam in Africa estimates that over 80 million Black people died
en route to their final destination. The Arab slave trade
typically dealt in the sale of castrated male slaves. Black boys
between the age of 8 and 12 had their scrotums and penises
completely amputated to prevent them from reproducing. About 6 of
every 10 boys bled to death during the procedure, according to
some sources, but the high price brought by eunuchs on the market
made the practice profitable. Arab enslavers targeted African
women for rape maintaining a ratio of two women for each man.
These women and young girls were used by Arabs and other Asians as
concubines and menials. A Muslim slaveholder was entitled by law
1903
* W.E.B. Du Bois's celebrated book, The Souls of Black Folk, is
published. In it, Du Bois rejected the gradualism of
Booker T. Washington, calling for agitation and protest on behalf
of African-American rights. Du Bois was the 1st Black to receive a
Ph.D from Harvard University. By contrast in their approach to
equal rights, the two men could be compared to Malcolm X and
Martin Luther King Jr. One is for peace and one approves of
violence as a means to achieve equality.
* 84 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Maggie L. Walker becomes the Bank President of St. Luke Bank &
Trust Company and the 1st Black woman bank president.
* Williams and Walker open In Dahomey the 1st all Black musical
on a major Broadway stage.
* Sarah Breedlove MacWilliams aka: Madam C.J. Walker starts a
Black hair-care business in Denver and eventually becomes
Americas 1st female millionaire.
* T. Nelson Baker becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D in
psychology and philosophy.
* Robert S. Abbott publishes The Chicago Defender, Chicagos 1st
Black newspaper. Within a decade, it is one of the countrys most
influential Black weekly papers.
1905
* African American intellectuals and activists, led by
W.E.B. Du Bois and William M. Trotter, begin the Niagara
Movement to ensure Blacks received the same rights as Whites
through protests. This tactic led to the deaths of 8 Blacks near
President Abraham Lincolns old home in Springfield, Illinois.
* 57 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Former slave Alonzo F. Herndon opened the Atlanta Life Insurance
Company and became one of Americas richest businessmen.
1906
* President Theodore Roosevelt discharged 3 companies of Black
soldiers in Brownsville, Texas, in the Brownsville Affair, after a
shooting that took place that arose out of tensions between Black
soldiers and White citizens which left one White man dead and
another White man injured. The blame for the shooting was laid at
the doorstep of Black soldiers who were based at Fort Brown. The
commanders that were over the soldiers insisted that all were in
their barracks at the time of the incident. As a result President
Roosevelt dishonorably discharged 167 Black soldiers of the 25th
infantry regiment, a unit of the Buffalo soldiers, from the U.S.
Army costing them pensions and preventing them from serving in
civil service jobs. President Roosevelt believed the infantrymen
were upholding a silent conspiracy, and were thus guilty of the
crime.
* Leroy Satchel Paige is born. Paige would go on to become the
1st Black pitcher in the American League player for the Cleveland
Indians and 1st Black representative in the hall of fame from the
Negro League.
* 62 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Josephine Baker is born Freda McDonald in St. Louis. Missouri.
* The Atlanta race riot occurs from increasing tensions between
Black wage-workers and the White elite. Ill-feelings were further
exacerbated when Blacks gained more civil rights, including the
right to vote. Atlanta newspapers falsely reported four alleged
assaults on local White women. Soon, some 10,000 White men and
boys began gathering, beating, and stabbing Blacks. It is
1907
* Alain L. Locke becomes the 1st Black Rhodes Scholar after
studying at Oxford University and the University of Berlin.
* The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision to uphold
segregation of railroad passenger cars.
1908
* Thurgood Marshall is born in Baltimore, Maryland. Marshall was
the attorney for the N.A.A.C.P. in the landmark case Brown vs.
Board of Education in 1954, in which the Supreme Court found
segregated schools to be inherently unequal. He later became the
1st Black appointed to the Supreme Court.
* In Birmingham, Kentucky about 100 armed Whites on horseback
raided the Black part of the town, shooting seven people, three of
them fatally driving them off their land. In all there were 14
cases where Black landowners were driven from Birmingham.
Together, they lost more than 60 acres of farmland and 21 city
lots to Whites. In Hickman, Kentucky 50 hooded White men
surrounded the home of a Black farmer setting it on fire and
shooting the occupants as they ran out killing several family
members and taking their 2 1/2 acres of farm land.
* The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority was founded at Howard
University becoming the 1st Black sorority.
1912
* 61 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The 1st Black film was the Railroad Porter directed by
Bill Foster, a pioneer Black filmmaker.
* W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues, published the 1st blues
song in Memphis, Tennessee which becomes a huge hit.
* Carter G. Woodson, the Father of Black History Week later
called Black History Month received his Ph.D. in history from
Harvard University.
1913
* President Woodrow Wilson begins government-wide segregation of
work places, rest rooms and lunchrooms.
* The 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation is
celebrated.
* Harriet Tubman, hero of the Underground Railroad and the Black
Suffrage Movement, dies.
* Rosa Parks is born in Tuskegee, Alabama.
* 51 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The formal organization for Black dentists forms which later
became the National Dental Association.
1914
* Marcus Garvey (Mozian Manasseth) forms the 1st Black mass
movement organization, the United Negro Improvement Association
(UNIA) to unite Blacks under the motto One God, One Aim, One
Destiny. Garvey was an advocate of the Back to Africa movement.
1917
* America enters World War I. More than 400,000 Blacks served and
fought under segregation laws. Some Blacks became officers but
they were not allowed to lead soldiers as White officers were.
General John Pershing told Black soldiers, The American public
has every reason to be proud of your record. 171 Blacks were
awarded the French Legion of Honor or Croix De Guerre. The
German soldiers called the Black fighters Hell Fighters but the
Blacks called themselves the Black Rattlers.
1926
"I Wanna Be Loved By You". Kane never publicly admitted that she
copied Jones' style, as imitated by Kane, but went on to become
the inspiration for the voice and look of the cartoon
character Betty Boop. In August 1930, Betty Boop made her first
appearance in Dizzy Dishes, the sixth installment in Max
Fleischer's Talkartoon series.
1929
* John Hope, an advocate of advanced liberal arts instruction for
Blacks, is chosen as president of Atlanta University, the 1st
graduate school for Blacks.
* Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is born in Atlanta
Georgia.
* James Parks who was born a slave in 1843, dies and was
prominently buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Parks is the
only person buried there who was born on the grounds. He was later
freed by his owner, George W.P. Curtis, in 1862 and continued to
work at the cemetery as a grave digger and maintenance man. Parks
served in the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1929.
1930
* The U.S. government establishes policies to create racial
segregation through public housing by building houses and
neighborhoods that were only available to Blacks in integrated
neighborhoods which effectively created ghettos to keeps Blacks
and Whites separated. From the 1930s to about the 1950s, the
Federal Housing Administration would give builders loans through
banks because they could get loans at lower interest rates on the
condition that none of the homes built in the subdivisions were to
be sold to African Americans. Municipal policies also played a
role in creating segregation and the slum conditions for Blacks to
live in. Whites were easily convinced that Blacks would bring the
1931
* The Scottsboro Boys case happens when 9 Black youths accused
of raping 2 White women on a freight train go on trial for their
lives in Scottsboro, Alabama. Medical evidence and testimony
proved that no rape occurred. The all-White jury convicted the
boys and they were sentenced to death in prison.
* Walter White begins his tenure as executive secretary of the
N.A.A.C.P. His principal objective being the abolition of
lynching. By the time of his death in 1955, lynchings had become a
rarity.
* Desmond Tutu is born in Klerksdorp South Africa.
* William G. Still becomes the 1st Black to compose a symphony
performed by a major orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra.
1932
* The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment begins. For 40 years between
1932 and 1972, the U.S. Government Public Health Service conducted
experiments on 400 Black men in the late stages of syphilis. These
men were never told what disease they were suffering from or of
its seriousness. Their doctors, who had no intention of curing
them, but told them they were being treated for bad blood.
* In Jasper County, Mississippi the Ku Klux Klan, resentful that
African Americans were buying and profiting from land, regularly
attacked Black-owned farms, burned houses, lynched Black farmers
and chased Black landowners away. 15 Whites torched the courthouse
where property records for the eastern half of Jasper County,
predominantly Black, were stored. Records for the predominantly
White western half of the county were safe in another courthouse
miles away. By 1937 the Masonite Corp., a wood products company
and one of the largest landowners in the area, was granted a clear
title for 9,581 acres of land. Masonite acquired Black owned land
from Blacks that lost property records in the fire and who had
been driven off by the KKK.
* 10 Blacks are killed by White railroad men trying to prevent
Blacks from obtaining jobs at the Illinois central railroad
station.
* The Negro Baseball League becomes stable and becomes the largest
Black business earning $2 million a year.
* Mary McLeod Bethune forms the National Council of Negro Women.
* A Race Riot in Harlem, New York occurs created by the
consequence of a lingering unemployment crisis and police
brutality. Three African-Americans were killed and nearly sixty
were injured. Seventy five people, mostly Blacks, were arrested by
the police. The riot caused over $200 million in property damage.
* Jazz pianist Count Basie forms the band Count Basie and his
Orchestra which becomes one of the foremost big bands of the swing
era.
* President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the design on the back
of the one dollar bill by using the Egyptian Pyramid as the symbol
of the Great Seal. The symbol is one used by the Free Masons.
1936
* Blues musician Robert Johnson makes legendary recordings Me and
the Devil Blues, Hellhound on My Trail and Love in Vain.
* Slavery becomes illegal in Nigeria.
* During segregation Black travelers were not welcome in Whitesonly establishments so there was the Negro Motorist Green Book.
The published guide existed until 1966. The guide assisted Black
motorists in finding hotels, restaurants and other businesses that
were friendly to African Americans, helping them avoid racial
harassment, arrest, bodily injury and possibly even death.
* Jesse Owens, a track and field athlete, wins 4 gold medals at
the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. His victories derail
Adolf Hitlers intended use of the games as a show of Aryan
supremacy. Gold medals also go to John Woodruff and Archie
Williams.
1937
* Writer and folklorist Zora N. Hurston publishes her 2nd novel,
Their Eyes Were Watching God, which receives considerable
acclaim and criticism within the Black community.
* Dominican dictator Raphael Leonidas Trujillo, in an effort to
cleanse the border region and expropriate small peasants so that
big landowners could take over their lands, massacred 15,000
20,000 Haitian immigrant workers in the Dominican Republic known
as the Parsley Massacre. Many who were attempting to escape back
to Haiti were captured at the river border and killed at what is
known as the Massacre River.
1938
* In a knockout in the 1st round of their rematch, heavyweight
champion Joe Louis nicknamed the Brown Bomber defeats Max
Schmeling of Germany, the only boxer to have knocked out Louis in
his prime. In another fight, the breeze from Joe Louis' swishing
left hook makes Welshman, Tommy Farr gasp for breath during their
fight at Yankee Stadium. Louis defended his title 25 times,
holding it longer than any other fighter.
* Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday makes several of her finest
recordings including Strange Fruit.
1939
* Count Basie leads his legendary Kansas City band in Send for
you yesterday and here you come today.
* Singer Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial before
an audience of 75,000 after the Daughters of the American
Revolution refuse to allow her to sing at Constitution Hall.
* The N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund is organized to
fight legally sanctioned discrimination.
* Jane M. Bolin of New York becomes the 1st Black woman judge in
the United States. Bolin presided over the Court of Domestic
Relations.
* Ethel Waters becomes the 1st Black to been seen on TV in the
variety special on NBC named The Ethel Waters Show.
1940
* Author Richard Wright publishes his masterpiece, Native Son.
The stark, tragic realism of this novel places Wright in the front
ranks of contemporary American writers.
* Hattie McDaniel wins an academy award for best supporting
actress in the movie Gone with the Wind playing the part of
Mammy and becomes the 1st Black to win the award.
* Painter Jacob Lawrence begins work on his 60-panel Migration
series, which depicts the journey of African Americans from the
South to the urban North.
* Duke Ellington leads his great band in Take the 'A' Train.
* Booker T. Washington becomes the 1st Black to be honored on a
U.S. postage stamp.
* Benjamin O. Davis Sr. becomes the 1st Black general in the U.S.
Army.
* The honorable Marcus Garvey dies.
* The American Negro Theatre is founded in Harlem, New York by
Abram Hill and Frederick ONeal to develop a permanent acting
company trained in the arts and crafts of the theatre that also
reflected the special gifts, talents, and attributes of Africans.
1941
* The first planned March on Washington is organized when A.
Philip Randolph organized a plan to March on Washington to protest
against governmental hiring practices that excluded AfricanAmericans from federal employment and federal contracts. Randolph
understood that this type of racial discrimination was the reason
for the economic disparities between Whites and Blacks in this
country. Randolph proposed that African-Americans march on
Washington to demand jobs and freedom. While war raged in Europe,
defense industries began to boom in the United States. Hundreds of
thousands of Whites found jobs in the defense industry but only a
few thousand Blacks where hired and most of them were porters and
janitors. Because of this, President Roosevelt signed Executive
Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the federal government
and defense industries.
* The second "Great Migration" of Blacks begins with more than 5
million Blacks from the South moving to the North, Midwest and
West. This migration lasted until 1970. It was of a different
character than the first Great Migration (19101940). In the
second Great Migration, Blacks moved to cities that offered
skilled jobs in the defense industry supporting World War II. Most
of these migrants were already urban laborers who came from the
cities of the South. Blacks were still treated with discrimination
all over of the country, but many found higher paying jobs than
they could find in the south when they could find work.
* Bayard Rustin, chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington,
organizes the New York branch of the Congress on Racial Equality.
* Dorie Miller, a 22-year-old Black Navy cook aboard the
Battleship Arizona shot down 4 Japanese planes on December 7 in
the attack on Pearl Harbor. He is made a hero by the Black press
and receives the Navy Cross, an award given for bravery and
heroism in battle. During the attack, Miller pulled his dying
* The 4th Cavalry Brigade Regiment is formed and led by the Army's
1st Black general, Benjamin O. Davis Sr.
* The government creates the 1st all-Black military aviation
program at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The 332nd Fighter
Group was formed. 992 men graduated from the program while 450
were sent overseas for combat. A total of 150 men died in the
program with 66 dying in combat. The airmen were assigned to 99th
Fighter Squadron for bomber escort duty in Germany and completed
15,550 missions, destroyed over 260 enemy aircraft, 1 enemy
destroyer and demolished numerous enemy installations. The airmen
were awarded over 850 medals including 150 Distinguished Flying
Crosses, Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Purple Heart, Croix de
Guerre, Red Star of Yugoslavia and the Distinguished Unit
Citation. The airmen never lost a bomber to the enemy and they
were the first to shoot down an enemy jet fighter during the war
during 1943-1945.
a few White men, thinking there might be oil on it, began to make
claims on the Simmons land. A group of six men dragged Simmons
from his home, beat him, shot him and lynched him. The Simmons
family scattered in the wake of the murder, leaving the land
behind to be claimed by the White murderers.
1945
* Ebony magazine is founded by John H. Johnson of Chicago,
Illinois. Modeled after Life but intended for the Black middle
class, the magazine is an instant success.
* Adam C. Powell Jr., pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in
Harlem, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a
Democrat. He served 11 terms.
* Black soldiers serve during WWII in France to combat a German
sniper. Blacks were placed in harms way during the war but seldom
received recognition for their bravery, sacrifice and service to
the U.S.
lynched the 2 couples off the Moores Ford bridge and then shot
them hundreds of times. A White farmer witnessed the whole ordeal
but was spared injury. A cover-up ensued and the men were never
brought to justice even after the FBI completed their
investigation.
* Booker T. Washington becomes the 1st Black to be honored on a
coin being a fifty-cent piece.
* Kenny Washington of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the 1st Black
player in the NFL in the modern era.
* Mahalia Jackson, whose recording of Move On Up a Little Higher
becomes the 1st Black to bring gospel singing to the general
public.
1947
* Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the 1st
Black baseball player in modern Major League Baseball since 1864.
* Don Barksdale of UCLA becomes the 1st Black selected as an All
American college basketball player and the 1st Black player to play
for the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1948.
* Historian John H. Franklin gains international attention with
the publication of From Slavery to Freedom, an enduring survey
of African American history.
* Orrin C. Evans of Philadelphia creates the 1st comic book written
by and created for Blacks. The book sold for $0.15 and was called
All-Negro Comics.
* The Ahmose Stele, also known as the Tempest Stele, was unearthed
by archeologist Henri Chevalier in Karnak dating back to around
1500 BC. Its covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions describing
the Exodus of Jews out of Egypt. The Stele tells of tragedies
happening because of one God that manifested his powers. The Stele
tells of God inflicting some of the same plagues described in the
bible that enveloped Egypt after the Pharaoh refused Moses
request to free the Israelites from bondage. After the 10 plagues
all but destroyed Egypt and kills the first born son of the
Pharaoh, the Israelites were freed and allowed to leave Egypt.
1948
* President Harry Truman integrates the U.S. Armed Forces under an
executive order number 9981, which does away with a segregated
military. By 1950 and the start of the Korean War, integration
proceeded rapidly.
* Reginald Weir becomes the 1st Black tennis player to play in the
U.S. indoor lawn tennis association tournament. He was a doctor
from New York.
* Althea Gibson becomes the 1st Black woman to compete on the world
tennis tour.
* Ethel Waters becomes the 1st Black woman star of a network
television show, Beulah.
1951
* Civil Rights leaders Harry and Harriett Moore of Tallahassee,
Florida were killed on Christmas Day when a bomb exploded under
their home.
* George W. Carver is the 1st Black to have a National Monument and
Park named after him, which was dedicated in Joplin, Missouri.
* The Amos n Andy show becomes the 1st TV show to have an all
Black cast.
* Janet Collins becomes the 1st Black prima ballerina at the
Metropolitan Opera Company.
* Thurgood Marshall represents the NAACP in a discrimination suit
against The Stork Club in New York when they refuse service to
singer Josephine Baker.
* Henrietta Lacks, born Loretta Pleasant, was diagnosed with
cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Cells taken from her
tumor, by Dr. Howard Jones, during that exam made their way to the
laboratory of researcher Dr. George Otto Gey and used "without her
knowledge" to develop the first immortal cell line because the
cells never died unlike most cells. The cells, called HeLa, became
one of the most important tools in medical research, vital for
developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more, but
Henrietta Lacks, the person who was the source of these cells, was
virtually unknown and died later that year. Her family was never
informed about what had been achieved using her cells, although
their mothers cells have been bought and sold by the billions.
The Lacks family have received nothing from those cell lines.
* Cora Brown becomes the 1st Black woman elected to the U.S.
senate, Michigan.
* Mary Coley (born Mary F. Hill) was recognized for her work as a
mid-wife delivering over 3000 babies over 30 years by
1953
* Blacks in Baton Rouge, Louisiana refused to ride public
transportation in protest to the citys segregated bus system.
This bus boycott became the sidebar in the struggle for equality
and the 1st Black boycott in America.
* Don Barksdale becomes the 1st Black to play in the NBA All-star
game.
1954-1968: Civil Rights Movement
1954
* The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in Brown vs. The Board
of Education that segregation in public schools violates the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution, overturning its 1896 decision in
Plessy vs. Ferguson.
* The movie Egyptian is released using White actors to portray
Egyptians and Blacks as the servants of Egypt. This is a false
representation of the true race and color of ancient Egyptians.
This type of inaccurate history portrayal deprives modern Blacks
of knowing their heritage and reinforces the images of Blacks
being nothing more than slaves and servants to the White race.
* Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the 1st Black general in the
U.S. Air Force.
* Jewel L. Prestige becomes the 1st Black woman to earn a Ph.D in
political science.
* Hank Aaron begins his career in pro baseball.
* The CitizensCouncils (also known as the White Citizens
Councils) were an associated network of White supremacist
organizations in the United States whose purpose was to oppress
Blacks in the South through economic tactics and maintaining
segregation. The groups were formed after the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education.
1955
* Moms (Jackie) Mabley becomes the 1st Black and woman comedienne
to have a best selling record.
* The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is passed adding strength to the
1957 law.
* Wilma Rudolph wins 3 gold medals at the Olympics in Rome.
* 17 countries of Africa, to include: Congo, Cameroon, Zaire,
Somalia, Niger, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Tanzania, gain their
independence.
* 34 brave students from Virginia Union University staged a sit-in
at a segregated lunch counter in Thalhimers Department Store
after a campus visit from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All thirtyfour were subsequently arrested, in the first mass arrest of the
civil rights movement of 1960, and became known across the country
as the Richmond 34. The 34 challenged their convictions and took
their case all the way to the national Supreme Court, where the
conviction was overturned in a legal victory for civil rights
nationwide.
* Harry Belafonte, singer, actor, civil rights activist and
humanitarian becomes the first Black man to win an Emmy Award for
his TV special Tonight with Belafonte. This follows his Tony
Award in 1953. He would go on to win a Grammy Award in 1985, The
Leader for Peace Award in 1988 from the Peace Corps, and the
National Medal of Arts Award in 1994. Belafonte has spent his life
fighting for peace through education and music.
* Ruby Bridges becomes the 1st Black student to attend an all White
school in the South when she is enrolled in the William Frantz
Elementary School in New Orleans. She is escorted by U.S. Deputy
Marshals for her protection.
1961
1962
* James Meredith is the 1st Black student to enroll at the
University of Mississippi. On his 1st day on campus, U.S. Marshals
escort him.
* Sierra Leon, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda gain their independence
from Britain.
* John J. ONeil becomes the 1st Black coach in Major League
Baseball of the Chicago Cubs.
* Bobo Brazil of the NWA becomes the 1st Black professional
wrestler to win a world heavyweight championship.
* Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st Black elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame.
1963
* Medgar Evers, Mississippi field secretary for the N.A.A.C.P. is
shot and killed in an ambush in front of his home following a
historic broadcast on civil rights by President John F. Kennedy.
* Despite Governor George Wallace physically blocking their way,
Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes at the
University of Alabama.
* The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence occurs when guerilla
fighters revolt against their colonial oppressors by attacking the
Portuguese headquarters in Tite. The war between the well-trained
and well-led guerrillas and the Portuguese Army would prove to be
the most intense and damaging of all the conflicts that occurred
during the Portuguese Colonial wars.
* In Birmingham, Alabama police Commissioner Eugene Bull Connor
uses water hoses and dogs against civil-rights protesters, many of
whom are children.
* Martin Luther King Jr., writes a Letter from a Birmingham Jail
to 8 clergymen who attacked his role in Birmingham. Widely
reprinted, it soon becomes a classic of protest literature
* In Birmingham, Alabama, 4 Black girls attending Sunday school
are killed when a bomb explodes at the 16th Street Baptist Church,
a popular location for civil rights meetings.
* Governor George Wallace of Alabama says, during his acceptance
speech, Segregation Forever after being elected to a fourth
term.
* Under the leadership of Jomo Kenyata, Kenya achieves
independence from Britain.
* Arthur Ashe becomes the 1st Black player to make the U.S. Davis
Cup tennis team.
* Sidney Poitier becomes the 1st Black to win an academy award as
best actor in the movie Lilies of the Fields.
* Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize becoming
the youngest person ever at the age of 35. Leontyne Price and A.
Phillip Randolph receive the Medal of Freedom.
* A group of African-American men in Jonesboro, Louisiana led by
Earnest Chilly Willy Thomas and Frederick Douglas Kirkpatrick
founded the group known as The Deacons for Defense and Justice to
1965
* The Motown group Diana Ross and The Supremes start a run of 5
consecutive number 1 hits with Stop! In the Name of Love.
* Bloody Sunday occurs after MLK organizes a protest march. The
Federal Voting Rights Act is passed following the peaceful, 54
mile, march of 600 Blacks from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to
vote, which grabbed the nations attention when State Troopers and
a Sheriffs Posse brutally beat the participants at the Edmund
Pettus Bridge and drove them back. The Federal Voting Rights Act
outlawed practices in the South used to disenfranchise Black
voters.
* The Watts riot of Los Angeles explodes into violence when police
officer Lee Minikus arrests Black motorist Marquette Frye for
reckless driving along with his mother and brother who are
passengers. At the riots end, 34 people are dead, 1,032 injured
and 3,952 arrested. $225 million is property damage occurs. The
underlying cause of the riot was mass unemployment, housing
discrimination, poor living conditions combined with widespread
racism and constant harassment by White police officers.
* Gambia gains their independence from Britain.
1966
* Charting a new course for the Civil Rights movement, Stokely
Carmichael, chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, uses the phrase Black Power at a rally during the
James Meredith march in Mississippi.
* Robert Weaver becomes the 1st Black U.S. cabinet minister when he
was appointed Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development by President Lyndon Johnson.
* Botswana and Lesotho gain their independence from Britain.
* Donyale Luna, born Peggy Ann Freeman, becomes the 1st Black model
on the cover of a Vogue magazine, British edition.
* The African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, lasting seven days
(Dec. 26th Jan. 1st ) is patterned after various African harvest
festivals, is created by Maulana Karenga, a Black studies
professor at California State University at Long Beach. Kwanzaa
comes from the African language of Kiswahili and means The First
Fruits of the Harvest. The 7 principles of Kwanzaa are referred
to as Nguzo Saba. The colors of Kwanzaa are: Black is for the face
of our people. Red is for the blood our people shed. Green is for
the hope and the color of the motherland.
1973
* Kool Herc, considered the Father of Hip-Hop and also known as
Clive Campbell, deejays his 1st block party, playing soul, funk
and R&B records on turntables.
* From the Civil War (1861-1865) to the Viet Nam War (1964-1973),
86 Blacks have received the Congressional Medal of Honor which is
awarded for bravery and is the highest military award possible and
given by the President.
* Shirley A. Jackson received her Ph.D in physics and becomes the
1st Black woman to graduate from M.I.T.
* A.T.& T. pays $28 million in back wages and unpaid raises to
Black employees victimized by discrimination.
* Gloria Hendry becomes the 1st Black Bond Girl in a James Bond
movie, Live and Let Die.
* Gladys Knight and the Pips produce a million-selling album
Imagination and win 2 Grammy awards.
1974
* The remains of the oldest human being ever discovered are found
in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. She is named Lucy and is
approximately 3.18 million years old. This discovery is huge for
scientists because it let them know that there was life on the
planet at that time. The discovery of Lucy gives credence to the
idea that all life sprang from Africa. Lucy is an example of an
extremely early human. Lucy is a hominid. Hominids are a member of
the group Hominidae, which encompasses all creatures that came
forth after the African ape, human being divide. Eventually, human
beings came into existence from this group. The main reason that
they know that Lucy was a hominid and not another type of this
group or of Ape lineage was because they determined by her bone
structure that she walked upright while monkeys and apes do not
walk entirely upright.
* Dr. Chancellor Williams publishes "The Destruction of Black
Civilization" in which he states that from their positions of
prestige and power, White educators have White-washed history,
thereby propagating the notion that civilization - history,
religion, science, social order and an organized society started
with Europeans who lived in Africa's Egypt and that Europeans then
civilized the entire world. The scheme was rigorously applied in
written European history of Egypt where the Black population was
never referred to as Egyptians, and Black pharaohs became White.
Blotting Black people out of history included replacing African
names of people, places and things with Arabic and European names.
With one wave of the White master's wand Black Hamites and
Cushites, like their early Egyptian brothers, are no longer
Africans. When Black Egypt was conquered, its libraries were
looted and burned. Their great treatises on philosophy and
sciences were plagiarized by authors of the West according to
George G.M. James in his classic book "Stolen Legacy" in 1954.
Many of the oldest surviving statues and figurines were found in
Africa and made by Africans in their image reflecting their
distinguishable thick lips and noses. Most of them have been
defaced in an apparent attempt to perpetuate the myth of "European
Supremacy." The things they could not hide, such as the Sphinx,
they defaced. The mis-education of Black history upon the Black
psyche is designed to corrupt African Americans' sense of racial
unity and cohesion, mold the character of self-hatred and engender
self-doubt, self-loathing and distrust among their race.
* Baseball player Hank Aaron hits his 715th home run, breaking
Babe Ruths record, which had stood since 1935.
* Boxer George Foreman, previously undefeated in professional
bouts, falls to Muhammad Ali in 8 rounds in Kinshasa, Zaire the
storied Rumble in the Jungle.
* The Supreme Court ruled that schools in White suburbs were not
obligated to admit Blacks from the inner cities. This ruling
undermined Brown vs. Board of Education and thus helped to
continue segregation in schools.
* Beverly Johnson becomes the 1st Black model on the cover of an
American issue of Vogue magazine.
* TV sitcom "Good Times" aired from 1974-1979, on CBS. Good
Times is a spin-off of Maude, which is itself a spin-off of All in
the Family. Good Times deals with a Black family's attempts to
survive in a high rise project building in Chicago, despite their
poverty and the father's lack of steady employment.
* Alberta Williams King, (mother of Martin Luther King Jr. and
the wife of Martin Luther King Sr.) was gunned down while she
played the organ for the Lords Prayer at Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
1975
* The National Association of Black Journalists is founded in
Washington, D.C., by 44 Black news reporters
* Tennis player Arthur Ashe wins the singles title at Wimbledon
becoming the 1st Black male to win the title.
* Lee Elder becomes the 1st Black to play in the Masters Golf
Tournament at Augusta, Georgia.
* Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, dies. After his
son renames the organization and integrates it into orthodox
Islam, Minister Louis Farrakhan reclaims and rebuilds the Nation
of Islam. Muhammad was born Elijah Poole in 1897 and led the
nation of Islam from 1934 until his death.
* William V. Banks heads the group that became the first Black
owned TV station in the U.S. called WGPR-TV.
* Daniel Chappie James Jr., becomes the 1st Black 4-star general
in the military and is named Commander in Chief of the North
American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
* Desmond Tutu becomes the 1st Black Dean of St. Marys Cathedral
in Johannesburg, South Africa.
* Donna P. Davis becomes the 1st Black female in the Navys medical
core.
* Frank Robinson becomes the 1st Black to manage a Major League
baseball team and leads the Cleveland Indians to an opening day
victory.
* TV sitcom "The Jeffersons" was broadcast on CBS from 1975-1985,
and was one of the longest-running sitcoms in American television
history. The show focuses on an affluent Black couple living in
New York City. The show was launched as a spin-off of All in the
Family on which the Jefferson's had been the neighbors of the
Bunkers.
* The TV show The Secrets of Isis is aired and runs until 1978.
The show is about a school teacher who finds an ancient amulet
that once belonged to Egyptian Queen Isis. Once the teacher says
an incantation the power of Isis is transformed into the school
teacher giving her the super powers of moving objects with her
mind, great strength, the ability to fly and run at super speeds.
The actress in the show is White as Hollywood distorts the true
race of Egyptian Queen Isis.
* Singer Josephine Baker dies.
* Barbara Jordan & Addie L. Wyatt become the 1st Black women named
as Time Magazines Person of the Year.
* The Boston chapter of the NAACP is firebombed because of
opposition to school desegregation.
1976
* Barbara Jordan, a U.S. representative from Texas, delivers the
keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, confirming
her reputation as one of the most eloquent public speakers of her
era.
* Rubin (Hurricane) Carter and John Artis are freed form prison
after serving 9 years for murder. It is found that their
prosecution was racially motivated and evidence of their innocence
was suppressed. The story is later told in the movie The
Hurricane in 1999.
* The first U.S. tour of King Tuts gold and jeweled artifacts
begins and launches the era of museum blockbuster shows.
Blacks on the side of the war. They were used for battle and then
they fell back into anonymity.
* Desmond Tutu becomes the 1st Black General Secretary of the South
African counsel of churches.
* Muhammad Ali wins the world heavyweight boxing title for a
record third time.
1979
* Frank E. Peterson Jr. becomes the 1st Black General in the U.S.
Marine Corp.
* Hazel Winifred Johnson-Brown became the first Black female
General in the United States Army and the first Black chief of the
Army Nurse Corps. She was also the Director of the Walter Reed
Army Institute of Nursing.
* TV miniseries "Roots: The Next Generations" airs continuing the
story from 1882 to the 1960s. The fictionalized story of the
family of Alex Haley and their life in Henning, Tennessee based on
the last seven chapters of Haley's novel entitled Roots: The Saga
of an American Family.
* The 1st ever rap records are released as King Tim III by the
Fatback Band and Rappers Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang.
* Willie Mays is inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame with 660
home runs, 24 all-star awards, 2 MVP awards, 12 gold glove awards
and played in 24 all-star games.
1980
* Stevie Wonder releases Hotter than July. The album featured
the song Happy Birthday, his effort to bring national attention
to making Martin Luther King Jr.s birthday a national holiday.
to hold the position. By 2002 Discover Magazine would name her one
of the 50 Most Important Women in Science.
* Statistics show that Blacks are 6 times more likely than Whites
to be sentenced to prison for drug related crimes as there are
more than 1 million Black men behind bars.
* Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Africa is appointed to Cardinal
Deacon by the pope. Arinze began his career in the church in 1958
when he was ordained as a priest.
* The Philadelphia State Police bomb a house in Philadelphia
occupied by the African American activist organization, MOVE
(Movement for Life). The bombing kills 11 people in the house and
triggers a fire that destroys the neighborhood and leaves over 300
people homeless.
1986
* Spike Lees film Shes Gotta Have It wins him the best new
director award at the ultra-prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
* Playwright August Wilson receives the Pulitzer Prize for
Fences. He won again in 1990 for The Piano Lesson. Both are
from his cycle of plays chronicling the Black American
Experience.
* Doctor Benjamin S. Carson becomes the 1st Black to successfully
separate Siamese twins joined at the head.
* Martin Luther King, Jr.s birthday is made into a national
holiday.
* Desmond Tutu becomes the 1st Black Archbishop of the Anglican
Church in South Africa.
1987
* TV sitcom "A Different World" aired for six seasons on NBC from
September 24, 1987 July 9, 1993. It is a spin-off series
from The Cosby Show and centered on the life of students at
Hillman College, a fictional historically Black college
in Virginia. The series frequently depicted the daily ups and
downs of Black students at historically Black fraternities and
sororities. (HBCUs).
* Superstar basketball player Julius Erving retires and becomes
only the 3rd NBA player to have scored more than 30,000 points
(30,026) in his career. Erving won 3 championship rings (ABA /
NBA), played in 11 all star games, won 5 all star awards, 2 all
star game MVP awards, 1 NBA MVP award and 3 scoring titles. Erving
is considered to have been the main catalyst for the ABA-NBA
merger in 1976. Erving was voted as one of the 50 greatest players
in NBA history.
1988
* Rap group N.W.A. introduces Gangsta Rap which expresses the
Black experience of living in the ghetto with releases Straight
Outta Compton and Appetite For Destruction from the album
Efil4zaggin.
* Pope John Paul II appoints Eugene A. Marino as Archbishop of
Atlanta making him the 1st Black Catholic Archbishop in the United
States.
* Florence Griffith-Joyner becomes the 1st Black women to win 4
track and field medals in Olympic competition at the Seoul Olympic
Games in Korea. She won 3 gold and 1 silver medal.
* Debbie Thomas becomes the 1st Black to win a medal at a winter
Olympic event by winning the bronze medal in figure skating.
* Johnny Grier becomes the 1st Black NFL referee.
* CBS sportscaster, Jimmy The Greek Snyder was fired after he
said that Blacks are better at sports than Whites because of slave
plantation breeding techniques. Snyder said that slave owners
would breed big Black men with big Black women to get big Black
strong children.
* Doug Williams becomes the 1st Black quarterback to start and win
a super bowl by leading the Washington Redskins over the favored
Denver Broncos by the score of 42-10. A reporter asked Williams
how long he has been a Black quarterback. Williams responded by
saying I have been Black all my life.
* Juanita Kidd Stout becomes the 1st Black female elected to a U.S.
judgeship and 1st appointed to a state supreme court in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* James Cameron opens a Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin which explores the history and struggles of Blacks from
slavery to the modern day. It is considered one of the first of
its kind in the country.
* Super Model Naomi Campbell becomes the 1st Black model to make
the cover of Vogue Magazine. Campbell would go on to become the 1st
Black model to make the cover of Time Magazine. In 1991 Campbell
was voted one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by
People Magazine. Campbell has made the cover of over 500
magazines.
1989
* President George Bush Sr., appoints General Colin Powell
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the 1st Black
officer to hold the highest military post in the United States.
General Powell started his military career as a private.
* Rap group Public Enemy, one of the most important and
influential rap groups of the time, expresses the Black experience
with releases Fear of a Black Planet and Fight the Power from
the album Fear of a Black Planet.
* Oprah Winfrey becomes the 1st Black women to own her own TV and
film production company, HARPO Studios, Inc. and host a nationally
syndicated show.
wealthy aunt and uncle in their Bel Air, CA mansion after getting
into a fight on a local basketball court. In the series, his
lifestyle often clashes with the lifestyle of his relatives in Bel
Air.
* Nelson Mandela is freed from a South African prison after 27
years.
* Debbye Turner is crowned Miss America.
* The GAO reports that the death penalty in U.S. prisons is
racially biased.
* Namibia gains their independence.
* Carol Gist of Michigan wins the Miss USA pageant to become the
1st Black to win the title.
* August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Piano
Player.
* The U.S. Census reports the Black population to be 12% of the
total U.S. population, with over 50% of all Blacks still residing
in the southern states.
1991
* The Senate votes 52-48 to confirm the nomination of Justice
Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court after a confirmation hearing
that focuses on charges of sexual harassment by former aide,
Anita Hill. Hills case was dismissed as unfounded. Thomas would
go on to fill the seat of Thurgood Marshall.
* President George Bush Sr., signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991,
strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages
in cases of intentional employment discrimination, however it
makes it more difficult for claimants to prove discrimination.
Basically this lessons the ability of minorities and women to
receive justice when they are discriminated against in the work
place.
* Throughout the 1990s The Jerry Springer Show became a
household name and a feeding frenzy for homosexuals and gay
activists across the country. More Black males came out of the
closet on The Jerry Springer Show then any other forum in the
world. Jerry Springer was more than happy to laugh, jeer and joke
about every guest who set foot on his stage searching for their 15
minutes of fame. Most of his Black guests were either on the down
low, cheating, prostituting or hiding some cross dressing secret.
Its a fact, no news was good news if you were on the Jerry
Springer Show. Despite that fact there was never a shortage
of Black folks waiting back stage to give or receive shocking
news. For his part Springer was clever at creating a circus
atmosphere that culminated in a gladiator environment that
literally put guests at each others throats. At the end of the
show Jerry would sit down and give a brief commentary on why his
guests had to be exploited. He said it was for their own good. The
show continued to perpetuate negative stereotypes of Black people
who were paid about $300 to appear on the show.
* Henry Louis Gates Jr., is appointed professor of humanities at
Harvard University, where he builds the universitys department of
Afro-American studies.
* Blacks have served and died for the United States in the
military in every war from the American Revolution to the Gulf War
in 1991. There are 10 major conflicts throughout history
categorized as a war in which Blacks have served this county.
* Black Entertainment Television (BET), founded by Robert L.
Johnson, becomes the 1st Black company listed on the New York Stock
Exchange.
* Civil war in Sierra Leone over conflict diamonds erupts until
1999 claiming over 75,000 lives, causing 500,000 Sierra Leoneans
to become refugees, and displacing half of the country's 4.5
million people. Under the cover of warfare rebels committed
heinous crimes against humanity in the form of murder, rape, and
mutilation spreading fear and suffering to the local people and
pulling the country into terrible social and economic conditions.
The diamond history of Sierra Leone began in 1935 when the DeBeers
mining company legally took complete control of the mining
prospects in Sierra Leone.
* Rodney King receives bruises and broken bones at the hands of 4
White Los Angeles Police Officers who beat him with riot batons
after a traffic stop. Riots break out in Los Angeles sparked by
the acquittal of the 4 White police officers who were caught on
videotape beating him. The riots caused at least 55 deaths and $1
billion in damage to the community. Many Blacks long objected to
racial profiling and police brutality. Two of the officers were
found guilty in federal court and King was awarded $3.8 million in
damages.
1992
* TV sitcom "Martin" airs on FOX. The random misadventures of
Martin Payne drives this irreverent sitcom as stand-up comedian
Martin Lawrence portrays an abrasive, loud-mouthed, sexist, cocky
and wisecracking Detroit talk show host with an assortment of
friends and enemies. His girlfriend Gina, puts up with him,
although clashes do occur while Martin's friends, Tommy and Cole,
help him get into trouble. The show portrays many negative issues
on how Blacks behave.
* Mae Jemison of Decatur Alabama becomes the 1st Black woman
astronaut, spending more than a week orbiting Earth in the space
shuttle Endeavour.
* Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the 1st Black woman elected to the
U.S. Senate, representing the state of Illinois.
* Black owned farms fall to 2498, a decline of 64% over the last
15 years. This is due in part because of discrimination from the
U.S. Department of Agriculture in denying loans and subsidies to
Black farmers.
* Louisiana House Representative David Duke, a vocal White
supremacist and self proclaimed wizard of the Louisiana KKK runs
for President on the republican ticket.
* The Supreme Court ruled that local schools, even if not in
compliance with desegregation orders, should be released from
court supervision because racial balance is not to be achieved
just for its own sake. This ruling further undermines Brown vs.
Board of Education and segregation continues.
* State Farm Insurance settles a suit for $157 million after
discriminating against Black policyholders by charging them more
than Whites.
1996
* Michael Johnson becomes the 1st Black and man of any race to win
gold medals in the 200 and 400 meter Olympic sprint, setting a
200-meter world record of 19.32 seconds.
* Texaco settles a racial discrimination suit for $176 million
after it was discovered that Blacks had been denied promotions and
pay increases because of their race. The suit grew to cover 1400
Black employees.
* Amid growing racial tension in the South, nearly 40 Black
churches are burned by racist White mobs.
* Cuba Gooding Jr., wins the academy award for best supporting
actor in the movie Jerry Maguire.
* AIDS is found to be the leading cause of death among Black women
aged 25-44.
* Nigeria wins the Gold Medal for soccer in the Olympics.
* Carl Lewis ends his Olympic career in Atlanta, GA by winning his
9th gold medal overall. Lewis retired with 9 gold and 1 silver
Olympic medals. Lewis also won 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal
in the world championships. He won 4 gold medals in the same
Olympic Games in 1988 and a gold medal in the same event (long
jump) in four consecutive Olympic Games.
1997
* Golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters, becoming the 1st Black and
youngest player ever to capture the prestigious golf tournament.
* Haitian immigrant Abner Louima is beaten repeatedly and
sodomized with a broomstick by White Police Officers in a New York
Police Department holding cell. Louima settled a $9 million suit
for Civil Rights violations under the color of authority.
* Super Model Tyra Banks becomes the 1st Black model to make the
covers of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, GQ Magazine and
Victorias Secret and she did it all in the same year.
1998
* James Byrd Jr. is chained to the back of a pick-up truck and
dragged 3 miles to his death by three White men in Jasper, Texas.
Byrd was alive during most of the ordeal until his head was
separated from his body after it disintegrated. The three KKK
members were convicted of murder.
* NBA superstar Michael Jordan leads the Chicago Bulls to their 6th
NBA title.
* J.C. Watts, a congressman from Oklahoma, becomes the 1st Black to
be elected to a position of leadership in the Republican Party.
* President Bill Clinton established the Tuskegee Airmen National
Historic site at Moton Field in Tuskegee Alabama.
* DNA evidence reveals that Thomas Jefferson probably fathered
children with at least one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Hemings
had 6 children of mixed race.
* David Satcher, a four-star Admiral in the U.S. Navy, is
appointed to the office of U.S. Surgeon General making him the 1st
Black male to hold the position. Satcher holds a Ph.d. in
medicine.
* Three White New York City public safety officers build, enter
and ride on a float in the New York Labor Day parade. The float is
called Black to the Future - 2098 which depicts the three men
wearing Blackface to depict Jim Crow and dragging a black
dummy behind the float which is meant to represent James Byrd Jr.,
of Jasper, Texas. The three men claim it is their right under the
1st amendment.
* Tyisha Miller is killed by 4 White Riverside Police Officers as
she awoke in a vehicle with a gun in her lap. She was shot 12
"But one thing that is known for sure, Jesus was not European. His
people came from Egypt. Egyptians are dark skinned," he said.
Marvin Perkins agrees. He co-authored the Blacks in the
Scriptures DVD series. He states the facts that support the theory
that Jesus would have had darker skin. "Where did Joseph and Mary
take Jesus to escape as they sought to hide from King Herod?" he
said. "They went to a place where they could blend in and not
stand out: Egypt, known for its people of color." It cannot be
argued that these people were African, said Reverend Derrick Rice,
founding pastor of Sankofa United Church of Christ in Atlanta, GA.
"As contrite as this statement has become, we have arrived at a
point where anthropological evidence shows these people were
definitely African," Rice said.
* Tennis player Venus Williams becomes the 1st Black to win Olympic
gold medals in tennis for both singles and doubles. Williams also
wins the singles title at Wimbledon becoming the 1st Black woman to
do so since Althea Gibson in 1958.
* As of the year 2000 dating back to 1876, 2073 Blacks have
attained Ph.D.s in science. From 1876-1969, 587 were issued, from
1960-1969, 214 were issued and from 1983-2000, 1272 were issued.
* After a massive protest rally and NAACP boycott, The Governor of
South Carolina is forced to remove a Confederate flag from atop of
the dome of the Statehouse. The flag is a reminder of slavery for
Blacks. The Governor claims it is southern heritage. That heritage
is the institution of slavery and the memory of a war that the
south lost.
* The U.S. Department of Justice reports that Blacks are far more
likely to be incarcerated than Whites or Hispanics. For every
100,000 people in the United States, 3535 Blacks were locked up
compared to 1177 Hispanics and 462 Whites. The 3 states with the
highest incarceration rates were Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
* In an 18-month investigation called "Torn From the Land", The
Associated Press documented a pattern in which Black Americans
2003
* Nike is hit by a $7.6 million settlement in a class action
lawsuit for racial discrimination against 400 Black employees
who were subjected to racial slurs and purposely placed in lowerpaying positions such as the stockroom and as cashiers. Store
security was told to monitor the Black employees simply because
they were Black.
* According to U.S. Government and Department of Defense
statistics, Blacks make up 12% of the U.S. population but account
for 22% of the enlisted military force.
* A U.S. Employment statistics survey reports that Blacks, on the
average, earn 30% less than Whites in industries where a
bachelors degree is required. Blacks lose better jobs faster as
middle-class work drops. The Black unemployment rate is rising
twice as fast as that of Whites and faster than in any downturn
since the mid 1970s recession. At the same time Hispanics are
gaining better jobs.
* Elson S. Floyd becomes the 1st Black president of the University
of Missouri. Floyd holds a doctorate in adult education.
* Tiger Woods becomes the 1st player in 73 years to win the Bay
Hill Invitational PGA golf tournament 5 times in a row.
* Oprah Winfrey, HARPO Production Company founder becomes the 1st
Black women to make the Forbes list of the worlds richest people
having a net worth of $1 billion.
a month die from the situation. Disease and famine plague the
region. The U.S. ignores the problems of Africa because it holds
no strategic interest for the U.S. according to statements from
U.S. Congressmen. The world sees Africa as one continent, but
actually it is 56 different nations evolving at different rates
heading toward democracy. Africa provides 18% of the oil and 70%
of the chocolate imported by the United States.
* In a government report on National Healthcare Disparities, there
is significant inequality in quality of healthcare in the U.S. for
Blacks as they are locked out of a health care system that treats
patients based on skin color, socioeconomic status and geographic
location. There have been more than 4 million preventable deaths
since 1940 because of discriminatory practices that have had a
devastating impact on the Black community.
* Music great and winner of 12 Grammys, Ray Charles, dies. The
story of his life would be made into a movie and released in 2005
titled Ray.
* Maritza Correia becomes the 1st Black woman to make the U.S.
Olympic swim team.
* President George Bush Jr., refuses an invitation to speak before
the NAACP convention during his presidential re-election campaign.
* Government hate crime statistics indicate that racial
intolerance is on the rise. At present there ate 762 active hate
groups operating in the U.S. attempting to revive the principles
of the Confederacy. These hate groups justify slavery as being God
ordained.
* Phylicia Rashad becomes the 1st Black actress to win a Tony
Award for a leading dramatic role in her portrayal of (Lena
Younger) in A Raison in the Sun.
* Barack Obama becomes only the 3rd Black to be elected to the U.S.
Senate after reconstruction.
* The TV series Law & Order SUV airs an episode about a wealthy
toy mogul who is accused of molesting a young child during a
sleepover at his play land home where children sleepover
frequently to include in the moguls bed who is 30 years old. The
accused strikingly resembles and brings to mind Michael Jackson to
include hair and make-up and a $4 million payout to keep the
accuser quiet. The parallel storyline was an attempt to show
Michael Jackson in a negative light for charges he was acquitted
of as unfounded. The show lists their usual statement in the
opening credits that "The following story is fictional and does
not depict any actual person or event." That statement is un-true
as the show has a long history of using actual crime stories to
generate stories for the show several months after the real crime
has lost notoriety.
2005
* The Center for Disease Control
AIDS cases in the U.S. are among
12% of the U.S. population. This
drug addiction, poverty and poor
Blacks.
* Serena Williams wins her 7th Grand Slam singles title by winning
the Australian Open.
* Liya Kebede of Ethiopia becomes the 1st Black woman to land a
coveted cosmetics contract with Estee Lauder. Despite this, runway
shows still have and show a small percentage of Black super models
with the exception of Alex Wek of Sudan, Naomi Campbell of the
U.S. and a few less prominent others. Black women have yet to tear
down the race barrier of the super model world.
* According to the FBI report, Hate Crime Statistics, hate
crimes against Blacks are nearly twice that of all other race
groups combined.
* According to the Justice Policy Institute report, Racial
Divide: An examination of the Impact of Californias Three
Strikes Law on Blacks and Hispanics, Blacks are sentenced to life
in prison nearly 13 times the rate of Whites.
* Reggie Fowler becomes the 1st Black owner of an NFL team by
purchasing the Minnesota Vikings.
* The Los Angeles Police shoot and kill 13-year old Devin Brown
after a car chase. Apparently Brown stole the car and was
joyriding with a friend. The unarmed Brown was shot at the
conclusion of the chase. Browns friend was arrested without
incident.
* Sophie Okonedo, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman and Don Cheadle are
nominated for academy awards as Blacks make up 25% of the nominees
for this years Oscar ceremony. Comedian Chris Rock is the guest
host speaker. Morgan Freeman goes on to win the best supporting
actor award for Million Dollar Baby and Jamie Foxx wins the best
actor award for the movie Ray as in (Ray Charles).
* President George Bush Jr., posthumously awards baseball great
Jackie Robinson the Congressional Gold Medal for his pioneer work
in baseball and civil rights. Robinsons family will accept the
award.
* The Christian Coalition settles a multi-million dollar lawsuit
with 12 Black employees who claimed they were made to enter the
head quarters through the back door, barred from the employee
lunchroom and excluded from prayer meetings and social events
while White employees were openly accepted. The coalition paid out
$325,000 for silence from the Black employees.
* TV sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris" airs on CBS and ran until 2009
which is based on the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock
in Brooklyn, New York. The show is set between 1982 and 1987, but
Rock himself was a teenager from 1978 to 1983. Chris's life is
plagued by an abundance of disadvantages; he is mercilessly
harassed by his bullying, racially prejudiced White schoolmates,
the material items of his desires often cannot be purchased
easily, his home life is often unpleasant, his grades in school
are poor, he is avoided by girls, and resides in an environment
populated partially by gangsters, muggers, thieves, and con
artists.
* The United Nations estimates that more than 80 million Africans
will die from AIDS by the year 2025 if something isnt done to
fight the disease. 25 million people in Africa are already
infected with the HIV virus. The U.N. estimates it will take more
than $200 Billion dollars to save 16 million already infected and
prevent another 43 million from getting the disease.
* A team of U.S. and Ethiopian scientists has discovered the
fossilized remains of what they believe is humankinds first
walking ancestor, a hominid that lived in the wooded grasslands of
the Horn of Africa nearly 4 million years ago. The specimen is the
only the fourth partial skeleton ever to be discovered that is
older than the 3 million year old Lucy. It was found after two
months of excavation at Mille, 37 miles from the famous Lucy
discovery.
* Burger King releases a commercial for their new bacon crisp
cheddar ranch burger. The burger grows on trees and is displayed
by ditzy sex symbol women in an atmosphere of stupid comedy. A
Black cowboy sings a silly melody while two more Black cowboys lay
on a hilltop eating the burger in a dream like atmosphere. The
whole scene portrays the Blacks as silly and lazy reminiscent of
the stereotypes of the Jim Crow era. The radio version of the
commercial is a normal sounding serious release with the voice of
a White sounding male.
* Three unrelated high profile homicide cases occur in different
states within 2 weeks of each other. The cases are: a shooting at
a church, the killing of a judges family and a shooting at a
courthouse. All three cases receive media attention. Two of the
three suspects are White, but the only suspect that is shown on TV
is the Black suspect, Brian Nichols. Nichols photo is shown on TV
every 30 minutes detailing what he did while photos of the
suspects from the other two cases are not shown and the cases
reveal minimal details. The media floods the airways with the
photos of Black crime suspects every chance they get, but seldom
give the same exposure to White suspects unless the crimes involve
celebrities or are high profile. The media did the same thing
involving the Lee Boyd Malvo sniper case in 2002. The media
continues to display Blacks as criminals, silly, lazy or indigent
with the same stereotype and effect of the slave era.
* Hollywood releases the TV movie Minotaur which portrays the
sacrifice of the local villagers, who are White, to a giant
demonic bull that lives in an underground labyrinth. This is a
cross between mythology and ancient Egypt. The only Blacks in the
movie are played by a Black brother and sister that are servants
of the bull. The brother is evil and views himself as a god and is
the evil overlord of the realm who feeds the locals to the raging
bull. Once again Hollywood portrays Blacks in a negative role and
even hints at incest in ancient Egypt when the evil brother wants
his sister the have his child. In the end a villager kills the
bull and brings down the evil overlord.
* Winston Hayes, 44 and unarmed, is shot 4 times, in a barrage of
over 120 bullets, by 10 Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputies,
after he was spotted speeding, driving erratically and failing to
stop for the officers in the Compton neighborhood. Apparently his
vehicle matched the description of a murder suspect and / or a
stolen vehicle but officers had no idea of the race of the true
suspect driver or if he was armed. The Deputies started shooting
without confirming if Hayes was the right person they were looking
for, however he was black and that was good enough for them. The
Deputies were shooting from 3 directions and also fired bullets
into nearby houses from their crossfire.
* Attorney Johnny Cochran Dies. Cochran represented people like
Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Lenny Bruce, Elmer Pratt, Sean
Combs, Rosa Parks and others. Cochran is known for saying an
injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
* NFL Wide Receiver Jerry Rice retires after 20 years with 38 NFL
records including 1545 career receptions, 22,895 yards receiving
and 208 touchdowns. He played for the 49ers, Raiders, Seahawks,
and then retired from the Broncos before the start of the season.
Rice earned 3 Super Bowl rings, 13 Pro Bowl starts, 1 NFL MVP
award and 1 Super Bowl MVP award.
* Rosa Parks dies at age 92. She is most remembered for her
refusal to give up her bus seat for a White passenger in
Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 which boosted the civil rights
movement.
* U.S. Air Force Academy head football coach Fisher Deberry said
the academy needs to recruit more Blacks because they run faster
than the others. While this may be true, the context had racist
overtones about suggesting Blacks can run fast because of their
roots dating back to slavery.
* DNA testing proved that the first inhabitants of China were
Black Africans. The study was conducted by a Chinese DNA
specialist named Jin Li and a team of Chinese and other scientists. Li admits that he wasnt trying to prove this fact,
instead he initially wanted to prove that the Chinese evolved from
hmo-erectus independently of all humans. After collecting more
than 12000 DNA samples from 165 different ethnic groups, Li and
his team found that early humans belonged to different species but
modern humans had descended from the East African species. One
scientist on the team, Li Hui, said that 100,000 years ago humans
began migrating through South and Southeast Asia into China from
Africa.
* The Global Fund, which raises money to combat AIDS, reports that
at least 11 million children in Africa have been orphaned by the
disease and still the U.S. ignores the problem.
* CNN News airs a segment on obesity and heart disease in America.
Unfortunately they only show Blacks as being obese by showing
several obese Blacks walking around in public. This is a target
specific negative image of Blacks in America.
* The FBI reports that hate crimes against Blacks rose by 5% from
the previous year and is the most common type of hate crime. The
information was supplied by 12,711 law enforcement agencies
nationwide.
* Tiger Woods is named PGA player of the Year for the 7th time in
his career.
* Paramount Pictures releases the movie Get Rich or Die Trying
starring Curtis 50 Cent Jackson. The movie glorifies the gang
way of life and Black street culture as a means to get ahead. This
is another destructive message to Black youths. The advertisement
billboard is only displayed in poor Black communities of the Los
Angeles area. The ad shows 50 Cent holding a gun in one hand and
a microphone in the other as if gang violence and rap artists are
synonymous with each other. Outrage comes from the Black community
stating that Paramount is being irresponsible.
2006
* Wal-Mart links Black American icons with the movie Planet of
the Apes on its website. If you clicked on the movie Planet of
the Apes the site suggested other movies you might like starring
Black Americans. Wal-Mart claimed it was an accident caused by the
software.
* The Department of Interior reports that FEMA turned down an
offer of 4400 law enforcement officers and hundreds of trucks,
income. The study found that mortgage lenders are charging higher
rates to Blacks and steering Blacks to loan sellers that
specialize in higher rates.
* The U.S. Army releases a recruitment commercial showing a young
Black male telling his mother he found a way to pay for college by
joining the Army. The subconscious visual message is that the
mother is a low income earner and cant afford college money for
her son and there is no father figure in the home.
* Geico Insurance is hit with a nationwide class action
discrimination suit after if was found that they charge Blacks
higher insurance premiums than Whites with the same driving
record.
* Minnesota Vikings quarterback Dante Culpepper and three other
Black players are charged with indecent behavior and lewd acts by
Minnesota prosecutor Steven Tallen stemming from events that
occurred last October on a boat party cruise ship. Ironically the
prosecutor declined to charge two White men also involved in the
incident.
* Racial tension erupts into violence in Orlando, Florida as
Blacks clash with a Neo-Nazi White Supremacist group. The Neo-Nazi
group staged a march in a Black neighborhood to promote White
Power. 300 Police Officers and K-9s where on scene to separate
the two groups.
* Soul singer pioneer Wilson Picket dies.
was insufficient and nothing was done to stop the violence against
Africans.
as the
from
1992
Rock
2007
* The movie "The Great Debaters", based on a true story, revolves
around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson at
historically Black Wiley College to place his team on equal
footing with Whites in the South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow
laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for Blacks.
The Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are
able to debate Harvard University.
* The Australian governments failed intervention leaves
Aborigines (The Indigenous Black people of Australia) poor,
hungry, suicidal and criminalized. They are usually left starving
with barely enough food to nourish themselves. They dont have
running water, consistently available electricity or sanitation.
Prime Minister John Howard sent the army into the indigenous area
of the country claiming to protect children from sexual abuse
under an intervention later exposed as a fraud by local police.
Howard used their plight to enact a long prepared plan to close
economically unviable communities, open up Aboriginal land for
exploitation and private profit, and develop a cheap labor force
by undermining welfare benefits. Aborigines, the most oppressed
section of the working class, were used as a test case for
punitive measures against welfare recipients nationally.
* Oprah Winfrey opens the $40 million dollar Oprah Winfrey
Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. Each girl will be
given an all expenses paid education to prepare and guide them for
the future. Critics of the gesture complained that Oprah should
have helped children in America and that the school excluded
Whites. Oprah responded by saying: who is more needful than the
children of South Africa?
* Tiger Woods wins the Buick Invitational which gives him his 7th
consecutive PGA tour victory and the 12th major of his career.
* Micaela Reis of Angola wins the Miss Universe pagent.
* Fed Ex settles a $54.9 million settlement for racial
discrimination against Blacks in its promotion, discipline and pay
practices and the requirement to pass a Basic Skills Test which
was not required by Whites.
* Rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five are inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame becoming the 1st Hip-Hop group
to be inducted after releasing the smash hit The Message 25
years earlier. The group led the way for other Hip-Hop / Rap
artists to break into the music industry. The group consisted of
Grandmaster Flash, Kid Creole, Melle Mel, Scorpio, Raheim and
Cowboy.
furniture was made in China. The slur was blamed on Chinese-toEnglish language translation software. The software came from the
U.S. as did the word nigger. It is unlikely that the Chinese
even knew of the word nigger or what it stands for. The
furniture was a rich deep brown color.
* The crime drama movie "American Gangster" is released with some
creative license based on the true life criminal career of Frank
Lucas during the late 60s and early 70s, who was a gangster
from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United
States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War.
Lucas was later arrested by a task force led by detective Richie
Roberts. Lucas claims that the incident that sparked his
motivation to embark on a life of crime was witnessing his 12year-old cousin's murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, for
apparently "reckless eyeballing" (looking at) a White woman, in
Greensboro. During his run, Lucas became the biggest gang leader
and drug dealer in Harlem even outpacing the Italian Crime
Families. The product Blue Magic, was being supplied by Lucas, who
bought his drugs directly from producers in Thailand, eliminating
the middlemen. This allowed Lucas to provide a higher quality
product at a cheaper price than his rivals, eventually wholesaling
drugs to most of the dealers in the New York area. With Blue
Magic's monopoly, Lucas quickly makes a fortune, buying several
nightclubs to control the casino and prostitution ring. Some would
say that Lucas was the Black Godfather of New York.
* The Federal Reserve released that they found that Blacks pay
higher rates than Whites on mortgage loans after reviewing data
from the previous few years.
* Living the Dream MLK parties spark uproars as White students
from Clemson University, Tarleton State University and the
University of Connecticut Law School carry out racist themes by
mocking Black stereotypes featuring students dressed in faux gang
apparel, drinking 40 oz. malt liquor, eating fried chicken,
wearing blackface, carrying guns, wearing baggy cloths, wearing
gold chains and gold teeth, and disgracefully defacing a
photograph of Martin L. King Jr. Pictures of the parties were then
posted on the internet.
* Lewis Hamilton becomes the 1st Black in Formula One history to
win a race by winning the Canadian Grand Prix and later the Monaco
Grand Prix.
* Barry Bonds hits home run number 756 to break Hank Aarons
storied record, making Bonds MLBs home run king. Bonds went on to
hit 762 home runs before he retired in 2007.
2008
* The Real Housewives of Atlanta is a reality TV series that
premiered on Bravo focused on the personal and professional lives
of several women residing in Atlanta, Georgia. The show has been
criticized for appearing to fabricate portions of its storyline
and inflating the stereotypes of the "Angry Black Woman" as the
show a has become mostly about Black women. The Real
Housewives are portraying Black women that are bullying,
narcissistic, back-stabbing, money-grubbing, cliquey, disloyal,
arrogant, self-involved, willfully ignorant, poorly spoken,
wasteful and tackily nouveau rich. The show disproportionately
misrepresents Black women in negative stereotypes.
* Vogue's April issue featured Black NBA star LeBron James paired
with supermodel Gisele Bundchen, captured by photographer Annie
Leibovitz, in a pose meant to evoke the image of King Kong. The
brute caricature subconsciously portrays Black men as innately
savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal, deserving
punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an
anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous,
terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially White
women. During slavery the dominant caricatures of Blacks was of
Mammy, Coon, Tom, and Picaninny which portrayed them as childlike,
ignorant, docile, groveling, and generally harmless. These
portrayals were pragmatic and instrumental. Proponents of slavery
created and promoted images of Blacks that justified slavery and
soothed White consciences. If slaves were childlike, for example,
then a paternalistic institution where masters acted as quasiparents to their slaves was humane, even morally right. More
importantly, slaves were rarely depicted as brutes because that
portrayal might have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. During the
Radical Reconstruction period (1867-1877), many White writers
argued that without slavery, which supposedly suppressed their
animalistic tendencies. Blacks were reverting to criminal
savagery.
was called Nappy Headed Mo and Queen Sheba along with sexual
advances and racist jokes from male co-workers in which her
complaints went ignored by supervisors in an ongoing culture of
harassment that trickled down from the top who routinely mage Ku
Klux Klan references. To Blacks, NASCAR stands for (North and
South Carolina Association of Rednecks).
* Tiger Woods wins his 3rd U.S. Open and 14th major title just two
months after knee surgery. Woods played with visible pain and won
a 19-hole playoff to win the title and claim his 65th PGA win.
* Arkansas City, Kansas Mayor Mel Khun appeared in blackface as
part of a drag-queen beauty contest fundraiser. Needless to say
blackface and dressing as a drag queen are at opposite ends of
make-up and dress. An apology was issued after the NAACP met with
city officials.
* A federal jury in South Carolina acquits a White highway patrol
trooper who bragged about deliberately hitting a fleeing black
suspect with his car which was captured on dash camera video tape.
Officer Steven Garren testified that he hit the suspect by
accident even though he can be heard on the video bragging to a
fellow officer that he was trying to run the person over and
yelled in excitement that he nailed him. Garren cried in court as
he faced prison time for excessive force but was later seen
smiling as he exited the courtroom. This is another example of how
the justice system is very unbalanced and unfair to Blacks
* Former Nation of Islam leader Imam W.D. Mohammed dies at the age
of 74. Mohammed once taught black supremacy in his younger days
moved toward mainstream Islam in his elder years. Mohammed had
been a friend of Malcolm X and believed in black supremacy, but
later emphasized racial tolerance which conflicted with the views
of Minister Louis Farrakhan causing a split in the direction the
Nation of Islam was heading. Farrakhan would later give an
interview with CBS news reporter Mike Wallace and indirectly admit
* Entering the 2008 Tennis season the Williams sisters, Venus and
Serena, have won a combined 28 Grand Slam Titles in singles and
doubles along with 2 Olympic Gold Medals. Each sister has won 14
titles. Venus has won 4 Wimbledon titles, 2 U.S. Open titles, 6
doubles titles and 2 Olympic Gold Medals. Serena has won 3
Australian Open titles, 1 French Open title, 2 Wimbledon titles, 2
U.S. Open titles, 6 doubles titles and 1 Olympic Gold Medal. As a
pair they have dominated the womens tennis world since turning
pro in 1994 and 1995. Between the two of them they have a combined
88 career tennis titles. The two sisters faced each other for the
2008 Wimbledon title marking the 7th time they have faced each
other in a final. Venus went on to win the match and her 5th
Wimbledon title. The two joined forces again and won their 7th
doubles title at Wimbledon. Their achievements are special because
they take time off from tennis to go into other ventures and then
return to winning tennis matches at their leisure.
Haiti while Cubans get a free ride once they reach shore in
Florida under the wet foot, dry foot law. The tragedy and misery
in Haiti is much worse than in Cuba but once again Black skinned
people are pushed back. (I live in Florida now so I get to see
this first hand).
* It saddens me to report that in our day of rejoice in America
for President Obama, Africa is a nation that is tearing itself
apart while the world watches in silence without lifting a finger.
Today as you read this, all across Africa there is rape, killing,
starvation, AIDS, genocide, tribal warfare, political corruption,
kidnapping of the children into gangs and atrocities that turn my
stomach just to think about. The media will report this stuff but
no one helps to stop the death and violence. Are we really
civilized?
* The Black Man Did It lie has raised its ugly head again.
Philadelphia mom Bonnie Sweeten claimed she and her 9-year old
daughter were car-jacked and abducted by two Black men and held in
the trunk of a car as they were driven across country. The lie
quickly unraveled after the pair was spotted at a luxury hotel at
Disney World in Florida. The incident caused an amber alert to be
activated and national media coverage played into images of
marauding Black men kidnapping White women. Later it was learned
that Sweeten had committed identity theft and embezzled a large
amount of money. This is not the first time in recent history the
Black man lie has been used to cover-up crimes and hoaxes by White
perpetrators. Incidents such as this perpetuate the Lynch Mob
Mentality as this country is quick to believe anything negative
about Blacks committing crimes. The book: The Color of Crime by
Katheryn Russell-Brown documents 67 racial hoaxes against Blacks
from 1987 to 1996. It seems that racism is still alive and well in
the land of the free and the home of the brave.
* Africans Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Salina Kosgei of Kenya win
the mens and womens race at the Boston Marathon. No American has
won in Boston since 1985. African runners maintain their dominance
in long distance running.
* Jazz legend Duke Ellington becomes the 1st Black to appear on an
American coin. The U.S. mint honored Ellington on the coin for the
District of Columbia in its line of state-themed quarters. Edward
Kennedy Duke Ellington won 13 Grammy Awards and was a pioneer in
jazz. Ellington wrote over 3000 songs before dying in 1974 at the
age of 75.
alleged burglars were Mr. Gates and his driver. After being
confronted by police Sergeant James Crowley, Mr. Gates produced
identification to prove that he lived in the house and was then
arrested after he demanded to see the officers identification and
badge number. The officer refused the request and took Mr. Gates
into custody. This incident made national news as it appears to be
a case of racial injustice and contempt of cop arrest. The charges
were later dropped.
* Halle Berry becomes the 1st Black woman on the September cover of
Vogue magazine since Naomi Campbell in 1989. Earlier this year
Vanity Fair took a lot of heat for their cover spread showing nine
of Hollywoods up-and-coming young actresses of which not one of
them were Black.
* Dorothy Height, the Godmother and an icon of the Civil Rights
Movement dies at age 98. Height was standing just a few feet from
Dr. Martin Luther King during his I have a dream speech. Height
was denied entry into college as a girl because the quota for
Blacks had already been reached. She devoted her life to those
struggling for equality. Height later went on to attend college
where she earned a masters degree in psychology from New York
University. For more than 40 years Height served as the president
of the National Council of Negro Woman which earned her 36
honorary doctorate degrees and making her one of a select few
Americans to win both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the
Congressional Gold Medal which is the highest civilian and most
distinguished award presented by Congress.
* HIVTEST.ORG runs a television commercial showing two Black males
texting each other. The grammar shown in the texts is of improper
english such as street slang while several Blacks are sitting in a
health clinic waiting for an HIV test. The underlying visual
message seems to be that Blacks are illiterate and they are the
only ones dealing with AIDS as they are the only race of people in
the clinic. This commercial feeds into the continued negative
stereotype about Blacks.
* Talk radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger issues an apology after
the uproar she created after blurting out, articulating and
defending the use of the word nigger several times in an on-air
conversation with a Black caller saying Blacks are hyper-sensitive
to racism. The caller was complaining to Dr. Schlessinger of how
her White husbands White friends made racist comments in her
home. Dr. Schlessinger tried to laugh off her comments but ended
up taking herself off the air to focus on her internet web page.
* Caressa Cameron is crowned as Miss Virginia and Miss America
2010.
* The United States Congress honored slaves who built the Capitol
building in Washington, D.C., by unveiling plaques recognizing the
contributions of slaves in the construction of the U.S. Capitol.
The slaves sweated in the brutal summer heat fighting snakes and
mosquitoes and shivered in the bitter winter cold working 12-hour
days for six days a week wearing nothing but rags and sometimes
without shoes in the worst of conditions in timber mills, quarries
and other work camps between 1793 and 1800. The federal government
rented the slaves from local slave owners at a rate of $5.00 per
person per month. The plaques are located in the Congressional
Visitor Center.
* Three White teachers from the Wadsworth Avenue elementary school
in Los Angeles were removed from their positions and suspended for
mocking Black heroes by giving children portraits of O.J. Simpson,
Dennis Rodman and RuPaul to carry in a Black History Month parade.
Children from other classes at the school were given photos of
more appropriate role models such as Nelson Mandela, Harriet
Tubman and President Barack Obama. The school superintendant said
he will not let anyone make a mockery out of Black History Month.
* Dorothy Height, 'The Godmother' of civil rights, dies at 98.
Height, who had been chair and President Emerita of the National
Council of Negro Women, worked in the 1960s alongside civil rights
pioneers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., future U.S.
Representative John Lewis and Asa Philip Randolph. She was on the
platform when King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the
1963 March on Washington. Height was awarded the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and the
Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. She was among a handful of key
African-American leaders to meet with President Barack Obama at
the White House recently for a summit on race and the economy.
2011
* The movie "The Help" is released about a young White woman,
Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two Black
maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights
era in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter is a journalist who
decides to write a book from the point of view of the maids
(referred to as "the help"), exposing the racism they are faced
with as they work for White families. This is another look into
the dark past of America. The Help received four Academy
Award nominations and won the Screen Actors Guild Award for
Outstanding Performance by a Cast.
* Hidden Colors is the name of an ongoing documentary film series
Tariq Nasheed about the real and untold history of people of color
around the globe. This film discusses some of the reasons the
contributions of African and Aboriginal people have been left out
of the pages of history. Traveling around the country, the film
features scholars, historians, and social commentators who
uncovered such amazing facts about things such as: The original
image of Christ; The true story about the Moors; The original
people of Asia; The great west African empires; The presence of
Africans in America before Columbus; The real reason slavery was
ended And much more.
* The Turner Industries Group, LLC of Baton Rouge, LA has been hit
by a federal discrimination lawsuit by 230 current and former
employees saying they were forced to work in facilities where
racist graffiti, racial slurs and discrimination are commonplace.
Workers also complained for over a decade about nooses hung in the
workplace, segregated bathrooms and unequal treatment in
facilities in Louisiana and Texas. Company officials retaliated
against Black employees for complaining. The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission said they have received hundreds of
complaints by Black employees working at Turner Industries.
Aaron Rice & Dylan Wade Butler have been sentenced to long-term
prison sentences for their crime.
* 14 African Nations are being forced by France to pay taxes for
the "Benefits" of colonialism (slavery). According the World Bank,
Fourteen nations are in agreement to deposit 65 percent of all
foreign currency reserves in a shared reserve fund to France. The
countries established the Monetary and Economic Union of West
Africa. Their currency, the CFA-Franc, is printed under
supervision of the French National Bank in Chamalieres, France.
France is indebting and enslaving Africans by means of Africas
own wealth; for example: 12.0000 billion invested at three percent
creates 360 billion in interests which France grants as credits to
Africa at an interest rate of five to six percent or more. The
allegory of Bleeding Africa and Feeding France is no
exaggeration, not alarmist, and not revolutionary. The countries
are: Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad,
Central African Republic, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo,
Benin, Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau.
* A Miami strip club uses flyers designed by Jeffrey D. Paul
headlining an I have a dream bash showing Martin Luther King,
Jr., holding wads of cash standing in front of a scantily dressed
stripper and promoting Ciroc vodka for the MLK weekend
celebration. This is another example of disrespect shown to Blacks
and their iconic civil rights hero by creating negative
stereotypes and insulting images.
2013
* 14-year old Thessalonika Arzu-Embry receives her bachelors
degree in psychology from Chicago State University with an
impressive 3.9 GPA, is a member of the schools Honor College, and
serves as a student senator.
* The documentary film, "Fire in the Blood", was premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival explores how major western pharmaceutical
companies, including Pfizer and Glaxo-Smith-Kline, as well as the
United States, prevented tens of millions of people in Africa from
receiving affordable generic AIDS drugs by blocking imports of
cheap generic drugs. It is estimated that 10-12 million Africans
died between 1995-2003 as a result of the pharmaceutical companies
increasing their profits by blocking generic drugs from being sold
in Africa. Shot on four continents and including contributions
from global figures such as Bill Clinton, Desmond Tutu and Joseph
Stiglitz. "Fire in the Blood" is the never-before-told true story
of the remarkable coalition which came together to stop "the crime
of the century" and save millions of lives in the process.
* The 10-hour TV mini-series "The Bible" produced by Roma
Downey and Mark Burnett for the History channel, tells The story
of God's creation of the Earth and the landmark events leading up
to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is planned for adaption for
release to theaters as a feature film in 2014 as "Son of God." The
TV version however chose to use a Black man, which ironically
looks exactly like President Obama, as the devil. Not only is evil
portrayed as a Black man but also in the image of the first Black
President of the United States. This is how Hollywood continues to
portray Black people as bad with White people as being good.
* In a recent article on The Grio, Sil Lai Abrams stated that the
proliferation of Black performers in reality television
programming is doing nothing to help create a positive reality of
the African American experience. In fact, Abrams says that our
increased participation which should be a good thing is
creating the opposite effect; it is perpetuating negative
stereotypes that create false perceptions of Black people for the
nation to consume. In the decades since the Civil Rights and Black
Power movements, the imagery of Black people in media,
particularly on television, has changed considerably more toward
the negative. The materialism and success at any cost mindset
that pervades modern popular culture today is likely a reaction to
the economic uncertainty and hopelessness that is the true reality
for many Black people.
* The movie "12 Years a Slave" is released based on the adaptation
of the 1853 true slave narrative memoir "Twelve Years A Slave" by
Solomon Northup, a New York State-born free African-American man
who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and sold
into slavery. Northup worked on plantations in the state of
Louisiana for twelve years before his release and return to his
family. The film received widespread critical acclaim, and was
named the best film of 2013 by several media outlets. The film won
three Academy Awards for its depiction of the events in the life
of a former slave and the brutality they suffered.
* Fox News, other media sources and news personalities' long
pattern of racially biased crime coverage is hurting Black people.
Studies show media crime stories perpetuate harmful racial
stereotypes especially against Blacks which are feeding into a
well-worn script of biased media coverage of violent crimes that
academic research has shown favors White people and disparages
Black people with seriously ill effects on racial comity and equal
justice in America. Professor of media & public affairs at George
Washington University Robert M. Entman highlighted a few of the
subtle media trends recorded in various studies. They include:
1) Blacks are more likely than Whites to appear as lawbreakers in
the news, particularly when the news is focusing on violent crime.
2) Whites are overrepresented as victims of violence and as lawenforcers, while Blacks are underrepresented in these sympathetic
roles.
3) Blacks in criminal roles tend to outnumber Blacks in socially
positive roles in newscasts and daily newspapers.
4) Depictions of Black suspects tend to be more symbolically
threatening than those of Whites accused of similar crimes. Blacks
are often shown in orange jail jumpsuits, while Whites are seldom
shown at all. In the ubiquitous "perp walks," Blacks were twice as
likely as Whites to be shown under some form of physical restraint
by police, although all were accused of scary and generally
violent crimes.
5) Black victims are less likely to be covered than White victims
in media coverage of crime. Messages and images continually
associating people of color, Especially Blacks, with poverty and
crime reinforce the updated form of racial prejudice known as
symbolic racism, racial resentment, or racial animosity.
6) Racialized crime coverage reinforces the stereotype that Blacks
are not just lazy, but also violent. Moreover, empirical evidence
demonstrates associations between racial resentment and Whites'
support of punitive crime policies and opposition to preventative
policies.
Entman explained that the racial images that media uses matter
"because they are a central component in a circular process by
which racial and ethnic misunderstanding and antagonism are
reproduced, and thus become predictable influences in the
criminal-justice process." Entman noted that the negative impact
of the lasting racial impressions this kind of coverage creates
extends far beyond just the news stories the media highlights and
goes toward shaping the attitudes that Whites have against Blacks.
* TV mini-series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross"
airs on PBS. This Emmy Award-winning 6 episode series looks at
more than just Black history, it explores Black identity and what
it means to be an African American in the U.S. today. Unveiling
different religious and social perspectives, a multiplicity of
cultural perspectives, and the evolution of the African American
people, this series spans five hundred years and two continents as
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes viewers on a journey of the
Black experience throughout the United States. On the way, he
visits historic sites, engages in passionate debates with
Americas top historians on African American history, and
interviews eyewitnesses who have been on the frontlines of change.
Throughout the series, Dr. Gates highlights tragedies, triumphs
and contradictions throughout Black history, revealing that the
African American community has never been a uniform entity and
sheds new light on what it means to be African American.
2014
* A bomb exploded outside the Colorado Springs chapter of the
NAACP. There were no damages or injuries.
* Mo'ne Ikea Davis, a little league baseball pitcher from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became the first girl to earn a win
and to pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history. She
is the 18th girl overall to play, the sixth to get a hit, and the
first African-American girl to play in the Little League World
Series. She is also the first little league baseball player to
appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a little league
player and was named the 2014 Associated Press female athlete of
the year.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Research Labs found that the
lineage diverged from previously known Y chromosomes about 388,000
years ago. The DNA study began after a South Carolina man
submitted a small tissue sample to the National Geographic
Project. Researchers were shocked after they noticed none of the
genetic markers used to assign lineages to known Y chromosome
groupings were found. The man's DNA sample was sent to the Family
Tree DNA for sequencing. Researchers at Hammer's lab analyzed more
than 240,000 base pairs of Y chromosomes that led to the Mbo
connection. Scientists were then able to establish the emergence
of the chromosome mutation based on rates of change, creating a
family tree for the chromosome. The study implicates and
strengthens the belief that there is no Mitochondrial Eve or Y
Chromosome Adam. All of humankind, as a result, did not descend
from exactly one pair of humans that lived at a certain point in
human evolution.
* Admiral Michelle J. Howard, the vice chief of naval operations,
became the first female four-star in the 239-year history of the
Navy. She is also the highest-ranking African-American woman in a
male-dominated military that did not even allow the promotion of
women to general or admiral until 1967. She is the highest-ranking
African American woman ever in any branch of the military. Howard
is also the first African American woman to command a U.S.
Navy ship, the USS Rushmore.
* TV sitcom "Black-ish" debuted on ABC. The comedy centers on an
upper-middle-class Black family. A family man struggles to gain a
sense of cultural identity while raising his four kids in a
predominantly White, upper-middle-class neighborhood in suburban
California. The show is hoping to translate as an applicable
lesson on race relations and cultural assimilation in today's
America. Critics of the show call it racist mainly because of the
title and the show is about Black people trying to get by in a
White world.
* TV drama "Power" debates on Starz. The series follows character
James St. Patrick, nicknamed "Ghost", played by Omari Hardwick the
owner of a popular New York City nightclub. In addition, he is a
major player in one of the city's biggest illegal drug networks.
He struggles to balance these two lives, and the balance topples
when he realizes he wants to leave the drug ring in order to
support his legitimate business, and commit to his mistress. This
show continues the stereotype of Blacks being drug dealers, thugs
and being promiscuous.
* The TV reality show "Love and Hip Hop: Hollywood" airs on VH1
and follows a group of rising stars and starlets fighting for
their chance to make it in the entertainment capital of the
world. R&B artists, video vixens, actors, personal assistants and
lovers showcase the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood hip-hop
music scene. The show displays an array of verbal and physical
abuse in Black relationships that is disturbing. The emotionally
abusive and disrespectful behavior of male cast members reinforces
the idea that a Black mans power is best expressed through
unbridled and unprincipled sexual behavior, aggression and
violence are examples of this shows many horrible messages for
the nation to see. There are 8 current TV shows that reinforce
negative stereotypes of Black people: The Wire, Love and Hip Hop,
Basketball Wives, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Married to
Medicine, The Bad Girls Club, Mad Men, The Vampire Diaries. Each
one of these shows portrays Blacks in a negative light.
* Yityish Aynaw, an Ethiopian-Jew, becomes the first Black woman
win the crown of Miss Israel, speaks out and says Israel has real
problem with its treatment and racism against refugees and
immigrants from Africa. Yityish says she doesn't feel much of the
discrimination herself, but she sees it.
* Rolling Stone Magazine Named President Obama as one of Americas
most historically successful presidents in history as Obama
tackled huge problems in the areas of financial reform, health
care reform, social reform, economic management, environmental
changes and national security. Nobel Prize winner, author of 20
books, writer for the New York Time and economics professor at
Princeton University, Paul Krugman praised President Obama for his
many successes despite dealing with constant Obama-bashing from
ill-suited and misguided critics from all angles trying to tear
apart the Obama administration.
2015
* TV drama series "Empire" airs on FOX. The show centers around a
Black owned hip-hop music and entertainment company, Empire
Enterprises, and the drama among the members of the founders'
family as they fight for control of the company. The show covers
adult content subjects of homosexuality, drug use, drug dealing,
mature language, murder, promiscuous sex, racism, mental illness
and gives some insight into the world of Black music on some
levels. Critics say the show continues to advance the perception
of Blacks in a negative light as gangsters, criminals and drug
dealers rather than the working-class Blacks who are law-abiding,
hard-working and committed to family.
* Ballet dancer Misty Copeland becomes the first African American
woman to be named a principal dancer in the 75-year history of
American Ballet Theater. The lack of Black women in top ballet
companies has been attributed to a variety of factors, from the
legacy of discrimination and lingering stereotypical concepts of
what ballerinas should look like to the lack of exposure to ballet
and training opportunities in many communities.
* The NAACP Image Awards names "Empire" star Taraji P. Henson, as
Entertainer of the Year, as well as a Best Actress win for the
2014 movie thriller "No Good Deed" with Idris Elba. ABCs hit
comedy series "Black-ish" swept all its categories, winning
outstanding comedy series.
* A Cleveland Fox 8 news anchor has been suspended for three days
for making racist comments. Kristi Capel was reporting on the
Oscars when she said she appreciated Lady Gagas version of the
Sound of Music - despite the accompanying jigaboo music. Capel
said Its hard to really hear her voice with all the jigaboo
music - whatever you want to call it - jigaboo!
* The Manhattan Beach, California $3.5 million home of Ronald and
Malissia Clinton was firebombed when a tire filled with gasoline
was ignited and exploded at the front door of their home. The
couple live in an 84% white neighborhood and are the only Black
family on their street. The couple, who have three children,
believe they were targeted because they are Black.
* Michael Jordan has become the first former or current North
American pro athlete to make Forbes annual billionaires list, the
magazine revealed. Jordan, whose playing career ended in 2003, is
arguably the greatest basketball player of all time and still has
lucrative endorsement deals with Gatorade, Hanes and Upper Deck
and Nike. Jordan's Nike brand made an estimated $2.25 billion in
2013.
* Emmy award-winning host Rodner Figueroa from the Spanish
Univision show El Gordo Y La Flaca, has been fired for making
derogatory comments about Michelle Obama during a television show.
Figueroa said Michelle Obama looks like she is from the cast of
The Planet of The Apes, pointing to a picture of the First
Lady. The exchange took place during a segment on makeup
transformations by a makeup artist, Paolo Ballesteros, who makes
himself look like famous women celebrities.
* Amnesty International reports the town of Baga, Nigeria was
razed and as many as 2,200 people killed by Islamist group Boko
Haram who is a militant and self-professed Islamist movement based
in northeast Nigeria with additional activities in Chad, Niger and
Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau, with membership
estimated at 9000 and growing. The group is designated as a
terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations
Security Council, which declared it an Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Boko Haram killed more than 10,000 civilians between July 2009 and
June 2014, including at least 2,000 in the first half of 2014, in
Nigeria. Since 2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500 men,
women and children, including the kidnapping of 276 school
girls from Chibok who were sold as slaves and wives in April 2014.
By the end of the year 1.5 million had fled the region. After its
founding in 2002, Boko Haram's increasing radicalization led to a
and their one-way ticket out of abject poverty so, many children
are easily lured into the sex trade. Due to poverty being a huge
problem in the coastal town, parents dont ask questions when
their children return home with the money. Meanwhile, children in
Malindi continue to be abused and exploited by foreigners who have
no regard for the childrens safety or psychological well-being.
nominated work on Selma. The films star, David Oyelowo, also was
completely overlooked for his gripping portrayal of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., Selma received a nomination for best picture; the
films only other nomination was for best song, for Common and
John Legends recent Golden Globe winner Glory. All of the four
major acting categories; Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a
Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, and Actress in a
Supporting Role; feature only White actors. Nominees for best
director are also all White with the exception of Mexican-born
filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Other films that have been
passed over are Do the Right Thing, Malcolm-X, Lumumba, The Help
and 12 Years A Slave. Meanwhile the 46th NAACP Image Awards in
Pasadena, California honors 10 Blacks who will join a list of
talented African Americans who received love from their own
community after being passed over and snubbed by mainstream awards
groups.
* Nine-time Grammy award winner and daughter of jazz icon Nat King
Cole, singer Natalie Cole died of complications from congestive
heart failure and a kidney transplant. She was 65.
her white co-workers. She also was suing for retaliation she said
she suffered when she was given less-favorable job reviews after
she filed a complaint in 2011 with the Massachusetts Commission
Against Discrimination.
* Sitcom "The Carmichael Show" airs starring Jarrod Carmichael,
which follows a fictional version of his family. The show is set
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
* The movie "Straight Outta Compton" is released. The group N.W.A.
emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles,
California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture
with their music and tales about life in the hood and as the voice
for poor Blacks across the nation. The group starts out with now
industry heavy weights: Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, DJ Yella and MC
Ren and includes Warren G, Tupac, Snoop Dog, D.O.C., and Suge
Knight.
* According to the Washington Post, Texas school textbooks have
begun downplaying the horror of slavery, the Civil War and
segregation, even emphasizing an upside and calling people stolen
from Africa workers, as if the only difference between people
unwillingly taken from their homes and then shipped overseas to
provide free labor and people who apply for jobs and get paid is
mere semantics. The new textbooks are in line with statewide
standards adopted in 2010 by the Texas State Board of Education, a
15-member elected panel dominated by Republicans. The board called
for students to be taught that the Civil War was caused by
"sectionalism, states' rights and slavery," which, the Post
reports, was "written deliberately in that order to telegraph
slaverys secondary role in driving the conflict."
* Facts show White-on-White crime far exceeds Black-on-Black crime
and but the media outlets conceal it. Edward Wycoff Williams, an
author, columnist and political analyst for MSNBC, conveyed a
reality that many do not seem to know is real. Williams wrote
for The Root: It seems that the media in general and White
American society in particular prefer to focus on crime
perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to
absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized
discrimination engendered for generations against Blacks. It
offers a buffer against responsibility, a way to shift blame and
deflect cause and effect. But the truth, and numbers, tell a
different story. At the heart of an increasingly violent society
is not a subculture among Blacks, but the violence and criminality
of many Americans, and Whites in particular. The term "Black-onBlack" crime is a destructive, racialized colloquialism that
* The FBI admits that many police officers really are racist. FBI
Director James B. Comey addressed what he called the hard truths
about policing at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, at a
discussion about the relationship between law enforcement and the
diverse communities we serve. He openly acknowledged the racial
bias that exists among police officers across the nation. Director
complain her show is anti-police and she shouldn't have used the
superbowl as a political platform.
* President Obama makes history with a trip to Cuba that will make
Obama the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on the island
in nearly seven decades. Obama cast it as part of steady
progression of normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a
communist nation estranged from the U.S. for over half a century
until Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved toward
rapprochement more than a year ago.
* Ann-Marie Campbell was named head of Home Depots U.S. stores as
the executive vice president. She began working at Home Depot as a
part-time cashier during college, and rose through the ranks to
her current position. She has received numerous honors, including
being named to Fortunes' 2014 list of 50 Most Powerful Women in
Business.
* The National Black Programming Consortium is offering $150,000
to independent filmmakers. Leslie Fields-Cruz heads up the
nations only nonprofit organization dedicated solely to media
content about Black experiences. NBPC has expanded its mission to
serve not only documentary filmmakers but media-makers of all
types in a new media environment, from broadcast to Web to mobile
looking for the next innovative stories about Black people.
* Professional writer Jae Jones from "On The Black List" explains
why Blacks are still angry in America. The following areas are
points of anger for Blacks in America that continuously shape
their future and existence.(1)Historical Abuse of Black People by
Whites - from Jim Crow laws, Slavery, Slavery Codes, and Black
Codes that once existed.(2)Denial of Racism - even though racism
is still alive and going strong today, just as it was back when
Jim Crow laws and Black Codes were more prevalent.(3)Groundless
Character Assassination - and the portrayal of the Black man as a
dangerous threat to their communities, children and families which
are baseless.(4)Inadequate Access to Employment - regardless of
work ethics, education or experience statistics showed that in
2014 unemployment rates for Blacks are more than twice the rate of
Whites.(5)Unequal Housing - Black children still have to be raised
in impoverished communities. However, not White children whose
families are getting the best mortgage rates and loans to purchase
new homes and make up to 22 times more income than Black
families.(6)Educational Unfairness - Black children are suffering
in schools because there are not enough textbooks in the
classrooms, no computers, no art/music programs and no advance
classes while Whites are prevailing in educational settings
because of better resources.(7)Responsibility Denial - The
ancestors of all Black people living today built this country
while White people take credit and claim they have done it
all. Black people are tired of not getting recognition and respect
for what their ancestors have put into this country and are
responsible for.
* African Americans are graduating from college at a historically
high rate, however Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and
the Workforce found that Blacks are over-represented in service
fields, such as education and social work and are choosing majors
at the low end of the pay scale which pays on average about
$38,000 a year. By contrast, African-Americans represent a small
percentage of those earning degrees in the highest-paying majors.
They comprise just 8 percent of engineers and 5 percent of
computer science majors, who earn a median salary of $65,000.
Overall, Black college graduates have less savings and disposable
income than their White peers. That also means that college
educated Blacks have less wealth to pass on to their children.
Most Blacks graduate from two-year colleges or open-admission
four-year universities, according to PBS.org. Most of those
institutions offer a limited number of majors and lack resources.
* Comedian Chris Rock was the host at this year's Oscars and he
addressed the lack of diversity by opening his monolog with "I'm
here at the Academy Awards otherwise known as the White people's
choice awards. You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't
even get this job. Rock went on to mock the "Oscars So White"
protest, saying African Americans did not protest the Oscars in
the '50s and '60s because they had "real things to protest at the
time" alluding to the Civil Rights battle Blacks had to fight back
then. Rock said Hollywood's African American community simply
wants equal opportunities for serious roles. "We want Black actors
to get the same opportunities, that's it but not just once. Rock
said Leo DiCaprio who took the Oscar for best actor for his role
in The Revenant gets a great part every year...what about the
Black actors?" asked Rock. Rock's monologue was highly anticipated
in a year in which diversity within the Academy ranks has been
highly scrutinized. After an outcry following an all-White acting
slate of nominees for the second year in a row, the Academy
announced it would be enacting a "sweeping series of substantive
changes" in order to increase diversity within its voting bodies.
* According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable
organization dedicated to helping build better futures for
disadvantaged children in the U.S., there are 10 states which are
the worst in the nation where the educational support and tools
might not be geared to preparing Black children for higher
education. These states do a very poor job in helping young
African-American children prepare for college. These states are
* Lt. Gen Nadja West was confirmed by the Senate as the new Army
surgeon general and commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical
Command. Her promotion to three-star general, makes her the first
African-American woman to achieve that rank in the United States
Army. She is also the highest-ranking woman of any race to have
graduated from West Point Military Academy. West became the first
Black surgeon general in 2015. In 2013, West was also the first
Black female major general of the Army's active component, and was
Army Medicine's first African-American female two-star general.
* TV drama series "Underground" is released created by Misha
Green and Joe Pokaski about the "Underground Railroad" in
Antebellum, Georgia. Underground centers on a group of slaves
planning a daring 600-mile escape from a Georgia plantation. Along
the way, they are aided by a secret abolitionist couple running a
station on the Underground Railroad as they attempt to evade the
people charged with bringing them back, dead or alive.
* American Crime Story - "The People v. O.J. Simpson" is an
American true crime anthology television series developed by Scott
Alexander and Larry Karaszewki. This TV series brings viewers
inside one of the most prolific American court cases of the 20th
century, the O.J. Simpson murder in trial 1995 from the lawyers'
viewpoints. Based on the book "The Run of His Life," the 10episode series details behind-the-scenes dealings and maneuvering
by both the prosecution and defense as they try to convince the
jury to side with them in what was dubbed "the trial of the
century." Key elements of the trial that are explored involve
overconfidence by the prosecution and the LAPD's racist history
with the Black community in Los Angeles at the time.
* Entertainment Studios Network CEO Byron Allen filed a $10
billion lawsuit against the FCC and Charter Communications
claiming racial discrimination against Black-owned media for their
contracting practices against 100 percent African-American-owned
media outlets in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42
U.S.C. section 1981. The suit was also filed against the Federal
Communications Commission for approving mega-media mergers, such
as Comcast/NBC Universal, that discriminate against African
American-owned media. The suit further states that of the over $4
billion spent annually by Charter Communications on cable channel
carriage fees and advertising, zero dollars are spent on 100
percent Black-owned media companies.
* Georgia lawmaker Tommy Benton says the Ku Klux Klan of the past
wasn't racist but were vigilantes who kept "law and order" and
made Black people straighten up. Benton introduced a bill which
* Two Black police troopers, Darzeil Hall and Lamarr Johnson, from
Michigan were awarded $5.2 million in a racial discrimination
lawsuit against their department. Now theyre suing once again,
claiming they faced retaliation from co-workers for filing a
lawsuit in the first place after they returned to work. Hall was
subjected to petty attacks while Johnson was unfairly denied
attempts at promotion.
* A new database will document the burial sites of U.S. slaves and
give them visibility which is something theyve long been deprived
of. The National Burial Database of Enslaved Americans (NBDEA) is
a collaboration between the Periwinkle Initiative and Fordham
University, with support from the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the 1772 Foundation. It intends to establish a
process of official documentation for burials and burial grounds
of enslaved Americans in the United States. In the past, slave
cemeteries have been bulldozed and covered over leaving them unmarked and un-recognized. The project will erect memorials as
grave markers for the grave sites of deceased slaves.
record of 56-5 and said that he could "Float like a butterfly and
sting like a bee".
Morticians Table
Motor
Movie Projector Devices
Oil Lubricator
Oil Stove
One Gigahertz Computer Chip
Packing Tie
Paint & Stain
Paper Bag
Peanut Butter
Pencil Sharpener
Phonograph
Player Piano
Plow
Pneumatic Tire
Potato Chips
Postal Machine
Propeller
Punching Machine
Railroad - Train Telegraph System
Railway Switch
Record Player Arm
Refrigerator
Remote Control Device
Riding Saddle
Rolling Pin
Rotary Compressor
Rotary Engine
Seed Planter
Self Leveling Table
Self-Starting Gasoline Engine
Sewer Trap
Shadow Box
Shampoo Headrest
Shoe-Lasting Machine
Shoes / Boots
Signal Generator
Spark Plug
Spoon
Squirt Gun and Super Soaker
Starter Generator
Steam Boiler
Steam Gage
Sterilization Process
Stethoscope
Stove
Straightening Comb
Street Sweeper
Striking Clock
Swinging Chair
Telephone Transmitter
Thermostat Control
Ticket Dispensing Machine
Tidal Basin Bridge
Timing Device
Toy Rocket Launcher
Trading Post
Traffic Signal
Train Car Coupler
Train Headlight
Transmission
Tricycle
TV Surveillance System
Two-Cycle Gas Engine
Typewriter
Umbrella Stand
Universal Joint
Ultraviolet Camera Spectrograph
Vacuum Pump
Valve
Vehicle Anti-Theft Device
Ventilator
Video Game System That Used Interchangeable Cartridges
Water Closet (Toilet)
Weighing Scale
Wheel
Whitehurst Freeway Project
Work Cabinet
Wrench
THE END