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AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY TIMELINE

Whispers From The Past - Voices Of The Future

By: Joseph Campbell


In order for you to know your future, you must understand the present.
To understand the present, you must learn from the past.

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

A Partial List of African & Nubian Kings, Queens and Pharaohs


Affonso King of the Congo
Ahmose Pharaoh of Egypt
Akhenaten Pharaoh of Egypt Creator of Monotheism = One God
Altanersa Nubian King
Amani- Astabarqa Nubian King
Amina Queen of Zaria
Amaninatake Nubian King
Amanishakheto - Nubian Queen
Amenhotep Pharaoh of Egypt (4 took this name)
Analmaaye Nubian King
Askia Toure King of Songhay
Aspalta Nubian King
Ay Pharaoh of Egypt
Baskakeren Nubian King
Behanzin Bowelle West African King The King Shark
Candace Empress of Ethiopia
Cetewayo King of the Zulus
Cleopatra Queen of Egypt - Kemet (7 took this name)
Dahia-Al Kahina Queen of Sudan
Djedefre Pharaoh Builder of Pyramid at Giza
Djoser 1st Pharaoh viewed as a living God by the people
Esop The Great Story Teller
Hannibal Ruler of Carthage and Conqueror of Spain and Italy
Harisiotet Nubian King
Hatshepsut Queen of Egypt; 1st Female Pharaoh and female builder
Horemheb King of Egypt
Idris Alooma Sultan of Bornu
Imhotep Father of Science & Medicine and Worlds 1st known Genius
Ja Ja King of Opobo
Kamose King of Egypt
Khafe Pharaoh and builder of the Great Sphinx at Giza
Khama King of Bechuanaland
Khufu Great Pyramid builder known as the father of building
Kiya Queen of Egypt
Makeda Queen of Sheba
Malewiebamani Nubian King
Mansa Mussa Ruler of Mali
Menelek King of Abyssinia
Mentuhotep Egyptian King
Moses Prince of Egypt
Moshoeshoe King of Basutoland
Mutato King or Zimbabwe
Nandi Queen of Zululand and mother of Shaka
Narmer Founder of Kemet (Egypt)
Nasakhma Nubian King

Nastagen Nubian King


Neferatari Nubian Queen of Egypt
Neferatiti Queen of Egypt
Nehanda Ruling Queen and spiritual Grandmother of Zimbabwe
Nzingha Amazon Queen of Matamba
Osei Tutu King of Asanti
Ramses Pharaoh / Prince and builder of Egypt (11 took this name)
Samory Toure King of the Sudan
Senworsert Pharaoh of Egypt
Senusret Egyptian King
Seqenenre Taa King of Thebes
Seti Pharaoh of Egypt (2 took this name)
Shabaka Nubian King
Shaka King of the Zulus
Shamba King of Peace
Sisaspiqu Nubian King
Sesostris Pharaoh, Warlord & Fortress System builder
Snefru Pharaoh & Builder of Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid
Sunni Ali Ber King of Songhay
Taharka Nubian King
Taharqa Nubian King
Talakhamani Nubian King
Tenkamein King of Ghana
Thutmose Pharaoh of Egypt (4 took this name)
Tiye Nubian Queen of Egypt and mother of King Tutankhamen
Tutankhamen Pharaoh of Egypt (the boy King)
Yaa Asantewa Queen of the Ashanti Empire
Zenobia Queen of Palmyra
The Kingdom of Kush
The Kingdom of Kush located in Sudan was a great kingdom that
ruled over Egypt at the height of Egypts strength and power but
eventually was colonized by Egyptians. Kush was ruled by Nubians
who passed on their way of life and customs to the Egyptians. Kush
and Egypt fought and traded with each other on a regular basis.
Kush and Egypt were parallel kingdoms that acted like competitive
twin brothers. Kush had city capitols in Kerma, Napata and Meroe.
Nubian Kings and Egyptian Kings shared a way of living and rivaled
each other in wealth, power and cultural development including
art, philosophy, and learning leading to what became 30 Egyptian
Dynasties. The Egyptians took the foundation of the Nubians and
expanded it and built upon it to become a world super power during
its time. The Kingdom of Kush was the greatest civilization of its
time but it stayed in the shadow of Egypt as the Nubians organized
their society along Egyptian lines of royalty, architecture and
art.

Nubians Influenced the Egyptians


Ancient Egypt is the first major civilization in Africa for which
records are abundant. It was not, however, Africas first
kingdom. A March 1, 1979, New York Times front-page article,
written by journalist Boyce Rensberger, reported: Evidence of the
oldest recognizable monarchy in human history, preceding the rise
of the earliest Egyptian kings by several generations, has been
discovered in artifacts from ancient Nubia. The artifacts,
including hundreds of fragments of pottery, jewelry, stone vessels
and ceremonial objects such as incense burners, were initially
recovered from the Qustul cemetery by Keith C. Seele, a professor
at the University of Chicago. Bruce Williams, a research associate
at the University of Chicago, said it was the picture on a stone
incense burner that indicated it was the tomb of a king. Williams
added that the majestic figure on the incense burner is the
earliest known representation of a king in the Nile Valley. His
name is unknown, but he is believed to have lived approximately
three generations before the time of Scorpion, the earliest-known
Egyptian ruler

Nubian hunters and warriors excelled as archers, and their weapon


became a symbol for Nubia. Land of the Bow is the meaning of TaSeti, an ancient Egyptian term used to denote Nubia for thousands
of years in antiquity. Hunters using bows and arrows appear in
Nubian rock art as early as the Neolithic period, and hunting
provided subsistence for Nubians throughout much of their history.
Some of Nubias most important trade products, like animal skins
and ivory, came from the hunt. Nubian archers, who formed the core
of victorious Nubian armies, were so skilled that they were used
as valued members of the military forces of other lands, such as
Egypt and Persia. Some of their pottery and burial talismans
predate similar discoveries in Egypt, indicating Nubia may have
influenced the Egyptians rather than the other way around. At the
height of their culture, Nubian kings are said to have ruled Egypt
from 750 to 650 B.C. French archaeologists have found exquisite
ceramic figurines, bowls and funerary objects at sites that date
from at least 8000 B.C. predating prehistoric finds in Egypt by a
staggering 3,000 years.
The Nubian Kings Who Reigned Over Egypt Were Among Its Greatest
Rulers. Not until the latter part of the 20th century did ancient
Nubia begin to get its due among scholars, who were finally able
to move past the racism of previous generations of White scholars
who refused to believe that the Nubians could possibly be Black.
Now the Negro kings from Nubia who ruled Egypt for a century as
Egypts 25th Dynasty are recognized as having sponsored an
important renaissance of Egyptian art and culture; they developed
an almost scholarly interest in ancient Egyptian traditions and
language and have been called the first Egyptologists. The
empire over which they presided was greater in extent than any
ever achieved in antiquity along the Nile Valley. Their kings were
said never to have condemned prisoners to death; they forgave
their enemies and allowed them to retain their offices; they also
actually gave public credit for achievement in their inscriptions
to individuals other than themselves. Such characteristics among
other ancient monarchs of Egypt or the Near East are unheard of,
and we can only assume these were native Nubian qualities.

Wisdom of the Egyptians and What They Created


* Medicine Basis of the mummification processes.
* Astronomy Basis of the 12-month calendar, which we use today.
* Mathematics Development of Geometry to build the pyramids.
* Literature & Art Tells about Egyptian life Tale of Sinuhe.
* Speech - The first words by humans were spoken by Africans.
* Painting & Sculpture Portrays and tells of what was important.
* Metallurgy and Tools - Advances in metallurgy and tool-making
were made across the entirety of ancient Africa.
* Architecture and Engineering - The African empire of Egypt
developed a vast array of diverse structures and great
architectural monuments along the Nile River.
* Egyptians also created Black Ink, Paper, Ox-drawn plows,
Organized labor, Boat Sails and Hieroglyphics as the 1st system of
writing, mining of minerals, navigation, law, religion, philosophy
and international trade.
* Nearly 2,000 Years Before the West, Nubians Used Antibiotics.
Human use of antibiotics began not 80 years ago, but nearly 2,000
years ago along the banks of the Nile River in Nubia. They got
tetracycline out of fermented grain that they used to brew beer,
which everyone drank, starting as early as age 2. Scientists found
large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient
African mummies. While the modern age of antibiotics began in 1928
with the discovery of penicillin, the new findings suggest that
people knew how to fight infections much earlier than that.
Egyptian Gods & Goddess

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses


Amon-Ra - King of the Gods
Amon Sun God of creation linked to Ra
Anubus God of mummification, embalming and netherworld
Atum - Self created and one of the first gods
Bastet Goddess of cats
Bes God of childbirth and children
Geb God of the earth
Hathor Goddess of love, birth, death and music
Heh God of eternity
Horus Sky God and son of Osiris and Isis
Isis Queen of Goddess and mistress of magic and love
Khnum God of fertility who shapes men on the potters wheel
Maat Goddess of truth and justice
Min God of fertility
Neith Goddess protector of the king
Nekhbet Mother Goddess who protects the king
Nut Goddess of the sky
Osiris God of agriculture and ruler of the dead
Ptah Creator God and patron of craftsmen
Ra God of the sun merged with Amon to become Amon-Ra
Sekhmet Goddess of war and destruction
Seth God of the desert, disorder, storm and violence
Shu God of air and light
Sobek God of kingship, action and violence
Tefnut Goddess of rain, clouds, wind and air
Thoth God of the moon, writing, counting and wisdom
Wadjet Goddess protector of the king
Egyptian Social Class vs. Current Society
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Pharaoh (the King) = The President


High Priests (Advisors) = The White House staff
Nobles (Warriors) = The Military
Merchants, Scribes & Artisans (Working class) = The Middle Class
Peasant Farmers (Commoners) = The Poor and the Immigrants

Ancient Egypt is a vector for symbols. Those symbols include


durability, permanence, wisdom, art, architecture, mathematics,
agriculture, astronomy and eternal life. Ancient Egypt inspired
people around the world to build monuments, museums, memorial
gardens, temples, amusement parks, hotels, theatres and more
dedicated to the Egyptian motif using symbols, culture and
heritage of ancient Egypt.

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.

The Early Dynastic Period


1st Dynasty (2920-2770 BC) 150 years 10 Kings Ruled
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Papyrus was invented as paper and writing was used.


Wooden coffins are made and corpses are wrapped in resin.
Kush invades the Kingdom of Elam in the Empire of Persia.
The Grand Lodge of Luxor was built at Danderah by Khufu.
The two ends of Egypt are merged at the capitol Memphis.
The Nile River is damned to reclaim the land.

2nd Dynasty (2770-2649 BC) 120 years 10 Kings Ruled


* A rivalry for the throne occurs between King Hetepsekhemsy &
King Khasekhemwy over which God, Horus or Seth, was in power.
Disorder erupted and a civil war may have occurred.
* King Djoser is the 1st Pharaoh to use stone to build pyramids.
* Menkaure builds the 1st pyramid made of granite.
* The red pyramid is built using smooth outer sides.
3rd Dynasty (2649-2575 BC) 74 years 9 Kings Ruled
* Imhotep builds the first step pyramid and Saqqara complex.
* Egypt was invaded by Hyksos, Semitics, Assyrians, Persians,
Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, French & British who mixed the
original Black population into what it is today.

The Old Kingdom


4th Dynasty (2575-2467 BC) 110 years 7 Kings Ruled
* The pyramids, sun temples & mortuaries at Giza & Dahshur are
completed.
* The art of embalming started.
* People prayed to the Sun God Ra.
* The first religious words and inscriptions were written on the
walls of the royal tombs.
* King Userkaf builds a sun temple for Ra at Abusir.
* Civilization develops in India in the Indus Valley.
5th Dynasty (2465-2323 BC) 142 years 9 Kings Ruled
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High officials came from outside the royal family.


Record keeping of goods begins.
Pyramid texts describe Osiris.
Pyramid texts are inscribed in the tomb of King Unas.

6th Dynasty (2323-2152 BC) 173 years 6 Kings Ruled


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Records of trading expeditions begin.


Egypt experiences cultural upheaval until 2043 BC.
The capital of Egypt moves to Herakleopolis.
King Patesi rules Mesopotamia (Gudea).

7th & 8th Dynasties (2150-2130 BC) 20 years - 11 Kings Ruled


* The political structure of the old kingdom collapses. Famine,
civil disorder and a high death rate occur.
* The Nile river dries up causing many years of famine.

The First Intermediate Period


9th & 10th Dynasties (2134-1970 BC) 164 years 18 Kings Ruled
* Egypt splits into north at Herakleopolis and south at Thebes.
* Prosperous period with much foreign trade.
* Jewelry making begins and large building projects start.
11th Dynasty (2074-1938 BC) 136 years 11 Kings Ruled
* Egypt was unified under King Mentuhotep.
* Egypt is reunited by King Mentuhotep II
* Trading with Asia and the Aegean begins.
* The capitol is moved to Thebes (Waset).
* The Kingdom of Kush begins in the Sudan at Kerma.
* The Nubians are the first race to build castles and forts at
Buhen. All other races of the world copied the concept.
* Black people in India built rich and advanced civilizations.

The Middle Kingdom


12th Dynasty (1938-1756 BC) 182 years 8 Kings Ruled
* The capitol is moved back to Memphis.
* The Faiyum irrigation system is built.
* King Amenemhat builds the great Kemetic Labyrinth and founds a
new royal residence near Memphis.
* The Hyksos invade Egypt.
* Senworsert I is said to be the founder of Athens and conquers
lower Nubia.
* Classical period of art and literature flourish.
Amenemhat III begins the use of the Valley of the Kings.

The Second Intermediate Period

13th 17th Dynasties (1756-1540 BC) 216 years 50+ Kings Ruled
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Kings were born as commoners and social structure breaks down.


The Hyksos seize power in the north.
Diagnostic medicine begins.
The capitol moved back to Thebes and much building begins.
The Book of the Dead appears.
War erupts between Thebes and the Asiatic kingdom.
King Ahmose defeats the Hyksos and sends them from Egypt.
Thutmose I conquers Persia and Iraq.
Agricultural revolution begins in the Sahara.
Periods of ruler ship are controlled by the Hyksos.
The Minoan culture of Ancient Greece were of African descent.

The New Kingdom


18th Dynasty (1539-1295 BC) 244 years 12+ Kings Ruled
* King Thutmose I & Queen Hatshepsut make Egypt a super power.
* King Amenhotep II began the artistic revolution.
* King Akhenaten & Queen Nefertiti begin a one-god religion.
* King Tutankhamen rules Egypt at age 10 until age 18.
* King Thutmose I begins military campaigns into Persia and Iraq.
* King Amenhotep III builds the Temple of Luxor.
* Society changed from polytheism to a monotheistic system.
* Queen Hatshepsut becomes the first female Pharaoh.
* Egypt is at the height of its military power.
* Seti I builds the great tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
* Egypt destroys the Kushite Kingdom and occupies Nubia.
* The Sankore University is formed in the city of Timbuktu.
* Mandingo voyages to the Caribbean.
* King Thutmose III strengthens the sovereignty of Kemet.
* Queen Tiye becomes one of the most influential queens to rule
Egypt through trade and protection of her borders.
* The Valley of the Queens is formed.
* The founder of the Shang Dynasty, King Tang, in China was of
African descent.
19th Dynasty (1295-1186 BC) 109 years 8+ Kings Ruled
* King Seti I rules.
* Ramses II builds the Per-Ramesse city and mortuary temple on the
west bank near Luxor and rules for 67 years.
* Many battles and treaties were completed between Egypt and the
Asiatic powers.
* The Hebrew people leave Egypt after 430 years of slavery under
Egyptian rule.

* Egypto-Nubian explorers land in Olmec, Mexico sent by Ramses


III.
* African explorers reach North America.
* Queen Nefertiti helped to unify upper and lower Kemet.
20th Dynasty (1186-1069 BC) 117 years 10+ Kings Ruled
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King Setakht restored order to the country.


Ramses III becomes a great king and ensures stability.
The Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings are plundered.
Period of great social, political & religious decline occurs.
The kings weakened and Egypt was no longer a world power.

The Third Intermediate Period


21st Dynasty (1070-945 BC) 125 years 7+ Kings Ruled
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Civil war and foreign invaders tear Egypt apart.


The capitol is moved between several cities.
Kingdom of Kush forms an independent kingdom at Napata.
Mummification techniques improve.
King Osorkon becomes the first Libyan Pharaoh.
The Nok culture forms in Nigeria.
Queen Makeda of Sheba rules as the symbol of remarkable beauty.
Disunity and Libyan settlement occurs.
The Nubians conquer Egypt.
Evidence of Afro-Phonecians is found in Central America.

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.

The Late Period


26th Dynasty (664-552 BC) 112 years 6 Kings Ruled
* King Psamtek I defeats the Assyrians and the Kushite kings.
* Pharaoh Necho commissions Hanno to circumnavigate Africa.
* Nekau I begins a canal from the Nile River to the Red Sea.

* Babylon falls to the Persian armies.


* The decline of the kingdoms continues.
27TH Dynasty (525-404 BC) 121 years 5 Kings Ruled
* The secret temple of the system of Delphi is burned down.
* The Persians invade and rule Egypt and form a Persian dynasty.
* Cambyses defeats the Egyptians at the Battle of Pelusium.
* King Dauius completes the canal started by Nekau I.
* The Cambyses army of 50,000 men sent to attack the Temple of
Amun is lost in a cataclysmic sandstorm.
28th Dynasty (404-399 BC) 5 years 1 King Rules
* Amytravios retakes Egypt from Persia.
* Egypt independence begins again.
* The decline and fall of Egypt is all but complete.
29th and 30th Dynasties (399-332 BC) 67 years 7 Kings Rule
* Artaxerxes I retakes Egypt.
* Persians form a second dynasty in Egypt.
* Alexander the Great defeats the Persian army and conquers Egypt.
* The last period of rulership by native-born Egyptian Kings.
* Alexandria is founded in Egypt.
* Queen Candace of Ethiopia held off Alexander in battle and
prevented the conquest of her empire by her reputation alone as a
legendary military commander.

Macedonian Period (332-323 BC)


Alexander the Great occupies Egypt and refurbishes the ancient
temples at Alexandria.

The Ptolemaic Period (305-30 BC)


* Alexandria became the new capitol of Egypt and was the home to
the greatest library of the ancient world now under Greek/Roman
rule.
* General Ptolemy of Rome takes over Egypt and becomes king.
* Queen Cleopatra VII was instrumental in making Kemet a world
superpower at the time and helped Julius Caesar overthrow Ptolemy.
* The temple of Isis was built on the island of Philae on the Nile
River.
* Africans in Kenya developed a complex calendar system based on
astronomical reckoning.
* The Rosetta Stone is carved.

* Hannibal Barca, ruler of Carthage, leads his army and 37


elephants across the Alps through Spain and Italy to challenge and
defeat Rome in three separate crushing battles before he returned
to Africa without destroying Rome. Hannibal was always outnumbered
but managed to kill over 115,000 Romans in three battles. Hannibal
was the ruler of Carthage for 16 years and by the age of 27 had
inflicted massive casualties on Rome. In 146 BC Carthage fell to
Rome and was destroyed during the Punic wars. Hannibal is known as
the greatest military strategist to have ever lived and his
tactics are still being used to today in modern military schools
around the world.
* Queen Cleopatra VII and Mark Anthony, Caesars successor, are
defeated by Octavius. They both go on commit suicide rather than
face capture. She was one of the greatest Queens to rule Egypt.
* Roman rule is complete, as Egypt becomes a province of Rome.
Egypt does not have another ruler for 2000 years.

5 Eurocentric Myths About Black History


Myth 1) It was the Europeans who carried civilization to primitive
Africans. Not only were African people the first people on the
planet, but there is plenty of evidence to show that Black people
built and maintained many of the worlds earliest and most
magnificent civilizations. The Greeks are considered by many EuroAmerican scholars to be the first civilized Europeans. But a
preponderance of evidence demonstrates that this Mediterranean
society has the Black Africans of the Nile Valley to thank for
their contributions to Grecian art, architecture, math and
science. The Greeks passed on this acquired culture to the Romans
who ultimately lost it, thus initiating the Dark Ages that lasted
for 500 years. Civilization was again restored to Europe when
another group of Black Africans, the Moors, brought the Dark Ages
to an end.
Myth 2) Black people did not great monuments. Even if one refuses
to give Black people credit for their architectural feats in Kemet
(Egypt), it should be known that for centuries after Egypt fell to
invaders from the north, Nubia continued the tradition of marking
royal tombs with pyramids, like the ones in Meroe. Today, Sudan
has more pyramids than Egypt.
Myth 3) Black Africans were illiterate and only had oral history.
The Nsibidi set of symbols is independent of Phoenician, Roman,
Latin or Arabic influence and is believed by some scholars to date
back to 5000 B.C. Its most notably used by the Uguakima and
Ejagham (Ekoi) people of Nigeria and Cameroon, but it was also
used by the nearby Ebe, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo and Uyanga people.

Myth 4) Africa built no institutions of higher learning before


Europeans came. In the 12th century, while Oxford and Cambridge
were just getting founded, Timbuktu in Mali already had three
thriving universities and more than 180 Quranic schools.
Myth 5) Africans made no worthwhile contribution to mathematics.
The earliest numerical record found to date, about 37,000 years
old, comes from the Lebombo Mountains between Swaziland and South
Africa. It is a fossilized piece of baboon bone with 29 welldefined notches. The notches are evenly spaced and appear to
represent a lunar calendar. About 25,000 years ago, on the shores
of Lake Rutanzige between Zaire and Uganda, a pattern of tallies
was carved on a bone by the Ishango people. This Ishango
pattern suggests some understanding of the principle of
multiplication and division by two and prime numbers. An analysis
by Dr. Stephen Chrisomalis, PhD of McGill University in Montreal
suggested the Greeks borrowed their number system, alphabetic
numerals from Egyptian demotic numerals, used in Egypt from the
late eighth century B.C. until around A.D. 450. The ancient Greeks
did not invent was the counting system on which many of their
greatest thinkers based their pioneering calculations by the
mathematician and physicist Archimedes, the scientific philosopher
Aristotle and the mathematician Euclid, amongst others. Professor
David Joyce, PhD, a mathematician at Clark University in
Worcester, US, said he had not examined Dr Chrisomalis' research,
but thought the link was plausible.

Roman Period (30 BC 395 AD)- The Old World


* Amanirenas, queen mother ruler over the Meroitic Kingdom of Kush
and her son Akinidad, led an army of 30,000 men to sack the Roman
fort in the Egyptian city of Aswan. They also destroyed the
statues of Caesar in Elephantine.
* Africans in Tanzania produce carbon steel in blast furnaces.
* Egyptians are given Roman citizenship.
* Roman and Egyptian culture existed peacefully and prospered
together as religion and institutions were refurbished until
Byzantine Roman Emperor Theodosius (Flavius Theodosius Augustus)
became ruler. Emperor Theodosius destroyed all Egyptian temples
and non-Christian books at the library in Alexandria and wiped out
the last remnants of the once great Egyptian culture. 40,000 of
its 70,000 books and manuscripts are destroyed. Christianity
appears in Alexandria along with the rise of Axum (Ethiopia). The

library at Alexandria would suffer three other instances of attack


and burning over time concluding with the Muslim conquest of Egypt
in 642 AD.
* The rise of Christianity begins in Egypt. At the Council of
Nicea in 325 A.D. Emperor Constantine, (Flavius Constantine
Augustus) declared Christianity as the official state religion and
the doctrine of the Trinity was declared to be the Orthodox
Christian belief. The first bible was written by ancient Egyptians
about the inhabitants of Africa modeled after the one-God religion
created by King Akhenaten & Queen Nefertiti of the 18th Egyptian
dynasty. The bible was not written about Europe or Europeans as it
did not exist 6,000 years ago as it is thought of today. The
modern bible was translated into English in 1611 by, NOT written
by King James I of England. Modern Christianity was largely
influenced by African theologians and African Popes. It was the
Egyptians that changed their belief in multiple Gods to a one God
system. It is believed that the original shapes of the biblical
script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, though the phonetic values
are instead inspired by the Acrophonic principle. The common
ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite, and was the
first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from the Egyptian one.
One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone written in the
Moabite dialect; the Siloam Inscription, found near Jerusalem, is
an early example of Hebrew. The Hebrew bible was inspired by the
texts written by the ancient Egyptians following the one God
system. The modern day cross was modeled after the Egyptian Ankh.

* Mauritius of Thebes, later known as Saint Maurice (Morris), the


legendary Black Commander of the Roman Theban Legion is executed
in 287 along with 6000 of his men for defying Emperor Maximian
Herculis after refusing to quell a Christian revolt. Maurice is
believed to have carried the Spear of Destiny which is said to be
the Holy Lance that pierced Jesus side on the cross during the

crucifixion by Roman soldier Longinus. St. Maurice inspired the


knights code of chivalry and honor to which all other knights
followed.

* 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.

* Sundiata forms the Sudanese Empire at Mali.


* In western Africa, a few miles from the Niger River, a well was
dug and a camp created for people trading salt for gold and other
goods. The camp became Timbuktu.
* Slavery is abolished in Iceland.
* Queen Dahia-Al Kahina fiercely fought Arab intrusion and the
spread of Islam into North Africa and Western Sudan by trying to
save Africa for Africans. Her rule was filled with violence and
conflict with Arabs even though she chose not to support
Christians or Muslims. After her death some of her people chose
suicide rather than fall under Arab rule and Islam.
* The Zanj Rebellion took place near the city of Basra, located in
present-day southern Iraq, over a period of fifteen years (A.D.
869883). The insurrection is believed to have involved enslaved
Africans (Zanj) who had originally been captured from the African
Great Lakes region and areas further south in East Africa. Basran
landowners had brought several thousand East African Zanj people
into southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes in the east. The
landowners forced the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, into
heavy slave labor and provided them with only minimal subsistence.
The harsh treatment sparked an uprising that grew to involve over
500,000 enslaved and free men who were imported from across the
Muslim empire. The Arab trade of Blacks in Southeast Africa
predates the European transatlantic slave trade by 700 years.
* The university of Timbuktu, Mali referred to as the "University
of Sankore" is established becoming the world's first university
with an enrollment of about 25,000 students from all over Africa.
The university was a very significant seat of learning in the
Muslim world for knowledge and information.
* Beginning in year 1037, King Tenkamenin of Ghana forms a
successful gold trade route across the Sahara desert into West
Africa. Tenkamenins empire flourished and built its power on
government for the people. Tenkamenin believed in democracy,
justice and religious tolerance which formed one of the great role
models for African people.
* Sunni & Shiite ideological views of the Muslim religion struggle
with each other to become the dominant religion of the area around
Egypt to as far as Iraq.

* Black Madonna (Black Virgin Mary) statues and paintings appear


in Europe during the medieval period of (12th to 15th centuries).
The Black Madonna's are generally found in Catholic countries. The
pictures are usually icons which are Byzantine in style, often
made in 13th or 14th century Italy. There are about 450500 Black
Madonna's in Europe.

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

prices in Egypt and Arabia. It took 12 years for the economies of


the region to stabilize.
1415
* Portuguese slave traders battle Moors in Morocco.

The Black Holocaust The Sankofa Project


* The Black Holocaust is probably the most under-reported tragic
event in human history. Millions of African lives were lost over
the centuries to slavery, colonization and oppression. Millions of
African men, women and children endured untold horrors, cruelty
and brutality throughout their forced dispersion. They suffered
the worst elements of human treatment and displayed the strongest
elements of human survival. From 1418-1911 it is estimated that up
to 25 million Africans were forced into slavery while an estimated
280 million were never born because of slavery. From 1650-1900,
Africas population grew from 100 million to 120 million as
compared to 400 million for Europe and Asia during the same time
period.

1418: Slavery Begins For Africans in Europe


1440
* King Mutato recognizes that European expansion into Africa would
bring terrible consequences for African people. Mutato begins a
plan to unify all of Africa into one vast country to resist
Europeans. After 30 years of struggle Mutato achieved partial
unity by forming the empire of Monomotapa in 1480.
* Prince Henry of Portugal, son of King John I, sent Portuguese
traders to Africa to look for gold. Traders called West Africa the
"Gold Coast." Portuguese traders were the 1st people to begin

capturing and shipping African slaves from West Africa to Europe


and selling them to work for rich Europeans as indentured
servants. Ever since Mansa Musa, the king of Mali, made his
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, with 500 slaves and 100 camels (each
carrying gold) the region had become synonymous with such wealth.
There was one major problem: trade from sub-Saharan Africa was
controlled by the Islamic Empire, which stretched along Africa's
northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the Sahara, which had
existed for centuries, involved salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain,
and slaves.

* 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

and Old World diseases. Alternative sources of labor, such as


indentured servitude, failed to provide a sufficient workforce.
Many crops could not be sold for profit, or even grown, in Europe.
Exporting crops and goods from the New World to Europe often
proved to be more profitable than producing them on the European
mainland. A vast amount of labor was needed to create and sustain
plantations that required intensive labor to grow, harvest, and
process prized tropical crops. Western Africa (part of which
became known as 'the Slave Coast'), and later Central Africa,
became the source for enslaved people to meet the demand for
labor. The basic reason for the constant shortage of labor was
that, with large amounts of cheap land available and lots of
landowners searching for workers, free European immigrants were
able to become landowners themselves after a relatively short
time, thus increasing the need for workers.
1442
* Portuguese traders buy African prisoners of war from other
African tribes on the west coast of Africa.
1444
* The 1st slaves are shipped to Portugal. As the Portuguese extended
their influence, they created trading posts. Rather than becoming
direct competitors to the Muslim merchants, the expanding market
opportunities in Europe and the Mediterranean resulted in
increased trade across the Sahara. In addition, the Portuguese
merchants gained access to the interior via the Senegal and Gambia
rivers, which bisected long-standing trans-Saharan routes.
* There was a very small market for African slaves as domestic
workers in Europe, and as workers on the sugar plantations of the
Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make
considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading
post to another, along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Muslim
merchants had an insatiable appetite for slaves, which were used
as porters on the trans-Saharan routes and for sale in the Islamic
Empire.
1450-1800: Slavery and Rebellion
* African participation in the slave trade. Africans themselves
played a role in the slave trade during the 15th 19th centuries.
The Africans that participated in the slave trade sold their
captive or prisoners of war to European buyers. Selling captives
or prisoners was common practice amongst Africans and Arabs during

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.

* Between 1450 and 1860 an estimated 20 million Africans were


shipped from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean through the
notorious Middle Passage, based on shipping manifests, primarily
to colonies in North America, South America and the West Indies.
Early historians believed the number could have reached as high as
100 million as records were altered to hide the death toll of
slaves aboard ships before reaching landfall.80% of these
kidnapped Africans were transported during the 18th century. At
least 10-20% of them died horrible deaths in cargo holds en-route
to their intended destinations. The dead were thrown overboard
with at times living slaves when slave ships came across other
rival ships at sea or before reaching the shore of their home port
if their catch would not turn a profit for that delivery. At least

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

emerging market for agricultural workers on the plantations. By


1500 the Portuguese had transported approximately 81,000 slaves to
these various markets. The era of European slave trading was about
to begin...
* The slave ships could carry anywhere from 200 to 600 slaves at a
time in their cargo holds depending on the size of the ship.
Historical documents reveal that many times, captured slaves would
kill themselves shortly after capture or will themselves to death
through starvation and depression aboard the ships rather than
leave their home of Africa. Slaves would even jump overboard and
drown themselves at the sight of their homeland growing smaller on
the horizon from aboard the deck of the ships.

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

acted as trading posts - they rarely saw military action - the


fortifications were important, however, when arms and ammunition
were being stored prior to trade. The Portuguese sailed the length
of Africas west coast from Morocco to South Africa at the Cape of
Good Hope setting up their 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

harsh working conditions and diseases from Europe. Prior to this


time, Africans were brought to Europe first.

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

* A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of 20 Africans for food


in the Jamestown harbor. These 20 Africans would be the 1st Blacks
sold to the English Colonies. These Africans became indentured
servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who
traded several years of labor for passage to America. The
race-based slave system did not develop until the 1680s, as
indentured servitude was phased out and replaced by slavery.

Working conditions for slaves in the fields was very harsh.


Many slave owners forced enslaved women to continue working even
when they became pregnant. Some enslaved women had to keep working
until they were less than a week away from giving birth and were
required to return to the field shortly after giving birth.
Enslaved women who worked in the fields were required to return to
the field shortly after giving birth, so they had to balance the
duties of being a field worker with being a mother as well.
Enslaved women would take very short breaks to nurse their
children before returning to hours of grueling labor. Slave owners
showed no concern for whether an enslaved person was male or
female. Enslaved women were expected to lift and carry the same
heavy tools and loads that enslaved men carried. Enslaved men and
women who worked in the fields were given extremely sparse food
rations for the sole purpose of keeping them alive. The small
weekly food rations usually consisted of nothing more than corn
meal, lard, molasses, peas, flour, greens and a small amount of
meat. Enslaved people who worked indoors also received food
rations but were often able to steal some of the leftovers from
their masters meals. Enslaved people would work together in task

groups to complete work, but the presence of a Black driver


sometimes created division in the community of enslaved people.
Some slave owners would have an enslaved person oversee the work
of the others in a task group and make this person responsible for
carrying out punishments on other enslaved people. By the time
enslaved children reached the age of 12, and sometimes even
earlier than that, they were treated as adults. They were expected
to work just as long and as hard as enslaved people more than
twice their age. Enslaved people worked horrendously long days in
the field. Many times, they averaged an astounding 18 hours every
day and only worked slightly shorter days on Sundays.
How Slavery Affected Black Families and Impacts Blacks Today.
African family traditions, which varied according to national
origin and religion, could not be replicated in the New World
after Africans were forced into slavery. The slave trade was
responsible for breaking up African families. Husbands, wives and
children could be sold separately because U.S. law did not legally
recognize their families. Enslaved Black people were denied a
secure family life. Because they were property and could not
legally marry, a permanent family could not be a guaranteed part
of enslaved peoples lives. They had no right to live or stay
together, no right to their own children, and it was common
for enslaved parents and children to live apart. Schooling was not
an option for enslaved children, and, in most states, it was
illegal to teach enslaved Black people to read and write. The use
of unpaid labor to produce wealth lay at the heart of slavery in
America. Enslaved people usually worked from early in the morning
until late at night. Women often returned to work shortly after
giving birth, sometimes running from the fields during the day to
feed their infants. Enslaved families were also divided for
inheritance when an owner died, or because the owners adult
children moved away to create new lives, taking some of the
enslaved people with them. More than one-half of Black infants
died before they were 1 year old. This mortality rate was almost
double that of whites. Although the survival rate improved
after enslaved children reached a year of age, their mortality
rate continued to be double that of Whites until they were 14
years old. During the Civil War, approximately 180,000 Black
soldiers served in the Union army. The families of these soldiers
frequently camped in makeshift villages near the army to be near
their husbands, sons and fathers. The soldiers assisted them as
they could - sharing food and clothing from their own military
rations when possible. Slave women were constantly sexually abused
by White men, and they had no legal right to resist that abuse.

To oppose the rape of Black women in effect meant opposing


slavery. A Black womans body was not considered her own. Control
over her body was passed from White person to White person along
with a bill of sale.
* A lithograph is found but made by an unknown artist depicting a
slave ship sailing between Africa and America thru the middle
passage.
* During the Atlantic slave trade from the 16th to 19th century,
slave owners and traders used or invented torture devices against
Africans involved in uprisings and insurrection as a means to keep
the others subdued. Some devices had other purposes while some
were invented just to inflict pain and punish slaves. The device
names were: Cotton Screw, Thumbscrew, Metal Mask, Metal Neck
Collar, Wooden Collar, Whip, Blades / Axes, Branding Irons, and
Hanging Rope.
1623
* Queen Nzingha Mbande of Angola declares war on the Portuguese
who were colonizing the Central African coast to control the slave
trade of Africans. Her efforts initiated a thirty-year war against
them.
1624
* William Tucker is the 1st Black recorded birth in the American
Colonies. Tucker was baptized in Jamestown, Virginia.
1626
* The Dutch West India Company imports 11 male slaves into the New
Netherlands.
1630
* Runaway slave Gaspar Yanga founded the first free Black township
in Mexico after 50 years of fighting Spanish colonists. The town
of Yanga or San Lorenzo de los Negros de Cerralvo was founded in
the Veracruz province. Said to be a member of the royal family of
Gabon, Yanga came to be the head of a band of revolting slaves
near Veracruz around 1570. Escaping to the difficult highlands, he
and his people built a small free colony. For more than 30 years
it grew, partially surviving by capturing caravans bringing goods
to Veracruz. However, in 1609 the Spanish colonial government set
itself to regain control of the territory. Yanga was made a

national hero of Mexico by the diligent work of Vicente Riva


Palacio. The influential Riva Palacio (grandson of Mexicos Black
President, Vicente Guerrero) was a historian, novelist, short
story writer, military general and mayor of Mexico City during his
long life.

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

for about $27.00 dollars and serve


contrast, an indentured White
much as $0.70 cents a day toward
his servitude in about 7 years.

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.

* Whipping, branding, and torture began to be inflicted on slaves


in America as they were viewed as property and not human beings.

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.

* The American colonies began enacting laws that defined and


regulated slave relations, including a provision that Black
slaves, and the children of women slaves, would serve for life.
1661
* Virginia passes a slave law making Blacks slaves for life and
ending indentureship.
1663
* The 1st known slave revolt occurred in Gloucester County,
Virginia. The conspiracy was between Black slaves and indentured
servants. The servants betrayed the slaves and the revolt failed.
This however, would only be the 1st revolt of many more to come in
the future.
* Maryland legalizes slavery and follows Virginias example.
1664
* Slave owners gave a great deal of attention to the education and
training of the ideal slave. In general, there were 5 steps in
molding the character of a slave: strict discipline, a sense of
his own inferiority, belief in the masters superiority,
acceptance of the masters standards and a deep sense of his own
helplessness and dependence on the master. At every point this
education was built on the belief in White superiority and Black
inferiority. Besides teaching slaves to despise their own history
and culture, the master strove to include his own value system
into the slave's outlook.
* New York & New Jersey legalize slavery.

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

and burn down their owners house in New York.


were caught and executed. Six others committed
set his masters house on fire. The insurgents
wounded at least 6 others.

* Pennsylvania passes a law preventing the importation of slaves.


1720
* A slave revolt occurs in South Carolina. 23 slaves were
arrested, 6 convicted and 3 executed.
* The Dahomey Kingdom expands.
1721
* Onesimus, an African slave and medical pioneer, was responsible
for the inoculation procedure used to treat small pox and had his
method described of the African method of inoculation against
smallpox, which was later used to protect American Revolutionary
War soldiers. New England theologian and minister of Bostons Old
North Church, Cotton Mather used information he had learned five
years earlier from his former slave to combat a devastating
smallpox epidemic that was then sweeping Boston. In a 1716 letter
to the Royal Society of London, Mather proposed the method of
inoculation as the best means of curing smallpox and noted that
he had learned of this process from his Negro-Man Onesimus, who is
a pretty intelligent fellow. Onesimus explained that he had
undergone an operation, which had given him Small-Pox, and would
forever preserve him from it, adding, That it was often used among
Africans and whoever had the Courage to use it, was forever free
from the fear of the contagion. Onesimus described the operation
to me, and showed me in his arm the scar.

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.

* Black Codes In Louisiana created a caste system that would


organize the mixed race society and alienate, subjugate and
disenfranchise the Black population. Black people could not own
anything that could be used as a weapon such as a cane or stick.
Blacks could not work in a position that required them to carry a
firearm.
* Queen Nanny, a Jamaican national hero, was the spiritual leader
of the Jamaican Maroons. The Maroon people were enslaved Blacks
who fled the oppressive British plantations and formed their own
communities in Jamaicas interior. Queen Nanny was instrumental in
organizing the plans to free enslaved Africans. For over 30 years
she freed more than 800 slaves and helped them settle into Maroon
communities.
1730
* Slaves revolt off the coast of Guinea on the ship "Little
George" taking control of Captain George Scott and the crew. 96
slaves took control of the weapons on the ship and sailed it back
to land escaping to freedom.
1731

* Benjamin Banneker is born into a family of free Blacks in


Maryland. Banneker learns reading, writing and arithmetic from his
grandmother and a Quaker schoolmaster. Later, he teaches himself
astronomy and publishes an Almanac on his astronomical
calculations for weather prediction.
1732
* Slaves aboard a ship from New Hampshire seize the ship and kill
the Captain, John Major, and crew off the coast of Guinea
stripping the ship and taking the cargo and abandoning the ship.
approximately 100 slaves reached freedom.
1733
* The 1st successful slave rebellion takes place in the U.S. Virgin
Islands when an African slave called Akwamu, of the Akan people of
Ghana leads a rebellion. Slaves defeat the French Army, taking
over the island and flying their own flag. The victory lasted for
6 months before reinforcements from Europe could be sent to retake the island.
1735
* More than 60 slave rebellions occur throughout the Caribbean
islands over the next 100 years until 1835. Slaves fought against
colonization, with some conflicts occurring earlier than 1735.
1739
* 44 Slaves revolt in Stono, South Carolina, killing 2 guards and
seizing weapons in whats known as the Stone River Rebellion.
The slaves commence an armed march to Spanish ruled Florida. A
White militia was formed and stopped the revolt after several days
of fighting. The 44 slaves were killed.
1741
* A large group of slaves revolt and plan to burn down a New York
town. The revolt was prevented before it could be carried out. 200
Blacks were arrested, 18 Blacks were lynched and 13 Blacks were
burned at the stake.
1745

* Olaudah Equiano was born in Nigeria, Africa. He was captured as


a slave as a young boy and sent to a Caribbean island. An
Englishman bought him and named him Gustavus Vassa. Vassa learned
to speak, read and write English. He learned how to buy and sell
goods in Philadelphia and earned enough money to buy his freedom.
After becoming free, Vassa wrote about his life as a slave and
told people that slavery must end. He published his autobiography
in 1789.
1746
* Lucy T. Prince composes the 1st poem written by a Black woman
called Bars Fight. It first appeared in print in 1855.
1747
* Slaves revolt on a ship commanded by Captain Beers off the coast
of West Africa. Upon its departure from the shore of Cape Coast
Castle in Ghana, hundreds of African captives on board began
fighting the captain and crew who were attempting to sail the ship
to the Caribbean. The Captain and crew were killed except for two
men who jumped overboard.

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.

* The Courland Bay Revolt occurs when a 15-day uprising takes


place in Trinidad and Tobago, Carribean when enslaved African,

Sandy, organized forty men and led them in an uprising against


slave plantation owners, their estates, and the islands military.
After Sandy killed the owner of the plantation where he worked,
he and his men burned several estates killing many plantation
owners and burned cane fields as they marched their way to attack
the Courland Bay military post.
1772
* Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable, a Black fur trader, built the 1st
house and trading post on the Chicago River near lake Michigan.
This post became the city of Chicago.
1773
* A group of Blacks in Massachusetts tried to win their freedom by
writing a letter to the Colonial Government. The letter said, "We
have no property! We have no children! No city! No country!" The
government ignored their request for freedom.
* Phillis Wheatley became the 1st famous Black poet and Black
women to have a book published.
1774
* The British set up a colony at Sierra Leone on the west coast of
Africa.
1775
* Black soldiers of the American Revolution fight in battles of
Bunker Hill, Concord and Lexington.
* Peter Salem, a Black Patriot, fights at Lexington and Concord.
* Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the Abolitionist Society.
1776
* Congress allows Blacks to join the Colonial Army to fight
against the British during the American Revolution, which ended in
1783. Black soldiers were given their freedom after the war for
fighting for both the British and American Armies.
* Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell took part in George
Washingtons crossing of the Delaware.

* The origin of the lawn jockey figure is often attached to the


legend of Jocko Graves. According to the River Road AfricanAmerican Museum in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Jocko Graves was the
12-year-old son of a free Black man who wanted to help
Revolutionary War commander-in-chief George Washington cross the
Delaware River to attack Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey, in
December. Graves was too young to join Washington on the crossing,
so he reportedly volunteered to watch the general's horses
instead; unfortunately, young Graves froze to death in the effort.
Moved by the boy's sacrifice, Washington supposedly commissioned a
statue in Graves' honor which became the prototype for the modern
lawn jockey. By the time of the Civil War, these "Jocko" statues
could be found on plantations throughout the South. Like the North
Star that pointed fleeing slaves to their freedom, the Jocko
statues pointed to the safe houses of the Underground Railroad.
Along the Mississippi River, a green ribbon tied to a statue's arm
whether clandestinely or with the owner's knowledge, indicated
safety; a red ribbon meant danger. The original lawn jockey serves
as true artifacts of the Underground Railroad that conducted so
many African-American slaves to freedom. Similar cast-iron statues
began appearing in the decades after Washington's crossing of the
Delaware in jockey silks that resembled the clothing worn by Black
racing jockeys, who have a glorious history.

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

together and thrown overboard while they were still alive.


Collingwood returned to Liverpool stating the slaves died due to
lack of water, which raised suspicion among the insurers of the
ship who gained little profit from the venture.
1783
* Emancipation takes place in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
* The American Revolution ends. The war of independence waged by
the American colonies against Britain influenced political ideas
and revolutions around the globe, as a fledgling, largely
disconnected nation won its freedom from the greatest military
force of its time.
* The 1st Black to formally practice medicine in the U.S. is James
Derham, who did not hold an M.D. degree.
* The "Book of Negros" is compiled by the British Navy to document
the 3,000 or so inhabitants of British North America of African
descent who fought alongside British colonial forces during the
American Revolutionary War. Many were slaves held by Patriot
rebels, and decided to fight with the British in exchange for the
Crown's promises of freedom. After the war, these 3,000 "Black
Loyalists" were evacuated by the British from New York to Nova
Scotia, Canada. Within five years, almost half had left Nova
Scotia to resettle in Sierra Leone.
1784
* Emancipation takes place in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
1785
* John Morront, an ordained Methodist, becomes the 1st Black
missionary to work with Native Americans and converts a Cherokee
Chief to the Christian faith.
* New York and New Jersey outlaw slavery.
1786
* Lemuel Haynes, who was an American Revolution Minuteman, becomes
the 1st Black minister of a White congregation.
* Quakers in Pennsylvania organize the Underground Railroad. It
operated mainly in the free states according to Pathways to

Freedom, an extensive study on the Underground Railroad. Fugitive


enslaved people were largely on their own until they crossed the
Ohio River or the Mason-Dixon Line, where they reached the socalled free states. It was then that the Underground Railroad and
its conductors or engineers could take effect. According to
the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati,
Ohio an estimated 40,000 - 100,000 enslaved people traveled via
the Underground Railroad to freedom.

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

Australian Aboriginal War. The British claimed they were


peacefully colonizing an unoccupied cotenant even though
approximately 1 million Black Aborigines lived there. The British
did not acknowledge Aborigines as completely human. Aborigines
were killed, tortured, raped and poisoned. Clashes between the
indigenous people and British settlers lasted until 1934 spanning
146 years. In total at least 20,000 indigenous Aborigines died
from conflict and massacre.

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

the Haitian Revolution than Dutty Boukman. A native Jamaican, his


name literally meant Dirty Bookman, a likely reference to a
secret book of Voodoo occult lore he always kept close. He was an
educated man, although a slave, who was sold by his British master
to a French plantation in Haiti. Dutty Boukman would teach other
slaves to read as well as instruct in closely guarded Voodoo lore.
His fame would come in August 14, 1791 at the Bwa Kayman ceremony.
Boukman was the leading Voodoo Priest and called for sacrifice and
slave rebellion to oust the oppressive slave traders.

* Thomas L. Jennings, a tailor in New York City, is credited with


being the 1st African American to hold a U.S. patent. In 1821, he
was given patent for a dry-cleaning process.
* Slaves begin work on and build the Presidential White House.
* Benjamin Banneker writes to Thomas Jefferson saying it is time
to eradicate racial stereotypes. While expressing doubts about the
merits of slavery in his notes, Jefferson expressed his belief in
the inferiority of Africans. Banneker also wrote the 1st almanac by
a Black and is appointed to survey Washington D.C. by President
George Washington in order to formalize plans to build the
Capitol.
1792
* 1100 slaves who were freed by the British during the
Revolutionary War formed Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa in
the Back-to-Africa movement. Another 1200 escaped slaves retuned
to Africa to settle in Sierra Leone.
* Virginia Statesmen George Mason opposes slavery and says that it
is a disgrace to mankind, which will corrupt the future of
politics.
1793

* 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.

* President George Washington signs the Federal Fugitive Slave Act


providing for the return of slaves who had escaped and crossed
state lines. It also made it a crime for anyone to harbor a slave
or prevent the arrest of a runaway.
* The 1st Black Methodist Episcopal Church is formed called Mother
Bethel A.M.E. Church.
1794
* The French attack Sierra Leone.
* Congress prohibits slave trade between the U.S. and foreign
countries.
1795
* During a period of religious revivalism know as the Second
Great Awakening, slaves convert to Christianity in large numbers
for the first time. This would last until about 1820.
1797
* President George Washington writes,I wish from my soul that the
legislature of Virginia could see a policy of a gradual abolition
of slavery. Two years later, Washington revised his will,

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

* War begins in Sierra Leone between British slave traders and


Africans and lasts until 1807.
1803
* America buys a large portion of land from France west of the
Mississippi River known as the Louisiana Purchase. This area
would go on to become the great plains of the Midwest.
1804
* The Ohio Legislature enacts the 1st of the Black Laws
restricting the rights and movements of Blacks. Other Western
states soon follow suit. Illinois, Indiana and Oregon later have
anti-immigration clauses in their state constitutions.
* New Jersey passes an emancipation law. All states north of the
Mason-Dixon Line now have laws forbidding slavery or providing for
its gradual elimination. However, slaves remain in New Jersey up
to the Civil War.
* A Black explorer known only as "York" was the 1st Black of the
frontier. York belonged to explorer William Clark who traveled
with explorer Meriwether Lewis. Together, Lewis and Clark explored
the land bought in the Louisiana Purchase.

* Emancipation begins in New Jersey.


* Haiti becomes the first Black Country to gain its independence.
Francois Toussaint L'Ouverture, the grandson of an African chief,
became the military leader of former slaves and led his country to
victory over French General Charles Leclerc in a revolution of the
slaves against French forces.

* The British began to slaughter, kidnap and enslave the


indigenous Black people of Tasmania, located two-hundred miles off
Australias southeast coast. With the passage of time, the gradual
rising of the sea level submerged the Australian-Tasmanian land
bridge and the Black aborigines of Tasmania experienced more than
10,000 years of solitude and physical isolation from the rest of
the world. The colonial government itself was not even inclined to
consider the aboriginal Tasmanians as full human beings, and
scholars began to discuss civilization as a unilinear process with
White people at the top and Black people at the bottom. Black
women were kidnapped, chained and exploited as sexual slaves.
White convicts regularly hunted Black people for sport, casually
shooting, spearing or clubbing the men to death, torturing and
raping the women, and roasting Black infants alive. Between 1803
and 1830 the Black aborigines of Tasmania were reduced from an
estimated 5,000 people to less than 75 as Whites were authorized
to kill Blacks on sight.

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

kidnapping of slaves continues. Slave traders kidnapped free


Blacks living in northern states and sold them back into slavery
onto plantations in the south. Some traders kidnapped slaves from
southern plantations and sold them to other slave owners. This
practice became known as the "Reverse Underground Railroad" and
the practice extended well into the 1850's.
1810
* The Afro-American insurance company is formed by three Black
men Joseph Randolph, Cyrus Porter and William Coleman. The
establishment of an insurance company by African-Americans was a
natural progression from beneficial societies that had emerged
after the American Revolution.
1811
* Slaves revolt in Louisiana. Charles Deslondes, Kook and Quamana,
led the march from the sugar plantations into the city of New
Orleans. Enlisting additional slaves along the way, 500 men armed
with cane knives, axes, and guns, left a path of devastation as
they burned down mansions and set fire to crops, in their goal to
establish a free black republic.

* Paul Cuffe begins transporting Blacks from North America back to


Africa.
1812
* Free Blacks enlisted and fought in the war of 1812.

* 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.

* On the French slave ship Le Rodeur, there was an outbreak of


ophthalmia, a disease that was known to cause temporary blindness,
which was afflicting both slaves and crew members. The captain
feared that the blindness was permanent; knowing that it would be
difficult to sell blind slaves, he made the decision to throw 39
living slaves over the rails to their death.
1820
* Individual Southern states began to include scenes of enslaved
Blacks on their currency, which helped to fuel the expansion of
the Cotton industry in the South and its place in a vibrant
Atlantic economy that extended to European banks and manufacturing
centers. The first Confederate banknotes introduced images that
became commonplace moving forward.

* The Western world was thrilled to hear news of the rediscovery


of the monuments of ancient Nubia or Kush as it was called in
the Bible. The descriptions and glorious illustrations of temples
and pyramid fields delighted scholars and reawakened interest in
this mysterious African kingdom. But the discovery also unleashed
a torrent of racist conclusions by the White scholars and
researchers of the day, who didnt believe such a brilliant and
superior society could have been created by Blacks. When American
diplomat Bayard Taylor visited Sudan and gazed upon the temple
carvings of sumptuously clad gods and rulers with clearly African
features, he asserted they must have been created by Egyptians or
by immigrants from India or Arabia, or, in any case, by an
offshoot of the race to which we belong. The stunning city of
Meroe, which was the royal capital of ancient Nubia, was long
ignored by scholars, who because of their racism assumed it was
merely an offshoot of a more-advanced Egyptian culture.

* Harriett Tubman is born. Tubman would grow up to become famous


as a conductor on the Underground Railroad during the turbulent
1850s. She helped hundreds of slaves escape along a secret route
to freedom known as the Underground Railroad. Underground
Railroad members used code names and words to hide their work.
They were called conductors who were mostly free Blacks. Runaway
slaves were called passengers who sought passage to safe houses
called stations. The slaves hid during the day and followed the
North Star at night. Born a slave herself, Tubman fled from
Maryland to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849. For the next 10 years
she made repeated secret trips back to Maryland, leading more than
300 escaped slaves to freedom in Canada. She became known as the
"Moses of her People." Between 1810-1850 about 100,000 slaves
escaped to the North on the Underground Railroad.

* The Underground Railroad was established to aid enslaved people


in their escape to freedom. The railroad was comprised of dozens
of secret routes and safe houses originating in the slaveholding
states and extending all the way to the Canadian border, the only
area where fugitives could be assured of their freedom. Shorter
routes led south from Florida to Cuba or from Texas to Mexico.
The Underground Railroad also included the smuggling of fugitive
slaves onto ships that carried them to ports in the North or
outside the United States. The success of the Underground Railroad
rested on the cooperation of former runaway slaves, free-born
blacks, Native Americans, and White and Black abolitionists who
helped guide runaway slaves along the routes and provided their
homes as safe havens. This system lasted until 1861.
* Congress passed the Missouri Compromise in which an imaginary
line was drawn dividing the Louisiana Territory and the original
states. The line was called the Mason-Dixon Line. States north
of the line (latitude 36*30) would be free States. States south
of the line would be slave States.
* The 1st organized immigration back to Africa begins when 86 free
Blacks leave New York on the Mayflower of Liberia bound for the
British colony of Sierra Leone, Africa. This was done by the
American Colonization Society.
* Spain declares slave trade illegal.
1821
* Thomas L. Jennings becomes the 1st Black to hold a U.S. patent by
inventing a dry cleaning process.

* King Ja Ja of Opobo begins a fierce resistance to European


expansion into Africa near the Nigeria river. Ja Ja was later
captured by the British and sent to the West Indies. Ja Ja never
saw his kingdom again.
* An Italian physician and tomb robber Giuseppe Ferlini, who
destroyed over 40 pyramids in a quest for treasure, accompanied an
Ottoman invasion in Sudan and discovered exquisite gold amulets,
signet rings and necklaces by blasting open the pyramid of Queen
Amanishakheto, one of Nubias most powerful rulers. Ferlini tried
to sell the treasure when he returned to Europe, but collectors
would not believe such treasure could come from Black Africans.
Nubia was also the gateway through which luxury products like
incense, ivory and ebony traveled from their source in sub-Saharan
Africa to the civilizations of Egypt and the Mediterranean.
1822
* Denmark Vesey, a freed slave in South Carolina, is implicated in
the planning of a large uprising of slaves to revolt and was
executed along with almost 50 others. George Wilson, another
slave, told the plan to White slavers. The case led to more
stringent slave laws known as Slave Codes in many Southern
states to prevent slaves from revolting and attempting escape.
* Liberia is founded as a colony for Blacks fleeing America.
* The Rosetta Stone is translated by Jean Francis Champollion.
The black stone tablet contains the translation of hieroglyphic
inscriptions, which led to the unraveling of and understanding of
hieroglyphic writing. The stone was discovered in 1799 by
Napoleons army.

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

* Benjamin Bradley is born. A slave, Bradley was employed at a


printing office and later at the Annapolis Naval Academy, where he
helped set up scientific experiments. In the 1840s he developed a
steam engine for a warship. Unable to patent his work, he sold it
and bought his freedom with the proceeds.
* Drawing of a cross-section of a slaver ship in Brazil, from a
book by Robert Walsh, an Irish clergyman, historian, writer and
physician.

* The Symbolism and legend of the Underground Railroad quilts take


shape as a signaling system to guide escaped slaves through the
"quilt code", which had been passed down through the generations.
This code was evidentially a mnemonic device, used to help
illiterate slaves memorize directions and activities they may have
needed for escape through patterns sewn into quilts by slaves.
Most quilt patterns had their roots in African traditions the
slaves brought with them to North America when they were captured
and forced to leave their homeland. The Africans method of
recording their history and stories was by committing them to
memory and passing them on orally to following generations. The
quilt patterns, used in a certain order, relayed messages to
slaves preparing to escape. Each pattern represented a different
meaning. Quilts slung over a fence, clothes line or windowsill,
seemingly to air, passed on the necessary information to slaves.
As quilts hung out to air were a common sight on a plantation,
neither the plantation owner nor the overseer would notice
anything suspicious. It was all part of a day's work for the
slaves and done in plain sight.

* Tice Davids escaped from his master in Kentucky by jumping into


a river and disappearing into the brush. Davids vanished so
quickly that the slave owner said he must have used an underground
road. This phrase would go on to be known as the Underground
Railroad as the route slaves used to escape to the South. Many
slaves joined the Seminole Indians in the Florida everglades.
* During the 1830s, Black Abolitionist, Frederick Douglas gives
speeches and starts an anti-slavery newspaper called the North
Star which was named after the star that guided slaves to freedom
on the Underground Railroad. During this time there were many
White abolitionists that stood with Blacks protesting slavery.
Many of them are killed by other Whites who wanted slavery to
continue.
* King Samory Toure of the Sudan begins his rule which quickly
forces him into a conflict with the French after his mother is
captured. Toure would endure an 18 year conflict with the French
which brought constant frustration for the Europeans with his
military tactics and strategy which brought him worldwide respect.
During the conflict Toure, was able to unify many African states
into one empire.
* The slave population in the U.S. reaches 2 million.
* The Trail of Tears migration begins. Indians were not allowed
time to gather their belongings and as they left, Whites looted
their homes in which 2500-6000 of the 16,543 Cherokee people died
of cold, hunger and disease on their way to the western lands
known as Oklahoma. An estimated 1/3 of the Indians were of
African-American descent as escaped slaves found refuge among
Indian populations. It is thought that a new tribe name of
"Blackfoot" emerged from the mixing of Cherokee Indians and
escaped slaves. The darker skinned children from the mixing were
called Blackfoot as a term to identify them. This is not the same
Blackfoot tribe that lives in Montana. President Andrew Jackson
signed legislation that forced the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw,
Choctaw and Seminole Indians off their land in the South Eastern

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

extreme provocation, kills his overseer or master, the homicide is


not murder but manslaughter.
1835
* In the second Seminole Indian War, Blacks fight alongside Native
Americans against U.S. forces.
1836
* The Mexican army under General Santa Ana begins attacking the
Alamo in Texas. The Mexican government was shocked by the rising
rate of White immigration and disgusted by their use of slavery.
The Mexican government started imposing restrictions, which were
ignored by the settlers. The battle of the Alamo was fought over
issues like federalism, slavery, immigration rights, the cotton
industry and money. The Mexicans regarded Texans as murderous
barbarians who were mostly Southerners who believed in and
practiced slavery. Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana and Mexico
recognized Texas independence and pulled out all of its troops.
* Alexander L. Twilight becomes the 1st Black elected to public
office and to serve in a state legislature after being elected to
the Vermont House of Representatives.
* Almost half of the economic activity in the United States was
derived directly or indirectly from cotton produced by more than a
million slaves, 6 percent of the total US population, who toiled
in labor camps on slaverys frontier.
1837
* The Institute for Colored Youth is founded by Richard Humphreys.
It later became the Cheyney University after being called the
Cheyney State Training School.
* James McCune Smith becomes the 1st recognized Black doctor after
graduating from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
1838
* The Mirror of Liberty, published in New York, becomes the 1st
African-American magazine.
* England finally abolishes slavery.
1839

* Portuguese sailors abducted a group of Africans and shipped them


to Cuba where they were purchased by two Spanish men and placed
aboard the ship La Amistad. Joseph Cinque led the Africans to
seizing the ship and killing the crew in their attempt to sail
back to Africa. The ship ended up off the coast of Long Island.
The slaves were placed on trial for murder for killing the crew.
John Quincy Adams argued that the slaves were in fact free men and
not guilty of murder. 35 slaves were returned to Africa.

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

* Josiah Henson, a runaway who became a conductor, set up the Dawn


Settlement in Dresden, Canada. Here former slaves learned new
skills and trades that helped them get started in their new lives.
* William Wells Brown, an escaped slave and literary pioneer,
becomes the first Black to publish a novel "The Narrative of
William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave" as his first work. Brown
followed this up with several poems and other novels until his
death.
* A slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation occurs when a large
assembly of escaped Africans, who had been enslaved by the
Cherokee, ripped through the Cherokee Nation in the Midwestern
United States. The escapees tried to reach Mexico where slavery
had been abolished, but were caught and killed by a militia that
tracked them down. The revolution inspired subsequent slave
rebellions throughout all of North America.
1843
* Henry H. Garnet was a popular Black speaker who spoke at a Black
convention in Buffalo New York. He asked that the 4 million Blacks
living in America rise up and act against slavery by saying that
It is better to die free than to live as slaves.
* The term Jim Crow was created by minstrel entertainer
Thomas Dartmouth Daddy Rice. Rice would cover his face with
burnt charcoal, known as Blackface then sing and dance a
caricature routine of a silly Black person to portray Black
inferiority. By 1900, the term was identified with racist laws and
actions that deprived Blacks of their civil rights.

* Former runaway slave Isabella Baumfree changed her name to


Sojourner Truth and became a public speaker against slavery along
with Frederick Douglass and Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.
* Carlota Lukumi, a slave in Cuba from the Yoruba tribe, led a
slave rebellion wielding a machete at the Triumvirato sugar mill.
Carlota and her fellow warriors and another slave named Fermina
led dozens of others, and went on to wage a well-organized armed
uprising against at least five brutal slave plantation operations
in the area. Carlotas brave battle went on for one year before
she was captured, tortured and executed by Spanish landowners.
1844
* Elijah McCoy, the son of escaped slaves from Kentucky, is born.
McCoy was born in Canada and educated in Scotland. He settled in
Detroit and invented a lubricator for steam engines that was
patented in 1872. McCoy established his own manufacturing company
and acquired 57 patents.
* Richard T. Greener becomes the 1st Black to graduate from Harvard
University.
* Norbert Rillieux receives the patent for refining sugar.
* Macon B. Allen becomes the 1st Black lawyer formally admitted to
the bar and allowed to practice law in the U.S. after passing the
state bar exam in Worcester, Massachusetts.
* The autobiography of Fredrick Douglass is published.
* King Menelek II of Abyssinia unites many independent kingdoms
into one state becoming Ethiopia. Menelek was a leader in world
affairs and his stunning victory over in Italy in 1986 at the
battle of Adwa made him a great world leader.
1845
* Dr. James Marion Sims, a surgical pioneer considered the father
of modern gynecology, operated on female slaves without anesthesia
in the mid-1800s even though it was available as he was trying to
find the cure for a painful post-birth condition known as vesicovaginal fistula. He carried out experiments on Black women because
they were slaves who couldn't say no. He eventually found a
surgical cure, by using silver sutures and speculum from
performing a number of trial and error procedures on slave women
who suffered extreme pain with some dying from his procedures.

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.

* The French abolish slavery.


1849
* Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland and becomes a
leader in the Underground Railroad. She would later help over 300
slaves escape and come to be known as the Moses of her people.
* A slave named Henry Hill escaped by hiding in a box and mailing
himself to the North earning himself the name of Box Brown.
* Charles L. Reason becomes the 1st Black university professor by
teaching mathematics at New York Central College.
1850
* Congress created the Fugitive Slave Law. California wanted to
join the U.S. as a state, but it was too far from the Mason-Dixon
Line. Congress decided that California would be a free state,
which satisfied the North. In order to satisfy the South, Congress
passed the Fugitive Slave Law, which said everyone in the U.S.,
had to help catch runaway slaves a.k.a. fugitives.
* The Compromise of 1850 is passed which states the territory
gained in the Mexican War should be open to slavery. California
becomes a free state while Utah and New Mexico are left to be
decided by popular sovereignty. Slave trade in Washington D.C. is
prohibited, but a much stricter fugitive slave law is passed than
the original in 1793.
* In the late 19th and early 20th century, many children's books
were developed in the United States and the United Kingdom to
propagate the devaluation of Black people in their relative
societies. While hundreds existed, these are a few of the most
disturbingly racist and offensive: Lets Hurry or Well Miss the
Public Lynching, Ten Little Nigger Boys, The Story of Little Black
Sambo, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Ten Little Niggers,
The Secret Garden, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Strange Tale
of Ten Little Nigger Boys. These type of books, which were
released in the early 20th century, were thought to be harmless
fun and were once common.

* Slave trade is forbidden in the District of Columbia.


* Emperor Tewodros II led campaigns against Egyptian intruders.
* Queen Yaa Asantewa led the last major war in Africa by a woman
against the British before her capture. She gave a speech to her
people vowing to fight all White men and resist the European
expansion into her country. Her story is woven throughout the
history of Ghana.
* The slave-dependent economy is worth $1.3 billion to plantation
owners whose crop was primarily cotton and tobacco.
1851
* Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh, one of the great female leaders of the Mino
people, led an army of 6,000 women armed with spears, bows and
swords against the Egba (European Gaming and Betting Association)
fortress of Abeokuta in the French controlled Republic of Benin,
West Africa.
* Sojourner Truth gives her famous Aint I a Woman speech at the
Womens Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. Truth would travel
throughout the Midwest speaking out against slavery.

* The "Christiana Riot" erupted in Pennsylvania, on a farm owned


by former slave William Parker, when a slave owner from Maryland
attempted to arrest four fugitive slaves with an arrest warrant
who had been living on the farm. In an exchange of gunfire, the
slave owner Edward Gorsuch, was shot dead and other White men were
wounded in the party to capture the slaves. U.S. Marines were
brought in to stabilize the situation.
1852
* Edward A. Bouchet is born in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1874,
Bouchet became the 1st Black to graduate from Yale College. In
1876, he received his Ph.D. in physics from Yale, becoming the 1st
Black to earn a doctorate. Bouchet spent his career teaching
college chemistry and physics.
* Harriet Beecher Stowe writes a book protesting slavery by
detailing the cruelty of slave owners and the suffering of slaves.
The book is called Uncle Toms Cabin. The book sold over 300,000
copies in the 1st year, focusing national attention to slavery,
which turned thousands of people against slavery.
* James Healy of Boston becomes the 1st Black to be ordained a
Roman Catholic Priest.
1853
* The 1st novel written and published by an African American is a
work by William W. Brown, entitled Clotel: A Tale of Southern
States. Brown also wrote The Presidents Daughter.
* Elizabeth T. Greenfield, The Black Swan becomes the 1st Black
concert singer who also sang for Queen Victoria.
* Solomon Northup wrote and published a memoir, "Twelve Years A
Slave". Solomon was a free black man living in New York on his own
land, but while visiting Washington, D.C., Northup was drugged,
kidnapped, and sold into slavery in the south. After he was freed,

he lectured on behalf of the abolitionist movement, giving more


than two dozen speeches throughout the Northeast about his
experiences to build momentum against slavery.

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.

The city paid landowners, though many found the payment


inadequate, while renters were displaced without compensation.
Some of the residents were of Irish and German descent. It is
estimated that 264 residents lived in the village with a total of
1600 squatters in the surrounding were left homeless as the area
was razed.
1857
* The Supreme Court rules on the Dred Scott Case which denied
slaves of any rights by law. Dred Scott, a slave, claimed his
freedom on the basis of 7 years of residence in a free state and a
free territory. But 7 out of 9 Justices on the Supreme Court ruled
that no slave or descendant of a slave could be a citizen. The
court said Scott had no rights and was still a slave. The decision
sharpened the national debate over slavery.

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

for a slave insurrection. The raid failed when Colonial Robert E.


Lee captured Brown and his followers. Brown was hanged for
treason.
* The largest slave auction on record in the United States occurs
in Savannah, Georgia run by Pierce M. Butler and is referred to as
"The Weeping Time." 436 men, women, children, and infants, all of
whom had been born on his plantations, were brought to a racetrack
in Savannah and put in the stalls used for horses. There they
waited for days or weeks for the auction to begin. The slaves were
humiliated when the buyers pulled open their mouths to see their
teeth and they pinched their arms and legs to check for muscle
strength. Many times family members were separated and sold to
different slave owners never to see each other again.
* Martin Robison Delany was a surgeon, the highest ranking Civil
War soldier and the "Father of Black Nationalism" an African
American abolitionist, the first African American Field Officer in
the U.S Army, and one of the earliest African Americans to
encourage a return to Africa. Delany led an emigration commission
to West Africa to explore possible sites for a new black nation
along the Niger River, We are a nation within a nation, we must
go from our oppressors, he wrote. Delany published The Condition,
Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the
United States, Politically Considered, claiming that even
abolitionists would never accept Blacks as equals and thus the
solution to the Black condition lay in the emigration of all
African Americans back to Africa.
* Harriet E. Wilson, author of Our Nig, becomes the 1st Black
female novelist published in the United States. Wilson wrote about
racism in the North before the civil war.
* It was common for a slave to be subordinated sexually to the
mastereven men with enslaved males. It was part of the enslaved
mans function as an animated tool, an instrument of pleasure.
* To combat the high rate of death among the enslaved, plantation
owners demanded females start having children at 13. By 20, the
enslaved women would be expected to have four or five children. As
an inducement, plantation owners promised freedom for enslaved
females once she bore 15 children. That however turned out to be a
lie just to make the women submit to the sexual advances of their
masters.

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.

* 11 Southern States secede the Union after Abraham Lincoln


becomes President and announces his opposition to slavery. The
Southern States become the Confederate States of America. 5 slave
States side with the Union during the Civil War and are called the
Border States. Abraham Lincoln gave a speech that he had no
intention to interfere with the institution of slavery but to
protect the Union should the South secede from the government.
* 18% of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Creek
Indian tribes were of African descent.
* Isaac Myers begins organizing the Colored National Labor Union.
* The price of a slave ranges from $800-$2000 dollars. Families
were often separated at auction, never to see each other again.

* The slave population in the U.S. reaches 4 million.


* Plantation owners would often entertain their friends by forcing
their slaves to have orgies and multiple pairings having sex in
front of them. White men often would participate in the debauchery
raping Black women in front of their mate and children.
* When enslaved males turned 15 years old and younger in some
cases they had their first inspection. Boys who were underdeveloped, had their testicles castrated and sent to the market or
used on the farm. Each enslaved male was expected to get 12
females pregnant a year. The men were used for breeding for five
years. One enslaved man name Burt produced more than 200
offspring.
* The fertility of enslaved women was examined by owners to make
sure they were able to birth as many children as possible.
Secretly, slave owners would impregnate enslaved women and when

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

harbor. Smalls surrendered by displaying a white flag as he came


upon the Union ship, the U.S.S. Onward.
* Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia and outlawed in
U.S. territories when the Compensated Emancipation Act, is signed
ordering all slaves in the District of Columbia, totaling 3,128,
to be freed. It was the first time the U.S. government had
officially liberated any group of slaves and unlike the
Emancipation Proclamation, it permitted their former masters to
petition the government for compensation in exchange for their
slaves freedom.
* Mary J. Patterson becomes the 1st Black woman in the U.S. to
graduate from an American college by earning a Master of Arts
degree, from Oberlin College.
* Ida B. Wells is born.
1863
* President Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation took
effect, freeing over 4 million slaves from the Confederate South.
800,000 Blacks remained slaves in the border states between the
North and the South because the Emancipation Proclamation did not
apply to the border states Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee and West
Virginia. These states refused to comply until later on.
* President Abraham Lincoln visits a battlefield in Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. One of the worst battles of the Civil War had been
fought there. Thousands of soldiers on both sides died. Lincoln
gave a speech known as the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln said the
country must bring about a new birth of freedom.
* Blacks are allowed to enlist in the Union Army to fight the
South. More than 186,000 Blacks joined the Union Army; 38,000 die
in service. White Union soldiers did not want to fight alongside
Blacks. Confederate soldiers hated Black Union soldiers and would
kill them while taking White Union soldiers as P.O.W.s. Blacks
had to fight Racism in the North and South and they were called
contraband of war.
* Harriet Tubman led Union gunboats up the Combahee River, in
South Carolina, where 2nd Regiment South Carolina Volunteer
Infantry troops disembarked and gave a prearranged signal for
slaves to abandon nearby plantations along with destroying
millions of dollars worth of Confederate supplies. Nearly 800

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.

* Henry M. Turner becomes the 1st Black chaplain appointed in the


U.S. Army.
* Phillip Reid and other slaves comprise the workforce that built
the White House and the Capitol. Reid casted the bronze dome that
is the symbol of freedom around the world. Over a 70 year period,
slaves toiled from dawn to dusk building the temples, clearing the
land, digging the trenches, hauling the lumber and working in the
quarries for this country that claims all men are created equal
with liberty and justice for all. Of course that ideal only
applied to the White race.
* The 1st school for freed slaves is founded in Frogmore, South
Carolina.
* Holland abolishes slavery.
* The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was created by
Colonel Robert Shaw at Camp Meigs, Readville. The all Black
infantry unit of freed slaves from various Northern States, earned
its fame by leading the attack on the Confederate Fort Wagner near
Charleston, South Carolina. Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the 1st

Black to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery


under fire. Carney rescued the Union flag at Ft. Wagner even after
being wounded twice. The unit was despised by the South,
distrusted by the North, underpaid, ill-equipped and faced certain
death from the Confederacy, rose to every challenge from racism to
the harrowing final battle which paved the way for the Union
victory thru their courage, skill and sacrifice. Over 180,000
Blacks volunteered and turned the tide of the war. The Union Army
unit is portrayed in the 1989 movie Glory.

1864-1900: After Emancipation


1864
* The New Orleans Tribune becomes the 1st Black daily newspaper
printed in the United States.
* Thomas M. Chester becomes the 1st Black correspondent to work
for a major daily newspaper, The Philadelphia Press, during the
Civil War.
* Congress passed a bill authorizing equal pay, equipment, arms
and health care for Black Union troops.
* Rebecca Lee Crumpler graduates from the New England Female
Medical College and becomes the 1st Black woman doctor.
* Anti-slavery laws are passed in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana,
and Maryland.
* 14 Black soldiers receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for
their role in the Battle of Chaffins Farm in Richmond, VA.

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.

* After the Civil War, Congress authorized the creation of 6


segregated Black regiments to serve in the peacetime Army, under
White officers. The 9th and 10th cavalries and the 38th through
41st infantries were formed. The new cavalries were mainly
stationed in the Southwest and the Great Plains, where it was

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.

* The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlaws slavery,


is ratified. Blacks are set free. The amendment reads; Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction. The middle part of the wording indicates that if

Blacks are convicted of a crime, they can be returned to slavery


and servitude which could consist of incarceration.
* Martin R. Delany became the first Black line officer in the U.S.
Army after meeting with President Abraham Lincoln to persuade the
administration to create an all-Black Corps led by African
American officers. Delaney was commissioned a Major in the 52nd
U.S. Colored Troops Regiment. He is considered by many as the
father of Black nationalism, after writing "The Principia of
Ethnology", a book that argued for race pride and purity in 1879.
* President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilks Booth.
Andrew Johnson succeeded him as President.
* Patrick F. Healy becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D.
* John S. Rock becomes the 1st Black lawyer allowed to practice
before the U.S. Supreme Court.
* The Civil War comes to an end when Confederate General Robert E.
Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox.
Approximately 623,000 lives were lost.
* Henry H. Garnet becomes the 1st Black to speak before Congress by
addressing the end of slavery.
* South Carolina slave Saxe Joiner was arrested because it was
discovered by his master, James E. Hix, that he could read and
write. Hix found a letter written by Joiner to his wife stating
that he could protect her with a hiding place from the federal
troops that were coming. An armed mob of White men wearing
disguises and dressed in Confederate uniforms broke into the
Unionville jail. The mob surged into Joiners cell after getting
the keys, tied the prisoner up, and hauled him outside. Within
moments, Joiner was dead hanging from the closest tree.
* Congress established the Freedmans Savings and Trust Company
with the purpose of helping former slaves build wealth. The bank
closed in 1874 even though over 100,000 Black Americans had
deposited over $57 million in the Washington D.C. headquarters and
the 37 city branches that spanned 17 states in just 10 years. The
bank started strong, but a number of bad investments, financial
mismanagement, and the expense of building a new headquarters
building in Washington, D.C. wiped out its assets. When the bank
closed its doors its failure left tens of thousands of Black
depositors destitute and in financial ruin.

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.

* The New Orleans massacre occurs when police storm a Republican


meeting of Blacks and Whites killing more than 40 Blacks and
wounding more than 150.
* Frederick Douglas meets with President Andrew Johnson to discuss
Black suffrage. Johnson expressed his opposition and the meeting
ended in controversy.

* 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.

* Hundreds of Blacks were killed, because of their desire to join


a local political group that included racist White Democrats.
The Seymour Knights violently drove potential Black voters away
from the Democratic Party, prompting White Republican
reporter Emerson Bentley to write that Blacks should remain loyal
to the Republican Party in local paper The Progress. The KKK rode
and killed an estimated 300 Blacks in Louisiana in what became
known as the Opelousas Massacre. Emerson Bentley was attacked by
3 violent White teenagers. Local Blacks came to Bentleys rescue
and were arrested by the Sheriff. 12 Blacks were lynched that
night for their participation. In the days that followed; armed
Whites scoured the countryside on a Nigger Hunt killing all
Blacks they came in contact with.
* John W. Menard becomes the 1st Black man elected to Congress by
defeating his White rival by more than a 2 to 1 margin in
Louisiana, but he is denied his seat.
* Pullman Porters became a common sight on trains for a century
spanning the years 1868-1968. African-American railroad attendants
on trains became a tradition within the American scene. By the
1920s, a peak decade for the railroads, 20,224 African-Americans
were working as Pullman Porters and train personnel.
1869
* Congress sends the 15th Amendment to the Constitution to
the states for approval. The amendment would guarantee Blacks the
right to vote.
* Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett was appointed minister to Haiti. He
became the 1st Black diplomat and presidential appointment. For
many years thereafter, both Democratic and Republican
administrations appointed Blacks as ministers to Haiti and
Liberia.
* Portugal abolishes slavery.
* The convention of the Colored National Labor Union meets
becoming the 1st Black labor convention.
* Frederick Douglas is named president of the National Convention
of Colored Men.

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.

* The DeBeers Diamond Mine is discovered in South Africa which


became the DeBeers diamond company in 1880 which was set-up by
Cecil J. Rhodes, the British explorer and adventurer who gave his
name to the African country of Rhodesia and to Rhodes
scholarships. The purpose of DeBeers was the exploitation of
diamond mines in South Africa. Rhodes became a multi-millionaire
by establishing diamond mines and creating the original "blood
diamond" trade in South Africa by exploiting Africans and
committing atrocities against Africans through forced labor in
those mines which contributed to the wealth of White people like
Rhodes. Rhodes parlayed his ill-gotten gains into political power
when he seized power as Prime Minister of Cape Colony from 1890 to
1896. Rhodes seized African land with the help of White men armed
with the newly minted machine gun (invented in 1883) and
distributed the land of African families to White settlers from
Britain destroying the lives of countless Africans, especially the
Ndebele and Shona people in pursuit of wealth and power. Rhodes
Scholarship money came from the blood, sweat, tears and lost lives
of Africans. The blood diamond trade led to civil wars, rebel
uprisings, warlords and the death and displacement of millions of
Africans over the years in the attempt to gain wealth and power.
1872
* Pickney Pinchback of Louisiana becomes the 1st Black Governor of
a State after the impeachment of Governor H.C. Warmoth.
* Charlotte E. Roy receives her degree from Howard University Law
School and becomes the 1st Black woman lawyer in the United States
and also the first woman to argue a case in front of the Supreme
Court.
* Nat Love, aka: "Deadwood Dick", was born a slave in Tennessee in
1854, found work as a cowboy and ranch hand. Love moved to Arizona
where he went to work for the Gallinger Ranch. There he traveled
many of the major western trails battling Indians and fighting off
rustlers and bandits. His self-reported exploits and claims found
in his published autobiography made him the most famous Black folk
hero of the Old West where he claims to have met the likes of Pat
Garrett, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid and others.
1873
* Mifflin W. Gibbs of Little Rock Arkansas becomes the 1st Black
elected as a municipal judge.

* 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.

* The Clinton Massacre occurs when more than 20 Blacks were


killed in Mississippi.
* Oliver Lewis becomes the 1st Black to win the Kentucky Derby at
Churchill Downs while riding the horse Aristides in the very
first Kentucky Derby ever held.
* The real Lone Ranger, it turns out, was an African-American
man named Bass Reeves, who the legend was based upon. Born to
slave parents in 1873 in Paris, Texas Bass Reeves would become the
first Black U.S. Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi River and
one of the greatest frontier heroes in our nation's history.
Reeves arrested over 3,000 felons and shot and killed 14 outlaws
in self-defense. He was the most feared lawman in Indian
territory.

* Blanche K. Bruce, a Republican from Mississippi, becomes a U.S.


Senator, and eventually the 1st Black to serve a full 6-year term.
Not until 1969 did another Black serve in the Senate.
* The first Kentucky Derby race was run in which 13 out of 15
jockeys were Black. Among the first 28 derby winners, 15 were
black. The first jockey to win was Oliver Lewis, a Black man, who
was the first to win three Derbies. African-American jockeys
excelled in the sport in the late 1800s, but by 1921, they had
disappeared from the Kentucky track. For blacks, racing provided a
false sense of freedom. They were allowed to travel the racing
circuit, and some even managed their owners racing operation.
They competed alongside Whites. When Black riders were cheered to
the finish line, the only colors that mattered were the colors of
their silk jackets, representing their stable.

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.

* A deal with Southern Democratic leaders was made with Republican


President Rutherford B. Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of
Federal Troops from the South and the end of Federal efforts to
protect the Civil Rights of African Americans. The era of
Reconstruction comes to an end. The future of the country was not
to concern itself with the future of Blacks.
* Henry O. Flipper, the son of slaves from Georgia, becomes the
1st Black to graduate from West Point Military Academy. He would
face an onslaught of racism and discrimination being the only
Black. He graduated 15th in his class of 26 and majored in civil
engineering.
* Garrett A. Morgan is born in Kentucky. He invented a gas mask
that was patented in 1914. It was used to protect soldiers from
chlorine fumes during World War I. In 1923, Morgan received a
patent for a traffic signal that featured automated stop and
go signs. The invention was later replaced by traffic lights.
1878
* The Exoduster Movement begins as 30,000 Blacks migrate to
Kansas.
1879
* Mary E. Mahoney becomes the 1st Black nurse after receiving her
diploma from the New England Hospital for Women.
* Charles Follis is born. He will go on to become the 1st Black
professional football player in the U.S. playing for the Shelby
Blues in Ohio.
* King Shaka of the Zulus defeats the British for the last time
at the Battle of Isandlwana.

* Dr. Robert Felkin of Europe witnesses the 1st caesarean operation


by Banyoro surgeons in Uganda.
* The Exodus from slavery begins in earnest after reconstruction
as 900 Black families migrate to Kansas and the West to freedom.
1880
* Europeans placed African people in human zoos. In the late 1800s
to well into the 1900s, Europeans created human zoos in cities
like Paris; Hamburg, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Barcelona,
Spain; London; Milan; Warsaw, Poland; St Louis; and New York City.
These were popular human exhibits where Whites went to watch Black
people who were on display. The Black people were usually forced
to live behind gates and in cages similar to animals in a zoo
today. Some of the Black people were kidnapped and brought to be
exhibited in the human zoos. Many of them died quickly, some
within a year of their captivity. A large number of visitors
attended these exhibitions in each city daily. For example, the
Parisian World Fair featured a human zoo that exhibited Black
people, and 34 million people were drawn to the exhibition in just
six months.

* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to be


6,580,793 being 13.1% of the U.S. population.
* William T. Shorey was a whaling ship captain known to his crew
as the Black Ahab, after Moby Dicks protagonist,. He became the
only Black captain operating on the west coast of the United
States in the late 1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification
in 1885. Although he was born a free man his prospects as being
Black were limited.

* Samuel R. Lowey becomes the 1st Black lawyer to argue a case


before the U.S. Supreme Court.
* The Lynching Era: 1880-1930. The lynching era encompasses
roughly the five decades between the end of Reconstruction and the
beginning of the Great Depression. During these years it is
estimated that there were 2,018 separate incidents of lynching in
which at least 2,462 African-American men, women and children met
their deaths in the hands of Southern mobs, comprised mostly of
Whites. Although lynching and mob killings occurred before 1880,
notably during early Reconstruction when Blacks were enfranchised,
radical racism and mob violence peaked during the 1890s in a surge
of terrorism that did not dissipate until well into the twentieth
century".
1881
* Spelman College becomes the 1st college for Black women in the
United States. It is founded by Sophia B. Packard and
Harriet E. Giles.
* The Tuskegee Institute is founded by Booker T. Washington, which
became the leading vocational training institution for Blacks as
teachers and in agriculture and industry.

* Public transportation segregation begins across the United


States starting with Tennessee, followed by Florida, Mississippi,
Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Oklahoma. This
practice was imposed over the next 15 years.
* British and Ottoman troops seize control of Egypt and Sudan.
* The first of the Jim Crow laws are passed legalizing
segregation on the railroads.

* Literacy Tests and Poll Tax Laws were instituted to deny


Blacks the right to vote by making it unlawful for an illiterate
person to vote and requiring a tax be paid for the right to vote.
* The 1st Black to have his signature appear on U.S. paper currency
is Blanche K Bruce, Registrar of the Treasury.
1882
* This is the 1st year of documented lynchings of Blacks in the
U.S.
* 49 Blacks are known to have been lynched. Lynching was when a
White mob took justice into their own hands without a trail and
used lynching as a punishment against Blacks that committed a
crime in order to keep other Blacks in their place. The crime
could have been as small as a Black arguing with a White.
A lynching consisted of:
1) A notice to other Whites in neighboring towns so they could
witness the lynching.
2) A huge spectacle with hundreds of Whites watching.
3) The burning of the victim at the stake after being subjected
to hours of torture or hung by the neck until dead.
4) The observers took parts of the mutilated body as souvenirs
and took pictures to serve as postcards.

* George Washington Williams publishes his History of the Negro


Race in America from 1619-1880, the first comprehensive and
objective history of African Americans.
1883
* Jim Crow segregation laws begin to be passed by the southern
States.
* Segregation becomes legal. The Supreme Court declares the Civil
Rights Act of 1875 Unconstitutional and overturned it. The court
said the 14th Amendment forbids States, but not citizens, from
discriminating. The Supreme Court said segregation was legal if
Blacks and Whites received equal treatment. This came to be known
as Separate but Equal.
* Ernest E. Just is born in Charleston, South Carolina. Just
attended Dartmouth College and the University of Chicago, where he
earned a doctorate in zoology in 1916. Just published more than 50
papers on cell biology.
* A White conservative political group seized control of the local
government in Dansville, Virginia killing 4 Blacks in the process.
* 53 Black are known to have been lynched.
* Spelman College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
* Sojourner Truth dies.
* A political coup occurs in Danville, Virginia in which four
elected Blacks are killed.

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

scheme worked for a while, but by the turn of the century, no


Black players or teams were allowed to play with Whites.
* 74 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Belgium colonizes Zaire as "Congo Free State." King Leopold II
of Belgium massacred between 10-13 million Africans in the Congo
between 1885-1908. Cutting off their hands was very much part of
Leopold's repertoire to maintain their submission. He bought and
owned the Congo during his reign as the constitutional monarch of
Belgium. After several failed colonial attempts in Asia and
Africa, he settled on the Congo. He enslaved its people, turning
the entire country into his own personal slave plantation to
harvest its wild rubber which was in great demand in Europe for
use in the manufacture of bicycle and automobile tires. He claimed
his brutality to the Africans was to protect the "natives" from
Arab slavers, and to open the heart of Africa to Christian
missionaries, and Western capitalists.

* 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.)

* The Carrollton Massacre occurs when 20 Blacks are killed in


Mississippi.
* Cuba abolishes slavery.
* 74 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The American Federation of Labor is organized, signaling the
rise of the labor movement. All major unions of the day excluded
Blacks.
* Augustine Tolton becomes the 1st Black Roman Catholic priest in
the U.S.

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.

* Granville T. Woods invents the Synchronous Multiplex Railway


Telegraph induction system, which allowed trains to communicate
with one another and with the stations. Woods filed a lawsuit and
won his case against Thomas Edison for stealing his invention and
many more of his 60+ patents; including the third rail of train
tracks for conducting electricity. He also developed, an improved
telephone transmitter which combined the telephone and telegraph,
which was bought by Alexander Graham Bell. Woods was known as the
"Black Edison".
* Florida A&M University is founded for Black students.
1888
* Two of Americas 1st Black-owned banks open their doors the
Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of the Reformers,
in Richmond Virginia and Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C.
* Archibald Alexander is born. Alexander attended Iowa State
University and earned a civil engineering degree in 1912. While
working for an engineering firm, he designed the Tidal Basin
Bridge in Washington, D.C. Later, he formed his own company,
designing Whitehurst Freeway in Washington, D.C., and an airfield
in Tuskegee, Alabama among other projects.
* Brazil abolishes slavery and frees 700,000 slaves.
* 69 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The Washington Monument is finished and opened to the public in
Washington D.C. as a tribute to the first president of the United
States, George Washington. The monument was modeled after an
Egyptian Obelisk. Obelisks exist outside Egypt in France, Israel,
Italy, Poland, Turkey, England and cities in the United States.
The obelisks around the world were either stolen from Egypt or
made to replicate the ones found in Egypt. The originals were made
by Egyptians.

1889
* Ida B. Wells and partners publish the Memphis Free Speech
newspaper.

* Roger Arliner Young is born in Virginia. Young earned a


doctorate in zoology in 1940 and published a number of important
studies with Ernest E. Just.
* Alfred O. Coffin becomes the 1st Black to receive a Ph.D in
biological science.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to be
7,488,676 being 11.9% of the U.S. population.
* Henry O. Flipper writes a book about his experiences, The
Colored Cadet at West Point.
* 94 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1890

* Under the leadership of Timothy T. Fortune, the militant


National Afro-American League is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
This is considered the forerunner for the NAACP.
* The Penny Savings Bank opened in Alabama with William Pettiford
as its president. It was Alabamas first bank for Blacks and one
of the first three banks for Blacks in America. By 1911, deposits
had reached $421,596.51. Much of the banks success resulted from
Pettiford and the directors emphasis on homeownership.
* The Mississippi Plan uses literacy and understanding tests
to disfranchise Black Americans by designing tests to portray
Blacks as being illiterate and poorly educated in order to make
them appear intellectually inferior to Whites. Similar laws are
adopted by South Carolina, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama,
Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma. (1890-1910). This plan prevented
Blacks from voting. Mississippi also enacts the poll tax, which
most Black cannot afford to pay, to keep Blacks from voting.
* 85 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* George Dixon of the bantamweight class becomes the 1st Black
world champion boxer by defeating Nunc Wallace in the 18th round.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to 7,488,676
or 11.9% of the U.S. population.
* Africans begin to be tortured in German concentration camps in
Southwest Africa under a practice which lasted until 1945.
Colonial German doctors conducted unspeakable medical experiments
on these emaciated helpless Africans decades before such
atrocities were ever inflicted upon the Jews. Thousands of
Africans were massacred. After World War I (1914-1918), the Allies
stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military
stationed in Africa, as well as missionaries, colonial
bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took their
racist attitudes against Black people with them. From 1933 to 1945
in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories Blacks suffered
from isolation, persecution, sterilization, medical
experimentation, illegal incarceration, brutality, and murder.
During World War II (1939-1945) African-American members of the
U.S. armed forces were liberators and witnesses to Nazi
atrocities. The 761st Tank Battalion (an all Black tank unit),
attached to the 71st Infantry Division, US Third Army, under the
command of General George Patton, participated in the liberation
of Gunskirchen, a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

* The Bureau of the Census reported that 151,540 Negro washerwomen


worked as domestic servants.
1891
* The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
was founded. The N.C.A.& T. is 1 of 100 historically Black
colleges and Universities in America.
* 113 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Provident hospital in Chicago, Illinois becomes the 1st Black
hospital.
* Isaac Murphy becomes the 1st jockey to win three Kentucky Derbys
riding the horse Kingman.
* Wiley Overton becomes the 1st Black police officer in present-day
New York City before the incorporation of the five boroughs into
the City of New York.
1892
* The 1st Black to sing a Carnegie Hall is Matilda S. J. Jones.
* Frederick M. Jones is born in Cincinnati. A mechanic, Jones
invented a self-starting gas engine and a series of devices for
movie projectors. In 1935, he invented the 1st automatic
refrigeration system for long-haul trucks. Jones was awarded more
than 40 patents in the field of refrigeration.
* The 1st Black college football games were played. Biddle College
emerged victorious.
* 161 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1893
* Ida B. Wells wrote an article denouncing the lynching of 3 Black
grocery men in Memphis, Tennessee, who were her friends. The three
men were: Thomas Morse, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart. In
retaliation, a White mob vandalizes the printing office of her
paper, The Memphis Free Speech. The newspaper is forced to shut
down and Wells begins an anti-lynching campaign. Wells wrote a
book about the Jim Crow laws and helped form the N.A.A.C.P. in
1909.

* Henry Smith becomes the 1st Black documented to be burned alive


at the stake. From 1893-1901, 12 Blacks are known to have been
burned alive at the stake.
* Doctor Daniel H. Williams, of Chicago, becomes the 1st Black and
person to perform successful open-heart surgery without
anesthesia.
* William L. Bulkley becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D in
literature.
* Nancy Green was the 1st Aunt Jemima and the worlds living
trademark for the named pancake syrup.
* 118 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1894
* The Pullman Company strike causes a national transportation
crisis. Blacks were hired by the company as strikebreakers.
* 134 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1895
* Booker T. Washington delivers his Atlanta Compromise speech at
the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition. He said the Negro Problem
would be solved by a policy of gradualism and accommodation.
Washington stressed education over social equality or political
office.
* Several Baptist organizations combine to form the National
Baptist Convention. The Baptist church is the largest Black
religious denomination in the United States.
* W.E.B. Dubois becomes the 1st Black to obtain a Ph.D from Harvard
University in the field of social science.

* Frederick Douglass dies.


* 6 Blacks are killed during a race riot in New Orleans,
Louisiana.
* 113 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Buddy Bolden, a founding father of jazz, leads a band in New
Orleans, Louisiana.
* Mary Fields became the first Black woman employed as a mail
carrier in the United States, and just the second American woman
to work for the United States Postal Service. Even though she was
about 60 years old when she applied, Mary was hired because she
was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses. She never
missed a day, and her reliability earned her the nickname
"Stagecoach Mary." She was Born a slave in 1832 and died a legend
in her own time in 1914.

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.

* 78 Blacks are known to have been lynched.


* Ethiopia defeats the Italian colonial army near Adwa killing
12,000.
* George Washington Carver accepts an appointment at the Tuskegee
Institute. Carvers research in farming techniques helps to
revolutionize farming in America.
1897
* The American Negro Academy is established to encourage African
American participation in art, literature and philosophy.
* Jackie Moms Mabley is born in Brevard, North Carolina. She was
a vaudeville performer and comedian and became the 1st Black woman
to establish herself as a single act in standup comedy. She gained
national recognition in the early 1960s as a comedian. She
recorded over 20 albums, appeared on Merv Griffin TV show, and
acted in the 1974 movie Amazing Grace.
* 123 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Daniel H. Williams, a physician and surgical pioneer from
Hollidaysburg, PA performed the 1st successful heart surgery when a
patient had sustained a deep knife wound in his chest. Williams
opened the mans chest, repaired the tear, closed the chest, and
the patient recovered fully.
* Much of the glorious history of Nubians was been lost because
the British built successive dams at Aswan, burying monuments and
temples under the Nile River and displacing Nubians from their
homeland. Many Nubians relocated to Egyptian cities. During the
1960s, the construction of the new Aswan High Dam flooded a large
part of the Nubian land and forced 100,000 Nubians to seek refuge
around Aswan in Egypt and in the cities of Sudan, including
Khartoum. Today, the Nubians number around 1 million people, with
about half of them located in Egypt and the other half in the
Sudan.
* Benin City, Nigeria was destroyed by British forces under
Admiral Harry Rawson. The city was ransacked and burnt down. The
British stole bronze and brought it back to England to be
displayed in the British Museum of London. In order to reclaim
some of Africas plundered treasures, Nigeria was forced to
purchase some of the 700 stolen pieces of bronze in 1972.

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.

* Marshall W. Major Taylor aka: The Black Cyclone wins the


one-mile track cycling world championship and was a three-time
American sprint champion. Taylor was one of the fastest bicyclists
in the world. Taylor raced all over the world and often beat
European champions. He was plagued by racism and vandalism to his
bicycle and often not allowed to race Whites in the America.
Taylor was one of the 1st Black athletes to win a world
championship in any sport.

* The Afro-American Council designated June 4th as a national day


of fasting to protest lynchings and massacres.
* 85 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Pianist Scott Joplin writes the Maple Leaf Rag which helps to
popularize ragtime music and which becomes the precursor to jazz.

1900-1953: Harlem Renaissance Era


1900
* During the 1900s, an unwritten law known as the Lynch Law was
used to justify lynching Blacks without a complaint under oath,
without a jury trial, without a defense or right of appeal. The

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

to the sexual enjoyment of his slave women. Filling the harems of


wealthy Arabs, African women bore them a host of children. This
abuse of African women would continue for nearly 1,200 years.

* Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa of the Edweso tribe of the Asante in


Ghana raised and led an army of thousands against the British
colonial forces and their efforts to subjugate the Asante and
seize the Golden Stool, the Asante nations spiritual symbol of
unity and sovereignty. Yaa Asantewaa mobilized the Asante troops
and for three months laid siege to the British fort of Kumasi. The
British colonizers had to bring in several thousand troops and
artillery to break the siege.
1901
* George H. White gives up his seat in Congress. No AfricanAmerican would serve in Congress for the next 28 years.
* After an afternoon meeting at the White House with
Booker T. Washington, President Theodore Roosevelt informally
invites Washington to remain and eat dinner with him, making
Washington the 1st Black to dine at the White House with a
President. A furor arose over the social implications of
Roosevelt's casual act. Washington had just published his
autobiography Up from Slavery.
* Jazz great Louis Armstrong is born in New Orleans.
* 105 Blacks are known to have been lynched.

* Grambling College is founded in Grambling, Louisiana as a


historically Black, public, co-educational university.
* In Pierce City, Missouri, 1,000 armed Whites burned down five
Black-owned houses and killed four Blacks. Within four days, all
of the towns 129 African Americans fled, never to return. Nine
Pierce City Blacks lost a total of 30 acres of farmland and 10
city lots.
1902
* 85 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The 1st Black professional basketball player is Harry Bucky Lew
of the New England Professional Basketball League.
* Ma Rainey, Queen of the Blues began her singing career which
lasted 35 years.
* Southern states began their large-scale disenfranchisement
strategy to stop Blacks from registering to vote by enacting
literacy tests, tax requirements and property rights tests.
* Black babies are used as Alligator bait in Florida. During
slavery and into the 20th century, Black babies were used as
alligator bait in North and Central Florida. The slaves who had
babies would have their babies stolen during the course of the
day, sometimes when their mothers weren't watching as they worked
in the fields. Some would be infants, some would be a year old,
some would be toddlers. White alligator hunters would grab these
children and take them down to the swamp and leave them in pens
similar to chicken coops. The hunters would go back down at night,
take the babies and tie them up by putting a rope around their
neck and torso as the babies screamed in terror. The hunters would
then chum the water with the babies by throwing them into the
water and within a matter of minutes the alligators would be on
the rope. The alligator would clamp his jaws onto the child and
swallow them whole. In 1908, the Washington Times reported that a
keeper at the New York Zoological Garden said he had baited
"alligators with Pickaninnies," and in 1923, the Oakland Tribune
reported, "Pickaninny bait lures voracious gators. Time magazine
also reported in 1923 the practice had taken place in Chipley,
Florida. Businesses of the time made several postcards depicting
the practice of using Black babies as "gator bait".

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.

* In Lincoln County, Mississippi White farmers known as White Caps


used violence and intimidation to force African Americans off
their land. Eli Hilson was shot in the head as he drove his buggy
toward his farm. The horse trotted home, delivering Hilsons body
to his wife, Hannah. She struggled unsuccessfully without her
husband to raise their 11 children and work the 74-acre farm,
losing the property through a mortgage foreclosure in 1905.
1904
* Educator Mary McCleod Bethune founds a college in Daytona Beach,
Florida known today as Bethune-Cookman College.
* George C. Poages becomes the 1st Black to compete in and win a
medal (bronze) in the Olympics for the 400-meter hurdles held at
St. Louis, Missouri.
* 76 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The 1st Black Greek-letter fraternal organization The Boule
Sigma Pi Phi is established by two doctors and a dentist. This
group would go on to establish the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at
Cornell University.
* A 3-year genocide campaign begins in Africa known as the Herero
and Namaqua Genocide and is considered the first genocide of the
20th century in German held South-West Africa (modern day
Namibia). The Herero people, led by Samuel Maharero, rebelled
against German colonial rule. German general Lothar von Trotha
defeated the Herero in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into
the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of thirst. The Nama
people also rebelled against the Germans only to suffer a similar
fate. In total, between 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero perished along
with 10,000 Nama.

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

estimated that there were between 25 and 40 African-American


deaths.

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.

* Many Blacks are killed and wounded during a race riot in


Springfield, Illinois.
* 89 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Jack Johnson of Galveston, TX becomes the 1st Black heavyweight
world-boxing champion by knocking out Tommy Burns in the 14th round
in Australia. Racists are appalled that a Black man holds the
title.
* John B. Taylor becomes the 1st Black Olympic gold-medalist (4 x
400 meter medley) held in England.
1909
* The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
is formed to promote the use of the courts to restore the legal
rights of Blacks. The initial name was called the National Negro
Committee or Niagra Movement before being change to the N.A.A.C.P.
Involved were W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, John Dewey and
others.
* Matthew Henson becomes the 1st Black and man known to have
reached the North Pole. Henson was part of the Admiral Robert
Peary expedition.
* 69 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1910
* The 1st issue of Crisis, a publication sponsored by the
N.A.A.C.P. and edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, is published.
* The city of Baltimore, Maryland approves the 1st city ordinance
designating the boundaries of Black and White neighborhoods. This
ordinance is followed by similar ones in Texas, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Missouri. These policies were
adopted to keep Blacks in controlled areas of integrated
neighborhoods. The policy was explained as: Blacks should be
quarantined in isolated slums in order to reduce the incidence of
civil disturbance, to prevent the spread of communicable disease
into the nearby White neighborhoods, and to protect property
values among the White majority. Federal, state, and local
policies to quarantine Black populations in isolated slums would
spread across the nation to direct low-income Black families away
from middle class suburbs.

* The Bureau of the Census reported that 373,819 Negro washerwomen


worked as domestic servants.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to be
9,827,763 being 10.7% of the U.S. population.
* Madame C.J. Walker becomes the 1st Black woman millionaire along
side Annie T. Malone, who became the 2nd millionaire. Both woman
produced hair-care products.
* 67 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Jazz begins to evolve leaving its ragtime roots behind.
* Bert Williams becomes the 1st Black to perform in the Ziegfeld
Follies.
* The migration of Blacks to the Northern industrial towns begins.
Millions of Blacks begin to migrate north looking for work,
equality, escaping racism and finding a better way of life.
1911
* The National Urban League is formed to help Blacks secure
equal employment and homes in the northeast. Professor Kelly
Miller is the founder.
* Nyabingi Priestesses Muhumusa organized an armed resistance
against German colonialists in Uganda. She was eventually detained
by the British in Kampala, Uganda, from 1913 to her death in 1945.
* Bessie B. Burke becomes the 1st Black teacher of the Los Angeles
Public School System. Originally from Kansas, she traveled to Los
Angeles in a covered wagon with her parents in 1887. She graduated
7th in a class of 800 from U.C.L.A.
* Arthur A. Schomburg helps form the Negro Society for Historical
Research to document African American history and promote Black
literary and artistic expression. Schomburg was also active in the
American Negro Academy, along with prominent black intellectuals
like W.E.B. Du Bois.
* 60 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Scott Joplin finishes his folk opera Treemonisha.

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.

* 51 Blacks are known to have been lynched.


* Sam Lucas becomes the 1st Black actor to star in a full-length
film. He played the title role in Uncle Toms Cabin.
1915
* Ernest E. Just becomes the 1st Black awarded the Spingarn Medal,
presented annually by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a
Black American. Just pioneered research on fertilization and cell
division.
* Responding to near-anarchy in the Republic of Haiti, the United
States occupied the nation from 1915 to 1934. During this time,
they installed puppet governments, ran the economy, military and
police and for all intents and purposes were in absolute control
of the country. Although this rule was relatively benign, it was
unpopular with both the Haitians and the citizens of the United
States and American troops and personnel were withdrawn in 1934.
* Jazz singer Billie Holiday is born Eleanora Fagan. She was also
known as Lady Day and was one of the greatest jazz-blues singers
of all time. She sang with other greats such as Count Basie and
Artie Shaw. Her autobiography was made into a move in 1972 called
Lady sings the Blues.
* Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, dies.
* 56 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History is
formed in Chicago by Carter G. Woodson. and prominent minister
Jesse E. Moorland founded the organization dedicated to
researching and promoting the achievements of people of African
descent. This would be the beginning of the idea for Black History
Month.
* The release of the silent movie Birth of a Nation by filmmaker
D.W. Griffith does irreparable damage to the image of Blacks by
portraying them as tribal, lazy, violent criminals and monsters
that craved White women for carnal pleasure. This is one of the
most racist, hateful and propaganda-based films released in
America. It was originally entitled "The Klansman", and the
setting was cast during the post-civil war reconstruction era.

25,000 Klansmen marched through the streets to celebrate the


opening of the movie. The film was shown at the White House under
President Woodrow Wilson and was the first film ever be screened
at the White House. The film became a recruiting tool for the Ku
Klux Klan. The N.A.A.C.P. organizes a nation wide protest.

* Frederick D. Patterson was the 1st Black to manufacture cars


known for the Greenfield-Patterson automobile located in
Greenfield, Ohio. He saw an opportunity in the new horseless
carriages, and converted his company to manufacture automobiles,
making 150 of them that competed with Henry Ford's model T.
1916
* Ota Benga, an African Pygmy captured from the Congo in 1904 by
Explorer Samuel Verner, commits suicide while on display in the
monkey house at the Bronx Zoo. Growing angry and despondent over
being caged, he shot himself in the heart with a stolen gun. Benga
and other pygmies were displayed in the 1904 St. Louis Worlds
Fair as oddities of nature.

* Carter G. Woodson begins the Journal of Negro History. Woodson


named one week in February as Negro History Week to remember
famous African Americans and important dates in Black History.
* Saint E. Brady becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D. in physical
science.
* 50 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Belgium rules Burundi and Rwanda.
* The Great Migration of Blacks continues resulting from White
race riots causing over 6 million Blacks since 1910 to flee from
the Southern States and flood into the Northern and Western States
to find a better way of life and to escape racism. This migration
pattern lasted until 1940.
* The 54th annual Emancipation Convention Reunion of former slaves
at the Cosmopolitan Baptist Church in Washington, DC, is attended
by four elderly black women who were former slaves, all older
than 100 years old." Annie Parrum, Anna Angales, Elizabeth
Berkeley and Sadie Thompson.

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.

* One of the bloodiest race riots in the nation's history occurs


in East St. Louis, Illinois, known as the East St. Louis Massacre.
A Congressional committee reported that up to 700 Blacks were
killed, hundreds more were injured and at least 6,000 were driven
from their homes. The U.S. Military Intelligence Division on Negro
Subversives classified the report TOP SECRET until 1986 when it
was released from the War Department vault in Washington D.C. The
N.A.A.C.P. protests and thousands of Blacks march down Manhattan's
5th Avenue protesting lynchings, race riots and the denial of
rights.
* A riot erupts in Houston, Texas between Black soldiers and White
citizens; 2 Blacks and 11 Whites are killed. 18 Black soldiers
were lynched for their participation in the riot.
* The Supreme Court strikes down the Louisville, Kentucky
ordinance mandating segregated neighborhoods.
* Tally Holmes and Lucy Stone were the 1st Blacks to win the
American Tennis Association championship.
* A silent protest parade occurs in New York City to protest
lynchings and discrimination.
* 36 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Eugene J. Bullard becomes the 1st Black aviator and Black WWI
hero after being trained as a combat pilot. Bullard fought the
Germans out of France because America excluded Black war pilots.
1918
* The Armistice takes effect ending World War I. The Northern

Migration of Blacks began in earnest during the war. By 1930,


there were 1,035,000 more Blacks in the North than in 1910, and
1,143,000 fewer Blacks in the South.
* The French award the Croix De Guerre to the 369th Regiment and
name them the Harlem Hell Fighters. Henry Johnson and Needham
Johnson are the 1st Blacks to receive Frances highest military
award. The 369th was the first unit to reach the combat zone in
France and the first to cross the Rhine River during the German
offensive. They also fought continuously for 191 days, which is
longer than any other American unit.
* 6 Blacks are killed during race riots in Pennsylvania.
* 60 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Nelson Mandela is born near Qunu, Transkei, South Africa.
* Marcus Garvey incorporates the Universal Negro Improvement
Association movement in the U.S.
* Black nurses from the Army Nurses Corp are excluded from service
by the American Red Cross and the U.S. Surgeon Generals Office.
* Oscar Micheaux becomes the 1st Black pioneer in filmmaking after
forming the Oscar Micheaux Corp. producing over 30 full-length
Black films. His first was called The Homesteader.
1919
* 26 race riots occur between April and October, a period that
becomes known as the Red Summer. Riots occur in: South Carolina,
Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Nebraska and Washington D.C.
Tens of hundreds of Blacks were killed. Between 1824-1951 there
were over 300 events classified as White Race Riots. Blacks were
killed for recreational sport in events known as Friday Night
Boot Burnings, where Blacks were burned alive at the stake.
Another event was the Picnic; a slang term for Pick-A-Nigger
for lynching. These practices became common weekly events to break
up the monotony of rural life for Whites. During the events,
Whites would eat, dance and sing as their tortured victims
suffered and died in agony.
* Fritz Pollard becomes the 1st Black professional football player
for a team called the Indians.

* Jazz pianist and vocalist Nat King Cole is born in Montgomery,


Alabama.
* Eddie Robinson is born. He would accept the head-coaching job at
Grambling University in 1941 and become the winningest coach in
college football history with 400 wins. In 1985 he becomes the 1st
and only Black to appear on the cover of any major sports
publication in the U.S. Robinson produced 113 NFL players and 4
Hall of Famers.
* 76 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* After the end of World War I, Black sharecroppers in Arkansas
began to unionize because they wanted fair compensation for the
crops they harvested. This attempt to form unions, triggered White
vigilantism after local sheriff, Frank Kitchens, deputized a large
armed White militia that started rioting that left 237 Blacks
dead. It was not uncommon for Whites to use racial violence to
intimidate Blacks. The White militia wanted to send a message that
they were going to keep the Blacks in their "place".
* The Associated Negro Press is formed by Claude A. Barnett to
cover Black news events.
* Mamie Smith records the first Blues record, Crazy Blues, on
the Okeh label. It is hugely successful.
* Oscar Micheaux became the first African American to make a film.
He wrote, directed and produced the silent motion picture "The
Homesteader", starring the pioneering African American actress
Evelyn Preer and based on his novel of the same name. He would go
on to be the first African American to produce a film to be shown
in White movie theaters.
1920
* The Ocoee massacre occurs on the day of the presidential
election in Ocoee, Florida. African American-owned buildings and
residences in northern Ocoee were burned to the ground, and as
many as 500 African Americans may have been killed throughout the
conflict. The African Americans residing in Ocoee who were not
direct victims of the race riot were later driven out by threats
or force. Ocoee became an all-White town. A total of 330 acres of
land plus 48 city lots owned by 18 Black families were lost.
* The Harlem Renaissance begins. From 1920-1930, an
unprecedented outburst of creative activity among Blacks occurred

in all fields of art. Beginning as a series of literary


discussions in Greenwich Village and Harlem, New York. The period
became known as the "New Negro Movement" and later as the Harlem
Renaissance. Signs in the windows of a Marcus Garvey club in
Harlem are where Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement
Association holds its national convention in Harlem. Garvey's
African nationalist movement claimed over 2 million supporters.
Garvey wrote a newspaper called the Negro World having the dream
of returning Blacks to Africa. Garvey would address 25,000 Blacks
at Madison Square Garden and lead 50,000 in a parade through the
streets of Harlem.
* The Bureau of the Census reported that 283,557 Negro washerwomen
worked as domestic servants. The expansion of machinery and
advances in steam laundry service began to replace the washerwomen
until they were completely replaced.
* A popular and one of the most favorite pastime games played at
carnivals, fairs and circuses across the country lasting into the
1940s was called "Hit the Nigger Baby", African Dodger, or Hit
the Coon. The game was played where White people would throw
baseballs at the heads of Black babies and adults to win a prize.
The usual rate was three balls for 5 cents which resulted in many
Blacks being seriously injured.

* The N.A.A.C.P. holds a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, considered


the heart of the K.K.K. area to show the Klan that the N.A.A.C.P.
will not be intimidated.
* The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Black population to be
10,463,131 being 9.9% of the U.S. population.
* 53 Blacks are known to have been lynched.

* The KKK has over 100,000 members in 27 states.


* The Negro National League is created becoming baseballs 1st
Negro Baseball League.
1921
* Oscar Charleston becomes the best all-around player in the Negro
League. He led the league in home runs and batted .434 for the
year. He would go on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
in 1976.
* Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle write the musical Shuffle Along.
It becomes the 1st show to open on Broadway written and performed
by Blacks. It became one of the greatest musical comedies in
American history.
* Race riots in Tulsa, Oklahoma known as the Greenwood Race Riot
kill an estimated 300 blacks in 12 hours. The violence destroyed a
thriving Black neighborhood and business district known as the
The Black Wall Street. Over 7800 Blacks were left homeless and
17,000 fled for their lives on foot. Whites used crop duster
airplanes to drop dynamite on Black homes and businesses in a 35
square mile area. 600 successful businesses were destroyed. Among
These: 21 Churches, 21 Restaurants, 30 Grocery Stores, Two Movie
Theaters, A Hospital, A Bank, libraries, Schools, Law Offices, 6
Private Airplanes and a Bus System. Blacks who survived the
holocaust were forced to flee Tulsa and move to other states and
cities.

* 59 Blacks are known to have been lynched.


* Eva B. Dykes becomes the 1st Black woman to earn a Ph.D.

* Frederick Douglass "Fritz" Pollard becomes the 1st African


American head coach in the National Football League as co-head
coach of the Akron Pros, while still maintaining his roster
position as running back.
1922
* Aviator Bessie Coleman, who later refuses to perform before
segregated audiences in the South, stages the 1st public flight by
a Black woman.
* William L. Hansberry teaches the 1st course in African
civilization located at Howard University.
* A Senate filibuster kills a Federal anti-lynching bill.
* 51 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* British archeologist Howard Carter discovers King Tuts
(Tutankhamen) tomb. The unearthing supposedly unleashed a curse on
local diggers, inspired Hollywood horror movies (The Mummy) and
spurred on the art deco craze.
* Claude McKay publishes a collection of his early poetry, Harlem
Shadows. It will be considered one of the important early works of
the Harlem Renaissance sparking a flourish of Black literature and
art.
1923
* Charles C. Spaulding becomes president of the North Carolina
Mutual Life Insurance Company. He builds it into the nations
largest Black-owned business by the time of his death in 1952.
* Blues singer Bessie Smith, discovered by pianist-composer
Clarence Williams, makes her 1st recording Down Hearted Blues,
which becomes a phenomenal success. She will eventually become to
be known as the Empress of the Blues.
* A Black township in Florida, (Rosewood) was destroyed by a race
riot and an estimated 150 Blacks were killed while their town was
literally burned down and wiped off the face of the earth. This
incident was brought to light in the movie Rosewood. The town
consisted of three churches, a school, a large Masonic Hall,
turpentine mill, a sugarcane mill, a baseball team and a general
store. The village had about two dozen plank two-story homes and
some other small houses.

* Marcus Garveys The philosophy & opinion of Marcus Garvey is


published.
* 29 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Fletcher Henderson becomes a band leader. His prestigious band
would advance the careers of Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins and
Roy Eldridge. He would be a key element of the success of the
Benny Goodman Orchestra.
1924
* The Spelman Seminary, which began awarding college degrees in
1901, became Spelman College. The school began in 1881 with 2
Boston women teaching 11 Black women in an Atlanta church
basement.
* 16 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
1925
* In an era when Ku Klux Klan membership exceeds 4.5 million
nationally, a parade of 50,000 unmasked members takes place in
Washington, D.C.
* Malcolm X is born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm
was a Black militant leader who articulated concepts of race pride
and Black Nationalism in the early 1960s. He was eventually
assassinated for his outspoken views.
* The Pullman Porters Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is
organized by A. Philip Randolph. The BSCP was the very first
African-American labor union to sign a collective bargaining
agreement with a major U.S. corporation.
* Singer and dancer Josephine Baker performs in Paris in La Revue
Negre, becoming one of the most popular entertainers in France.
She was the 1st Black female entertainer to break thru racial
prejudice in the U.S. and Europe. The story of her life would be
released in the 1991 movie titled The Josephine Baker Story.

* At a historic literary awards banquet during the Harlem


Renaissance, Langston Hughes earns 1st place in poetry with The
Weary Blues, which is read aloud by James W. Johnson.
* Charles H. Thompson becomes the 1st Black to earn a Ph.D in
education.
* 17 Blacks are known to have been lynched.
* Countee Cullen, considered one of the finest poets of the Harlem
Renaissance, publishes his first collection of poems, Color.
* The Coon Chicken Inn was a chain of four restaurants in suburban
Salt Lake City, Utah, founded by Maxon Lester Graham and Adelaide
Burt which prospered until the late 1950s. The restaurant's name
uses the ethnic slur "Coon", trademarks and entrances of the
restaurants were designed to look like a smiling blackface
caricature of an African-American porter rooted in 19th century
minstrel theatre and early 20th century advertising. The smiling
capped porter head also appeared on menus, dishes, and promotional
items.

1926

* Pianist, composer and self-proclaimed inventor of jazz,


Jelly Roll Morton records several of his masterpieces, including
Black Bottom Stomp and Dead Man Blues.
* The 1st Black history week begins started by Carter G. Woodson.
Due to its growing popularity by 1976 an entire month would be
dedicated to Black history and achievements.
* Violette N. Anderson becomes the 1st Black woman to practice law
before the U.S. Supreme Court.
* Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong forms the Hot Five band and
becomes a jazz legend and cultural icon.

* Langston Hughes publishes The Weary Blues, his first book of


poetry. Hughes was a pivotal force in the Harlem Renaissance and
he would go on to become one of the most recognized American
writers.
1927
* James W. Johnson, poet and anthologist of Black culture,
publishes Gods Trombones, a group of Black dialect sermons in
verse accompanied by the illustrations of Aaron Douglas.
* The Harlem Globetrotters are formed and tour the U.S. drawing
crowds as large as 75,000.

* John Carter was lynched in Little Rock, Arkansas after being


accused of assaulting a White women and her daughter. An armed
posse formed quickly and searched the countryside for Carter. He
was found a day later, and the angry mob shot him and hanged him
from a telephone pole. His body was then dragged through the
streets and set on fire drawing a crowd of 5000 White people who
took souvenir photos of the event.
* Painter Henry O. Tanner, whose works include The Raising of
Lazarus, becomes the 1st Black to be granted full membership in
the National Academy of Design.
* The Cotton Club in Harlem became famous as the place to go for
wealthy Whites to see Black musicians, dancers and singers.
Musical greats such as Lionel Hampton, Cab Calloway, Duke
Ellington, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters and Bill Bojangles Robinson
performed.
* Ethel Waters makes her 1st appearance on Broadway in the all
Black revue Africana.
1928
* Poet and novelist Claude McKay publishes Home to Harlem, the
1st fictional work by a Black to reach the best-seller list.
* The original "Betty Boop" was inspired by a Black woman. Esther
Jones, known by her stage name, "Baby Esther," was a singer and
entertainer in the late 1920s. Her "baby" singing style often
included the phrase, Boop-oop-a-doop. She performed regularly at
the Cotton Club in Harlem. Helen Kane who was a White entertainer
saw Baby Esther's cabaret act in 1928 and took Jones' baby voice
style of singing and look and changed the interpolated words BooBoo-Boo & Doo-Doo-Doo to Boop-boop-a-doop for a recording of

"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

slum-like conditions with them anywhere they went which allowed


real estate agents to get them to sell their homes for cheap. The
real estate agents would then purchase the homes and then resell
the homes to African Americans at a higher price because of
restricted demand.
* Benjamin O. Davis Sr. becomes the 1st Black Colonel in the Army.
He later oversees race relations and the morale of Black soldiers
in World War II and becomes the 1st Black General in 1940.
* The 1st temple of Islam is founded in Detroit, Michigan by W.D.
Fard. The Nation of Islam is based on African American separatism.
After several years, Fard turns the NOI over to follower Elijah
Muhammad, who builds it into a major movement.
* The basis of "Rock & Roll" music was influenced and created by
Sister Rosetta Tharpe who was a singer, songwriter, guitarist and
recording artist. A pioneer of twentieth-century music, Tharpe
attained great popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel
recordings that were a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and
rhythmic / early rock accompaniment. She became gospel music's
first crossover artist and its first great recording star,
referred to later as "The Original Soul Sister". She was an early
influence on figures such as Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Elvis
Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Tharpe's 1944 hit "Down by the
Riverside" was selected for the American Library of Congress
National Recording Registry in 2004, with the citation stating
that it captured her "spirited guitar playing" and "unique vocal
style", which were an influence on early rhythm and blues
performers, as well as gospel, jazz, and rock artists. Her 1945
hit "Strange Things Happening Every Day", featured Tharpe's vocals
and ELECTRIC GUITAR, with Sammy Price on piano, bass and drums. It
was the first gospel record to cross over, hitting no. 2 on
the Billboard "race records" chart, the term then used for what
later became the R&B Chart, in April 1945. The recording has been
cited as an important precursor of "Rock and Roll". Tharpe has
been called the "Godmother of Rock and Roll".

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.

* Augusta Savage establishes the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts


in New York which was the largest art center in the nation at the
time.
1933
* H. Naylor Fitzhugh becomes the 1st Black to graduate from the
Harvard Business School.
* Howard H. Long becomes the 1st Black to earn the Doctor of
Education degree.
* Paul Robeson stars in the film The Emperor Jones which is the
1st mainstream film with a Black star.
* An organization named Commission Number 3 was created by the
Nazis to deal with the so-called problem of the Rhineland
Bastards. It was decided that the African-German children would
be sterilized under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of
Hereditarily Diseased Offspring. All together, some 400 children
of mixed parentage were arrested and sterilized. The Nazis went to
great lengths to conceal their sterilization and abortion program.
* "The Mis-Education of the Negro" is published by Dr. Carter G.
Woodson. The thesis of Dr. Woodson's book is that AfricanAmericans of his day were being culturally indoctrinated, rather
than taught, in American schools. The weakness of Euro-centric
based curriculums that fail to include African American history
and culture mis-educates the African-American student, failing to
prepare them for success and to give them an adequate sense of who
they are within the system that they must live. This conditioning,
he claims, causes African Americans to become dependent and to
seek out inferior places in the greater society of which they are
a part. History shows that it does not matter who is in power...
those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend
solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the
end than they did in the beginning. Here is a quote from the book:
"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about
his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go
yonder. He will find his 'proper place' and will stay in it. You
do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being
told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his
special benefit. His education makes it necessary.
1934

* Wallace D. Fard, founder of the Nation of Islam movement,


disappears, leading to the rise of Elijah Muhammad.
* President Franklin D. Roosevelt refuses to support an antilynching bill.
* The Apollo Theatre opens.
* Janet Bragg becomes the first African American to earn a
commercial pilot's license. She overcame many racist hurdles and
was even a qualified registered nurse.
1935
* N.A.A.C.P. lawyers Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall win the
legal battle to admit a Black student into the University of
Maryland.
* Professor Melvin B. Tolson led the Wiley College debate team to
a U.S. national championship win over Harvard University and other
perennial oratorical powerhouses. Over a 15-year period, Tolsons
team won 74 of 75 debates. The story is depicted in the movie The
Great Debaters.

* 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.

* Mary McLeod Bethune becomes the 1st Black woman appointed to a


major position in the U.S. Government by being named director of
Negro affairs.

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

Captain to safety but died during a subsequent attack. Over 1


million Blacks served during WWII.

* 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.

* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order


formally integrating the Marine Corps.
* Painter Jacob Lawrence mounts a 60-painting exhibition,
Migration of the Negro, that depicts the migration of southern
Blacks to northern cities. The paintings rank among the greatest
works in African American art.
1942
* Charles R. Drew, developer and director of blood plasma programs
during World War II, resigns after the armed forces begin to
accept the blood of Blacks but decide to racially segregate the
supply.
* The interracial Congress of Racial Equality, known as C.O.R.E.,
is founded in New York City by James Farmer, which used nonviolent tactics to promote integration. Its direct action tactics
achieve national prominence during the Freedom Rides of 1961.
* Bebop is born out of the musical experiments of jazz musicians
in Harlem, including saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter
Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonious Monk collaborating on Salt
Peanuts and Straight no Chaser.
* Future Heavyweight Champion Boxing great Muhammad Ali is born in
Louisville, Kentucky.
* The Alaska Highway, aka: the Alcan Highway was constructed with
the help of 3695 Black soldiers from the 95th Engineer Regiment
Colored. The soldiers help build 1522 miles of road from Dawson
Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska through rugged,
unmapped wilderness. The soldiers braved 20 hour work days, poor
clothing and shelter, monotonous food and below freezing weather
to complete the only land route to Alaska in eight months. The
soldiers served under General Simon B. Buckner, son of a
Confederate general whose negative attitude towards Blacks was
legendary. The fine showing by Black soldiers help the integration
of Blacks into military units during the Korean War.
* The 93rd Infantry is activated at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and
becomes the 1st Black Division formed during WWII and is assigned
combat duty in the South Pacific.
1943

* Dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson appears with singer Lena Horne


in the wartime all-Black musical film Stormy Weather.
* In Detroit, Michigan 4300 Federal Troops wound and kill 2500
Blacks after the last of the great White Race Riots. Blacks were
beaten by thousands of Whites as police chased them. Police openly
murdered and participated in mayhem towards Blacks. The situation
started as Blacks renters tried to enter their homes in a newly
built White neighborhood.
* Race riots occur in Harlem, New York incited by a rumor of
police brutality against an African-American World War II veteran.
The angry crowd dispersed throughout the city throwing stones at
windows and looting shops; chaos ensued in the streets. 16,100 men
were deployed to quell the violence; they were comprised of 6,600
civil police officers, 8,000 states guardsman and some volunteers
as well. According to a NYPD report, five African-Americans were
killed by police and close to 400 people were injured. Damages
caused by the riot were estimated to be as high as $5 million.
During the riot, police arrested approximately 500 AfricanAmerican men and women.
* Paul Robeson appears in the production Othello and breaks all
Broadway records for Shakespearean productions.
* The 1st warship named after an African American was the SS
Leonard R. Harmon. It was launched in Quincy, Massachusetts.
* Porgy and Bess opens on Broadway in Charleston, South Carolina
and is the 1st Black folk opera about the lives of Black Americans.
1944
* Frederick Douglass-Patterson establishes the United Negro
College Fund to help support Black colleges and students.
* The U.S. Supreme court rules that no American can be denied the
right to vote.
* Writer Rayford Logan edits What the Negro Wants, an anthology
of 14 essays by prominent Blacks demanding racial equality.
* Isaac Simmons, a minister, was lynched in Amite County,
Mississippi. Simmons controlled 278 acres of debt-free land, some
of which had been owned by the family since 1887. He and other
relatives farmed the property and lived on it in relative peace.
In 1941, rumors about oil spread across Southwest Mississippi, and

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.

* Lloyd A. Quarterman receives an award for his work on the Atomic


Bomb.
1946
* Saxophonist Charlie Parker produces many of the finest
recordings of his career, including Autumn in New York and
Nows the Time.
* The Monroe Massacre in Georgia occurs to 2 Black couples; Roger
Malcolm, Dorthy Malcolm, George Dorsey and Mae Dorsey. 20-25 White
men waylaid their car at Moores Ford Bridge over the Appalachia
River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties in Georgia. The mob

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.

* Harold Nicholas, a Black tap dancer, breaks the color barrier by


staring in the film The Pirate with Gene Kelly. Up until then,
Blacks were not allowed to have speaking parts or scenes with
White co-stars. Nicolas was praised by Fred Astaire for his
footwork in the 1943 movie Stormy Weather in which Mr. Astaire
said it was the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen.
Nicholas appeared in over 50 movies including The Five
Heartbeats in 1991.
* Alice Coachman of New York becomes the 1st Black woman to win an
Olympic Gold Medal by winning the high jump in the London games.
* Apartheid is instituted in South Africa, which calls for the
supremacy of Whites.
* Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige, born Leroy Paige, enters the
major leagues and would go on to become one of baseballs greatest
pitchers. It is reported that Paige won 2000 of 2500 games in his
youth.
1949
* Not satisfied with Billboard magazines label of Race Records
for its Black music chart, Jerry Wexler, a White reporter at the
magazine, coins the designation Rhythm and Blues.
* WERD becomes the first Black owned radio station in the U.S.
transmitting from Atlanta, Georgia.
* Wesley A. Brown becomes the 1st Black to graduate from the
Annapolis Naval Academy.
* Singer Juanita Hall becomes the 1st Black to receive a Tony
award, for her role as Bloody Mary in the musical South Pacific.
* Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st Black to win the leagues Most
Valuable Player award.
* Louis Satchmo Armstrong, jazz trumpeter becomes the 1st Black
to preside over the New Orleans Mardi Gras.
1950
* In Holmes County, Mississippi, Chevy dealer, Norman Weathersby,
required Black farmers to put up their land as security for small
loans for farm equipment and pickup trucks. Weathersbys
accomplice, William E. Strider, ran the local Farmers Home

Administration, the credit lifeline for many Southern farmers,


often delayed releasing the operating loans to Blacks. When the
cash-poor farmers missed payments owed to Weathersby, he took
their land in this scheme to steal land from Blacks. Weathersby
acquired more than 700 acres of Black-owned farms this way with
this practice extending into the 1960s.
* Ralph J. Bunche is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as
United Nations mediator in the Arab-Israeli dispute in Palestine
making him the 1st Black to receive the award.
* Gwendolyn Brooks is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for
Annie Allen, becoming the 1st Black writer to win the award.
* Helen Williams becomes the first Black women to become a fashion
supermodel in 1950s - 1960s to break into the mainstream, but it
was the French, rather than the Americans, that embraced her.
There were others before her, but none that crossed over into the
mainstream. Williams worked exclusively for African-American
magazines such as Ebony and Jet.
* Marvel Cooke becomes the 1st full-time Black female reporter at a
mainstream newspaper, the Daily Compass.
* After refusing to disavow his membership in the Communist Party,
Paul Robeson, a football player, singer, actor and activist, loses
his passport.
* Ozzie Williams, an aeronautical engineer from N.Y., takes an
engineering position at Greer Hydraulics, Inc. At Greer, as a
group project leader, he was responsible for the development of
the first experimental airborne radio beacon, which was used to
locate crashed airplanes. This is commonly known as the Black
Box. Grumman International hired Williams as a propulsion engineer
in 1961 because of his expertise on liquid-fuel rockets. At
Grumman, Williams managed the development of the Apollo Lunar
Module rocket engine reaction control subsystem for the part of
the Apollo spacecraft that actually landed on the moon.
* Charles Cooper on the N.Y. Knickerbockers becomes the 1st Black
signed by the NBA, followed by Nat Clifton in the same year. Earl
Lloyd becomes the 1st Black to play in an NBA game.
* Arthur Dorrington becomes the 1st Black to sign a professional
hockey contract, originally with the N.Y. Rangers. He would go on
to lead another team to a league championship in 1951.

* 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.

* William Thompson becomes the 1st Black to receive the Medal of


Honor in the Korean War and the 1st Black to receive the medal
since 1898.
1952
* Ralph Ellison publishes his masterpiece, Invisible Man, which
receives the National Book Award in 1953.
* Africans in Kenya rebel against British rule. Known as the Mau
Mau Uprising, a military conflict took place in British controlled
Kenya lasting until 1960. It is believed that over 100,000
Africans resisted the British occupation, which began with the
Kikuyu tribe. Over 10,000 Africans were killed and thousands left
with long lasting disabilities or deformities carried out by the
colonial government. Africans were castrated, beaten and sexually
assaulted at British camps which the government denied and tried
to cover up.

* 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

documentarian George Stoney's film "All My Babies", a movie


produced by the Georgia Health Department as an instructional
training film. Stoney followed Miss Mary for four months,
recording the preparation for and delivery of babies in rural
conditions in the Albany area, with help from local public health
doctors and nurses. She was known for her tireless work ethic and
her willingness to serve both Black and White mothers in the
segregated south. Her care of new families extended beyond the
delivery of the baby. She would visit for days after the birth to
help in cooking, cleaning and washing clothes, and she organized
the registration of forms and certificates to be filed with the
county health office.

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

* Chicago youth, Emmett Till, age 14 is abducted from his uncles


home and lynched in Money, Mississippi because he whistled at a
White girl. Jet magazine publishes a picture of his mutilated
corpse.

* Statistics of reported lynchings in the United States show that


between 1882-1951; at least 3,446 Blacks were lynched. This number
only represents documented lynchings. Unreported lynchings most
likely add a significant number to the total number of Blacks
Lynched in the United States when considering the 400 plus years
of oppression Blacks suffered under Whites prior to the first
documented lynching in 1882. The states with the highest number
of lynchings were Mississippi, Georgia and Texas. Lynching
continues to be associated with racial disputes. During the 1950s
and 1960s, civil rights workers and advocates were threatened and
in some cases killed by mobs.
* Claudette Colvin was dragged from a Montgomery, Alabama bus by
two White police officers, arrested and taken to an adult jail to
be booked. She was only 15 years old and was the first person to
be arrested for defying bus segregation in Montgomery. Her arrest
provided the spark for the Black community in Montgomery that
ultimately led to Rosa Parks actions, the bus boycott, and the
Supreme Court ruling to end segregation on buses.
* Rosa Parks was finger printed by the Alabama Sheriffs
Department after refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a White
passenger. Rosa Parks, secretary of the Montgomery Alabama chapter
of the NAACP, refuses to surrender her seat when ordered to by a
local bus driver, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 19551956.

* Opera diva Leontyne Price is triumphant in the title role of the


National Broadcasting Companys Tosca, making her the 1st Black
to sing opera on television.
* Singer and guitarist Chuck Berry travels from St. Louis,
Missouri to Chicago, Illinois recording Maybellene, an immediate
sensation among teen-agers. The hit helps shape the evolution of
rock and roll. Berry would go on to be inducted into the music
hall of fame in 1986.
* August H. Martin becomes the 1st Black Captain of a U.S. airline.
* Dorothy Dandridge was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal
of Carmen in the film Carmen Jones.
* Marian Anderson becomes the 1st Black to sing a principal role
with the Metropolitan Opera.
1956
* Percival Prattis, executive editor of The Pittsburgh Courier,
becomes 1st Black admitted to National Press Club.
* Twelve young African-American students in Clinton, Tennessee,
were the first Black students to desegregate a state-supported
high school in the south. Every school day morning, the Clinton
12 met at Green McAdoo school and walked together to Clinton High
School. The Clinton 12 included: Maurice Soles, Anna Caswell,
Alfred Williams, Regina Smith, William Latham, Gail Upton, Ronald
Hayden, JoAnn Crozier, Allen Boyce, Robert Thacker, Bobby Cain,
and Minnie Jones.

* Arthur Mitchell, future director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem,


becomes the 1st and only Black dancer in the New York City Ballet.
* Tennis player Althea Gibson becomes the 1st Black to win a major
title, the Wimbledon doubles as well as the French singles and
doubles, and Italian singles.
* Nat King Cole becomes the 1st Black to win his own TV show.
* Dizzy (John Birks) Gillespie, jazz trumpeter, becomes the 1st
Black to make an overseas tour sponsored by the U.S.
* The movie Ten Commandments is released telling the story of
how Moses freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt away from Ramses
around the time of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty. The all White cast
distorts the true color of Egyptians once again. Ancient Egyptian
records and Egyptian artifacts suggest that Moses was born an
Egyptian with black skin whose name translated means child saved
by water. Moses could have been an Egyptian who freed the Hebrews
from slavery in Egypt after speaking to God on Mount Sinai where
he was given the two tablets containing the 10 Commandments. The
10 Commandments were then carried in the Ark of the Covenant.
Moses was able to free the slaves after releasing the 10 plagues
onto Egypt. The 10th plague came to be known as Passover. Is it
possible that Moses was an Egyptian and the Hebrews passed on
their story making Moses a Hebrew just because he saved them?
Moses was once the prince of Egypt and back in the true time
period he would of have to have been Black in order to be a prince
and have free roam of the palace among Egyptians. Somehow over
time Moses and Queen Cleopatra VII became White according to
Hollywood.
* Martin Luther King Jr., leads the Montgomery bus boycott which
ends segregation on buses.
* The Sudan gains its independence.
* The U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation of Montgomery,
Alabama buses is unconstitutional.
1957
* The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is established by
Martin Luther King Jr., and others to help local groups working
for the full equality of Blacks.

* The Sambos restaurant chain, using the racist slur Sambo: as


in, the racist slur for a loyal and contented Black servant and
Sambo: as in, the story of Little Black Sambo, the controversial
1899 childrens book by Helen Bannerman about a dark-skinned boy
that eventually came to be seen as emblematic of Black
pickaninny stereotypes, opens by Sam Battistone and Newell
Bohnett eventually expands to 1,117 locations in 47 states with a
reputation for pushing racist iconography along with its
breakfasts. Sambos tale murals adorned the walls but those
murals did not sit well in communities that had just gone through
the epic civil rights battles of the late 1950s into the 1960s.

* President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders federal troops into Little


Rock, Arkansas after unsuccessfully trying to persuade Governor
Orval Faubus to give up efforts to block desegregation at Central
High School. Elizabeth Eckford and eight other Black students
known as the Little Rock Nine brave verbal and physical violence
to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas as the
first Blacks to attend the all White School.

* Fullback Jim Brown begins his professional football career with


the Cleveland Browns. He would lead the NFL in rushing for 8 of 9
years.
* Charlie Sifford becomes the 1st Black to win a major PGA golf
tournament by winning the Long Beach Open.

* The Civil Rights Act of 1957 is passed protecting the voting


rights of Blacks.
* Ghana gains its independence from Britain.
* Althea Gibson becomes the 1st Black tennis player to win a major
title by winning both the womens singles and doubles
championships at Wimbledon.
1958
* The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is formed. Composed
primarily of Blacks, the dance company tours extensively in the
United States and abroad.
* Mahalia Jackson, known as the Queen of Gospel Song, joins
Duke Ellington in his gospel interlude Black, Brown and Beige at
the Newport Jazz Festival titled Go Tell it on the Mountain.
* Willie O Ree becomes the 1st Black to play professional hockey
by signing with the Boston Bruins in 1958.
* Ruth C. Taylor becomes the 1st Black flight attendant for a U.S.
airline, Mohawk Airlines.
* Sidney Portier is nominated for an Oscar for his role in the
film The Defiant Ones.
* Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith, wins the
middleweight title back for the 6th and last time by defeating
Carmen Basilio.
* Guinea gains its independence from France.
1959
* Juanita K. Stout becomes the 1st Black woman to be elected to the
bench as the judge of the common pleas court in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
* Singer Ray Charles records Whatd I Say, which becomes his 1st
million record seller and exemplifies the emergence of soul music,
combining rhythm and blues with gospel.

* Trumpeter Miles Davis records Kind of Blue, often considered


his masterwork, with composer-arranger-pianist Bill Evans and
tenor saxophonist John Coltrane.
* Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, becomes the 1st
Broadway play written by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway.
The show ran for 530 performances and received the New York drama
critics circle award. The 1961 film version features Sidney
Poitier and receives a special award at Cannes.
* Motown Records is founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy
Jr. The Motown Sound dominates Black popular music through the
1960s and attracts a significant White audience as well. This was
the 1st record label owned by a Black to primarily feature Black
artists who achieved crossover success.
* William Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald become the 1st Blacks
to win a Grammy award, two awards each.
* Baseball player and power hitter Ernie Banks wins the National
League MVP award for the 2nd consecutive season. Banks became an
11-time all star and would go on to be inducted into the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1977.
1960
* The Sit-in Movement is launched in Greensboro, North Carolina
when four Black college students insist on being served at a
segregated lunch counter. Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph
McNeil and David Richmond stage a sit-down strike after being
refused service at an F.W. Woolworth luncheon counter.

* Black and White students form the Student Nonviolent


Coordinating Committee (SNCC), dedicated to working against
segregation and discrimination under Marion Barry.

* 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

* Freedom Riders test desegregation practices in the South. The


Freedom Rides, sponsored by (C.O.R.E.) Congress of Racial
Equality and (S.N.C.C.) Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee encounter arrest and overwhelming violence,
particularly in Alabama, leading to federal intervention. The
riders were students who rode interstate buses to challenge
segregation laws, Boynton vs. Virginia,(1960) 364 U.S. and to
force the Kennedy administration to act.
* Basketball great Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single
game to create an unbeatable record. The following year he became
the 1st player to score more than 4000 points in a single season.

* Whitney Young is appointed executive director of the National


Urban League. He builds a reputation for his behind-the-scenes
work to bridge the gap between White political and business
leaders and poor Blacks.
* James B. Parsons of Illinois becomes the 1st Black federal judge
in the U.S.
* Ernie Davis from Syracuse University becomes the 1st Black to win
the Heisman Trophy.
* The Baton Rouge police (LA) disperse 1500 civil rights
demonstrators with attack dogs and tear gas.
* Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain.
* The "Friendship Nine," a group of Black civil rights protestors,
mostly students from Friendship College, agreed to risk arrest by
sitting at the McCrory's five-and-dime store lunch counter in Rock
Hill, South Carolina. They are credited with reinvigorating the
1960s U.S. sit-in movement against segregated lunch counters.
David Williamson, James Wells, Willie McCleod, Willie Thomas

Massey, Clarence Graham, John Gaines, Thomas Gaither, Mack Workman


and Robert McCullough all served 30-day sentences at the county
prison farm.

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.

* The "March on Washington" occurs as a result of the groundwork


laid 22 years earlier for the 1941 March on Washington. A. Philip
Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin and other Black
community organizers lead the march on Washington, D.C. for jobs
and freedom and passage of the Civil Rights Act. King delivers
his historic I Have a Dream speech before 250,000 Blacks that
assembled from all over the nation who attended this monumental
march which set a precedent demonstrating the power of unity and
action. After the march, Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis and others met with
President John F. Kennedy to discuss equality and jobs.
* Malcolm X releases one of his best speeches, Message to the
Grassroots in Detroit. It was his answer to Martin Luther King,
Jrs I Have a Dream speech given just a few months before.
Malcolm X says that you cannot have a revolution without violence,
that what Blacks in America need to fight for is not the right to
sit next to a White man at a lunch counter but the right to a
country of their own. It is a call for Black nationalism, for
Black revolution. It is also the speech where he laid out the
difference between house Negroes and field Negroes of slavery
times, calling Martin Luther King a house Negro, one who sells
out to Whites. The house negro lived in his master's house, he
dressed like his master, he wore his master's second-hand cloths,
he ate his master's leftover food and he benefitted from an easier
life with privileges and comfort who loved his master. The house
negro was in the minority among the slaves. The field negro was
the majority status of the slaves who lived in decrepit shacks,
they wore the worst tattered clothing, they ate the worst food,
they felt the master's whip, they hated their master and they
wished for his death. Just as the slave master of that day used
Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same
old slave master today has Negroes who are nothing but modern
Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check,
keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and
nonviolent. That's Tom making you nonviolent.
* Elston Howard of the N.Y. Yankees becomes the 1st Black to win
the American League MVP award.
* The movie Cleopatra is released telling the story of Julius
Caesar, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. The all-White cast does an
injustice to the true race of ancient Egyptians. The movie does
however use Blacks to portray the servants of the White Egyptians.

* President John F. Kennedy creates the Medal of Freedom, the


highest award the country can bestow on a civilian. The first two
recipients are Blacks Ralph Bunche and Marian Anderson.
* Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin and others
speak out against President John F. Kennedys administration for
being inactive and ineffective against civil rights.

* Zanzibar gains their independence from Britain.


1964
* Boxer Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Florida.
Clay would soon announce that he had joined the Nation of Islam
and change his slave name to Muhammad Ali.
* The Zanzibar Revolution occurs which led to the overthrow of the
Sultan of Zanzibar Sayyid Jamshid and prime minister Mohamed
Shamte, and their mainly Arab government by local African
insurgents. Approximately 800 poorly armed, African fighters,
aided by some of the recently dismissed ex-policemen, attacked
Unguja's police stations and government buildings in efforts to
ouster Arab and Portuguese leaders.
* Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam, announcing the formation
of his own religious organization, The Black Nationalist Party. He
makes the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and modifies his
views on Black separatism when he returns to heighten the
political consciousness of Blacks.

* LeRoi Joness play Dutchman appears off-Broadway and wins


critical acclaim. The play exposes the suppressed anger and
hostility of Blacks toward the White culture.
* Music composer Quincy Jones becomes the vice-president and 1st
Black to hold a management position in the White owned Mercury
Records. He is the CEO of Qwest Broadcasting and through his
illustrious career he has amassed 76 Grammy nominations, 26 Grammy
awards, 1 Emmy award, 7 Oscar nominations and the Jean Hersholt
Humanitarian Award.
* President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Bill of 1964
into law, after it survived an 83 day senate filibuster, giving
Federal law enforcement agencies the power to prevent racial
discrimination in employment, voting and the use of public
facilities. Martin Luther King Jr. shakes the presidents hand.

* 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

protect members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) against


Ku Klux Klan violence. Most of the Deacons were veterans of
World War II and the Korean War. Historically, the organization
practiced self-defense methods in the face of racist oppression
that was carried out under the Jim Crow Laws by local/state
government officials and racist vigilantes.
* Martin Luther King Jr. becomes the 1st Black American to be
honored as TIME Magazines Man of the Year.
* The state of Alabama sued Lemon Williams and Lawrence Hudson in
a land grab, claiming the cousins did not rightfully own two 40acre farms their family had worked in Sweet Water and which the
family had owned since an ancestor bought the property in 1874.
The states internal memos and letters on the case are peppered
with references to the familys race as being Black. The state
wanted income and taxes from the land which the circuit judge in
the case upheld ruling against the family.
* Eight South African leaders, including Nelson Mandella are
sentenced to life in prison for standing up against the all-White
Apartheid National Party government, formed in 1948, that was
committing egregious human rights abuses, segregation and
discrimination against Black South Africans. Mandella was confined
to a small cell where the floor was his bed, a bucket for a
toilet, and he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. The
Apartheid government was initially formed under the Dutch empire
and rooted in British colonialism.

* The 24th Amendment is ratified which abolished the poll tax,


which was used as a means of preventing Blacks from voting.
* A Race riot occurs in Harlem, New York which sets off wave of
Black riots in the sixties, stemming from police brutality, across
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois. James Powell, a
15-year old, was shot and killed by police in front of his friends

and about a dozen other witnesses. The incident immediately


rallied about 300 students from a nearby school. This incident set
off six consecutive nights of rioting that affected New
York neighborhoods. In total, 4,000 New Yorkers participated in
the riots which led to attacks on the New York City Police
Department, vandalism, and looting of stores. At the end of the
conflict, reports counted one dead rioter, an estimated 500
injured, and 465 arrested. Property damage was estimated to be
between $500,000 and $1 million.

* Romare Bearden, considered perhaps the greatest modern Black


artist, completes his African-American themed collage series
Projections.
* Stokely Carmichael becomes the 1st Black to use the phrase Black
Power as a slogan. He would go on to graduate from Howard
University.
* The Freedom Summer case occurs when three Mississippi Civil
Rights workers, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael
Schwerner, working to register Black voters, are killed by members
of the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia. The racially provoked
murder is dramatized in the 1988 film Mississippi Burning. There
was evidence at the trial to suggest the murder was engineered by
a state agency and local law enforcement. Edgar Ray Killen was
charged with the murders in 1967 but acquitted of all charges.
Black voter registration will rise by 60% in Mississippi due to
the efforts of SNCC, CORE and the NAACP.
* Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane records his masterpiece A Love
Supreme.
* Malawi and Zambia gain their independence from Britain.

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 all Black Texas Western University basketball team coached


by Don Haskins won the N.C.A.A. crown by defeating the all White
University of Kentucky team coached by Adolph Rupp. Previously an
all Black team had never played an all White team in an N.C.A.A.
title game.
* Bill Cosby becomes the 1st Black man to star in a network TV
series, I Spy.
* Jennifer Jackson becomes the 1st Black Playboy Playmate
centerfold, March issue.
* Malcolm X, the former Nation of Islam leader, is assassinated at
the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York City by three assassins
identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address the
Organization of Afro-American Unity. Many Americans viewed his
killing as simply the result of an ongoing feud between him and
the Nation of Islam. As the months wore on, the animus between
Malcolm's camp and the Nation of Islam grew increasingly caustic,

with bitter denunciations coming from both sides. Malcolm X and


his associates were under frequent FBI surveillance at the time.
Malcolm X was an uncompromising advocate for the urban poor and
working-class Black America who advocated violence to achieve
equality and justice as opposed to the peaceful process that
Martin Luther King, Jr, advocated. Time magazine labeled Malcolm X
unsympathetically as "a pimp, a cocaine addict, thief and an
unashamed demagogue. Questions arose wondering if federal
government intelligence agencies played a role in his death. Under
the orders of director J. Edgar Hoover's watch, the FBI kept close
tabs on Malcolm's every move through the use of informants and
agents. The CIA grew concerned about Malcolms influence amongst
Black leaders and wanted him out of the way because he was
stirring up Black pride and the outspokenness of Blacks declaring
that the U.S. was violating American Blacks human rights.

* 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.

* The Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland, California by


Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to protect Black residents from
police brutality. Although is develops a reputation for militant
rhetoric and clashes with police, the group also becomes a
national organization that supports food, education and healthcare
programs in poor Black communities. There were many ways Black
People Seriously Fought Back During the Civil Rights Era: Armed
Resistance, Deacons for Defense, Neighborhood Watch, Bus Boycotts
and Beat Downs, Rosa Parks Stood Up, The Savannah Movement,
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Marches Against Fear all
designed to stand for equality and show solidarity.

* 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.

The Principles of Kwanzaa:


1. Umoja (unity) to strive for and maintain unity in the family,
community, nation and race.
2. Kujichagulia (self-determination) to define ourselves, name
ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
3. Ujima (collective work and responsibility) to build and
maintain our community together and make our sister's and
brother's problems our problems and to solve them together.
4. Ujamaa (cooperative economics) to build and maintain our own
stores, shops, and other businesses together.
5. Nia (purpose) to make our collective vocation the building of
our community to restore our people to their traditional
greatness.
6. Kuumba (creativity) to do as much as we can to leave our
community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
7. Imani (faith) to believe with our hearts in our people, our
parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and
victory of our struggle.

The Symbols of Kwanzaa:


1. Unity Cup drink from the cup to honor African ancestors.
2. Candleholder symbolizes stalks of corn that branch off like a
family tree.

3. Fruits, nuts & vegetables the harvest that nourishes the


people of Africa.
4. 7 Candles represents the 7 principles of Kwanzaa and for each
day of the week.
5. Mat the foundation upon which a community is built.
6. Ear of Corn placed on the mat for each child present.
7. Gifts educational and cultural gifts are given to the
children on January 1st.
1967
* President Lyndon Johnson appoints the National Advisory
Commission on Civil Disorder to examine the root causes of
racially based disorder and violence in American cities. The study
finds that one underlying factor was that access to and the
quality of health care, education, employment and social services
for Blacks was significantly less than that of White Americans.
* Riots erupt in New Jersey and Detroit both sparked by White
police officers arresting Blacks resulting in a combined 83
arrests, 69 dead, at least $20 million in property damage and
approximately 1500 buildings destroyed. In both cases federal
troops and the National Guard were called in to stop the violence.
* After being denied his seat in the Georgia State Legislature for
opposing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, Civil Rights
activist Julian Bond is finally sworn in.
* Singer Aretha Franklin releases a series of hits including I
Never Loved a Man, Baby, I Love You, and Respect, the last of
which becomes something of an anthem for the Civil Rights
movement.
* Thurgood Marshall becomes the 1st Black appointed as a Justice to
the U.S. Supreme Court.

* Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali refuses to submit to induction


into the Armed Forces. Convicted of violating the Selective
Service Act, Ali is barred from the ring, stripped of his title
and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
* Bernard Kinsey becomes the 1st Black sales representative of
Humble Oil (then a part of Exxon) and became the top salesman in
the country in just 18 months.
* Blues and rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix makes his spectacular
debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival, following the
successful release of his first album, Are You Experienced?
* Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, is
convicted of manslaughter in the death of an Oakland Policeman,
leading to the rapid expansion of the party nationwide.
* Major Robert H. Lawrence of the U.S. Air Force becomes the 1st
Black astronaut but died later that year in a jet crash.
* Charlie Pride becomes the 1st Black singer with the Grand Ole
Opry while singing county songs.
* Edward W. Brooke becomes the 1st Black U.S. Senator since
Reconstruction. He serves two terms as a Republican from
Massachusetts.
* Charlie Sifford becomes the 1st Black to win a PGA tour event by
winning the Greater Hartford Open Invitational.
* Wharlest Jackson, Sr., an NAACP treasurer in Mississippi, is
killed when a car bomb explodes in his truck as he drives home
from work.
1968

* Federal policies, by the Federal Housing Administration, known


as "Redlining" prevented Blacks from getting real mortgages,
forcing them to buy from real-estate speculators on contract.
The contracts, homeowners soon discovered, turned out to be a scam
designed to take the home away from Blacks. The contracts were
designed so that the house was priced 2 to 3 times its actual
value with elevated interest rates. If the home buyer was late on
one payment the house could be taken away from the buyer without
due process. Redlining was a form of institutionalized racism
designed to cheat Blacks out of money and prevent them from
becoming property owners. This practice dated back to 1934 where
race and ethnicity were used to determine mortgage eligibility.
Over a period of 34 years Blacks were unfairly denied home
ownership through discriminatory practices. Changes in this
practice came when the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed to
fight the practice. According to the Department of Housing and
Urban Development "The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to
discriminate in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale of a
dwelling because of race or national origin.
* Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther Partys minister of
information, publishes his autobiography, Soul on Ice.
* Martin Luther King Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
The killing is followed by a week of rioting in at least 125
cities across the nation including Washington, D.C. Following the
assassination, 12 people are reported dead and over $27 million in
property damage occurs. James Earl Ray confesses to the crime, but
there remains doubt that he acted alone. Ralph Abernathy succeeds
King as president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, carrying out the groups Poor Peoples Campaign.
* Naomi Sims becomes the 1st Black model to make the cover of the
Ladies Home Journal. She would go on to make the cover of Life
magazine the following year and become a symbol for Blacks in
mainstream media.
* After winning gold and bronze medals at the Olympics in Mexico
City, sprinter Tommie Smith and teammate John Carlos give a BlackPower salute during the awards ceremony, leading to their
suspension by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The salute was to
protest the suffering and mistreatment of Blacks in America dating
back to slavery times.

* The Kerner Commission Report concludes that the United States is


moving toward two societies - one Black, one White, separate and
unequal.
* Arthur Ashe wins the singles title at the U.S. Open tennis
tournament becoming the 1st Black male to win a major tennis title.
* Shirley Chisholm of New York becomes the 1st Black woman to be
elected to Congress, defeating Civil Rights leader James Farmer.
* James Browns Say it Loud - Im Black and Im Proud becomes
the #1 Rhythm and Blues hit in America.
* Marlon Brisco, of the Denver Broncos, becomes the 1st Black
starting quarterback of the NFL. Brisco threw 14 touchdowns in his
rookie year.
* James Earl Jones wins a Tony award for his portrayal of boxer
Jack Johnson in the play The Great White Hope and later stars in
the film version in 1970.
* Swaziland gains their independence from Britain.
* According to the archives of the Tuskegee Institute, from 1882
to 1968 an 86 year span the Ku Klux Klan lynched 3,446 Blacks.
1969-1999: The Modern Era
1969
* Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale is ordered to be
bound and gagged by the judge in the Chicago conspiracy trial
after Seale protests that he is being denied his constitutional
right to counsel.

* The Ford Foundation gives $1 million to Morgan State University,


Howard University and Yale University to help prepare faculty
members to teach courses in African-American studies.
* The U.S. Supreme court rules that schools must end racial
segregation.
* Moneta Sleet becomes the 1st Black to win a Pulitzer Prize for
his photo of Mrs. Martin Luther King at her husbands funeral.
* John B. McLendon becomes the 1st Black coach in the ABA when he
signed with the Denver Nuggets.
* Della Reese becomes the 1st Black woman to host a TV show, which
was called the Della Reese Show.
* Gail Fisher becomes the 1st Black actress to win an Emmy award.
* Black Enterprise magazine begins publication, aimed at the
growing Black middle class.
* Arthur Mitchell starts the Dance Theater of Harlem for classical
dance training of ballet which becomes the 1st Black classical
dance company.
* The Falcon of Marvel Comics Captain America #117, September
issue becomes the 1st Black Superhero.
* Lillian Lincoln Lambert becomes the 1st Black woman to graduate
from the Harvard Business School earning an MBA.
1970
* Baseball player Curt Flood, with the backing of the Major League
Baseball Players Association, unsuccessfully challenges the
reserve clause but initiates its eventual demise.
* The Earle race riot occurred in a small county in Arkansas. The
violence erupted when a group of Whites armed with clubs, guns,
and other weapons attacked a group of unarmed African Americans
marching to Earle County city hall to protest segregated
conditions in the towns school system. Five Black residents were
injured, including two women who were shot. Over 30 protesters
from the ages of 13 to 20 were arrested. Police charged the Black
protesters with marching without a permit.

* Hip-Hop "Grandfather" Afrika Bambaataa starts to deejay.


Bambaataa is known as the Godfather of Hip-Hop Culture, father
of the electro-funk sound, founder of the Universal Zulu Nation
and master of records.
* The 1st Black floor trader on the New York Stock Exchange was
Joseph L. Searles with the firm of Neburger, Loeb & Co.
* In the 1970s Idi Amin horrified the world by murdering 300,000
Ugandans, expelling tens of thousands of others and turning the
countrys thriving economy into his personal bank account. He
publicly executed his critics and opposition in front of a
horrified crowd. He fled the country in 1979 to live in Saudi
Arabia. The ongoing war in Nigeria claims 1 million lives.
* Maya Angelou publishes, I know why the caged bird sings and
becomes the 1st Black to woman to have a screenplay published.
* Chris Dickerson becomes the 1st Black winner of the Mr. America
bodybuilding competition. Dickerson would go on to win a total of
15 titles in his career.
* Comedian Flip Wilson becomes the 1st Black to have a prime time
TV show in his own name. "The Flip Wilson Show" was one of the
first television programs starring a Black person in the title
role to become highly successful with a White audience.
Specifically, it was the first successful network variety series
starring an African American. The show earned Wilson a Golden
Globe and two Emmy Awards.
* Toni Morrisons first novel, The Bluest Eye, is published.
* Carl Brashear becomes the 1st Black U.S. Navy Master Diver who
was portrayed in the year 2000 film Men of Honor.
1971
* Angela Davis is arraigned on charges of murder, kidnapping, and
conspiracy for her alleged participation in a violent attempted
escape from the Hall of Justice in Marin County, California in
1970.
* The inventor of the Cellular phone is Henry Sampson. He was
awarded a patent for the "gamma-electric cell." This technology
was used to develop the cellular phone. He was awarded a Master of
Science in Nuclear Engineering from the University of California

and his Ph.D from Illinois. Sampson is the first African-American


to receive a Ph.D in Nuclear Engineering.
* TV animated series "The Jackson 5ive" aired for 13 months as a
fictionalized portrayal of the careers of Motown recording group
The Jackson 5 starring Michael Jackson.
* Samuel L. Gravely Jr., becomes the 1st Black Admiral in the U.S.
Navy.
* Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH (People United to Serve
Humanity), an influential movement emphasizing Black economic
advancement and education.
* Satchel Paige becomes the 1st Negro-League player elected to the
baseball Hall of Fame.
* Filmmaker Gordon Parks began making Black films known as
Blaxploitation films. One of the first recognized films is
"Shaft" played by Richard Roundtree, which is followed by a wave
of more than 200 similarly themed films over the next 10 years.
These films targeted urban Black audiences that took place in the
ghetto dealing with cold-hearted Black heroes, gangsters, pimps,
drug-dealers and hit-men. These films however re-enforced White
stereotypes of Blacks as illiterate criminals, but were popular
among Black audiences who could relate to the struggles of Blacks
portrayed in the films because Black heroes were needed at this
period in time because the media was busy portraying Blacks as
revolutionaries and militants. The films included the soundtracks
of funk and soul music with primarily Black casts which appealed
to the target Black audience. The genre played an important role in
bringing issues of race and justice to the Hollywood big screen. Some
White viewers viewed the films as some sort of token of Black
empowerment. African-American critics decried the movies as promoting
common White stereotypes about Blacks. Some of the movie titles
included Shaft, Coffy, Superfly, Black Caesar, Across 110th Street,
Black Belt Jones, Cleopatra Jones, Dolomite, Mandingo, Trouble Man, Foxy
Brown, Sugar Hill, Cooley High, Three the Hard Way, Cool Breeze, Uptown
Saturday Night and many more.
* Bill Picket becomes the 1st Black inducted into the Rodeo Hall of
Fame.
* Fifteen Black members of Congress form the Congressional Black
Caucus to present a unified Black voice in Congress.

* Assata Olugbala Shakur, an African American activist who was a


member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army to
fight racial, social, and economic oppression, became the target
of U.S. governments counter-revolutionary COINTELPRO program.
This program used a wide range of tactics, including framing,
false imprisonments and assassinations of leaders, to disrupt the
radical Black movement. Between 1973 and 1977 in New York and New
Jersey, Shakur was indicted ten times with several cases being
dismissed. Shakur was eventually convicted in the murder of New
Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster by an all-White jury and
sentenced to life in prison with questionable or fabricated
evidence. Shakur escaped prison and fled to Cuba.
1972
* The 1st National Black Political Convention was created in Gary,
Indiana. Nearly 8000 Blacks attended the convention including 3000
official delegates in what came to be known as the Gary
Convention.
* The 1st Black named to the NYSE Board of Directors was
Jerome H. Holland.
* Frank Wills discovers the Watergate Break-in that led to the
impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
* Benjamin Hooks becomes the 1st Black named to the Federal
Communications Commission.
* The Equal Employment Opportunity Act is passed, prohibiting job
discrimination on the basis of race laying the groundwork for
affirmative action.
* Barbara Jordan becomes the 1st Black woman from a Southern state
to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She served
three terms in Congress.
* TV sitcom "Sanford and Son" ran on the NBC network from 19721977. Known for its edgy racial humor, running gags and catch
phrases was adapted by Norman Lear and considered NBC's answer to
CBS's All in the Family. Jon Elroy Sanford, known professionally
as Redd Foxx, played the part of Sanford along with his son Lamont
played by Demond Wilson. Sanford and Son has been hailed as the
precursor to many other Black sitcoms. It was a ratings hit
throughout its six-season run. In 2007, Time magazine included the
show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time".

* TV animated series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" premiered in


1972 and ran until 1985. The show, based on Cosby's remembrances of
his childhood gang, centered on Fat Albert (known for his
catchphrase "Hey hey hey!"), and his friends. The show featured an
educational lesson in each episode and the adventures of Blacks
kids growing up in the inner-city of Philadelphia.

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.

* TV sitcom "What's Happening" aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to


April 28, 1979. The show premiered as a summer series was loosely
based on the motion picture Cooley High, follows the lives of
three working-class Black teens living in the Watts section of Los
Angeles took place at Rob's Place, the neighborhood restaurant
where the boys are regular patrons.
* Gerald A. Lawson, a self-taught engineer who became a pioneer in
electronic video entertainment created the first home video game
system with interchangeable game cartridges. Under his direction
the company introduced the Fairchild Channel F, a home console
that allowed users to play different games contained on removable
cartridges. Until then, home video game systems could play only
games that were built into the machines themselves.
1977
* Pulitzer-prize winning author Alex Haleys Roots: The Saga of
an American Black Family is portrayed in the acclaimed twelve
hour mini-series and adapted for television and airs on ABC,
becoming one of the most popular shows in the history of American
television portraying the history of African Americans and
slavery. The docu-drama covers a period of history that begins in
mid-1700s of Gambia, West Africa and concludes during post-Civil
War United States, over 100 years later. The miniseries won 9 Emmy
awards, a Golden Globe award, and a Peabody award.

* Janelle Commissiong of Trinidad & Tobago wins the Miss Universe


pageant to become the 1st Black women to win the title.

* Benjamin L. Hooks becomes the executive director of the NAACP,


succeeding Roy Wilkins. Stressing the need for affirmative action
and increased minority voter registration, Hooks serves until
1993.
* Andrew Young becomes the 1st Black to serve as the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations.
* Clifford Alexander Jr., becomes the 1st Black to be appointed
Secretary of the Army.
* Joseph L. Howze becomes the 1st Black Bishop of a Roman Catholic
Diocese.
1978
* The Supreme Court outlaws inflexible Black quota systems in
affirmative action programs, ruling that medical student
Allan Bakke had been unfairly discriminated against by the
University of California at Davis because he was a White
applicant.
* The Jonestown Massacre occurs in Georgetown, Guyana. 913 people,
mostly Blacks, die after drinking cyanide laced cool-aide given to
them by American Jim Jones. Some of the victims were forcibly
poisoned while others were shot by security guards. Jones
established the Peoples Temple Sect in 1974 among San Franciscos
Black community.
* Hazel Johnson becomes the 1st Black woman appointed to the rank
of General in the U.S. Military.
* President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Unit Citation for
Extraordinary Heroism to the 761st (Black) Tank Battalion who
fought under General Pattons 3rd Army during 1944-1947. The all
Black unit was initially trained only as a propaganda stunt to get

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.

* Singer Michael Jacksons solo singing career begins with the


release of the album Off the Wall followed by four more albums
to reach into the 1990s. Michael would go on to win 13 Grammy
awards and have 13 number one singles. Michael would go on to be
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice and be listed
in the Guinness Book of World Records due to musical achievements
and being crowned the King of Pop.
* Sylvia Robinson, a R & B singer in the 50s was the first
producer of Hip-Hop with the release of Sugarhill Gangs (Wonder
Mike, Master Gee, Big Bank Hank) multi-platinum-seller 1979 song
Rappers Delight which sold 14 million copies and was the first
recorded Hip-Hop song that introduced rap to the world. Rappers
Delight won, Best Rap Album, Best Rap Single, Best Rap Record,
Best Rap Single with Group and Best Rap Single with Collaboration.
The song reached number 36 on the U.S. top 100 billboard chart and
number 4 on the hot R & B chart. Their true names are Guy O'Brien,
Michael Wright and Henry Jackson.

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.

* A Miami Riot erupts after 5 White police officers were acquitted


of beating Arthur McDuffie to death following a high-speed chase
in 1979. The 5 Officers said McDuffie died from injuries from
crashing his motorcycle. The coroners report disputed their
testimony. A 6th officer testified that the other 5 officers were
lying and in fact they had beat McDuffie to death with their
flashlights. 855 people were arrested and 10 Blacks were killed.
* Robert L. Johnson forms Black Entertainment Television (BET).
* Arthur Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics and was
the 1st Black to receive the award other than for peace.
1981
* Civil rights leader Andrew Young is elected Mayor of Atlanta, an
office he holds through 1989.
* Jennie P. Yeboah becomes the 1st Black woman to earn a PhD in
chemical engineering.
* Authorities arrest multiple people, including Klan leaders,
intending to bomb the NAACP Baltimore headquarters.
1982
* Playwright Charles Fuller wins the Pulitzer Prize for his drama
A Soldiers Play, which examines conflict among Black soldiers
on a Southern Army base during World War II.
* PBS television releases a film about Denmark Vesey, a literate
skilled carpenter and former slave who planned a slave
rebellion in 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina.
* Michael Jacksons album Thriller becomes the most popular
album of all time, selling more than 40 million copies and
surpassing the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined. Thriller would
go on to produce 5 top singles.
* Louis Gossett Jr., wins the academy award for best supporting
actor in the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.
* Henry (Hank) Aaron is inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame
with 755 home runs, 25 all-star awards, 1 MVP award, 3 gold glove
awards and played in 24 all-star games.

* Bryant Gumble becomes the 1st Black to anchor a national TV news


program - The Today Show.
1983
* Writer Alice Walker receives the Pulitzer Prize for The Color
Purple which is made into a movie in 1985 starring Oprah Winfrey,
Whoopie Goldberg & Danny Glover.
* Vanessa Williams, Miss New York, becomes the 1st Black woman to
be crowned Miss America.

* Harold Washington wins the Democratic nomination and is elected


the 1st Black mayor of Chicago.
* Civil Rights leader, Jesse Jackson announces his intention to
run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, becoming the 1st
Black to make a serious bid for the presidency.
* Guion S. Bluford, Jr. becomes the 1st Black in space aboard the
space shuttle Challenger.
* President Ronald Reagan signed legislation making the 3rd Monday
in January a national holiday called Martin Luther King Day. The
holiday took affect in 1986.

* ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell was fired from Monday Night


Football after making racist comments about Black football players
during a broadcast. He said something to the effect that a Black
running back was moving as fast and smooth as a monkey.
1984
* TV sitcom "The Cosby Show", which aired for eight seasons on NBC
from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992 starring comedian
Bill Cosby, becomes one of the most popular situation comedies in
television history and is praised for its broad cross-cultural
appeal and avoidance of negative racial stereotypes by showing an
upper-middle-class, professional, well-educated family living in
Brooklyn, New York. Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby
Show helped to make possible for a larger variety of shows with a
predominantly Black cast.
* Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign
against apartheid.
* Oprah Winfrey accepts a job to host A.M. Chicago, a morning show
in the Windy City.
* Wynton Marsalis becomes the 1st Black to win Grammy awards for
both classical and jazz compositions.
* Jesse Jackson becomes the 1st Black man to make a serious bid for
the U.S. presidency, but does not win his party nomination.
* PBS television releases the autobiography "Twelve Years A
Slave" by Solomon Northup who was a free Black man living in the
north who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in the
south.
1985
* Lynette Woodard becomes the 1st ever woman to play for the Harlem
Globetrotters.
* Donnie Cochran becomes the 1st Black member of the U.S. Navy Blue
Angels precision flying team.
* President Bill Clinton appointed physicist Shirley A. Jackson,
who is known for her innovative work in theoretical physics and
semiconductor theory, as chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, making her the 1st woman and the 1st African American

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.

* Frederick D. Gregory becomes the 1st Black to command a space


shuttle.
* Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul becomes the 1st Black woman
inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
* Whitney Houston becomes the 1st artist in history to score 7
consecutive number one hits.
* Thurgood Marshall declares that Ronald Reagan has the worst
civil rights record of any modern day president.
* Reginald Lewis becomes the 1st Black to own a business with sales
over $1 billion, by taking over the Beatrice International Food
Company.

* Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University receives the NCAA


Division 1-AA coach of the year award. Robinson becomes college
footballs all-time winningest coach with a record of 408-164-15.
He would go on to retire in 1997.

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.

* TV sitcom "Family Matters" aired from September 22, 1989 to July


17, 1998 and revolves around the Winslow family, a middle-class
Black family living in Chicago, Illinois and their pesky next-door
neighbor, ultra-nerd Steve Urkel and his clumsy and annoying
behavior.
* Denzel Washington wins the academy award for best supporting
actor in the movie Glory.
* Hall of Fame player Art Shell becomes the 1st Black head coach in
the NFL of the modern era as the coach of the Oakland Raiders. He
also played for the Raiders as from 1968-1982 and won 2 Super Bowl
rings with the Raiders.
* Ron Brown becomes the 1st Black to head a major national
political party, as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
President Bill Clinton later named him Secretary of Commerce.
* David Dinkins becomes the 1st Black mayor of New York City.
* Douglas Wilder becomes the 1st Black state Governor of Virginia
since reconstruction.
* Sculptor Martin Puryear is the sole artist from the United
States chosen for the Sao Paulo Bienal in Brazil and is awarded
the exhibitions grand prize winner.
* Shots are fired at the NAACP's Baltimore headquarters.
* The NAACP Atlanta office receives a tear gas bomb in the mail,
injuring multiple people.
* Robert E. Robinson, a Savannah, Georgia, NAACP attorney is
killed by a mail bomb.
* A mail bomb was sent to the Jacksonville, Florida NAACP branch.
The bomb did not go off and was defused.
1990
* Whoopi Goldberg wins the academy award for best supporting
actress in the movie Ghost.
* TV sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" aired on NBC from
September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will
Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart
teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his

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.

* Rosa Parks publishes My Story. The story of her incident on


the bus that started a civil rights explosion.
* The Rosetta Stone school was formed to teach people a natural
way to learn languages based on the Berlitz method of 1878 which
was adopted from the ancient Egyptian Rosetta stone. The Rosetta
stone was carved in 192 BC used for script for important or
religious documents for the rulers of Egypt. The stone was found
in 1799 in a village in the Delta called Rosetta and translated in
1822 by Jean Francis Champollion.
* Derek Walcott becomes the 1st Black to win the Nobel Peace prize
in literature for his work in poetry A Far Cry from Africa.
* John Singleton becomes the 1st Black and the youngest director
ever, to be nominated for a best new director Oscar, for his film
Boyz N the Hood.
* W. Lincoln Hawkins, Ph.D., win the National Medal of Technology.
Hawkins secured over 140 patents and helped make universal
telephone services available through his work as the 1st Black
scientist at Bell Labs.
1993
* Poet Maya Angelou, author of the autobiographical work I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings, composes and delivers a poem for the
inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
* The Tacoma, Washington, NAACP branch meeting hall is bombed.
* The Sacramento, California, NAACP branch is firebombed.
* Kenya Moore of Michigan wins the Miss USA pageant.

* Cornel West, a progressive post-modern philosopher, finds a


mainstream audience with the publication of Race Matters, which
examines the Black community around the time of the 1992 Los
Angeles riots.
* Walt Disney Company had plans to recreate slavery with a park
located near Manassas Civil War battlefields on a 3000 acre site
in Prince William County in northern Virginia. The companys plans
were to allow guests to celebrate the diversity of the nation, the
plurality and conflicts that defined the American character. The
plans also included a Civil War Fort, a Native American Indian
Village, and a Civil War Era Village. Walt Disney wanted people to
know what it felt like to be a slave and what it was like to
escape through the Underground Railroad. Disney decided to abandon
its plans for the park after facing opposition from critics within
the Black community.
* President Bill Clinton appoints 5 Blacks to key cabinet
positions. Hazel OLeary (Energy), Michael Espy (Agriculture),
Ronald Brown (Commerce), Jesse Brown (Veterans Affairs), and
Jocelyn Elders (Surgeon General). Elders becomes the 1st Black
appointed to the position of U.S. Surgeon General. Elders holds
the rank of three-star Admiral and a masters degree in medicine.

* Poet Rita Dove, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Thomas and


Beulah, is chosen as the 1st Black poet laureate of the United
States.
* The Trumpet Awards originally presented by Turner Broadcasting,
moved onto be presented by the Trumpet Awards Foundation, Inc.,
the Trumpet Awards were created to herald the accomplishments of
Black Americans who have succeeded against immense odds. Special
recognition is given to the few, who symbolize the many, who have
overcome the ills of racism and poverty and achieved special
greatness. The annual Trumpet Awards acknowledges the
accomplishments of men and women who have significantly

contributed to enhancing the quality of life for all individuals


and/or groups who augment the richness of this great global
society by partnering with the cause of justice and equality of
all. Their mission is to inspire, educate, stimulate, and
enlighten human minds to the reality that success, achievement and
respect are void of color and gender.
* Writer Toni Morrison becomes the 1st Black winner of the Nobel
Prize for literature for her fiction work called Beloved.
* Nelson Mandela accepts the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all
the South Africans who have suffered and sacrificed in the name of
freedom.
* Restaurant chain Dennys settles several suits for $45.7 million
after denying Black customers service just because of their race.
* Sitcom "Living Single" airs on Fox, centers on the lives of six
friends who share personal and professional experiences while
living in a Brooklyn brownstone.
1994
* Tribal war erupts in Kibye, Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi
tribes killing 7000 people in an act of genocide. Over the next
100 days an estimated 1,000,000 Africans were killed thru tribal
fighting and ethnic cleansing between the two tribes. It was the
culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions
between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for
centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in
the rebellion of 19591962 and had overthrown the Tutsi monarchy.
Belgian colonialism played a major role in establishing the divide
between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples.
* O.J. Simpson, retired Heisman winning professional football
player, actor and media personality, becomes the main suspect for
the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend
Ronald Goldman in what evolves into being called the "trial of the
century" and main storyline of the media and platform for TV
cameras in the courtroom.
* Kimberly Clarice Aiken is crowned Miss South Carolina and Miss
America.
* The Florida legislature agrees to compensate survivors of a 1923
incident in which a White mob destroyed the Black town of
Rosewood, which was located on the Gulf Coast.

* Nelson Mandela takes office as South Africas 1st Black


president.
* The movie Stargate is released. An Egyptologist discovers a
space portal that leads to another planet that contains pyramids
and the origins of the Egyptian civilization. The ruler of the
planet and the Egyptian civilization is an alien who enslaves
humans and is able to assume human appearance. A TV series is made
from the movie. The movie denies the possibility that the Egyptian
civilization emerged from the Black race in Africa by suggesting
that aliens are the true founders of the Egyptian civilization.
* 21 years after the fact, White Supremacist, Byron DeLa Beckwith
is found guilty of the murder of Medger Evers.
* Dominique Margaux Dawes becomes the U.S. all-around senior
National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championships
silver medalist and a member of the gold-medal winning
"Magnificent Seven" at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Dawes is also
notable as being the first Black woman to win an individual
Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics, and the first Black person
to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. She competed in three
Olympics and was part of three Olympic medal-winning teams:
Barcelona 1992 (bronze), Atlanta 1996 (gold), and Sydney 2000
(bronze).
* Top adviser to President Richard Nixon admitted that the "War on
Drugs" was a policy tool to go after Vietnam anti-war protesters
and dismantle the Black community. John Ehrlichman, who served as
President Richard Nixons domestic policy chief, laid bare the
sinister use of his boss' controversial policy in a interview with
journalist Dan Baum of Harper's magazine. Ehrlichman said The
Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had
two enemies: the anti-war left and Black people. We knew we
couldnt make it illegal to be either against the war or Black,
but by getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and
Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could
disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid
their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after
night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the
drugs? Of course we did. In 1971, Nixon labeled drug abuse
Public Enemy No. 1 and signed the comprehensive Drug Abuse
Prevention and Control Act, putting into place several new laws
that cracked down on drug users. He also created the Drug
Enforcement Administration. By 1973, about 300,000 people were
being arrested every year under the law with the majority of whom

were African-American. The interview with Ehrlichman was part of


Baums research for his book, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs
and the Politics of Failure, in which Baum laid bare decades of
unsuccessful drug policy. The damage done by the war on drugs
cruel policies doomed generations of Black people's lives and
families that were ruined and absolutely devastated only because
they were caught in a racial net from the highest end reaches of
the government.
1995
* Bernard Harris Jr., became the first African American to walk
in space. After logging 198 hours and 29 minutes in space and
completing 129 orbits, he traveled more than 4 million miles total
throughout his career as an astronaut.

* Kweise Mfume is elected as the President and CEO of the


N.A.A.C.P.
* Between 1995 and 2001, the Cincinnati Police Department killed
15 Black males between the ages of 12-42 years old in what they
call justifiable shootings.
* Chelsi Smith, Miss USA from Texas, wins the Miss Universe
pageant.
* Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, rises
to the height of his influence as the most prominent organizer of
the Million Man March of Black men in Washington, D.C. for the
purpose of telling Black men to improve their families and
community.
* In one of the most celebrated criminal trials in American
history. The, Heisman winning, retired running back Orenthal J.
Simpson is acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole BrownSimpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. The family of Nicole sued
Simpson civilly for the murder of their daughter. Time magazine

portrayed Simpson on the cover of their magazine as a sinister


Black murderer of White women by making the color of his skin much
darker than it actually was and casting a dark shadow on him by
manipulating the lighting. Newsweek magazine displayed the same
booking photo, but used his true color.

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.

* Jackie Joyner-Kersee ends her Olympic career by boasting 7


Olympic medals including 3 gold medals. She won back-to-back
heptathlons in 1988 and 1992 and won a medal in four straight
Olympic games (1988-1996). She holds the world record in the
heptathlon.
* Ebonics is created: A Resolution of the Board of Education to
devise a program to improve the English language acquisition and
application skills of Black students concluded whereas, numerous
validated scholarly studies demonstrate that African American
students as part of their culture and history as African people
possess and utilize a language described in various scholarly
approaches as Ebonics (literally Black sounds) or Pan African
Communication Behaviors or African Language Systems; and
Whereas, these studies have also demonstrated that African
Language Systems are genetically based and not a dialect of
English.
* While incarcerated on death row in San Quentin Prison for
murder, Stanley Tookie Williams, the co-founder of the Los
Angeles based street gang Crips, publishes his first of seven
books for children by speaking out against gangs and violence.
Williams was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and once
for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Williams now plays a role in a
truce between the Crips and Bloods. Williams was convicted of
murder in 1981 after killing 4 rival gang members in the
escalating war between the Crips and Bloods.
Black on Black Violence: By Stanley Tookie Williams
A process of Black survival in a White World: The core of Black
on Black violence is an embedded sense of self-hate created
because of racism. Anytime an individual is spoon-fed derogatory
images of himself and his race, after a period of time the
individual starts to believe those images. The images are
stereotypes depicting that the majority of Blacks are buffoons,

functioning illiterates, promiscuous, violent, welfare recipients


and indigent criminals. Unfortunately too many Blacks buy into
this and believe that those stereotypes are true. Blacks then lash
out on those individuals that fit those stereotypes. Basically
Blacks try to obliterate those images and individuals that
perpetuate the racist stereotypes to rid themselves of the selfhate monster that subconsciously stalks them.

* Jesse Jackson states the death penalty is essentially an


arbitrary punishment. There are no objective rules or guidelines
for when a prosecutor should seek the death penalty, when a jury
should recommend it, and when a judge should give it. This lack of
objective, measurable standards ensures that the application of
the death penalty will be discriminatory against racial, gender,
and ethnic groups.

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.

* California upholds proposition 209, which constitutionally


outlaws affirmative action programs, which brings an end to
efforts to improve employment and educational opportunities to
minorities and women.
* Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis wins a Pulitzer Prize for Blood
on the Fields becoming the 1st jazz artist to win the award.
* The TV movie "Buffalo Soldiers" airs on TNT based on the factual
story about the all-Black U.S. Calvary Troop H which protected the
Western territories in post Civil War times. The story focuses on
the troops attempts to capture an Apache warrior who slaughters
White settlers in New Mexico. The film examines the racial
tensions that existed between the Black and White soldiers.
* The movie "Amistad" is released based on the true story of the
1839 mutiny aboard the slave ship La Amistad, during which
Mende tribesmen lead by Cinque, were abducted for the slave trade
who managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast
of Cuba. An international legal battle followed their capture by a
U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by
the United States Supreme Court in 1841 were the captives gained
their freedom.
* The Million Women March takes place in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania to address the barriers Blacks face in America and
was founded and formulated by Phile Chionesu, a grassroots
activist, human rights advocate, and Black Nationalist/Freedom
Fighter, and owner of an African crafts shop.
* 3 million Africans died in conflicts unleashed by war in the
Congo during attempts to overthrow Mobutu Sese Seko, a longtime
partner of the U.S. government.

* Nationwide Insurance Company settles a $100 million suit for


discrimination against Black policyholders by charging them more
than Whites.
* The movie The Fifth Element is released suggesting that the
ancient Egyptian culture is the result of aliens from another
world. This is another denial about the truth that ancient
Egyptians were from Africa and they were Black.
* President Bill Clinton awards 7 Black war heroes with the Medal
of Honor for their service during World War II. Those honored are
2nd Lt. Vernon J. Baker, Staff Sgt. Edward A. Carter Jr., 1st Lt.
John R. Fox, Pfc. Willy F. James Jr., Staff Sgt. Ruben Rivers, 1st
Lt. Charles L. Thomas and Pvt. George Watson. Baker is the only
soldier still alive at age 77. Blacks were initially denied the
Medal of Honor during World War II due to their race which angered
and humiliated them after their service to their country. Many
Blacks served and died during the war, but records were not kept
or they were overlooked concerning Blacks for their heroic actions
in battle and accomplishments.

* 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

times. The officers told conflicting stories of what happened but


they were all cleared of the shooting. Toxicology tests on Miller
revealed that she had been drugged with GHB, the date rape drug.
Miller awoke, and probably had no idea the gun was in her lap, just
as officers arrived on scene to do a welfare check on an
unconscious person sitting in a car. Miller was not holding the
gun or pointing it at the officers but they had already seen it.
They began to shoot her without trying to evaluate the situation.
Law enforcement defended their actions as following department
policy.

* Wendy Fitzwilliam of Trinidad & Tobago is crowned Miss Universe.


1999
* Mpule Kwelagobe from Botswana is crowned Miss Universe.
* Threatened with a Federal lawsuit, New Jersey agrees to new
procedures to ensure that their State Police do not target
minorities when making traffic stops. Authorities across the
nation, including California and others, face scrutiny for racial
profiling.
* Maurice Ashley becomes the first Black international chess
grandmaster.
* Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, is shot and killed
by 4 White Police Officers of the New York Police Department as he
was entering his apartment. The 4 officers fired 41 shots at
Diallo hitting him 19 times. The officers claimed Diallo was
holding a gun, but Diallo died holding his wallet to identify
himself in an effort to comply. All the officers were exonerated
of any wrong doing.

* Excerpts from a report from (EDGE) Ethics of Development in a


Global Environment, the portrayal of minorities in the film, media
and entertainment industries perpetuate the negative stereotypes
of Blacks. Blacks have been treated as second-class citizens since
the inception of this country. Forcibly brought here as slaves to
the White man, Blacks have never been treated as completely equal
to Whites. Stereotypes of Blacks as lazy, stupid, foolish,
cowardly, submissive, irresponsible, childish, violent, sub-human,
and animal-like, are rampant in today's society. These degrading
stereotypes are reinforced and enhanced by the negative portrayal
of Blacks in the media. Black characters have appeared in American
films since the beginning of the industry in 1888. But Blacks
weren't even hired to portray Blacks in early works. Instead,
White actors and actresses were hired to portray the characters
while in "blackface." By refusing to hire Black actors to portray
Black characters, demeaning stereotypes were being created as
Blacks were presented in an unfavorable light. In addition, Blacks
were purposely portrayed in films with negative stereotypes that
reinforced White supremacy over Blacks. This has had a tremendous
effect on our society's view of Blacks since motion pictures have
had more of an impact on the public mind than any other
entertainment medium in the last ninety years.
* The Dr. King familys civil trial verdict: The U.S. government
assassinated Martin Luther King. Dr. Martin Luther Kings family
and his personal friend and attorney, William F. Pepper, won a
civil trial that found U.S. government agencies guilty in
the wrongful death of Martin Luther King. The jury of six Blacks
and six Whites deliberated only about three hours before returning
the verdict in a civil lawsuit brought by the King family,
reports CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Jones. A cover-up
following the assassination in Memphis in 1968 involved the FBI,
CIA, the media and Army intelligence, as well as many state and
city officials. The overwhelming evidence of government complicity
introduced and agreed as comprehensively valid by the jury
includes the 111th Military Intelligence Group were sent to Dr.
Kings location, and that the usual police protection was pulled

away just before the assassination. Military Intelligence set-up


photographers on a roof of a fire station with a clear view to Dr.
Kings balcony. The 20th Special Forces Group had an 8-man sniper
team at the assassination location on that day. Memphis police
ordered the scene where multiple witnesses reported as the source
of shooting to cut down their bushes that would have hid a sniper
team at the time of the shooting. Along with sanitizing a crime
scene, police abandoned investigative procedure to interview
witnesses who lived by the scene of the shooting. William F.
Pepper tore away the veil of subterfuge that has hidden the truth
surrounding King's death, proving the innocence of convicted
assassin James Earl Ray and revealing the evil conspiracy behind
the murder of our nation's greatest civil rights leader.
* A group of Black farmers wins a suit against the U.S. Department
of Agriculture for discriminating against them in giving out loans
and subsidies because of their race. The case stemmed from 1000
Black farmers filing suit in 1996 to 22,000 farmers by 1999.
$50,000.00 was paid to each farmer for a total settlement of $650
million. Another 73,000 farmers claim they were shut out because
the settlement deadline wasnt advertised widely enough, according
to a report by the Environmental Working Group.
* The movie Cleopatra is released for TV. The re-make does
insult to the true race and color of ancient Egyptians by
portraying Cleopatra as a light skinned Arabic looking queen. The
injustice by Hollywood of constantly misrepresenting the true
color and race of ancient Egyptians in movies continues the denial
of Black heritage and the greatness of the ancient Egyptian and
Nubian culture.
* Lauryn Hill made history when she won 5 Grammy awards for The
Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, including Album of the Year. It was
the first time that a female recording artist had ever received
that number of nominations and awards.
* A painting of Black Jesus Wins Catholic Magazine's Millennium Art
Contest. The painting, "Jesus of the People," was selected from
nearly 1,700 entries for the cover of a special millennium issue
to be published by the National Catholic Reporter, an independent
newsweekly and one of the best-known Catholic publications in the
country. "Jesus was definitely a person of color," said Rev. Dr.
Mark A. Lomax, pastor of First Afrikan Presbyterian Church in
Lithonia, GA. According to Lomax, who is also an Associate
Professor at the Interdenominational Theological Center, there is
no historical matter that gives a clue of Jesus' phenotype.

"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.

* Home Depot pays out $12 million in a lawsuit to Black employees


who were denied promotions and treated differently than White
employees.
* Nelson Mandela retires.
* Rosa Parks is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
2000 and Beyond: The New Millennium
2000
* Golfer Tiger Woods matches the record of Ben Hogan in 1953 by
winning 3 professional major championships in the same year. Woods
also becomes the 1st person since Denny Shute in 1936-1937 to win
the PGA Championship in consecutive years. In winning the British
Open, Woods becomes the youngest player to complete the career
Grand Slam of professional major championships.
* The U.S. census reports that the Black population reaches 36
million in the U.S.

* 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 Coca-Cola Company pays out $192.5 million to 2000 Black


employees for racial discrimination, denial of promotions and no
pay increases.
* The Adams Mark Hotel chain pays $8 million for discriminating
against 5 Black guests after charging them more for rooms and
giving fewer amenities than White guests.

* The first Black jockey in 79 years rode in the Kentucky Derby.


Marlon St. Julien was the first Black jockey since 1921 to ride in
the world's most famous horse race. St. Julien rode Curule, a 50to-1 long shot who earned a spot in the 19-horse field when
another horse, Harlan Traveler, pulled out. St. Julien finished
7th.
* Lockheed Martin is sued by 41 Black employees after they endured
racial taunts, pay discrimination, denied promotions, found KKK

literature at their work stations and was subjected to racial


epithets.
* Wonder Bread pays out $120 million in a lawsuit by Black
employees who were discriminated against at the Wonder Bread plant
by being treated differently than White employees and subjected to
racial epithets.
* Lynette Cole of Tennessee wins the Miss USA pageant.
* During the presidential election, Florida officials deliberately
sabotaged the voting rights of Blacks through massive
disenfranchisement schemes like moving polling places and falsely
listing Blacks as ex-felons making them ineligible to vote. The
Supreme Court ignored the schemes therefore aiding George W. Bush
to win the election over former vise president Al Gore who served
under President Bill Clinton. Bush won the election by 538 votes
to become President. The Governor of Florida at the time was Jeb
Bush who is the brother of George W. Bush.
* The Kanungu massacre of about 1000 people were burnt to death in
the Kanungu District of Uganda. Those who were burnt belonged to a
religious cult calling itself the Movement for the Restoration of
the Ten Commandments, popularly known as Kibwetere cult, led by
Joseph Kibwetere, Credonia Mwerinde, Angelina Mugisha, Joseph
Kasapurari and Dominic Kataribabo. At first it was assumed that
the Kanungu massacre was mass suicide by the members of the cult
who were convinced about going to heaven through fire but later it
was established that it was planned and executed by the cult
leadership. The victims of the inferno included children too young
to make independent decisions. Before dust could settle after the
Kanungu tragedy, it was discovered that many more people belonging
to the same cult had died and been secretly buried in other camps
outside Kanungu including Bushenyi and Buziga near Kampala.
2001
* Robert Johnson, BET founder, becomes the 1st Black to make the
Forbes list of the worlds richest people.
* Kenneth Chenault of AMEX, and Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae,
becomes the 1st Blacks appointed CEO of fortune 500 companies.
* Xerox is hit by a $12 million class action lawsuit for racial
discrimination toward 1100 Black former employees who were
discriminated against in the manner how sales territories are

assigned, unpaid commissions, along with other issues and


discriminatory practices.
* President George Bush Jr., names General Colin Powell, Secretary
of State making him the 1st Black to hold the office along with
Condoleezza Rice as National Security Adviser making her the 1st
Black and female to hold the office. Rod Paise becomes the 1st
Black Education Secretary.

* Violence erupts in Cincinnati, Ohio over a White Police


Officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teenager Timothy
Thomas. Citing a clear and present danger, Mayor Charlie Luke
declares a state of emergency and imposes a curfew. The officer
was acquitted of any wrongdoing.

* 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

were, cheated out of their land or driven from it through


intimidation, violence and even murder over the last 150-plus
years in a three-part series. For generations, Black families
passed down the tales "They stole our land." These were family
secrets locked in fear and shame. In some cases, government
officials approved the land-takings; in others, they took part in
them. The earliest occurred before the Civil War; others are being
litigated today. The United States has a long history of bitter
land disputes, from range wars in the Old West to broken treaties
with American Indians. The AP in an investigation that included
interviews with more than 1,000 people and the examination of tens
of thousands of public records documented 107 land-takings in 13
Southern and border states. In those cases alone, 406 Black
landowners lost more than 24,000 acres of farm and timberland plus
85 smaller properties, including stores and city lots. Today,
virtually all of this property, valued at tens of millions of
dollars, is owned by Whites or corporations. No one knows how many
Black families have been unfairly stripped of their land, but
there are indications of extensive loss. Besides the 107 cases the
AP documented, reporters found evidence of dozens more that could
not be fully verified because of gaps in the public record.
Thousands of additional reports of land-takings collected by land
activists and educational institutions remain uninvestigated. APs
findings are just the tip of one of the biggest crimes of this
countrys history, said Ray Winbush, director of Fisk Universitys
Institute of Race Relations.
* The Commonwealth Fund Survey on healthcare in America found that
even if racism ended tomorrow, the effects would persist for
generations. The consequences of the profound poverty that
discrimination has engendered on Blacks along with widespread
attitudes that encourage racism and prejudice, will take time and
commitment to change. Blacks still find themselves on the lower
rungs of the socio-economic scale and therefore face the crippling
effects of both racism and classism, which often reinforce and
legitimize each other.
* Agbani Darego of Nigeria, Africa becomes the 1st Black woman to
be crowned Miss World.
* Apple Computer is hit with a $40 million suit for racial
discrimination and wrongful termination of a Black product design
engineer.
* Nissan, GM, Chrysler, Toyota and Ford motor companies were hit
with class-action lawsuits in 33 states including California

because Black customers paid more than White customers with


identical credit ratings when taking out auto loans.
* The United Postal Service (UPS) settles a suit for $8.2 million
with 5000 Black employees for wrongful terminations and harsh
differential treatment in comparison to White employees.
* The movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is released telling the story
of the planets of the solar system going into planetary alignment
(which occurs every 5,000 years), and a secret society called the
Illuminati who is seeking an ancient talisman that gives its
possessor the ability to control time and gain great power over
the world or bring the destruction of the world if used by people
with dark intentions. However, they need a certain clock/key to
help them in their search, and they have to find the talisman in
one week or wait until the next planetary alignment to find it
again. The Egyptian symbols used in the movie are a triangle
representing the triangle of light which was believed to create
a utopian state and world of only good and the Eye of Horus or
the all seeing eye, the Egyptian symbol used to ensure the
safety and health of the bearer and provide wisdom and prosperity.
Hollywood loves to use the symbols and cultural references of
ancient Egypt, but they never acknowledge that the Egyptian
culture was created by Nubians and Black Africans. The same symbol
is printed on the back of the U.S. one dollar bill. The ancient
story of the triangle of light was used to create the movie.

* Barry Bonds breaks pro baseballs single season home-run record


with 73.
* Tiger Woods becomes the 1st golfer in history to simultaneously
hold all four PGA titles.
* Bishop Wilton Gregory becomes the 1st Black bishop to be elected
president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

* Kirby Puckett is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Puckett


led the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.
He won 10 all-star awards, 6 gold glove awards and 1 MVP award.
2002
* April marks the 500th anniversary of the start of the TransAtlantic slave trade.
* From Slavery to Mass Incarceration via the 13th Amendment and
the Role of Prisons in American Society. The Thirteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and
involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was
passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, by the House on January 31,
1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. African-Americans, who make
up one eighth the nation's population, account for about half of
all U.S. prisoners. Berkeley historian Loci Wacquant argues that
America's reliance upon prison as the principal way of dealing
with poor Blacks marks a qualitatively new stage in the Black
experience. First there was slavery, then Southern rural
segregation, followed by the enclosure of the northern ghetto,
which has now been succeeded by the world's first carceral state.
Like slavery, Jim Crow era and the ghetto, prison has come to
define for many of us what it is to be Black in America. Not one
but several 'peculiar institutions' have successively operated to
define, confine, and control African-Americans in the history of
the United States. The first is chattel slavery, the pivot of the
plantation economy. The second is the Jim Crow system of legally
enforced discrimination and segregation from cradle to grave that
anchored the predominantly agrarian society of the South from the
close of Reconstruction to the Civil Rights revolution which
toppled it a full century after abolition. Americas third special
device for containing the descendants of slaves in the Northern
industrial metropolis is the ghetto, corresponding to the conjoint
urbanization and proletarianization of African-Americans from the
Great Migration of 191430 to the 1960s, when it was rendered
partially obsolete by the concurrent transformation of economy and
state and by the mounting protest of Blacks against continued
caste exclusion, climaxing with the explosive urban riots
chronicled in the Kerner Commission Report. The conviction of a
crime in an unjust legal system coupled with the wording of the
13th amendment allows the government to incarcerate Blacks in
large numbers reminiscent of the days of southern plantations.
* Actress Halle Berry becomes the 1st Black woman to win an Academy
Award for best actress in the movie Monsters Ball. Denzel

Washington wins an academy award for best actor in the movie


Training Day. He is the only Black to win the award since 1963
when Sidney Poitier played in Lilies of the Fields. 2002 also
marked Washington as the entertainer of the year.

* The Baltimore Ravens appoint Ozzie Newsome as their general


manager making him the 1st Black general manager in the NFL.
Newsome is a NFL Hall of Famer who played for the Cleveland Browns
from 1978-1990.
* Dating back to 1929, 32 African-Americans have been awarded or
nominated for an academy award (Oscar) in the categories: best
supporting actress, best supporting actor, best actress and best
actor.
* The Slavery Reparations Coordinating Committee, led by prominent
Black lawyers and activists, announces plans to sue companies that
profited from slavery.
* Republican Senator Trent Lott signaled his support for
segregationist groups in a speech before the G.O.P. - In 1990 he
attended a meeting with a White supremacist group and stated that
they stand for the right principles and right philosophy.
* Officer Jeremy Morse, of the Inglewood Police Department, was
fired for assault under color of authority after he was
videotaped slamming 16-year-old Donovan Jackson on the hood of his
patrol car and punching him in the face while he was handcuffed.
Morses partner, Bijan Davvish was fired for allegedly filing a
false report about the incident.
* Doctor Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-American physician, forensic
pathologist, and neuropathologist who was the first to discover
and publish findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) by
examining American football players while working at the Allegheny
County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh. Omalu's autopsy of

former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster led to Omalu's


discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Webster had
died suddenly and unexpectedly, following years of struggling with
cognitive and intellectual impairment, destitution, mood
disorders, depression, drug abuse, and suicide attempts. Omalu
later became chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, CA, and
is a professor in the University of California, Davis, Department
of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
* Robert L. Johnson, founder of BET, becomes the 1st Black majority
owner in the NBA by obtaining the Charlotte Hornets.
* The Sara Lee Corp. pays $3.5 million to 139 Black employees who
were subjected to racial slurs, frequent drug tests, given extra
duties and denied promotions.
* The MetLife Insurance Company settled a $250 million suit after
discriminating against Black policyholders by charging Blacks more
than Whites and for selling inferior policies door to door in
Black neighborhoods.
* The Waffle House settled a $275 million racial discrimination
suit filed by four Blacks.
* Evian Water settles a $1.25 million suit because Black delivery
drivers were paid less than White drivers.
* NASA settles a $3.75 million suit because Blacks were unfairly
denied promotions.
* The Social Security Administration agrees to pay undisclosed
millions of dollars to settle a suit by 2200 Black employees
because of discrimination.
* Bobsledder Vanetta Flowers becomes the 1st Black gold medalist in
the winter Olympics history.
* Blanche Bruce becomes the 1st Black dedicated with a portrait in
the Senate hallway. Bruce was the 1st Black to serve a full term in
the Senate from 1875-1881.
* Shauntay Hinton of the District of Columbia wins the Miss USA
pageant.
* President George Bush Jr., has proclaimed the month of June to
be Black Music Month in recognition for the critical part of
American heritage Black musicians, singers and composers have

contributed to our nations history through music from gospel to


hip-hop.
* Dr. Boyd E. Graves reveals to the world that he obtained the
1971 AIDS flowchart (Special Virus Cancer Program) he obtained
from the U.S. Government by the Freedom of Information Act. The
chart outlines the creation of the HIV virus by the U.S.
Government and its target release area of Africa to specifically
target Blacks. The virus mutated and now attacks all races. Dr.
Basil E. Wainright, Physicist & Three Time Nobel Nominee, of
Nairobi, Kenya believes that if AIDS is not deactivated within 66
years there will be no Blacks left in Africa (1999). Dr. Peter
Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS says the HIV/AIDS virus is the
result of many steps in the laboratory and was no accident. It is
believed that the virus was created to control the Black
population and third world countries all over the world to
guarantee Whites obtain perpetual domination of the rest of the
human race because of their own fear of annihilation due to their
numerical minority status among the worlds population.

* Canadian archaeologists in Sudan, using magnetometers, found a


2,000 year old palace in the heart of the ancient Black
civilization of Nubia. Krzysztof Grzymski, a professor at the
University of Toronto and a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum,
located what he believes are the remains of a palace and a
colonnade built more than 2,000 years ago by a rival to Egypt as
perhaps the greatest Black civilization ever.

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.

* According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic population in


the U.S. surpassed the Black population by 1%. The Black
population has not increased in percentage since the late 1800s
where it was estimated to be around 12%.
* Four Black men file a racial discrimination lawsuit against the
Chicago Police Department for repeatedly being stopped and
searched for weapons without cause or reason which is a clear
violation of the 4th amendment of the Constitution. Attorneys for
the case say they have received similar complaints for years.
* KKK member, Ernest Avants, is convicted of killing Ernest White
back in 1967 in Jackson, Mississippi.
* Paleontologist Tim White, from UC Berkeley, re-affirms through
genetic evidence that modern man arose in Africa between 100,000
and 200,000 years ago and not from multiple locations in Europe
and Asia. Migration would account for the finding of ancient human
civilizations found outside of Africa. This view is supported by
Rick Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the
Smithsonian Institute.
* Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson becomes the 1st Black soldier
and female captured as a P.O.W. in the war with Iraq. Jessica
Lynch, who is White, is the second female soldier captured and
taken as a prisoner or war. Although Lynch was held captive for
less time than Johnson, Lynch made the cover of Newsweek magazine,
her family was interviewed on live TV and there was talk about
making her story into a movie. Little to nothing has been heard of
regarding Johnson. Johnson will receive $700.00 a month less than
Lynch in disability benefits when discharged. The Pentagon will
not respond to Johnson family complaints of differential
treatment. Once again America shows its true colors. If you are
White you are alright, if you are Black get back.

* Teresa Phillips, of Tennessee State University, becomes the 1st


woman to coach a mens college basketball team.
* Kevin Cohee becomes the chairman and CEO of the largest Black
owned bank in the nation after a merger between One United Bank
and Unity Bank and Trust. The combined merger has assets of $500
million.
* Vernice Armour, Captain USMC, becomes the 1st Black woman combat
pilot in the history of the Marine Corp. She flies a Cobra attack
helicopter.
* Abercrombie and Fitch is hit with a Federal discrimination suit
for discriminating against minorities by projecting and
maintaining an all White image for their clothing line.
* Barry Bonds becomes the 1st player in Major League Baseball
history to steal 500 bases and hit 500 homeruns. Bonds also wins
his 6th National League MVP award making him the only player to win
the award more than 3 times. Bonds is a 12-time All Star.
* NBA superstar Michael Jordan retires for the 3rd time of his
career. Jordan finished his career with a rookie of the year
award, 6 NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, made the NBAs
50 greatest players list, won 2 Olympic Gold Medals, won 10
scoring titles, won 11 MVP awards, made the all star team 13
times, won 2 slam dunk titles, won defensive player of the year
and 9 defensive first team awards, 10 first team awards, and was
named the Associated Press sportsman of the year three times in a
row. Jordan scored 32,292 points, 5633 assists and 6672 rebounds.
He is arguably the greatest all around player in NBA history and
he made the cover of Sports Illustrated 52 times.

* The story of Julius Caesar is made into a TV mini series.


Queen Cleopatra is played by a White actress. This is another
injustice done to Blacks as Hollywood continues to deny the truth
about who Egyptians really were are what color their skin was.
* Senator Strom Thurmond dies and leaves behind a secret. Thurmond
was an outspoken segregationist who opposed Civil Rights while
fathering a daughter, Elsie Mae Williams, by one of his former
Black servants Essie Butler. Thurmond spent his political career
publicly making Blacks miserable while he spent his private life
sharing the bed of a Black servant.
* Target, Kit Kat and TNN release commercials promoting their
product depicting Black men acting silly just as the Jim Crow
stereotype of Blacks did in the 1800s. Citibank shows a
commercial of a Black transvestite as an identity thief. A
commercial for A Drug Free America shows a Black juvenile as a
marijuana user. All these media releases continue to stereotype
Blacks as inferior or criminals.
* Tennis player Serena Williams wins her second Wimbledon tennis
title by defeating her sister Venus in the finals.
* R & B singer Barry White dies from complications with liver
cancer.
* President George Bush Jr., visits Africa in the face of civil
war to prepare for the use of U.S. troops to stop the fighting.
President Bush speaks out that slavery was one of the greatest
crimes in history and its affects are still causing problems for
Blacks today. President Bush asks congress for $15 billion in AIDS
relief. As civil war continues, the death toll surpasses 600 in
just a few days. The region has been fighting for over 14 years as
countless thousands have died. U.S. troops were never sent in to
stop the civil war. It was not reported if the promised money was
ever sent to Africa. America has no reason of gain or interest to
actively help Africa.

* A Swiss archaeological team working in northern Sudan uncovered


one of the most remarkable Egyptological finds in recent years. At
the site known as Kerma, near the third cataract of the Nile,
archaeologist Charles Bonnet and his team discovered a ditch
within a temple from the ancient city of Pnoubs, which contained
seven monumental black granite statues. Magnificently sculpted,
and in an excellent state of preservation, they portrayed five
pharaonic rulers, including Taharqa and Tanoutamon, the last two
pharaohs of the 'Nubian' Dynasty, when Egypt was ruled by kings
from the lands of modern-day Sudan. For over half a century, the
Nubian pharaohs governed a combined kingdom of Egypt and Nubia,
with an empire stretching from the Delta to the upper reaches of
the Nile.
* Feraris Golden of Belle Glade, Florida was found dead hanging
from a tree with his hands tied behind his back (Lynched). The
police said it was a suicide and quickly closed the case. Golden
had been dating a White policemans daughter.
* The National Bureau of Economic Research, using authors from
University of Chicago and MIT, published a paper concluding that a
person with a Black sounding name on a resume remains an
impediment to getting a job. A study was done where 1300
classified ads were responded to with dummy resumes; the authors
found that Black sounding names were 50% less likely to get a
callback than White sounding names with comparable resumes. The
study concluded that Black names are associated with lower socioeconomic status. In a second NBER study, authors conducted a
survey using 500 real resumes and responded to the same 1300
classified ads from the first study. The authors interchanged
Black sounding names with White sounding names for the same
resumes. The study concluded that regardless of the quality of the
resumes featuring skills and experience, White sounding names are
30% more likely to receive a callback than a Black sounding name.
The two studies concluded that Emily and Greg are more likely to
be employed than Lakisha and Jamal. Cultural identity comes at the
cost of a job for Blacks in America.
* Rush Limbaugh of ESPN sports said that Eagles quarterback
Donovan McNabb is overrated because the media wants a Black
quarterback to succeed. Limbaugh resigned over the media frenzy
fallout.
* Three former Oakland Police Officers known as The Riders who
were fired after being charged with 35 felony counts for
corruption, kidnapping and assault towards Blacks were acquitted

by a mostly White jury. Several of the jurors who wished to remain


anonymous told local newspapers after the year long trial that
their minds were made up before the trial started. Several jurors
said that those Black victims were criminals with criminal
records.
* Nathanial Jones of Cincinnati, Ohio died from injuries after
being beat with batons by 6 White Police Officers after falling
down a hill into a parking lot. The Police arrived on scene and a
fight ensued between Jones and the Officers. Autopsy results
indicated that Jones had drugs in his system and an enlarged heart
but the cause of death was listed as the struggle with Police.
* Kenneth Walker of Columbus, Georgia was shot in the head and
killed by Deputy David Glisson after a traffic stop in which
Walkers car was said to fit the description of a car used for
drug trafficking. Walker was ordered out of the car and told to
lay on the ground. Officer Glisson said he could not see Walkers
right hand and shot him in the head.
* Tiger Woods wins his 5th straight PGA Tour player of the year
award.
* Former Notre Dame Heisman Trophy winner and Hall of Fame
inductee Paul Hornung said during an interview that the Fighting
Irish can improve their football fortunes by easing up on academic
restrictions for Blacks because we gotta get the Black athlete if
we are going to compete with the other big colleges.
* Ericka Harold is crowned Miss America 2003 after being crowned
Miss Illinois in 2002.
* An Ohio insurance company agrees to pay $1 million in a
settlement for overcharging Blacks for burial insurance.
* A study of the Auto industry concluded that car dealerships
charge Blacks a higher interest rate for new car financing than
they charge Whites.
* Bill Lester becomes the 1st Black Nascar driver to have his face
on a cereal box. Lester has an engineering degree from UC Berkley.
* 419 Colonial-era slaves and free Blacks, which were uncovered in
1991 during construction of a federal office tower in Manhattan,
were re-buried a short distance away from the market where some of
them were once sold as slaves. The original grave site was a five
acre burial ground that was closed in 1794 and long forgotten. It

was the final resting place for an estimated 20,000 Blacks. In


1741, there was a slave revolt and some Whites fought alongside
with the slaves. The punishment for those Whites was to be lynched
and buried with Blacks in the cemetery.
* There are 58 Blacks on Hollywoods walk of fame in the
categories of acting, writing, music, directing and performing
arts.
* Terrance Shurn of Benton Harbor, Michigan is killed in
motorcycle crash fleeing from police. 300 Blacks riot for 2 days
requiring State police to respond to calm the civil unrest.
* President George Bush Jr., issued guidelines barring Federal
agents from using race or ethnicity in their investigations. This
policy acknowledges that racial profiling exists and is a national
concern, but it does nothing to stop it.
* Kamala Harris becomes the 1st Black district attorney in
California and 1st female district attorney of San Francisco.
* Freddy Adu, age 14, becomes the youngest player in the history
of major league soccer when he signed a contract to play for the
District of Columbia.
* Janna Scantleburg becomes the 1st Black women to join the Queen
of Britains mounted guard in London near Buckingham Palace.
* Michael Fuller becomes the 1st Black Chief Constable of Kent,
London.
* Jarome Iginla becomes the 1st Black captain in the National
Hockey League to play for Canadas Calgary Flames.
* Grant Fuhr becomes the 1st Black inducted into the Hockey Hall of
Fame. Fuhr helped the Edmonton Oilers win 5 Stanley Cups.
* The music industry reports that the Billboards Hot 100 top 10
singles spots were all filled by Black artists.
* The Microsoft Corp. is hit with multiple discrimination suits by
8 Black employees totaling $5 billion for being discriminated
against through evaluations, denied promotions, paid less and
being forced to resign at a higher frequency than White employees.
* According to reports and studies from the Department of
Education, Americas Children and Building Blocks for Children:
Black youths continue to face challenges in education, health care

and are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. The


figures show that Black youths have a higher rate of high school
drop, enrollments in special education, are held back a grade and
a higher rate of suspension and expulsion that White students.
Black youths have a higher rate of arrests, detentions, placement
in residential programs and admission to adult prison than White
youths. Black youths suffer a higher rate of low birth weight,
infant mortality, child mortality, obesity and have no health
insurance than White youths.
* Dennis Archer, the former mayor of Detroit, becomes the 1st Black
president of the American Bar Association. The ABA has over
400,000 members and was established in 1878.
* Federal Express is hit with a multi-million dollar
discrimination lawsuit by Black employees who claim they were
treated differently than White employees in regard to promotion,
compensation and discipline.
2004
* Barry Bonds breaks Willie Mays home run record hitting #661 to
become 3rd on the All-time list behind Hank Aaron who has 755.
Bonds wins his 7th MVP award and 4th in a row and passes the 700homerun mark.
* Erika Dunlap of Florida is crowned Miss America 2004 and is the
1st Black to be crowned Miss Florida.
* Tiger Woods won for the 40th time on the PGA Tour in just 149
starts. This is the quickest anyone has reached that milestone in
PGA history. He earned $1.2 million which is the biggest prize to
date on the PGA Tour.
* Maryann Wyatt, Joe Moore and other Historians from the
California State University at Sacramento discovered documents and
county records from all over the state dating back to the 1800s
detailing that slavery existed in California even after California
entered the Union as a free state in 1850.
* The U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Labor has
concluded that Blacks have fallen behind Latinos in total U.S.
population and have a higher rate of unemployment and poverty as
compared to Latinos and Whites.
* A study of high school children across the U.S. determined that
Whites on average receive grades of A and B while Blacks receive

grades of C, D and F. This comes after 50 years since the Brown


vs. The Board of Education ruling in 1954.
* The Cracker Barrel Restaurant chain faces a $100 million civil
lawsuit after the Department of Justice concluded that 50
restaurants across 7 states had engaged in blatant racial
discrimination against 100 Blacks by segregating them from White
customers or refusing to serve them. Cracker Barrel denies the
allegations and has taken a so what position if the lawsuit
prevails.
* The Taylor County High School in Albany, Georgia holds
segregated Whites only prom. Blacks have their own separate prom.
* Ousmane Zanga, an unarmed street vender, was shot and killed by
NYPD officer Ryan Conroy and will face criminal charges for
wrongful killing.
* Melody Hobson, CEO, of Ariel Capital Management is highlighted
as managing the largest Black investment company on Wall Street
overseeing $18 Billion in assets.
* An undersea earthquake measuring a magnitude of 9.3 causing a
tsunami in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand that kills
225,000. President Bush sends 35 million dollars in aide, supplies
and manpower to help the devastated area. 54 countries and the
World Bank donate 1.8 billion to help the area. The help was
needed but it is curious that this kind of help or concern is not
given to help Africa.
* Rhythm & Blues / Punk Funk superstar star Rick James dies in his
sleep. He was a Grammy winner and known as the King of Funk.

* Rebel Arab Militias attack and impose a scorched-earth policy


and kill over 70,000 Africans and displace another 1.2 million in
the Darfar region of the Sudan as the local government and world
takes no action the stop the genocide. It is estimated that 10,000

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.

* Stanly Miller, a Black male, is shown on news video footage


being beaten in the head 11 times with a flashlight after giving
up and being subdued by several Los Angeles Police Officers after
he stole a vehicle and was stopped.
* Simmie Knox of Little Rock, Arkansas is the 1st Black to paint an
official presidential portrait. Knox painted former President
Bill Clinton. Knox was born a sharecropper in 1935.
* Jacqueline Duty, a Lexington, Kentucky high school senior
designed and wore a sequence rebel flag as her prom dress but the
school refused to allow her to enter the prom wearing the dress.
Duty filed a lawsuit stating her 1st amendment rights were
violated. Her actions caused her to lose several college
scholarships because she is now deemed to be a racist. She doesnt
see what the problem is.

* Kweise Mfume steps down as President of the N.A.A.C.P.


* Fifty years after the Supreme Court ruled against school
segregation, integration and academic equality remain elusive for
Blacks. Minorities and Whites are increasingly taught in separate
schools and Blacks and Latinos often make do with limited
resources and find themselves in classrooms with few non-minority
faces.
* The movie Aliens vs. Predator is released. The movie shows
that alien beings discovered earth and taught primitive humans how
to build the pyramids and was the basis for the culture of the
time. Once again ancient Egyptians are denied their culture as
Hollywood distorts the truth by suggesting that it had to be
aliens that built the pyramids because Black people could not have
done it on their own.
* Actor & Comedian Bill Cosby speaks out against low income Blacks
for not setting standards of morality and values and giving into
the negative stereotypes that have haunted Blacks throughout
history. Blacks have chosen to follow fame and fortune rather than
education and hard work. Street culture has become confused with
Black identity and culture, dooming many young blacks to
mediocrity because these kids see a larger society as a distant
fairyland with goodies they can never have unless they take them
by any means necessary.

* Wangari Maathai, an ecologist from Kenya, becomes the 1st African


woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize through her greenbelt movement
to plant trees in Africa. She also stated that she believes the
AIDS virus was deliberately created in the West as a biological
agent to target Africans.
* Aquil Abdullah becomes the 1st Black male to become a member of
the Olympic rowing team.

* 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.

reports that 50% of the reported


Blacks while Blacks make up only
unbalanced ratio is attributed to
access to healthcare among

* Condoleezza Rice becomes the 1st Black woman named as Secretary


of State, appointed by President George Bush Jr.

* Former President Bill Clinton tells the world on national


television that the only regret he has of his presidency was that
the U.S. did nothing the help the people of Africa. He admits that
he could have prevented thousands from dying from Arab rebel
violence, starvation and disease in the Sudan.
* The independent documentary film 500 Years Later is released
directed by Owen Alik Shahadah. It won five international film
festival awards in the category of Best Documentary. The film
explores the social-political impact with relation to race. The
film asks why, 500 years later from the onset of slavery and
subsequent colonialism, Africans are still struggling for basic
freedom. Filmed in five continents, and over twenty countries,
"500 Years Later" engages the authentic retrospective voice, told
from the African vantage point of those whom history has sought to
silence by examining the collective atrocities that uprooted
Africans from their culture and homeland. The film highlights and
questions why Blacks are plagued by crime, drugs, HIV/AIDS, poor
education, inferiority complex, low expectation, poverty,
corruption, poor health and underdevelopment globally.
* The U.S. Senate issues an apology to Black Americans for failing
to pass anti-lynching laws during the era when Blacks were lynched
for no reason in the 1800s 1900s. Seven Presidents requested
the anti-lynching laws during that era but the Senate always
blocked the passage of the law.
* The world including the U.S. pours out its heart and support to
help the victims (over 250,000) of the 2004 Tsunami disaster in
the area of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and surrounding coastal countries
while still ignoring the genocide that is occurring in Africa
because of Arab rebels. It has been stated that the U.S. is trying
to gain favor with the Islamic community by offering aide to a
predominantly Muslim region of the world in order to help the war
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

* 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.

* Best Buy is hit by a class action racial and sex discrimination


lawsuit for discriminating against Blacks by paying them less than
Whites, and being denied promotions, assigned to less desirable
positions, assigned fewer hours and denied transfers.
* Frank Jude of Milwaukee was beaten by 9 off-duty White police
officers, who have been fired, for the beating and using racial
slurs against the victim. The incident occurred at a party for the
officers. The officers accused Jude of stealing a police wallet
and badge. Jude did not have the stolen items.
* Tiger Woods wins his 4th green jacket by winning the 2005 Masters
Gold Tournament. Since turning pro in 1996, Woods has won 46
tournaments as of April 2005.

* Food Service Company Sodexho Inc. agrees to pay $80 million to


settle a lawsuit brought on by thousands of Black employees who
were barred from promotion and segregated within the company.
* President George Bush Jr., has vowed to give $50 million dollars
to the Palestinians to aid their suffering due to their war with
Israel. Once again the U.S. ignores the needs of Africa, but
openly helps another country. At the same time former President
Bill Clinton continues to tour Indonesia to provide aid to the
tsunami victims.
* National Honor Society student Shadoyia Jones is listed as
Black Girl instead of her name in the yearbook of the Waxahachie
High School in Texas. The school denies anything racial about the
incident claiming it was a mistake because they didnt know her
name. Another high school in Texas defamed a female Black honor
role student by printing the caption voted most likely to kill
the president under her name when it should have read voted most
likely to become president. (The Secret Service took action and removed
the contents of this story from the internet before I could get the details
because of the alleged threat to the Presidents life while overlooking the
racist action).

* The military reports that Black recruitment is down probably due


in part to the number of soldiers dying from war in Iraq and the
opposition to the war by the Black community according to military
analyst David Segal.
* The United Nations and the International Red Cross provide aid
to African refugees in the Sudan but the U.S. is notably absent
and has not provided any help. Arab militias continue to rape and
kill while the people die of starvation and disease.
* The Attorney Generals office in New York and the Federal
department of H.U.D. conducted under cover tests after receiving
complaints from an equal-housing group that Blacks and Hispanics
were being discriminated against in buying homes. It was
discovered after 58 tests at 25 agencies that half of the real
estate agencies steered minorities to certain areas or denied
showing them property.
* The internet company T-Shirt Hell begins selling t-shirts
showing a Black baby in handcuffs sucking a pacifier with the
caption Arrest Black Babies Before They Become Criminals.

* Janice Rodgers Brown is confirmed for a judge seat on the


federal appeals bench in the District of Columbia after overcoming
heavy opposition.
* President George Bush Jr., dismissed proposals by Britains
Prime Minister Tony Blair to increase aid to Africa and allow them
to borrow money with the promise to repay it in the future. Bush
said from the oval office to South African President Thabo Mbeki
and reporters it doesnt fit our budgetary process. Bush instead
pushed the idea of canceling Africas debt to the World Bank and
the IMF fund. Without the backing of the U.S., the G8 finance
ministers are reluctant to offer direct aid. After intense debate,
the G8 decided to cancel the debt of Africa and other poor
countries. The U.S. agreed to provide between $1.3 and $1.75
billion in unspecified compensation to help Africa.

* The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Senate is going to


vote on a resolution to apologize to the Black community for its
poor record on lynching and for failing to enact an anti-lynching
law first proposed 105 years ago. According to research from
Washington D.C., 4,743 Blacks were lynched between 1882 and 1968.
The civic fathers and leaders of the community often participated
in these public events as they were a socially acceptable way of
demonstrating control over Blacks. Lynching was given the same
consideration as our national holidays are given today. Schools
and businesses closed, articles were printed in the newspaper and
spectators took souvenir body parts from the victims.
* The media comes under fire for their disproportionate emphasis
on covering Whites when they become missing as compared to Blacks
and other minorities. Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for
Excellence in Journalism, said that attractive blond White females
are likely to get covered, while poor Blacks and other minorities
do not get covered. The FBI reports that 1 in 5 abducted or
kidnapped in the U.S. is Black yet they do not receive media
coverage when they become crime victims as opposed to when Blacks
are the suspect in a crime at which time the media ensures
coverage in run on the nightly news.
* Olympic sprinter Asafa Powell, of Jamaica, sets a new world
records in the 100-meter sprint with a speed of 9.77 at the
Olympic stadium in Greece.
* Michael Jackson is acquitted on all charges of child
molestation. This would be the 2nd time the courts failed to prove
accusations against Jackson and convict the singer on such
charges.

* Nextel designs billboard ads for its boost mobile phone by


depicting a bug-eyed Black male asking where you at? The ad
exploits Black youth by promoting non-standard English and

resurrects the image of the Black Sambo resulting in racist


parody.

* 11 Current and former Black employees of Walgreens file a


discrimination lawsuit in seven states claiming that Walgreens
has a pervasive policy of steering Black employees to work in
areas in stores that have mostly Black or poor customers, using an
internal system to categorize stores based on race and income. The
lawsuit also says that Black employees are denied advancement
opportunities because they are steered to work in the low profit
stores whose bonuses are tied to store sales and gross profit.
* T-Mobile cellular releases a commercial showing a Black male
tied up and being interrogated by police. While the context of the
commercial seems innocent, it continues the visual stereotype that
criminals are always Black.
* R & B great Luther Vandross dies from complications due to
diabetes. During his career he sold over 25 million records, won 8
Grammy awards and produced 14 platinum albums.

* In a 2004 study was done on race in Major League Baseball, it


was discovered that Blacks make up just 9% of the players as
compared to 27% in the mid-1970s. Some of this is attributed to
Black fathers missing from the family as baseball is more of a
father / son sport while football and basketball can be played at

school without parent involvement when youths are young. Poverty


among Blacks also contributes to this situation as Black youths
turn to video games and watching TV to pass their time.
* A study done by the U.S. Justice Department concluded that
Blacks are far more likely to be handcuffed, searched, arrested
and subjected to force than Whites during routine traffic stops.
This information was complied from law enforcement agency data
submitted from across the U.S.
* Category 5 Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana, Alabama and
Mississippi causing widespread flooding, damage and death. The
media shows Blacks as the victims of the damage but also as the
people doing the looting. This builds on the view that Blacks are
the only people that live in poverty, despair and prone to
criminal behavior. Meanwhile the media shows abandoned homes which
are clearly from upper class neighborhoods and which do not belong
to poor Black families. Additionally, when the media shows someone
being rescued from the flooding they are able to find and
interview White victims. The media shows a different setting and
tone between their coverage of Blacks and Whites affected by the
same tragedy. Blacks are shown rioting, looting, and living in
huddled masses in filthy conditions while Whites are interviewed
one on one in calm conditions going thru their destroyed homes,
looking for food and shelter and telling their story to America.
President George Bush Jr., admitted that the response to the
disaster was slow and insufficient in the predominately Black
community only after singer Kanye West publicly stated that
President Bush does not care about Black people.

* 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.

* The movie Immortal is released. The story is about a floating


pyramid and Egyptian Gods coming down from space to terrorize
Earth. This is just another example of how Hollywood distorts the
true origin of the Egyptian culture by portraying them as aliens
from space rather than the ancient Black African culture that they
were.
* President George Bush Jr., awards the Presidential Medal of
Freedom to boxing great Muhammad Ali.
* Former Education Secretary William Bennett stated on the Morning
in America Radio Show that if you wanted to reduce crime in
America, You could abort every Black baby in this country, and
your crime rate would go down.
* Robert Davis is beaten and arrested by three White New Orleans
Police Officers after he went to check on his property and ask
about the curfew in the French Quarter. The officers claimed he
was drunk. The 64 year old Davis said he hasnt had a drink in
years.
* Joseph Rainey becomes the 1st Black dedicated with a portrait in
the House of Representatives hallway. Rainey was the 1st Black to
serve in the House of Representatives from 1870-1879.
* More than 18 days of violence and rioting breaks out in France
in more than 30 cities after two Black youths were electrocuted
after being pursued by police. Complaints of discrimination and
unemployment fuel the violence as riot police and a curfew have
been used to quell the unrest.

* 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.

* A race riot between


Black residents and a
Neo-Nazi group occurs
in Toledo, Ohio. 150
police respond to handle the situation after it was discovered
that police directed the two groups toward each other by changing
their parade routs so that they would meet.
* Leader of Islam, Louis Farrakhan organizes the Millions More
Movement calling on Black men to improve their families and
communities by building on and improving the principles of the
1995 Million Man March.

* 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.

* Edgar Ray Killen, the leader of the Mississippi murders of 1964,


is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes.
* Tyson Foods is hit by a $3.25 million dollar lawsuit after
Anthony Ash and John Hithon are passed over for promotions and
referred to as boys by White supervisors.
* Slavery era song Pick a Bale of Cotton shocks parents at
middle schools in Ohio and Michigan. The song was chosen for the
schools folk song concerts. Parental outcry forced the song to be
removed from one school. The song glorifies slavery and is
disrespectful to Blacks.

* A 249-year-old paper trail of records that stretches from Sierra


Leone in 1756 to modern-day South Carolina, tracing the history of
a slave named Pricilla and her descendants, is on display at New
Yorks Historical Society.
* Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes the 1st female president of an
African nation by being elected as president of Liberia.

* Actor / Comedian Richard Pryor dies. Pryor was known for


uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary
issues, which employed colorful vulgarities and profanity, as well
as racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant
observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one
of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all
time:

* Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith retires after 15 years


in the NFL as the all time leading rusher with 18,355 yards and
164 rushing touch downs. Smith is the only running back to have
ever won a Super Bowl Championship, NFL MVP award, NFL Rushing
Crown and Super Bowl MVP award in the same season (1993).

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,

boats and planes to help the predominantly Black victims of the


Katrina disaster in Louisiana. Former FEMA Chief Michael Brown
also pointed out other examples of how President George Bush Jr.,
and staff ignored the problem.
* University of Wisconsin anthropology researchers have found the
remains of African slaves in a 16th century Mexican graveyard,
confirming that slavery began in the new world shortly after
Europeans conquered Mexico. The graves were discovered in
Campeche, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula.
* Edmond Burns is kicked and beaten by 3 White Police Officers in
St. Louis, Missouri following a car chase. The officers displayed
a guilty reaction once they realized the news helicopter was
filming them as Burns was on the ground and under control.
Tyler Perry's TV sitcom "House of Payne" revolves around a Black
multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta. The
show premiered in syndication from 2006 - 2012. While primarily a
comedy sitcom, House of Payne was known for featuring dark themes
and subject matter, such as substance abuse, addiction, strong
language and sexually mature content . It also had elements
of slapstick comedy.
* The Discovery channel airs a documentary on Cleopatra. The
actors portraying Cleopatra and her servants are played by Arabic
looking actors. Modern day Arab scholars of ancient Egypt claim
the culture as their own when in fact they merely were invaders
and occupiers hundreds of years ago. After all Egypt is in Africa.
* Coretta Scott King, the wife of Martin Luther King, dies at the
age of 78. She moved to the forefront of Civil Rights after her
husband died in 1968.

* The Center for Responsible Lending concluded from a 2004 study


that Blacks pay more for mortgages than Whites earning the same

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.

* The Smithsonian Institute of American History plans to build a


museum of African American History and Culture near the Washington
Monument in honor of the contributions to America that Blacks have
made.
* A National Museum devoted to slavery is being constructed in
Fredericksburg, Virginia to re-examine the scars of slavery and

honor the memory of those who suffered. The site is to be


completed by 2008 and is near the site of several civil war
battles.
* Florida proposes a Confederate Flag License Plate to add to the
list of specialty plates. The Sons of Confederate Veterans say the
plate represents their heritage and great pride in their
grandfathers causes in the Civil War which was nothing more than
the institution of Slavery and the lynching of Blacks. It is odd
that they dont realize that they lost the war and slavery is long
gone.

* The 78th annual Academy Awards continue the trend of limiting


quality roles for Black Americans as stereotypes is still the
norm. Blacks are portrayed in lesser roles or as criminals and
illiterates. In 2001 Denzel Washington was named best actor for
Training Day where he played a corrupt cop while Halle Berry won
best actress for Monsters Ball where she played a widowed mom
who had a wild sex scene with the White prison guard who
participated in the execution of her husband played by Sean P.
Diddy Combs. Some say progress is being made while others
disagree. Negative Black stereotypes continue.
* Actor George Clooney and his father take a trip to the Darfur
region in the Sudan to cover and expose the genocide that is
occurring to the African people by Arab militias. Since 2003, over
400,000 Africans have been murdered and 2,500,000 have been
displaced. Countless thousands of women have been raped and their
children killed. The U.S. Government has resisted and ignored
sending help and has essentially looked the other way as Africans
are murdered. Protests in Washington are occurring as the African
tragedy is being exposed by the media. President George Bush Jr.,
said he does not wish to interfere with the political process of
that country. After the pressure of several protests and rallies
around the nation along with mass media coverage, President Bush
sends food and supplies and attempts to appear as if he is saving
the day in the Sudan. The gesture was appreciated but the amount

was insufficient and nothing was done to stop the violence against
Africans.

* A Stanford University study found that execution of Blacks is


likelier for darker skinned Blacks when they are charged with
murdering a White victim. Researchers found that over the last 20
years stereotypically Black features such as dark skinned Blacks
were sentenced to death at a higher rate than Blacks with light
skin or other minorities when charged with the murdering a White
victim.
* AIDS is becoming the disease of race in America. Blacks make up
13% of the U.S. population but account for 51% of the reported
cases of HIV / AIDS in the U.S.
* Bill Lester becomes the 1st Black to qualify, and 3rd ever to do
so, for a race in NASCARs top series in nearly 20 years by
earning a spot in the Golden Corral 500 at the Atlanta motor
speedway.
* Isreal L. Gaither becomes the 1st Black commander of the
Salvation Army in the U.S.
* The movie World Trade Center is released based on the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of New
York. The true story of two first responder ex-Marines rescuing
two trapped Port Authority Police Officers is portrayed. One exMarine, Sgt. Jason Thomas, is Black but the movie casts him as
being White.
* Olympic champion Justin Gatlin breaks the 100-meter world record
with a time of 9.76 seconds at the Qatar Grand Prix in Doha.

* Barry Bonds passes Babe Ruth to become second on the all-time


homerun list with 715 home runs. Bonds must still reach 755 runs
to equal the mark set by Hank Aaron.
* Special prosecutors have found evidence that the Chicago Police
Department tortured 148 Black men in the 1970s and 1980s thru a
four-year investigation. The men were beaten. Shocked and had
Russian roulette played on them to gain confessions.
* J.R. Todd becomes the 1st Black to win a NHRA dragster race event
in the nitro category with a time of 4.906 at 291 mph at the
Bandimere speedway.
* Shani Davis wins the gold medal in the mens 1000 meter speed
skating final to become the 1st Black to claim an individual gold
medal in winter Olympic history. Davis also won the silver medal
in the 1500 meter event at Turino, Italy.

* Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney uses the term Tar Baby in a


negative context during a speech which outrages Black leaders
because of the racist roots and history of the term.
* Tiger Woods wins his 3rd British open and 11th major title.
* The movie The Curse of King Tuts Tomb is released for TV. It
shows Hollywoods continued fascination with ancient Egypt yet it

inaccurately portrays the true race of ancient Egyptians by using


Arabs as the occupying population of Egypt once again denying the
Black culture of their true history.
* Actor Morgan Freeman says Black History Month should be done
away with by asking the question. How you can relegate my history
to one month when Black History is American History?
* Black workers win a $1.25 million dollar settlement in a classaction suit against Super Steel Manufacturing in N.Y. as the
company allowed rampant racism and threats against Black
employees.
* CBS cameraman Paul Douglas becomes the 1st Black journalist
killed in the Iraq war.
* Warren Moon becomes the 1st Black Quarterback inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame. Moon played in the Canadian Football
League, winning 5 grey cups, and the NFL massing over 49,000
throwing yards and 291 touchdowns.
* In the town of Coushatta, Louisiana Go to the back of the bus
is still alive and well. A White school bus driver makes Black
children sit in the back of the bus on each others laps while
White children are allowed to sit by themselves in the front of
the bus.
* Hollywoods nostalgia is coming at the expense of Black
stereotypes and racist notions of a bygone era. The 2005 re-make
of King Kong depicts ooga-booga, spear-chucking natives of
Skull Island who become obsessed with Naomi Watts blond hair and
blue eyes as does Kong himself. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Mans Chest depicts barely clothed brown-skinned cannibals on
Mysterious Island who view Captain Jack Sparrow as a God by giving
him the Holy White Man treatment. Hollywood continues to insult
and inaccurately portray Blacks in negative stereotypes.
* Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the groundbreaking
ceremony honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at the Washington D.C.
National Mall. A memorial will be erected for Dr. King and will
become the first memorial honoring a Black American on the mall.
* The Movie Color of the Cross is released by film maker JeanClaude La Marre depicting Mary and Jesus as being Black. It is the
first representation in Hollywoods history of Jesus being Black.
Reaction to the film was generally negative due to its low budget

and production qualities but makes a big deal out of the


relatively tame suggestion that Jesus was black.

* Seven New Orleans Police Officers have been indicted by a State


Grand Jury on murder charges for the fatal shooting of two unarmed
citizens on the Danziger Bridge after the Hurricane Katrina
disaster. James Brissette was killed along with Ronald Madison who
was shot in the back seven times as he was running away. Four
others were wounded by police gunfire.

* Five New York Police Officers fire 50 rounds at unarmed Sean


Bell killing him and wounding two others on Bells wedding day as
he exited a party at a strip club. Police claim Bell had a gun but
none was found at the scene and witnesses contradict police
reports of the incident. This is another cover-up by law
enforcement to hide their brutality towards Blacks. It was later
revealed that all charges were dropped against the officers.

* Journalist Ed Bradley of CBS dies of Leukemia. Bradley covered


the Viet Nam War and won a record 19 Emmys as a reporter over a
26 year career.
* The movie Annapolis is released showing the struggles of first
year cadets at the Naval Academy. The movie follows a group of
four cadets thru their daily life. The race of the four cadets is
Black, White, Hispanic and Asian. The Hispanic cadet is released
for dishonesty. The Black cadet is shown as an overweight
underachiever lacking self esteem who attempts suicide after
failing to pass the physical fitness test. The Asian cadet is just
there taking up space. The White cadet becomes the focus of the
movie that overcomes all odds and makes it to the next level.
* Harriet A. Washington releases the book Medical Apartheid
which outlines the dark history of medical experimentation on
Blacks from Colonial times to present.

* Michael Richards who played Kramer on the TV show Seinfeld


is caught on video during a racist tirade at a Los Angeles comedy
club calling Blacks in the audience niggers and saying that 50
years ago they would be hanging upside down from a tree.
* Tiger Woods is named the PGA player of the year for the 8th time
after winning 11 tournaments in 2006 with a 6 tournament winning
streak to end out the year.

* Legendary singer James Brown dies at the age of 73. Known


Godfather of Soul, he influenced generations of musicians
rock to rap. Brown won a Grammy for lifetime achievement in
along with Grammys in 1965, 1987 and was inducted into the
and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

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?

* Soldiers from Somalia and Ethiopia battle Islamic militants near


the Kenya border. Moroccan officials have broken up more than 50
militant Islamic cells, some linked to Al-Qaeda. More than 3000
people have been arrested; some were recruiting volunteers to
fight in Iraq. U.N. Peace Keepers are charged with multiple rapes
in the Sudan while they were dispatched to help maintain peace in
the region after a 20-year civil war. Allegations of abuse have
been reported for over two years.
* Six White residents abduct, torture and rape Megan Williams for
over a week in Logan County, West Virginia before police were
given an anonymous tip about the situation. The case revealed that
the suspects planned to murder her after they were done with her.
* Misty Copeland becomes the first Black female soloist for
the American Ballet Theatre in 20 years. ABT is one of the three
leading classical ballet companies in the United States (along
with New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet). However, Anne
Benna Sims and Nora Kimball, who were with the ABT in the early

and mid 1980s respectively, preceded her. In this role as the


third African-American soloist and first in two decades with ABT,
she has endured the cultural pressure associated with it.
* Lovie Smith becomes the 1st Black NFL head coach to lead his
team, Chicago Bears, to the Super Bowl - 41 by beating the New
Orleans Saints 39-14. Smith is the lowest paid head coach in the
NFL. On the same day, Tony Dungy became the 2nd Black NFL head
coach to take his team to the Super Bowl, Indianapolis Colts, by
beating the New England Patriots 38-34.

* Republican lawmaker Frank D. Hargrove of Virginia said in an


interview expressing his opposition to a House resolution for
Virginia to apologize for slavery that Blacks should get over
slavery because it ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War.
These comments outraged Black leaders of the community and the
NAACP. A similar comparison would be like telling Jewish people to
get over the holocaust or for American Indians to get over being
massacred.
* Forest Whitaker wins the Oscar for best leading actor in The
Last King of Scotland a story about the brutal Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin in the 1970s. Whitaker becomes the 4th Black actor to win
Best Actor award.
* University of Maryland students are outraged after finding a
noose hanging from a tree near their cultural center.

* 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.

* A Black family living in Toronto is shocked after receiving a


furniture shipment described in color as nigger-brown. The

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.

* President George Bush Jr., delivers his State of the Union


address speech welcoming a democratic controlled congress,
outlining the status of the county, commenting on world events and
projecting his view of the future for America. The speech covered
everything from the economy to terrorism but it left out one
striking topic. President Bush did not say a single word about the
status or progress of the Hurricane Katrina victims in New
Orleans. At the same time Mayor Ray Nagin is still asking the
question: where is the money that was promised to re-build the
city?
* Radio/TV personality Don Imus describes the University of
Rutgers womens basketball team as a bunch of Nappy Headed Hos
during the televised NCAA championship game with Tennessee. The
Rutgers team is predominately Black. Other off camera comments
were heard describing the team as whores and jiggaboos.
* The movie Amazing Grace is released telling the story of a
young British politician William Wilberforce who over two decades
fought the English government to abolish slave trade. With the
help of former slave Olaudah Equiano, Wilberforce is able to
document the brutal treatment of slaves on British ships. The song
Amazing Grace was written by slave ship captain John Newton
between 1760-1770 after he repented and regretted the misery,
suffering and death he inflicted on thousands of slaves he
transported across the Middle Passage.
* Archaeologists recently unearthed remains of a secret passageway
that President George Washingtons slaves used to enter and exit
from his presidential home in the late 1790s, when the city served
as the nations capitol just steps away from the Liberty Bell and
Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Not far from where the
Declaration of Independence was signed nearly 230 years ago,
stands evidence of the hypocrisy that shrouded the burgeoning

nation at its birth. Washington, the father of our country, owned


316 slaves on his Mount Vernon Estate when he died in 1799.
* The Walt Disney Company started production on an animated fairy
tale called The Frog Princess, which will feature the studios
1st Black princess named Maddy set in New Orleans. Maddy joins
eight other Disney princess characters.
* Trivia Question: Why is the color Black always associated with
something negative? Examples: the eight ball in pool is the bad
ball and always hit by the White ball. The term black-balled
refers to a bad situation. The black hat in western movies always
represents the bad guy. Black as the ace of spades is often used
as a derogatory term. Just the word Black is often associated
with something bad or negative. There is a saying that goes: "If
you are White you are alright. If you are Brown stick around. If
you are Black then get back."
* R & B singer Beyonce Knowles becomes only the second Black model
to make the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition since
Tyra Banks made it in 1997.

* Civil Rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton learned that he is


the descendant of a slave owned by the relatives of the late
Senator Strom Thurmond. Sharpton learned of this when he asked
genealogists to trace his roots. Sharptons great-grandfather,
Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose
grandfather was Strom Thurmonds great-great-grandfather.
Thurmond, of South Carolina, was once considered an icon of racial
segregation and vowed to preserve it.
* Barrington Irving, an aerospace student from Florida Memorial
University, became the 1st Black and youngest person ever to fly
solo around the world by completing a 25,600 mile flight.
* Black artist John Sims displays the proper way to hang a
Confederate Flag in his Black History Art display at the Mary

Brogan Museum of Art in Florida. The Sons of the Confederacy


objected to the art show.

* 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.

* Residents of a Black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded


nearly $11 million by a federal jury that found local authorities
denied them public water service for decades out of racial
discrimination. 67 plaintiffs received money for both monetary
losses and pain and suffering between 1956 and 2003 when water
lines were laid excluding them. The residents had to dig wells,
haul water from cisterns or collect rain so they could drink, cook
and bathe.
* Soul music pioneer Isaac Hayes dies at age 65 but was well known
as a multi-faceted talent: songwriter, producer, sideman, solo
artist, film scorer, actor, rapper and deejay. He was hugely
influential on the rap movement as both a spoken-word pioneer and
larger-than-life persona who influenced everyone from Barry White
to Puff Daddy. Hayes is best known for his soundtrack to Shaft,
one of the first and best blaxploitation films, and for the song
Theme from Shaft, a Top 10 hit. He was elected to the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
* Bernard Jeffrey McCullough dies at the age of 50, better known
by his stage name Bernie Mac. Mac gained popularity as a stand-up
comedian by joining comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the
Entertainer, and D. L. Hughley as The Original Kings of Comedy. He
appeared in TV comedy series, 29 movies and won several awards as
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series along with several other
nominations.
* The U.S. House of Representatives issued an unprecedented
apology to Black Americans for the wrongs committed against them
and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and the Jim Crow
segregation laws. The apology made no mention of reparations but
it did say that Africans forced into slavery were brutalized,
humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being
stripped of their names and heritage which causes Black Americans
today to continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and
Jim Crow laws that forced discrimination and segregation upon
Blacks and their communities.
* Golfweek magazine shows a noose on its cover after news anchor
Kelly Tilghman says on the air that it looks like the only way to
beat Tiger Woods is going to be to take him out in a back alley
and lynch him.

* Phony ghetto sounding names were printed under photos of Black


Student Union members at a Los Angeles high school. The incident
wasnt discovered until the yearbooks were handed out and the
school year ended. The school principal issued a formal apology.
* Ken Griffey Jr. becomes the 6th player, and 5th Black, to reach
600 career home runs. Griffey joins Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron,
Willie Mays, Sammy Sosa and Babe Ruth on the 600 list.
* Bo Diddley died of heart failure at the age of 79. He was known
for his homemade square guitar and signature beat that helped give
birth to the sound that influenced Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and
the Rolling Stones. The 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
and 1998 Grammy Hall of Fame recipient always kept the crowds
rocking and rolling.
* Senator Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, beating out
Senator Hillary Clinton, to be the candidate to run for the office
of the President of the United States. This makes him the 1st Black
person to reach such a position.

* Ex-NASCAR official Mauricia Grant sues NASCAR for $225 million


alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and
wrongful termination after working for two years. Grant claims she

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

his knowledge of and participation in the assassination of Malcolm


X in 1965.
* A change in the organ donor policy by the American Medical
Association improves Blacks access to livers. Under the new
system, the sickest patients get the life-saving organ first which
for the most part eliminates the racial divide where Whites were
favored and more likely to be treated over Blacks. The new system
tries to make the process color-blind. Nearly 16,000 people are
waiting for a transplant. Last year 1602 people died on the
waiting list. Before the policy change, 810 Blacks on the waiting
list got transplants. Meanwhile 10,202 Whites on the waiting list
got transplants. This information was complied by a federally
funded study after the old system was scrapped in 2002.
* A surprising new study found that at least 8,000 Blacks die each
year due to high blood pressure. Dr. Kevin Fiscella of the
University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry said the
study is the first of its kind to calculate the lives lost due to
racial disparities in blood pressure control. Scientists disagree
on the cause of the racial disparities, but some studies indicate
that many Blacks dont have the same access to or receive the same
quality in care as White patients receive. Former U.S. Surgeon
General, Dr. David Satcher said changes need to be made to make
sure minority patients get good medical care when they need it.
* Former South African President, anti-apartheid icon and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela celebrates his 90th Birthday in
his rural South African village.
* The U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Attorney Donald Washington
has committed to trying to solve 100+ cold case civil rights era
unsolved killings of Blacks by re-opening the FBI files of Black
killings.
* The Italian edition of Vogue Magazine releases an all-Black
issue to celebrate the mesmerizing glamour of Black models after
years of forums held to discuss the obvious lack of Black models
on the runways, major editorial spreads and advertising campaigns.
* Georgia Bar Owner Mike Norman created and sells OBAMA in 2008 TShirts depicting a picture of a monkey eating a banana. This
stereotypical picture has been used to represent Blacks since the
times of slavery.

* 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.

* The Fair Housing Justice Center filed a federal lawsuit against


a Brooklyn real estate company for discriminating against Black
customers after they refused to show apartments to Blacks.
* The American Medical Association issues a formal apology to
Black doctors for more than a century of discriminatory policies
that excluded Blacks from participating in a group considered the
voice of U.S. doctors. The apology stems from initiatives to
reduce racial disparities in medicine, increase the number of
Black doctors and address the disproportionate burden of disease
among Blacks as apposed to Whites. The apology came after the AMA

joined the National Medical Association, a Black doctors group.


Black doctors represent less than 3% of the nations doctors.
* Crystal Stewart wins the Miss Texas pageant and the Miss USA
pageant.

* According to statistics compiled from the CDC, World Heath


Organization and the Black AIDS Institute, Blacks account for
nearly 80% of all reported AIDS / HIV cases globally and 50% in
the U.S. as of 2005. AIDS is the number one leading cause of death
in Africa. Blacks make up 13% of the U.S. population but account
for 50% of the reported AIDS cases in all 50 states. This reality
gives credibility to Dr. Boyd E. Graves 2002 discovery of the
1971 U.S. AIDS flowchart labeled Special Virus Cancer Program
which was allegedly created to target and infect Blacks (Africans)
with the HIV/AIDS virus.
* The Barack Obama election run spurs hundreds of racial epithets,
threats, hate crimes, hanging nooses and vandalism incidents
across the country. Many of the incidents are carried out by White
college students. The internet is filled with racist text and
images against Obama. Increased Secret Service protection details
are required to protect Obama and his family from harm.

* Sixty years after President Harry Truman desegregated the


military in 1948, senior Black officers are still rare among the

highest ranks. Just 10 Blacks have attained 4-star rank. Only 1 of


38 4-star officers currently serving are Black. According to
Pentagon data there are currently 51 Blacks of the 923 General
officers or 5.6% having the rank of 1 to 4 stars in all branches
of the military. Despite these bleak statistics for Blacks, the
military appears to provide a bit more high-level opportunities
than the corporate world. As of 2007, just 5 of the Fortune 500
companies or 1% were headed by a Black CEO.
* Soledad OBrien of CNN news presents: Black in America, a
sweeping on-air and digital initiative revealing the current state
of Black America 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. The program features six hours of dialogue about
the disparities between Blacks and Whites in America. According to
Black Weekly, companies in the U.S. have said they would hire a
White man with a felony record and no high school education BEFORE
they would hire a Black man with NO criminal record and a 4-year
degree. Companies still hold to the slave era stereotype that
Blacks are lazy, dont dress well and are likely to be violent on
the job. The report shows that generationally passed on low self
esteem, no role models, high unemployment rates, poor educational
goals, obstacles due to race, high incarceration rates, the lure
of drugs and fast money and a prejudiced justice system adds to
the perpetuation of Blacks as a whole to achieve less than Whites
or fail in America. The media machine continues to show White
America a barrage of negative images of Blacks as gangsters,
criminals, and womanizers while largely ignoring positive examples
of Black achievements.
* The New Yorker magazine releases a new cover of Barack Obama and
his wife, Michelle Obama in the oval office. Barack is dressed in
Muslim garb with a picture of Osama Bin Laden over the fireplace
and burning an American flag. His wife is dressed in camouflage
clothes with a large afro carrying an AK-47 and giving a fist bump
to suggest she is a terrorist. Barack is known to practice the
catholic faith and is a graduate of Columbia University and
Harvard Law School. Michelle does not wear and afro and is a
graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. This is
another attempt by White America trying to spread fear, hate,
misconception and discredit the possible 1st Black President of the
United States.

* 28 Black World War II soldiers are exonerated over a WWII racial


incident at Ft. Lawton, Seattle. The Army formally apologized for
the wrongful conviction of 28 Black soldiers accused of rioting
and lynching an Italian P.O.W. more than six decades ago. All but
two of the dishonorably discharged soldiers are dead. Army
investigators threatened the soldiers with being lynched to gain
confessions. Initially, 43 soldiers were accused of rioting and
some for murder.
* 200 current and former Black U.S. Marshalls hit the government
agency with a $300 million dollar discrimination lawsuit for being
passed over for promotions and working in a hostile work
environment. Supervisors taunted, harassed and insulted Black
employees by calling them lazy along with routinely reprimanding
Blacks for petty mistakes in order to prevent promotions while
grooming and promoting White employees.
* Medical researchers found that Black patients with high blood
pressure had significantly higher readings than White or Asian
patients. More than 8000 Blacks a year die due to gaps in medical
access and care between Black and Whites. Former U.S. Surgeon
General Dr. David Satcher said changes need to be made to make
sure minority patients receive good medical care when they need
it.
* Michael Steele becomes the 1st Black Republican National
Committee chairman elected to lead the GOP.
* Serena Williams wins her 10th grand slam singles title by winning
the Australian Open.
* Jennifer Hudson wins a Grammy Award for best R & B album titled
Jennifer Hudson. She also sang the national anthem at the super
bowl in Tampa, Florida.

* The NAACP files a massive class-action lawsuit against sub-prime


mortgage lenders. The lawsuit is designed to stop lenders from
engaging in systematic, institutionalized racism toward Blacks in
making home mortgage loans. Blacks are 3 times more likely to
receive higher rate, more expensive sub-prime loans than Whites
even when they had equal income, down payment and credit ratings
as their White counterparts. One study found that Blacks were 6
times more likely to be given higher rate sub-prime loans even
when Whites were less qualified. Blacks are forced into sub-prime
loans while Whites receive lower interest rates. The lenders
include Wells Fargo, HSBC, Washington Mutual, Citigroup,
Countrywide and several others. As you now see, once the sub-prime
loan resets to the higher rate the mortgage payment increases
beyond what the family can afford. The result is foreclosure,
bankruptcy and a ruined credit rating.
* First-term Illinois Senator Barack Obama (Democrat) shattered
more than 200 years of history by being elected as the 1st Black
president of the United States becoming the 44th president. Obama
received 63,690,116 votes winning 53% of the popular vote and 365
delagate votes. Obama needed 270 delagate votes to win. Republican
challenger John McCain received 47% of the popular vote and 173
delagate votes. There were more than 110 million votes cast making
this election the most participated turnout in election history.
Obama ran on the platform of change is coming. Obama won in states
that historically went to republican candidates. Obama won the
votes of minorities, women and young people voting for the first
time.

* President elect Barack Obama is named Person of the year by Time


magazine.

* A striking new study found in the archives of Internal Medicine


found that Blacks pay about 30% more for medical care than Whites
in the last stages of their life. This is due in part because of
the lifelong misallocation of medical care towards Blacks over the
course of their life span. In the last stages of life, medical
treatment for Blacks is more aggressive than that of Whites to
overcome the seriousness of their illnesses. The lack of quality
or equal treatment for Blacks causes illnesses to be more severe
in the later stages of life for Blacks. This amounts to higher
medical costs for Blacks than Whites. The current medical system
fails Blacks from the day they are born until the day they die
when compared to Whites.
2009 A NEW DAWN HAS COME
* January 20th, 2009 ushers in a new dawn of American and Black
History as Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th and 1st Black to
become the President of the United States. It is estimated that
almost 2 million people braved bitter cold at the national mall in
Washington, DC to watch the inauguration ceremony. The crowd size
breaks all previous records for attendance of any President in
history. Mr. Obama inherits a country in social turmoil, economic
collapse and waging a war against terrorism in the Middle East.
The economic condition of the country is on a scale equal to or
greater than the great depression of the twenties. Obama promises
hope over fear by saying yes we can.

* We are still celebrating the election of the 1st Black president


in the United States, but across the globe in Africa in places
like Zimbabwe, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo to name a few,
the reality of death, AIDS, disease, starvation, murder, rape and
genocide still continues. The world continues to ignore the plight
of Africa while helping the Middle East and other countries around
the world. I am still amazed at how Haitians are deported back to

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.

* President Barack Obama gives the commencement ceremony to


graduating seniors at Arizona State University, sending the
students into the working world to make their careers. The
university however refused to grant the president an honorary
degree which is customarily granted to the speaker. The university
said the president has not accomplished enough in his life to be
granted the degree despite graduating from Columbia University and
Harvard School of Law and going on to be a civil rights attorney,
professor of constitutional law and a three-term Senator in
Illinois. Later that year Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
"extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and
cooperation between people".
* The New York Post magazine prints a racist cartoon intended to
reflect President Obama and his economic stimulus plan. The
cartoon shows a White police officer shooting and killing a
chimpanzee. One of the officers says Theyll have to find someone
else to write the next stimulus bill. Racism is still alive and
well in this country towards Blacks as this racist stereotype and
jab at President Obama displays.

* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Blacks are losing


jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this

punishing recession. Companies are cutting their budgets by


cutting back advertising to minorities and employees that work in
those fields. Professional Blacks do not have older roots to
anchor them in the professional world nor do they have an
inheritance to fall back on. Low and middle-class Blacks are laid
off first because they lack professional skill sets or higher
educations to secure their positions.
* As the nations first Black President settles into the office, a
division is growing between two groups of Blacks. One group wants
to continue praising him and his historic ascendancy, while the
other group wants to criticize him for not immediately solving
problems such as racial profiling and double-digit unemployment
among Blacks. Some Blacks see the historic achievement of the
first Black president in a country that once used Blacks as
slaves, while other Blacks want the first Black president to
immediately fix and erase all the racism, oppression and disparity
Blacks have suffered since they gained their freedom from slavery.
President Obama responded to this by saying I am not the Black's
President; I am the President who is Black.
* A White police officer kills Black police officer. An
unidentified White New York City police officer shot and killed
fellow officer Omar J. Edwards as Edwards was chasing a suspect
who had been rummaging through his car. Edwards was off duty when
he spotted a man in his car. Edwards called emergency services and
gave chase. Edwards pulled his gun but did not fire at the fleeing
suspect. Officers in an unmarked car saw Edwards running down the
street with his gun drawn. The White officer leapt from his car,
yelled at Edwards to stop and immediately fired six rounds into
Edwards, as he turned to face him, without giving Edwards a chance
to speak, identify himself or even drop the gun. It is usually
customary for police officers to try and arrest and disarm armed
suspects before shooting them without knowing the circumstances of
the situation and when the suspects are not shooting at the
police.
* Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Blackmon outlines the
brutal aspect of U.S. history on the countrys racial past just as
the countrys 1st Black president is seen as evidence of racial
progress. Slavery by Another Name recounts the little-known
story of how in the decades after President Abraham Lincolns 1863
Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves, hundreds of thousands of
Blacks were re-enslaved as convict laborers under laws that were
designed to ensnare them. The book explains why a U.S. racial
divide still exists and why the countrys Black minority lags
behind the rest of the population in terms of economic and social

equality. Segregation, share-cropping and lynching are widely


known features of life in the South after the Civil War, but neoslavery is largely neglected.
* Alysa Stanton of Colorado becomes the 1st Black female Jewish
Rabbi in the world. She will lead her own congregation in
Greenville, North Carolina.
* Tyler Perry's TV sitcom "Meet the Browns" aired for three years
bringing back Black stereotypes and sets Black television back 60
years with Amos and Andy style comedy with falling down, farting,
calling on Jesus and other buffoonery. The low-brow humor in these
type of Black comedies help pave the way for the cancellation and
phasing out of serious Black TV shows like Under Covers starring
two Black actors as CIA spies. This type of comedy show is why
there are no Black dramas, mysterys, game shows, documentaries or
detective series on TV and maybe only one or two on cable. The
world actually views Blacks the same way as they see them on
television in these negative stereotypical roles.
* Five Birmingham, Alabama police officers were fired for
violently beating an unconscious man after he wrecked his vehicle.
Anthony Warren led police on a chase but wrecked his car and was
thrown clear after it rolled over. The police, one Black, swarmed
Warren and were caught on video beating him while he lay
unconscious in a ditch. Warren suffered a skull fracture and
internal bleeding. City officials discovered the video almost a
year after the incident.
* Serena Williams won her 3rd Wimbledon title and 11th major title
overall by defeating her older sister Venus in the finals. Serena
and Venus won the doubles title together for their eighth doubles
title together.
* According to a report released by the National Urban League, it
points out that despite the progress represented by the election
of the first Black president, Blacks are twice as likely to be
unemployed, three times as likely to live in poverty and more than
six times as likely to be incarcerated. This comes at a time when
Blacks are pulled over because they are Black; passed over for
promotions because they are Black and considered criminals just
because they are Black.
* Fort Lauderdale, Florida. U.S. immigration authorities ordered
30,000 Haitians to be deported back to Haiti. Most of the
deportees have valid passports and were not given reasons for
their forced exodus. Several hundred Haitians are being held in

crowded detention centers in Florida. This comes at a time when


hundreds of Cubans illegally sneak into Florida and are allowed to
stay once they reach land under the Wet foot, dry foot law. The
situation is Haiti is far worse than in Cuba, but the U.S. ignores
the plight of the Haitian struggle. Haitians are direct
descendants of slaves from Africa.
* The King of Pop and music legend superstar Michael Jackson
died at the age of 50 at the U.C.L.A. medical center of cardiac
arrest. Jacksons record sales are believed to be around 750
million records sold, which earned him 19 Grammy awards, 22
American Music Awards, 13 MTV Awards, 12 World Music Awards, 40
Billboard Awards, 14 NAACP Awards, 1 Golden Globe Award, 56 RIAA
Awards, 7 BRIT Awards, 13 Guinness World Records, 13 number one
singles and induction into the Music Hall of Fame twice making him
the most successful entertainer of all time. In total Michael
earned 197 Awards and was named artist of the Decade, Generation,
Century and Millennium. Michael also pioneered music videos into
what they are today buy telling short stories and making them
social events coinciding with his music. Jackson first performed
at the age of 6 with his brothers in the group The Jackson 5.
Michaels 1982 release of the album Thriller remains the biggest
selling album of all time, with more than 109 million copies sold
worldwide. Thrillers sales numbers surpassed the Beatles and
Elvis Presley combined. The planet mourns as people around the
world pay tribute to The King of Pop. More than 1.6 million fans
from around the world applied for free tickets to attend Michaels
public memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It
is estimated that more than 1 billion people worldwide viewed the
televised memorial.

* Henry Louis Gates, a prominent intellectual scholar and Harvard


Professor, was arrested at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts
for disorderly conduct after neighbors called the police stating
that two men were trying to break into Mr. Gates residence. The

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.

* Michael Jordan is inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as


arguably the greatest player of all-time. He dominated his
opponents on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court as
well as mentally intimidating them. Most of his career Jordan was
double and triple teamed in attempts to stop him to no avail.
Jordan would rip thru defenses and score at will or pass to a
teammate with the result being points. One player was quoted as
saying that MJ was God in disguise because he was un-stoppable.
Here are the numbers: 2 Olympic Gold Medals, 5 MVP Awards, 6 NBA
Titles, 6 Finals MVP Awards, 10 Scoring Titles, 2 Slam Dunk
Titles, 9 Defensive Player Awards, 13 All-Star Team Selections,
30.1 Regular Season PPG Avg., 33.4 Playoffs PPG Avg., 32,292
Points, 5633 Assists and 6672 Rebounds. MJ was well, the BEST.

* Tiger Woods becomes the first athlete to reach a billion dollars


in career earnings, according to Forbes, cementing his status as
the top pitchman /athlete in sports history. A $10 million prize
he claimed for winning the FedEx Cup title pushed him over the
top. Woods had earned $895 million coming into the season and took
home $10.5 million in winnings to go with his championship bonus
and endorsement money, appearance fees and earnings from his
course design business.
* This year marks the 44th anniversary of the Voting Right Act
enacted by President Johnson in 1965. It was passed to reverse Jim
Crow laws, which effectively denied Blacks the right to vote for
decades. The act eliminated poll taxes, literacy tests and other
voting barriers. One Jim Crow relic continues in which citizens
are denied the right to vote because of a criminal conviction.
Criminal disenfranchisement laws were put in place alongside poll
taxes in the late 1800s to prevent Blacks from voting as states
enacted laws they believed freed slaves were most likely to commit
such as vagrancy, petty theft and bigamy. Targeted criminalization
and criminal disenfranchisement suppressed Blacks for decades.
* The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for
slavery and racial segregation in the U.S. but nothing in the
measure supports reparations.
* Due to the unprecedented amount of racist comments, online death
threats, hostility and discriminatory attitudes and news reporting
against President Obama because of his color and race, I cannot
keep up with nor have the intention of listing them all in this
document. It is sad that this country would openly attack a
sitting President with racist attitudes, behavior and utter
disrespect. We have come along way but old attitudes against
Blacks still hold true. The Confederate flag still flies high in
many parts of the southern United States.
* Several articles and studies have surfaced in recent years
outlining how the news media, particularly television news, unduly
connect race and crime, especially violent crime to Blacks. Blacks
are underrepresented in reporting as being victims, and
overrepresented in the news as perpetrators. Articles about White
homicide victims tend to be longer, and more frequent than the
articles that cover Black victims. Blacks are more likely to be
shown on TV news committing violent crime than nonviolent crime.
Black suspect photos are frequently shown on the news as compared
to White suspect photos. Actual crime statistics reveal Blacks
were equally likely to be arrested for violent and nonviolent

crimes. Another series of studies showed that Whites committed


more violent crimes than were represented in television crime
stories of violent crime. The consistent presentation of
significant distortions in the news creates a misinformation
synergy and presents an inaccurate overall picture depicting
Blacks as the driving force behind crime in this country. Based on
reports from national media outlets, the only people who ever go
missing seem to be: White, Female, Thin and relatively attractive
and Upper class (by virtue of income or education). Rarely does
the media show Blacks as missing or the victims of crime.
* The movie Transformers 2, Revenge of the Fallen, is released
where the story develops showing that alien robotic life forms,
the decepticons, visited earth and built the pyramids millions of
years ago in their quest to hide technology for harnessing energy
from the sun. One pyramid was actually built over the energy
machine to hide it from their rivals, the autobots. The movie also
portrayed two small robots called the twins who were intended as
comic relief, but were clearly aimed at the racial stereotype of
two illiterate bumbling street Blacks who couldnt read with one
having a gold tooth. The association of the two robots to Black
street thugs came across loud and clear. Once again Hollywood
denies that ancient Egyptians (Blacks) were the builders of the
pyramids and would rather show that aliens created the pyramids
and the entire culture associated with them rather than give
credit to ancient Blacks for creating the first great civilization
of this planet.
* Six Black students in a group of 200 seniors from Washington
University in St. Louis traveled to Chicago were told they could
not come into Mother's Original Bar because their pants were too
baggy, even though White students similarly dressed were admitted.
The Black students offered to change their clothes but were still
told that they could not come in. One Black student switched pants
with his White friend and still wasnt admitted. This appears to
be a case where race played a larger role in the situation than
attire.

* The FIFA World Cup is hosted in South Africa (Johannesburg) for


the first time in world cup history. South Africa has played in
the World Cup three times with this years entry. Teams from other
African countries (Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and
Cameroon) have teams entered in the event. The two junior World
Cup competitions (under 20 and under 17 years of age respectively)
have both been held in the African countries of Tunisia, Egypt
twice & Nigeria twice.

* Edward Brooke, the 1st Black elected to the U.S. Senate by


popular vote, was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal. "At a
time when so many doors were closed to Blacks, others might have
become angry or disillusioned," President Obama told an audience
in the Capitol Rotunda, where the ceremony honoring Brooke for
Congress' greatest honor was held. "They might have concluded that
no matter how hard they worked, their horizons would always be
limited. So why bother? Not Ed Brooke," he said. Brooke, 90, was a
Republican senator from Massachusetts for two full terms, from
1967 to 1979. "He ran for office, as he put it, to bring people
together who had never been together before, and that he did," the
president said. Brooke grew up in segregated Washington and served
in the Army during World War II. Afterward, he received a law

degree from Boston University and eventually ran for attorney


general of Massachusetts.
* Retired Marine General Charles Bolden, Jr., becomes the 1st
black administrator of NASA.
* Eric Holder becomes the 1st Black U.S. Attorney General and the
82nd incumbent.
2010
* Jerry Rice is voted as the number 1 player of the top 100 best
NFL players of all time for the past 50 years as voted by an NFL
blue-ribbon panel of judges. 10 of the top 20 of the top 100 best
players of all time are Black. Those players are #2 - Jim Brown,
#3 - Lawrence Taylor, #5 - Walter Payton, #7 - Reggie White, #11
Ronnie Lott, #13 Joe Greene, #15 Deacon Jones, #17 Barry
Sanders and #18 Ray Lewis.
* Seven Black workers from the Matheson Trucking Company in
Denver, Colorado filed a $15 million dollar discrimination lawsuit
claiming that bosses called them lazy stupid Africans, niggers and
segregated them from White workers. The company is accused of
discriminating against Black workers "in all phases of
employment, including hiring, termination, conditions of
employment, promotion, vacation pay, furlough, discipline, work
shifts, benefits and wages," According to the Denver Post, many of
the plaintiffs were from the African country of Mali, one was from
Brazil.
* The TV reality show "Basketball Wives" airs on VH1. It
chronicles the lives of a group of women who are somehow
romantically linked to professional basketball players. They are
either the wife, ex-wife or girlfriend of an NBA superstar. They
drive expensive cars, live in mansions and wear designer clothes
and jewelry. The show portrays Black women as materialistic gold
diggers with some going from athlete to athlete because an above
average paycheck is the attraction. This show portrays Black women
in a negative light.
* A team of researchers working in South Africa unearthed what
they believe are the remains of a previously unknown species
predating modern humans. They discovered the skeletons of an adult
female and juvenile male that are believed to be 2 million years
old. The two are believed to have been significantly taller and
stronger than Lucy, the roughly 3 million year old skeleton

discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. This is more evidence to support


that modern humans started in Africa.
* A new study shows Black male students across the nation languish
at the bottom of every educational category. The Council of the
Great City Schools reports that by the fourth grade only 12% of
Black male students read at or above grade level, while 38% of
White males do. In some big cities the dropout rate is around 50%.
Black males now make up only 5% of college enrollment nationally,
but 36% of the prison population.
* Archaeologists found a 2800 year old burial chamber of a priest
named Karakhamun that boasts brightly painted astrological scenes
including a depiction of the sky goddess, Nut. The tomb dates to
the 25th Dynasty and was uncovered in Luxor.
* Vernon J. Baker was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Baker was the last living Black veteran to receive the Medal of
Honor for action during World War II. Baker led an all-Black
platoon in an attack against Nazi fortifications in Italy in 1945.
Baker was the highest decorated Black soldier in the Mediterranean
theatre with the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple
Heart, Italian Cross of Valor and Polish Cross of Valor. In 1997
President Bill Clinton awarded Baker the Medal of Honor along with
6 other Black soldiers after a study was conducted in 1990 to
learn why no Black soldiers received the Medal of Honor during
World War II.
* Lena Horne dies at age 92. She was the 1st Black performer signed
to a long-term contract by a major Hollywood studio and who went
on to achieve international fame as a singer. She might have
become a major movie star in her early years but racism and her
skin color kept her at MGM in the 1940s.

* 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.

* The Grio as a website is devoted to the news, opinions, and


contributions of Black people in America and around the world,
www.TheGrio.com is interested in understanding what the past
teaches us about our current political moment and how it helps us
prepare for the future. The Grio releases the African-American
Leadership Survey of the top 25 most influential Black leaders of
all time.
1. Martin Luther King, Jr., 2. Barack Obama, 3. W.E.B. Du Bois, 4.
Thurgood Marshall, 5. Malcolm X, 6. Frederick Douglass, 7.
Harriet, Tubman 8. Rosa Parks, 9. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 10. Ella
Baker, 11. Booker T. Washington, 12. Adam Clayton Powell, 13.
James Baldwin, 14. Dred Scott, 15. Paul Robeson, 16. A. Phillip
Randolph, 17. Fannie Lou Hamer, 18. Marcus Garvey, 19. Jesse
Jackson, Sr., 20. John Johnson, 21. Mary McLeod Bethune, 22.
Carter G. Woodson, 23. Nat Turner, 24. Harry Belafonte, 25.
Charles Hamilton Houston.

* Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, a storied Elder Statesman for


Civil Rights, dies at 89. He survived beatings and bombings in
Alabama a half-century ago as he fought against racial injustice
alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., The brutality helped
galvanize the nations conscience, as did the Ku Klux Klans
bombing of a black church in Birmingham that summer, which killed
four girls at Sunday school. Those events led to passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, after
the historic Alabama marches that year from Selma to Montgomery,
which Mr. Shuttlesworth also helped organize. The laws were the
bedrock of civil rights legislation. Mr. Shuttlesworth joined with
Dr. King in 1957 as one of the four founding ministers of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the engine of Dr.
Kings effort to unify the black clergy and their flocks to combat
Jim Crow laws. At the time, Mr. Shuttlesworth was leader of the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.

* A polo team from Philadelphia made history in central Virginia


when they became the 1st all Black team to win a national title.
The Cowtown-Work to Ride team took home the gold after beating out
the crew from Baltimore in the National Interscholastic
Championship at the Virginia Polo Center. Brandon Rease, of the
winning team said it feels great to be a part of this monumental
achievement in this sport. This was the 42nd year for the
tournament. The Philly team also had to beat out groups from
California, Texas and Canada to be named the champions.
* An African American mother and son were astonished after a
History teacher at Chapelfield Elementary School in Gahanna, Ohio
held a mock slave auction, dividing the class into Slaves and
Masters. The class only had two black students in the class; one
was assigned Master, and the other, Nikko Burton, was assigned
Slave. Burton, 10, was sent to his seat after he refused to be
poked, prodded, and be humiliated during the reenactment. A spokes
women for the school maintains that the lesson is part of a state
required curriculum. While a representative for the school has
apologized to the family over the phone, 10 year old Burton wishes
that the teacher would have apologized to him personally.
* The 1st Black President of the United States, Barack Obama, had
to prove that he was a citizen of this country by having to
present his birth certificate to the country and media. A Hillary
Clinton supporter passed around an e-mail that questioned where
Obama was born which was allegedly supported and pushed by Hillary
Clinton in 2007-2008 during her presidential run against Obama. In
over 235 years this is the only time it has been required,
ironically when a person of a darker complexion took the seat in
the Oval Office. It seems that this birther movement" says more
about race relations, than the election of Obama. It calls back to
the days when Blacks had to carry papers to prove that they were
free.

* President Barack Obama ordered the commando raid by SEAL Team 6


that found and killed terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden after
deciding the risks were outweighed by the possibility of us
finally getting our man following a decade of frustration. Osama
was found living in a mansion about 35 miles from the city
of Islamabad in Pakistan. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W.
Bush had targeted Osama Bin Laden during their presidencies, and
both had failed to either capture him or kill him. Osama Bin Laden
was the most wanted terrorist in the history of the world for
orchestrating several attacks on the United States including the
attack on the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001 which
killed over 3000 Americans.
* Cultural phenomenon Oprah Winfrey ends her 25-year run as talk
show host of The Oprah Winfrey Show that has made her one of the
most influential stars in America and which is currently
syndicated in 145 countries. She has been credited with changing
the way people talk to each other through her confessional
interview style and is regularly ranked among the most powerful
women, celebrities and media personalities in the world. Born into
poverty in Mississippi, Forbes magazine recently estimated
Winfrey's net worth at $2.7 billion.

* Retired heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson is inducted into the boxing


hall of fame. Called Iron Mike and known as the baddest man on
the planet, he finished with a record of 50-6. Tyson held all
three major championship belts; WBA, IBF and WBC and was the
youngest ever heavyweight champion at 20 years old. Tyson was also
the Junior Olympic Games Heavyweight Champion and National Golden
Gloves Heavyweight Champion. Mike Tyson says he told Muhammad Ali
he would avenge Ali's beating at the hands of Larry Holmes. Tyson
backed up his promise by beating Holmes in 1988.
* Countrywide settles a class action suit by agreeing to pay a
$335 million dollar fine for steering over 200,000 Blacks and
Hispanics into risky and expensive mortgages. The predatory
lending practices cheated Blacks by charging them higher rates and
fees than their White counter parts. The sub-prime mortgages would
often have huge balloon variable rate increases within a few years
which resulted in 1/3 of the total loans to go into foreclosure
and judgments. The fees charged to Blacks averaged about $1200
more than for Whites.
* A memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. was dedicated at the
national mall in Washington, DC adjacent to the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Memorial, between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.
It is one of the most prestigious sites remaining on the National
Mall which was selected for the memorial. It is the first major
memorial along the National Mall to be dedicated to an AfricanAmerican, and to a non-president. The memorial is 30 feet tall and
includes a 450 foot-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations
from the civil rights leader.

* Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, is crowned Miss Universe. Lopes is the


first winner the pageant has ever selected from her country after
she beat 88 other competitors from around the world.

* President Barack Obama eases aid delivery restrictions to


Somalia helping over 3 million starving people in the Horn of
Africa suffering under the control of Islamist Al Qaeda militants.
The U.S. is providing $459 million to the nations in the Horn of
Africa. Islamic extremists are terrorizing the local population in
efforts to manipulate other countries into providing aid to ease
the suffering of the local people while Al Qaeda takes most if not
all of the aid and controls the region. Opponents of providing aid
argue that only Al Qaeda is benefitting.
* The FBI thwarts White supremacists plot to bomb an NAACP march
for Martin Luther King Jr. day in Spokane, Washington.
2012
* After the crushing defeat at the 2008 presidential election to
Democrat and the first Black President of the United States,
the Republican Party conceded that it needed to be more inclusive
of people of color - the voters who essentially delivered
President Barack Obama to the White House. The RNC spent $14,000
on a Black outreach website that would highlight the achievements
of Black people in the Republican Party. The Republican Party
built a newly integrated site with content targeted toward Black
voters and other constituency groups, rather than a splintered
network of sites. But leaders pulled the plug on the project at
the last minute right before the 2012 presidential election after
leaders changed their minds. Ironically incumbent President Barack
Obama won a 2nd term and was re-elected without the website which
is what the Republican party feared all along.

* The film "Django Unchained" is released following an African


American slave somewhere in Texas, in 1858 and Dr. King Schultz an
English-speaking German bounty-hunter posing as a traveling
dentist. Schultz buys and then promises to free Django Freeman in
exchange for his help in collecting a large bounty on three
outlaws. Schultz subsequently promises to teach Django bounty
hunting, and split the bounties with him, if Django assists him in
hunting down other outlaws throughout the winter. Django agrees on
the condition that they also locate and free his long-lost wife
from her cruel plantation owner. The film was a major critical and
commercial success and was nominated for several film industry
awards, including five Academy Awards by giving another look into
the dark past of slavery in America.
* Singer Etta James dies and is regarded as having bridged the gap
between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and was the winner of
6 Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into
the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in
2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008. Rolling
Stones ranked James number 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest
Singers of All Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest
Artists.

* Gabrielle "Gabby" Douglas becomes the first Black woman in


Olympic history to become the individual all-around champion, and
the first American gymnast to win gold medals in both the
individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics
as well as being the only American all-around champion to win
multiple gold medals. She was also a member of the gold-winning
U.S. team at the 2011 World Championships.
* Three White teenagers have been jailed and charged with a hate
crime after admitting they were out hunting Black people when they
used their truck to run over and kill 47 year old James Craig
Anderson in Jackson, Mississippi in 2011. Deryl Paul Dedmon, John

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.

* The Montford Point Marines, the long-overlooked first Black


Marine unit that served in the Pacific in World War II, are
finally recognized as the U.S. Senate unanimously awarded them the
Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor. The
House passed the measure 422-0 honoring these men for their
service and sacrifice, and granting them the recognition that is

50 years overdue. In 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered


the armed forces to admit Black recruits. In 1942, the Marine
Corps began their first, segregated boot camp for blacks at
Montford Point, N.C., next to Camp LeJeune. The camp trained
20,000 Black Marines until 1949, closing after President Harry
Truman's executive order to desegregate the armed forces.

* Violent Anti-African race riot Rocks Israel as Black Men and


Women are beaten. Violence surged in the streets of Tel Aviv as a
1000-strong protest against African immigrants seeking asylum in
Israel turned violent. Residents of a low-income Tel Aviv
neighborhood descended to the streets, waving Israeli flags and
chanting Deport the Sudanese and Infiltrators get out of our
homes to protest against the increase of African migrants moving
into the area and the country. The protest rapidly turned violent
and police arrested 17 people with charges ranging from assault to
vandalism. Some of them were still beating up migrants when they
were arrested. Protesters in the Hatikva neighborhood set trash
cans alight, broke some stores window and attacked African
migrants who were passing-by. They also attacked an African
migrant driving through the area and broke his cars windows.

* Don Cornelius, creator of the long-running TV dance show Soul


Train, dies at age 75. Cornelius was a visionary pioneer and a
giant in the entertainment business. Before MTV there was Soul
Train. His contributions to television, music and Black culture

as a whole will never be matched. Soul Train began in 1970 in


Chicago on WCIU-TV as a local program and aired nationally from
1971 to 2006. It introduced television audiences to such legendary
artists as Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Marvin
Gaye, Barry White and many others and brought the best R&B, soul
and later hip-hop acts to TV and had teenagers dance to them. It
was one of the first shows to showcase African-Americans
prominently to shine a light on black artists who many times
didn't get the recognition they deserved. Cornelius was the first
host and executive producer. Before Soul Train there was no
programming that targeted any particular ethnicity. "Soul Train"
was most famous for its dancers who would show off the newest
moves while partying to the latest hits. The "Soul Train" line,
where dancers would line up on the left and right of the dance
floor, allowing for one performer at a time to shimmy down the
aisle, became a staple in American pop culture. He ended every
show by saying "Love, Peace and Soul".

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.

* The Maury Povich Show, which was nationally syndicated and


distributed in partnership with his own production company, has
been on the air since 1991 and has become "The Father of Black
Trash" TV. Week after week we see young Black women on the lower
socioeconomic totem pole embarrass themselves after being pegged
as loose, irresponsible, or worse: an all around bad mother. The
men fair no better, because regardless of whether or not they
impregnated a given guest, they were trifling enough to not

discover or care whether or not they had a child in this world on


their own accord. People appearing on the show are paid about $500
to humiliate themselves in front of millions of people on TV and
perpetuate the negative stereotypes about Black people.
* Brazilian beauty queen, Nayara Justino, was stripped of her
title for being "Too Black". Rio de Janeiros Carnival is an
annual event flocked by millions of Brazilians and tourists alike.
It is during this carnival that Globo, Brazils largest television
network, selects the Globeleza Carnival Queen by the vote of the
people. The chosen carnival queen becomes the star of the whole
event. Nayara Justino was fairly voted as the Globeleza Carnival
Queen by the public. Under inexplicable circumstances the network
Globo stripped her of the crown and a new queen with a lighter
skin complexion was selected to be the face of the carnival. In
the entire history of the carnival, the Globeleza queen has always
invariably been a light-skinned woman with a more Spanish look.

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.

* Suzanne Shank, CEO of two billion dollar financial service


institutions becomes first Black woman to head a publicly traded
financial institution. Under her watch, her two companies have
created revenue reaching well into the trillions of dollars. She
earned an MBA in finance from Wharton University a civil
engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
* The Jackie Robinson West little league team, a squad of African
American youngsters from some of the poorest neighborhoods, from
Chicago, Illinois wins the U.S. Little League World Series Title
and made history as the first all-Black team to win the U.S.
title. Losing team coach, Chris Janes, filed a complaint
claiming the team violated rules about district lines and
ineligible players on the team based on their home address in
order to have the award stripped from the winning team. Many
believe the complaint by Janes was fueled by racism.

* The movie musical remake of "Annie" from 1982 is released


starring a Black Annie as a foster kid, who lives with her mean
foster mom, who sees her life change when a business tycoon and
New York mayoral candidate makes a thinly-veiled campaign move and
takes her in. Meanwhile, Target comes under fire from angry
consumers over its use of White models to promote a new clothing
line inspired by the recent remake of the hit musical Annie, which
is led by Black actress Quvenzhan Wallis. The in-store displays
cast a White girl as the star model, who happens to be wearing the
collection's main piece; and the same red dress worn by Quvenzhan
at Target's collection launch.
* An unidentified Black man proves the Adam and Eve biblical story
is probably not true. His DNA dates back 338,000 years. The man's
chromosome carries a rare mutation, which researchers matched to a
similar chromosome in the Mbo, a population living in a tiny area
of western Cameroon in sub-Saharan Africa. Michael F. Hammer, an
associate professor at the University of Arizona's Department of

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 movie "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is Ridley Scott's retelling


of the Ten Commandments story as a defiant Moses rises up against
the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a
monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle
of deadly plagues. Many of the lead roles are being played by
White actors, while many Black actors have been cast as slaves.
Hollywood has once again white washed the true race and color of
the people and their position in life that would have been alive
in Africa (Egypt) in 1300 B.C.
* The movie "Noah" is released and based on the story of Noah's
Ark from the Book of Genesis. Noah is chosen by his GOD to
undertake a momentous mission to build an Ark to save the world's
animals before an apocalyptic flood cleanses the world because
mankind has become too sinful and must be wiped off the Earth. The
flood began approximately 4,359 years ago in the year 2348 B.C.,
but Hollywood used an all White cast to portray the people of the
time period somewhere in the area around Turkey and Iraq. This
continues Hollywood's white washing of history.
* The TV comedy series "Black Jesus" airs on Adult Swim and
spotlights Jesus living in modern-day Compton, California, trying
to spread love and kindness throughout his neighborhood on a daily
basis. Black Jesus" is a satire and one interpretation of the
message of Jesus played out in modern day morality tales. Mostly
assisting in his mission is a small-but-loyal group of downtrodden
followers. Conservative Christian activists, pastors and faith
groups across the nation said the show is blasphemous, irreverent
and disrespectful because it shows Jesus as a profanity-using
marijuana smoker who hangs with gang-bangers and includes violence
and drinking.
* 11-year-old Ramarni Wilfred of England has joined Mensa after
scoring higher than Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and
Albert Einstein on an IQ test. Professor Hawking, Microsoft
founder Gates and Einstein all have 160 IQs. Ramarni scored 162,
putting him in the top 1% in the UK.

* 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.

* A recent report by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund


and the National Women's Law Center, found that African-American
girls were suspended at much higher rates than their White
peers, despite evidence that African-American students do not
misbehave more frequently than their peers. This phenomenon leads
to lower earnings and educational attainment in the long run. The
report also outlines the barriers to African-American girls
staying in school and shows how poor educational outcomes can
limit their opportunities, from lower graduation rates to setbacks
in expected lifetime earnings. U.S. Census data shows helping
African-American girls successfully complete high school could
stave off a lifetime of poverty for them and their families.
* This year marked a year of heightened tension between the Black
community and Law Enforcement as several shootings of Blacks by
police have increased racial tensions between the two groups.
There have been several questionable shootings across the nation
where police killed or was responsible for the deaths of Blacks in
which several were not armed. Protests, riots and marches in
cities across the nation flared up as conflicts between the two
groups boiled over. Protestors of several different races held
signs reading "Black Lives Matter", or "Don't Shoot". The NAACP's
Legal Defense Fund released the names of 76 unarmed Black men and
women who were killed by police both in and out of custody since
1999. In most of the cases the police were deemed justified by
their actions to include a refusal of grand juries to bring
charges against police officers. To the Black community this is a
slap in the face and an overt result of cities not wanting to
admit wrong doing so as not to be opened up to lawsuits for their
bad actions. Law enforcement has taken the stance through their
actions that Blacks are viewed as criminals before being people
due in part to the media's constant efforts of showing Blacks as
criminals. Police are using the magic words of "I feared for my
life" to justify shooting Blacks or causing their death knowing
their actions would not result in criminal charges against them.

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

violent uprising in July 2009 in which its first leader, Mohammed


Yusuf, was executed. It's unexpected resurgence, following a mass
prison break in September 2010, was accompanied by increasingly
sophisticated attacks, initially against soft targets, and
progressing in 2011 to include suicide bombings on police
buildings and the United Nations office in Abuja. As of January
2015, Boko Haram controlled towns and villages across about 20,000
square miles, an area the size of Belgium.

* "Fashion Police" host Giuliana Rancic said during the show's


Academy Awards red carpet recap special that aired that Monday
night, that 18-year-old actress/singer Zendaya's look,(Zendaya
Coleman) which included a satin ivory Vivienne Westwood gown and a
head of waist-length dreadlocks, makes her feel like Zendaya would
smell like patchouli oil. That sentiment was followed with, "Or
weed," by co-host Kelly Osbourne and then repeated by Rancic who
then said yes like weed. Giuliana Rancic was Fired shortly after
her Racist comments about Zendaya.

* Researchers from Brandeis University and Ohio State University


have carried out an extensive study on racism and have come up
with startling conclusions. Research says that Blacks in low-

income neighborhoods are more susceptible to obesity, poor


performance in school and a lower quality of health than their
White counterparts. They are even more likely to find themselves
in prison at an early age. From birth, many Black children are
placed at a disadvantage. Some are not able to access the same
facilities as White children and this reflects in low school
performance. Systemic racism is not only seen in education, but
also in health, incarceration rates, unemployment and even life
expectancy. The research concludes that in the end, Blacks end up
working extra hard to compete with their white counterparts. Many
of the poorest rarely make it out of the low-income neighborhoods
and even if they do, the effects of being raised in such areas
effects them forever.
* Five years after the quake: Haiti at a crossroads. In less than
60 seconds, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shifted Haiti's landscape
and changed millions of lives forever. The government estimated
about 220,000 deaths from the disaster, 300,000 injured and rubble
nearly everywhere. It also left about 1.5 million Haitians
homeless. Then things got worse. A massive cholera outbreak
followed, killing nearly 8,600. The catastrophe also unleashed an
unprecedented flood of humanitarian aid of $13.5 billion in
donations and pledges, about three-quarters from donor nations and
a quarter from private charity. Where Did The $13.5 Billion in
relief aide Go? Today Haiti is a long, long way from realizing the
bullish goal of "building back better." Haiti's back more or less
to normal, but there have not been the improvements there should
have been, given the resources." Of the billions is donations only
9.6% went to the Haitian government, 0.6% went to Haitian
organizations and a staggering 89.8% went to non-Haitian
organizations due to fraud and corruption. The Office of the
Special Envoy for Haiti and The International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Society in Haiti reports that the Haitian
people have received very little of the money meant to re-build
their lives and their country.

* Researcher Emma Adam from Northwestern University has discovered


that the effects of racism may seep into our brains and harm us
even when we are trying to sleep. According to alarming new
research, using data collected over a 20-year period, that shows
racial stress and discrimination causes Black adolescents and
adults to get an average of a half hour less sleep per night than
White people, which has an enormous impact on Black health and
performance and has been linked to a long list of problems, such
as higher fatigue, poor mental health, cardiovascular disease and
failing memory. This research speaks volumes about the challenges
Black people face in White-dominated societies.
* Loretta Lynch is sworn in as the U.S. attorney general as the
country's first Black woman to serve in the role by replacing Eric
Holder who was the first Black person ever to hold the office.
* A new report from Columbia University Law School explains that
girls of color are disciplined much more harshly in school than
White girls and is fairly consistent with past analyses that show
the racial bias in how teachers and school administrators dole out
punishments to students with browner skin. This is similar to the
Villanova University report just released about how Black girls
with darker hues were disciplined much more harshly and much more
frequently than fairer-skinned Black girls or their White
counterparts. Data from the Department of Education shows Black
girls are six times more likely than White girls to be suspended
from school. Even more alarming is girls of colors are not
participating in or being exposed to initiatives to keep them out
of the school-to-prison pipeline. Those initiatives are intended
for African-American working-class communities. Columbias Center
for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, says that the
report shows how girls are also subjected to the kind of systemic
racism that plagues young men of color.
* Charlotte Attwood, a reporter for BBC Africa, said tourism in
Kenya is booming as visitors from all over the world visit
Malindi, a coastal town on the continent of Africa that is said to
be a tropical paradise. Attwood reports foreign White tourists are
traveling to Malindi and soliciting the children as young as 12
and all under 18 for sex. Most tourists are Italian men between
the ages of 50 and 80. In addition, some of the men like to
involve dogs in the acts with the children. Pedophiles will pay
up to $500 to film the beastly acts. Because the illegal practice
is hardly reported, authorities have had a difficult time
combating the problem. Law officials believe that the lure of
money keeps children, families, and corrupt police officers silent
on the issue. Many of the kids see these tourists as being wealthy

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.

* Archaeologist believes he may have found remains of ancient


Egyptian queen Nefertiti hidden in King Tuts tomb. Nefertiti was
an ancient Egyptian queen and the source of a fantastic mystery
regarding the iconic remnants of long-lost royalty. For decades,
archaeologists have speculated on the location of the queen's
remains, the last royal mummy missing from the dynasty of the
famous King Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut. But now, an
archaeologist claims that he has found her secret tomb in the
Valley of the Kings, hidden just beyond a wall near the resting
place of the boy-pharaoh. The dramatic theory, published in a
paper by Nicholas Reeves of the University of Arizona, is based on
an analysis of detailed scans of Tutankhamen's tomb. The scans
reveal the texture of walls beneath their layers of paint, and
Reeves believes he found a number of cracks indicating two
previously concealed doors. One of these doors would possibly lead
to a storeroom, Reeves said. But the larger door on the north side
of the burial chamber, he suggests, could lead to another
room holding the remains of Nefertiti, believed by some to be the
mother of Tutankhamen. I have been testing the evidence ever
since, looking for indications that what I thought I was seeing
was, in fact, not there, Reeves told the BBC. But the more I
looked, the more information I found that I seemed to be looking
at something pretty real.
* The Academy Awards started in 1929 to celebrate the best
achievements in Hollywood, which just so happened to exclude Black
actors and actresses. Today, after seeing the 87th annual Academy
Award nominations, it feels like the 1920s all over again. The
Oscars missed out on the chance to make history and nominate its
first Black female director, Ava DuVernay, for her Golden Globe -

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.

* Hollywood appears to only praise Blacks when they play roles


that highlight negative Black stereotypes of servants, slaves,
ghetto moms and thugs. Movies like The Help, The Butler,
Precious, 12 Years a Slave, and Training Day all had Black people
as central characters. All won some type of award or nomination
and/or had actors that were recognized with awards. If you take a
second glance, you will notice all of these movies promoted
negative stereotypes of Black people. The sad part is that many of
these actors have been in other movies that have been just as
good, yet they went unrecognized when they didn't "fit the
description of the negative role.
* The six part TV mini-series The Book of Negroes based on the
critically acclaimed best-selling novel by Lawrence Hill recounts
the extraordinary journey of Aminata Diallo, an indomitable
African woman who survives in a world in which everything seems to
be against her. Kidnapped by slave traders in West Africa then
sold into slavery in South Carolina, Aminata navigates her way
through the American Revolution in New York, the isolated refuge

of Nova Scotia, and the treacherous jungles of Sierra Leone,


before finally securing her freedom in England at the dawn of the
19th century. This is based on the 1783 British document listing
African slaves.
* A QVC host shames a Black model's hairstyle, Michelle Holloway,
live on-air and learns a hard lesson on social media. Sandra
Bennett and a spokeswoman for Dooney & Burke were discussing
purses on-air, but when the camera panned to the Black woman who
was modeling the purse, they started talking negatively about her
hair. As the camera panned to the model, she didnt make any
comments, of course, but youd have to wonder what was going
through her head as she listened to the White women discussing her
hair in a negative manner.

* 7 Reasons why the systemic eviction of Black women is just as


destructive to the Black family as Black male incarceration. The
McArthur Foundation, which has been the seminal for work in the
field used by scholars and housing advocates to show for the first
time the impact evictions have on Black men and women. It has been
well-documented that the large-scale incarceration of Black men
has become a scourge destroying Black families and communities all
across the U.S. But for Black women, eviction has quietly become
an extremely destructive force also wreaking havoc on Black
families and Black communities. And after a woman is evicted once,
it can follow her forever just like a conviction.(1)Black women
most likely to be evicted live in high-poverty Black
neighborhoods. This forces them to live in shelters and move from
one undesirable situation to another.(2)Gender plays a role in the
dynamic in dealing with male landlords. Many women facing eviction
take the non-confrontational approach, what the landlords called
engaging in ducking and dodging.(3)Children are a red flag and
pose a challenge to single mothers beyond the cost of needing
larger rental units to accommodate them.(4)To avoid upsetting the
landlord, women dont ask for help. Calls to the police to report
domestic violence could provoke the ire of landlords or lead to

eviction if a male abuser is not on the lease.(5)Eviction can mean


losing all their possessions, stripping them of the few assets
they had.(6)Not enough housing assistance. Despite the fact that
many are one paycheck away from not making the rent, only one in
four households that qualifies for housing assistance receive
it.(7)Housing costs takes a brutal toll on family living expenses.
The majority paid at least 50-80 percent of their incomes for rent
leaving little money for other expenses.
* 150 years ago in 1865, the 13th amendment to the Constitution
was ratified abolishing slavery which set Blacks free. The
amendment states: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction. "..Except as a punishment for
crime.." This phrase gets ignored in America's telling of its
slavery story. The 13th Amendment did not abolish slavery but
rather moved it from the plantation to the prison system. In 2015,
there are approximately 2 million Black people incarcerated in
America who are legally considered slaves under the Constitution.
As a result, they can and are forced to work for pennies an hour
with the profits going to counties, states and private
corporations including Target, Revlon and Whole Foods. There are
more Black people enslaved in prisons today than in 1800. Today,
the majority of Black people enslaved in prisons were arrested for
drug crimes. Even though Black people use drugs at the same rate
as White people, they are incarcerated for drug crimes at 20 to 50
times the rate of White people.

* Princeton Dean and Professor Valerie Smith becomes Swarthmore


Colleges 1st African-American President. Swarthmore College is a
private liberal arts college located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania,
11 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Founded in 1864, Swarthmore

was one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United


States.
* CIA whistleblower, Jeffrey Sterling, faces up to 100 years in
prison and a fine of $2.25 million for blowing the whistle on the
CIA planting false evidence of nuclear weapons in Iran. This
demonstrates the lengths that the U.S. government will go to
further their agenda while being untruthful with the American
people and punish those who expose their deceptions.
* A work by post-impressionist French painter Paul Gauguin,
smashed the record books as the most expensive ever sold. The
piece, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), was sold for $300
million dollars to a buyer in Qatar. The oil-on-canvas was
produced in 1892 during Gauguin's first visit to French Polynesia,
located about 9,061 miles from South Africa. It features a pair of
Tahitian girls seated next to a tree. Around 1635, the French
imported African slaves to Tahiti - French Polynesia to work in
the sugar-cane fields.

* Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who teaches


creative writing at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York
University, has been selected as the winner of the 2015 Edward M.
Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. The prize
was established by Jean Kennedy Smith, the sister of Senator
Edward Kennedy, and is administered by the Center for New Media
Teaching and Learning at Columbia University in New York City.
Parks was honored for her play Father Comes Home From the Wars,
Parts 1, 2 & 3, which was first staged at The Public Theater in
New York last October. The Kennedy Prize comes with a $100,000
cash award.
* Data from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows
that African American employees tend to receive more scrutiny from
their bosses than their White colleagues, meaning that small

mistakes are more likely to be caught, which over time leads to


worse performance reviews, lower wages and job loss. The NBER
paper, authored by Costas Cavounidis and Kevin Lang, of Boston
University, attempts to demonstrate how discrimination factors
into company decisions, and creates a feedback loop, resulting in
racial gaps in the labor force. This cycle creates a pool of
unemployed Black workers that is likely to be seen as less skilled
because of more consistent or prolonged unemployment. That can
make companies less likely to hire them, and more skeptical once
they do.
* Jacqueline Olive, a documentary filmmaker, Releases a project
feature film, Always in Season, which aims to explore the history
of violence and terrorism that Blacks faced through lynching, as
well as ongoing efforts to reconcile and seek justice for the
heinous race-based murders of Black people for over a century.
* According to the findings of a Guardian study that recorded a
final tally of 1,134 deaths at the hands of law enforcement
officers this year, young Black men were nine times more likely
than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015.
Despite making up only 2% of the total US population, African
American males between the ages of 15 and 34 comprised more than
15% of all deaths logged this year by an ongoing investigation
into the use of deadly force by police. Their rate of policeinvolved deaths was five times higher than for White men of the
same age.
* The head of the department of history at West Point destroys the
argument that the Civil War was not fought over slavery. Colonel
Ty Seidule Ph.D, is the professor and Head of the Department of
History at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In a
five minute video, he destroys the Civil War revisionist argument
that the Civil War wasn't fought over slavery. Of course, anyone
who understands history knows that the Confederacy was formed to
protect racist slavery, but far too many people still don't
understand that or don't want to understand it and argue the South
wanted to retain "States Rights" which was the right to have
slaves. Slavery was a big part of why the South wanted to secede
from the Union with some Southern states expressly mentioning
slavery as a reason for their departure. The rebel flag aka:
Confederate battle flag became the synonymous symbol of the South
much like the swastika is known as the symbol of Nazi Germany. The
rebel flag was not the original Confederate flag which through
several evolutions before the South surrendered.

* In an act of desperation with their avowed goal of obstruction


to undermine President Obama partially fueled by racism, the
republican congress invites the leader of Israel, Benjamin
Netanyahu, to speak before congress without notifying President
Obama in an effort to influence international policy and make the
American public go against the President on talks with Iran over
their nuclear program. 47 members of Congress then signed a letter
they drafted to the leader of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, behind the
Presidents back asking them not to cooperate with him on the
nuclear deal. Congress and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell
pens a letter to all 50 states asking them to ignore the President
and the office of the Presidency and to break federal laws
concerning EPA regulations and President Obama's efforts to stop
climate change. Republicans have taken to the radical approach of
undermining the president by going behind his back and insisting
to other world leaders that the president is not important, not to
be trusted, and safely ignored. According to an exclusive report
by Reuters, Republican congressional leaders have sent a letter to
the United Nations, asking that member countries back away from
any climate deal that Obama might offer. Republicans have fought
and tried to undermine the President on every policy throughout
his two terms in office.
* Riley B. King known by his stage name B.B. King dies. He was a
Hall of Fame blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. Rolling Stone
ranked King number 6 on its 2011 list of the 100 greatest
guitarists of all time. King was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1990, King was awarded the National Medal
of Arts by President George W. Bush. In 2006, he received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W.
Bush. He was widely regarded as one of the most influential blues
guitarists of all time.
* 16-year-old Thessalonika Arzu-Embry, earns a master's degree in
strategic foresight and organizational leadership through an

online program offered by Regent University in Virginia Beach,


Virginia., she plans to pursue doctorate in aviation psychology.
* Between 700 and 900 African immigrants from Libya drowned from a
capsized boat fleeing poverty and conflict in North Africa while
attempting to make the perilous crossing to Italy for a better
life in Europe. This tragedy is being called the worst
Mediterranean death toll of migrants since World War II. At least
1600 are feared to have died attempting the crossing so far this
year thru April and another 3500 from last year. Thousands have
been rescued at sea by the Italian Coast Guard but hundreds die
each year fleeing Africa. The European Union ministers meet for
crisis talks to deal with the deepening migrant crisis off the
southern coast of Italy. So far the United States has not offered
to assist with the humanitarian crisis of African refugees fleeing
violence and poverty. Smugglers take advantage of the immigrant's
desperate situation by charging them thousands of dollars for a
space on the unsafe boats as there is no legal way for most
Africans to migrate to Europe. The mass exodus continues as does
the death toll into the thousands.

* According to a report by NPR (National Public Radio) located in


Washington D.C., the Pentagon released declassified information of
their program in which Black enlisted men were used as human
guinea pigs in chemical experiments during World War II. 60,000
American soldiers were enrolled in a secret chemical weapons
testing program in which they were exposed to mustard gas and the
chemical agent lewisite, which causes lung irritation and
blisters. The U.S. Department of Defense conducted the tests on
Black soldiers locking them in a gas chambers and exposing them to
the chemicals. White soldiers were used as the control group.
Although the Pentagon had admitted as early as 1991 that the Army
tested mustard gas on enlisted soldiers during World War II, the
experiment program was officially declassified in 1993. News about
the racial targeting of soldiers was kept under wraps until
recently. This revelation that the Army secretly tested chemical

weapons on Black soldiers is both troubling and an outrage, the


concept of Black people being used in medical and other
experiments is by no means a new phenomenon. There are numerous
examples of Black people being used as guinea pigs dating back
over 100 years.
* The Dominican Republic has summarily stripped over a hundred
thousand or more Dominicans born in the DR of Haitian parents of
their citizenship, rendered them stateless and is deporting them
to Haiti. The Dominican government is going to poor neighborhoods
and sweeping up dark-skinned Dominicans with Haitian facial
features for deportation. Many Dominicans of Haitian descent were
born in rural areas of day labor parents that came to work in the
sugar fields, with midwifes and not in hospitals, and were
therefore never issued birth certificates which prevents them from
registering as citizens. The Dominican Republic has a long history
of racist anti-Haitian abuses on the part of law enforcement and
government authorities toward Haitians and Dominicans from Haitian
parents.

* White gunman Dylann S. Roof killed 9 Black people in a historic


Black church, including the pastor, at Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, in Charleston, South Carolina during a prayer
meeting in what authorities called it a hate crime. Roof is quoted
as saying he must kill Black people because they are taking over
the country and must be killed. The victims are: Pastor Clementa
Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Singleton, Myra
Thompson, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Daniel Simmons, and DePayne
Doctor. The shooting evoked painful memories of other attacks.
Black churches were bombed in the 1960s when they served as
organizing hubs for the Civil Rights movement, and burned by
arsons across the South in the 1990s. Mainstream media has
cited and tailored their response to suggest when White people go
on shooting sprees, their actions are frequently attributed to
mental illness and, thus, theyre not considered fully accountable
for the harm theyve inflicted. This narrative which is not
afforded to people of color and feeds into the assumption that

incidents like what happened at Emanuel AME Church are isolated


tragedies executed by lone gunmen. Essentially, it excuses the
system that allows racialized terrorism to keep happening against
Blacks. Since this incident 7 Black churches in Southern states
over a 10-day period have been burned down with suspicious
circumstances. The media pays no attention to it.
* President Obama meets with Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio)
at the White House making Pope Francis only the fourth Pope to
visit a President and his first visit to the United States. Pope
Francis' visit will be the tenth time a Pope has made an apostolic
journey to the United States since the visits began in 1965 when
Pope Paul VI visited President Lyndon Johnson in New York City.

* 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.

* A Suffolk Superior Court jury has awarded city employee Chantal


Charles, who is Black and Haitian, a $10.9 million settlement
after ruling that Charles was subjected to discrimination during
her time as a senior administrative assistant with the City of
Boston. Charles worked for the citys Treasury Department and had
accused the city of giving her fewer benefits and lower pay than

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

perpetuates an idea that Blacks are somehow more prone to


violence. According to the FBIs most recent homicide numbers
available, from 2011, a staggering 83 percent of White murder
victims were killed by White attackers. Whites are responsible for
the vast majority of violent crimes, according to the FBI. The
Bureau of Justice Statistics found that compared to Blacks, Whites
were more likely to kill children, the elderly, family members and
their significant others. They commit more sex-related crimes,
gang-related crimes and are more likely to kill at their places of
employment. Crimes committed by Whites often are explained in the
media as deviations of the individual - He was such a quiet man;
the community is shocked - but have nothing to do with their race
while Blacks are explained as being thugs, gangsters and animals
and crime is attributed to their race. The media portrays that
Black gang bangers should be feared while saying very little about
the violence and murders conducted by Neo-Nazi Skinheads, Aryan
Brotherhood, KKK and other White hate groups.
* The Smithsonian is completing a $500 million National Museum of
African American History and Culture. The idea was authorized by
an act of Congress which called it, "A tribute to the Negro's
contribution to the achievements of America." The words are
jarring because the act was written in 1929. Building the museum
has been a long struggle. Eight decades after Congress framed the
museum on paper and then failing to fund it, the idea is taking
shape. The museum totals 10 floors with 5 above ground and 5
below. Its complexion is rendered in shades of bronze as a
building of color against history's white marble next to the
Washington monument on the National Mall.

* 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

Comey said, with serious dismay, that there is a disconnect


between police and non-White communities and the rift between
minority communities and officers of the law cannot be ignored any
longer.
* 1.5 million slavery era documents will be digitized, helping
African Americans learn about their lost ancestors. The Freedman's
Bureau Project, spearheaded by the Smithsonian, National Archives
and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society will
make 1.5 million historical documents available online allowing
descendants of former slaves to learn more about their family
roots.
2016
* For the second consecutive year, 20 nominees across all major
acting categories at the Academy Awards are all White sparking
protest that the Oscar nominations lack racial diversity with some
Black stars boycotting the show. The academy responded to the
uproar and declared that it was doubling its diversity push and
ending guaranteed lifelong voting rights of members that are the
roadblocks to racial diversity. Several high powered White actors
supported the boycott saying they see the racial issue in the
nomination process. To add insult to injury, the academy failed to
invite the Black cast of the movie "Straight Outta Compton" which
also fueled an uproar to which the academy blamed the studio
Universal Pictures who remained silent. Additionally the movie
used all-White writers.
* The movie "Gods of Egypt" is released and is a fantasy film
featuring ancient Egyptian deities, but most of the main
characters are White. The film is yet another movie based in the
African continent filled with White actors playing would-be Black
Egyptian humans and gods. This continued white washing of history
erases the culture and exposure to learning the truth about Black
history and is an insult the race and culture of Black people
everywhere.
* The movie "Race" is released telling the story of Jesse Owens
and his quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in
history thrusting him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics,
where he faces off against Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan
supremacy. Owens won a record-breaking four gold medals proving
that Blacks are not inferior to Whites.
* The movie "The Birth of a Nation" by Nate Parker (titled the
same as the D.W. Griffith's silent 1915 epic about the rise of the
Ku Klux Klan through the Civil War and the Reconstruction period.)

is a biographical film about Nat Turner, the African-American


slave who led who led one of the most important slave rebellions
in U.S. history in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. The film
also became the largest film purchased in the Sundance Film
Festival history going to Fox searchlight for $17.5 million.
* The City of Chicago must pay $4.9 million to the family of Philip
Coleman. Back in 2012 Coleman, who suffered from mental illness,
was arrested for domestic battery against his mother. After
refusing to go to court from jail the next morning, he was tasered
13 times, struck repeatedly with a baton, and dragged down a
hallway while in handcuffs by several White correctional officers
from his jail cell. He later died at the hospital from his
injuries which the autopsy revealed, but the city claimed he died
from a reaction to an anti-psychotic drug that he apparently had
been injected with.
* The 58th Grammy Awards are coming under fire for the same reason
the Academy Awards have by failing to or minimally acknowledging
some Black artists while paying special musical tribute to White
artists who have died. The Grammies paid tribute to several White
artists that have passed away by having White artists and actors
perform and giving recognition to the White artists while
banishing Black artists such as Natalie Cole, Michael Jackson and
Maurice White to a video tribute in the Memoriam segment. To make
matters worse, Run-DMC received a lifetime achievement award, but
it wasn't televised. To be fair performance tributes were paid to
Lionel Ritchie and B.B. King for lifetime achievement awards.
Black artists just want equal tribute and recognition for their
body of work. Theres a long history of the industry not
acknowledging Black artists and snubbing Black artists in favor of
White artists.
* R & B singer Beyonce sparks controversy and uproar by releasing
a music video named "Formation" (set in New Orleans, the video
conjures images of Hurricane Katrina, Mardi Gras and the Black
South. There's natural hair and hot-sauce swag and a young Black
boy dancing in front of police officers with his hands held up
before we see the words, "Stop shooting us." ) one day before the
50th superbowl bowl and then went on to perform at the half-time
show in the superbowl by singing and performing her song
"Formation". The show was a powerful message paying homage to
Black history, activism, Black lives matter, The Black Panthers,
Malcolm X and a statement about the current climate of racial
tension in America delivered in front of an audience of more than
100 million people. Opponents of the show and law enforcement

complain her show is anti-police and she shouldn't have used the
superbowl as a political platform.

* Rapper Kendrick Lamar performed at the Grammys making a


statement supporting "Black Lives Matter" by walking out on stage
in shackles and jailhouse blues through a dirty jailhouse set
accompanied by background dancers singing The Blacker The Berry,
highlighting the unfair imbalance of African Americans currently
imprisoned in jails across America which speak directly to the
modern day Black experience in America. He then moved on to
Alright which literally set the stage on fire with paying homage
to African roots. He finished his story by standing in front of a
large picture of Africa. Kendrick won 5 awards that night but made
America look up and pay attention to the growing sentiment among
Blacks that Black people are tired of mistreatment in America.

* ABC makes history by announcing the first Black president of a


major television network. Channing Dungey, was appointed ABCs new
entertainment president becoming the first African-American to
head programming at a major broadcast network. Dungey, has been
with ABC since 2009 and was executive VP of drama development, and
movies. She also helped develop ABC hits Scandal, How to Get Away
With Murder, Quantico and Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

* 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

also states where there is strong racial disparity. The report


measured data at both national and state levels. There were
several factors that weighed in on how successful children will be
later on in life. Black children scored the lowest on meeting
satisfactory levels. The indicators included factors such as
economic states, and living in supportive communities and
families. It comes as no surprise that where Black children grow
up can have an impact on whether they get a fair shake in
life. The worst states are #10-Wisconsin, #9-Mississippi, #8Michigan, #7-Louisiana, #6-Arkansas, #5-Ohio, #4-Alabama, #3Indiana, #2-South Carolina, #1-Illinois with rank #1 as the worst.
* Joe's Crab Shack in Minneapolis, MN comes under fire for using
an image of a hanging as interior table decor. Tyrone Williams and
Chauntyll Allen sat down at a Joe's in Roseville, Minn. when they
discovered the decorative tabletop had a picture embedded in it
"that depicted two Black men being lynched by a White mob, with
the hand-written added caption next to one of the victims that
read, "All I said was that I didnt like the gumbo." According to
CBS news, the couple did some brief research while still at the
restaurant and found that the photo depicted a real-life execution
that occurred in Texas back in 1895. They spoke to the
restaurant's manager, who apologized but also said that it was
likely other restaurants had similar tables. In a press release
issued by the Minneapolis arm of the NAACP, chapter president
Nekima Levy-Pounds said, "This disturbing incident that occurred
at Joe's Crab Shack, demonstrates that racism is still alive and
well in this country. It is sickening to know that someone would
make a mockery of Black men being savagely lynched and then use
that imagery for decorative purposes in a restaurant.
* Backlash against a plan to remove prominent Confederate
monuments in New Orleans has been tinged by death threats,
intimidation and even what may have been the intentional torching
of a contractors Lamborghini. Things have gotten so nasty the
city hasnt found a contractor willing to bear the risk of tearing
down the monuments. Initially, it appeared the Civil War-era
monuments would be removed quickly after the majority Black city
council voted 6-1 to approve the mayors plan to take them down.
The monuments have long been viewed by many here as symbols of
racism and White supremacy. The backlash is not surprising to
William Quigley, a Loyola University law professor and long-time
civil rights activist whos worked on behalf of a group demanding
the monuments come down. The South has seen such resistance
before, during fights over school integration and efforts in the
early 1990s to racially integrate Carnival parades in New Orleans.

* 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

would establish a Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lees


birthday as public and legal holidays. Benton has voiced
controversial positions about the preservation of the Souths
history, including the belief that the Civil War wasnt fought
over slavery, has likened Confederate leaders to the Founding
Fathers and has completely disregarded the racist implications of
Confederate symbols such as the flag.
* 10 Black women settle an $11 million discrimination lawsuit
after they were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train in Napa,
California for allegedly being too loud and offensive to other
passengers. When the train reached the first stop in St. Helena,
they were escorted off the train into a dirt lot where police were
waiting, according to the lawsuit. The women are members of the
Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club, based in the San Francisco
Bay Area, boarded the train to discuss a romance novel and feel
they were targeted for removal because they were Black.
* UPS is hit with a $5.3 million lawsuit after 8 Black men
complained about finding a an effigy of a Black dummy UPS driver
hanging from the ceiling in Lexington, Kentucky. The victims
claim, in addition to the hanging dummy they were subjected to
racist taunts of jungle bunny, porch monkey, and nigger,
according to the Lexington Herald.
* NBA superstar Kobe Bryant,(The Black Mamba) retires from the Los
Angeles Lakers after a glorious 20 year career going straight to
the NBA from high school. Kobe finished his career with numerous
achievements being a 5-time NBA champion, 3rd place all-time
scoring leader, 17-time NBA all star, 2-time Olympic gold medal
winner, 15-time all NBA team, 1-time slam dunk champion and many
other accolades. Kobe retires as one of the best players of the
game.

* According to a study by the American Journal of Public Health,


among all users of hard drugs such as cocaine, opiates and PCP,
Whites are more likely to abuse "hard drugs," such as cocaine or

opiates, than their Black counterparts. During the study, which


was actually conducted 12 years ago, researchers studied more than
1,800 delinquent youth and followed their lives through their late
20s. Although Blacks, were not most likely to use drugs, they were
in fact most likely to be arrested and sent to prison for drug
use. This proves what Blacks have been saying all along in that
they are being disproportionately incarcerated. According to the
study: Whites are 30 times more likely to have a cocaine-use
disorder than Blacks. Whites are 50 times more likely to develop
an opiate-use disorder than Blacks. Whites are 18 times more
likely have a PCP-use disorder than Blacks and drug use is highest
among Whites, followed by Hispanics then African Americans.
* Pop music superstar Prince Rodgers Nelson aka: "Prince",
unexpectedly died at his home in Minnesota. Prince was a man
bursting with music as a musical genius, a wildly prolific
songwriter, a virtuoso on guitars, keyboards and drums and a
master architect of funk, rock, R&B and pop, even as his music
defied genres. Prince was a seven-time Grammy winner who was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 who also won
an academy award for his 1984 film and album Purple Rain. Prince
sold over 100 million records worldwide.

* U.S. Treasury secretary Jacob Lew announced that the face of


President Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill would be
replaced with the image of abolitionist and Underground Railroad
conductor Harriet Tubman. Andrew Jackson was a wealthy slave
owner, owning up to 300 slaves and infamous Indian killer who was
a forceful proponent of Indian removal. As President, Jackson's
Indian Removal Act of 1830 and subsequent treaties resulted in the
forced removal of several Indian tribes from their traditional
home territories, including the Trail of Tears. There will be
changes made to the $5 and $10 bill as well which will include

pictures of Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King and Marion


Anderson. These changes will not occur until at least the year
2020 and beyond. The announcement was met with an outpour of
racist comments on social media including statements such as "why
are they putting a Nigger on our money?"
* President Obama becomes the first sitting president to visit and
pay tribute to the tens of thousands of victims in the western
Japanese city of Hiroshima, Japan more than 70 years after a U.S.
atomic bomb devastated the city during WWII in 1945. President
Obama did not apologize to Japan for the war, but offered a
gesture of peace and compassion.
* Melissa Harris-Perry wins the Hillman Prize for Broadcast
Journalism which is given to journalists who go above and beyond
to report stories with integrity and truth are awarded the prize.
Perry had worked for NBC before walking away after the network
chairman cancelled her show to silence her truthful and outspoken
commentary.
* The last living Buffalo Soldier passed away at the age of 93, in
Greenville, South Carolina. Tomie L. Gaines served from March 1943
to December 1945 with the 27th Calvary, an all-Black unit. The
Buffalo Soldiers included two regiments of all-Black cavalries,
the 9th and 10th cavalries, which were formed after Congress
passed legislation in 1866 that allowed African-Americans to
enlist in the countrys regular peacetime military.
* America's oldest living World War II veteran passes away at the
age of 110. Frank Livingston served as an Army private in Italy
during World War II. He enlisted in 1942, a little under a year
after the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii. Richard A. Overton now
becomes the oldest living veteran also 110 years old now.
* Lester Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News, has been named
journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black
Journalists. The annual award recognizes a Black journalist who
has distinguished himself or herself with a body of work that has
great depth and significance to people in the African Diaspora.
* Fox News had to close down the comments section of their social
media posted article which they ran about President Obama's oldest
daughter Malia being accepted to Harvard University. Fox News
mirrored a brief AP story on their site which received an
avalanche of vile racist and hateful comments. People said such
things as calling Malia a nigger who should go back to Africa,

hoping she catches cancer or one of those Black diseases, calling


her an ape and Muslim, saying she is an affirmative-action
parasite stealing the spot of a qualified White person, claiming
her being Black is the only reason she got in and countless other
racist statements including calling Michelle Obama a man-thing
sasquatch who feeds Malia celery and grain muffins.
* Old Navy, the discount clothing retailer, gets attacked on
social media with a barrage vile racist tweets on twitter over a
photo ad showing a mixed race couple with a Black child. The photo
depicts a White male holding a Black child with a Black women
suggesting they are an interracial couple. People are claiming Old
Navy is pushing White genocide, mixing races and they are going to
boycott the retailer because of the mixed race photo ad. This
comes at a time when America has a Black President.

* 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.

* According to a report by Britain's Sunday Times, former CIA


agent Donald Rickard admitted, two weeks before his death at age
88, to British film director John Irvin that the CIA was involved
in the arrest of Nelson Mandela in South Africa that led to his
imprisonment. Rickard described Mandela as the worlds most
dangerous communist outside of the Soviet Union. Mandela was
arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for
conspiracy to overthrow the all-White Apartheid National Party
government.
* World Truth TV reports that Israel is pressuring African
immigrants into taking $3500 and a one-way ticket for passage back
to Africa or face being thrown in prison. African immigrants are
fleeing escalating violence in their home countries as Israel
closes the border to them. As deterrents, Israel has built a steel
fence along the border with Egypt, houses migrants in detention
camps in the desert and has stopped issuing work visa's to would
be migrants. Black Africans face stiff discrimination and racism
in Israel from White Jews.
* Deshauna Barber, Miss District of Columbia, wins the Miss USA
pageant and is crowned Miss USA. Deshauna is an Army Reserve
officer and IT analyst for the U.S. Department of Commerce.
* The History channel airs a 4-part re-make of the 1977 TV series
Roots from the book by Alex Haley. The new adaptation re-tells the
story of how Africans found themselves as slaves in the slave
trade business. This story starts in Gambia in 1750 with the
Mandinka warrior Kunta Kinte. This story is told to reach a new
generation of Blacks in America that have no connection to their
heritage or knowledge of the past. This is a passing of the
ancestral torch so that the past is not forgotten. The series
received criticism from the Black community because the re-telling
of the story watered down the brutality and cruelty that slave
owners inflicted upon slaves and the suffering slaves endured
while suggesting that Africans were responsible for their own
enslavement by showing Africans selling themselves into slavery.
The actions of some Africans selling others to slave traders is
over exaggerated and doesn't change the fact that European slave
traders were the cause and source of slavery dating back to the
1400's in Africa.
* The New York Times reports the makers of Jack Daniel's,
America's favorite whiskey, have admitted for the first time that
a Tennessee slave was behind its legendary recipe. For 150 years,
credit for teaching the young Jack Daniel how to distill had gone

to the Reverend Dan Call, a Lutheran preacher in Tennessee. But


the company said it was not Call but his slave, a man called
Nearis Green, who in fact provided the expertise in the 1850's. In
the mid 19th Century distilleries were owned by White businessmen
but much of the work making the whiskey was done by slaves. Many
slaves relied on techniques brought from Africa and became
experts, often making it clandestinely. Marketing efforts hid the
fact that slaves were making the whiskey drank by White consumers.
* Racial tensions boil over across America as two more Black men
are killed by law enforcement shown in video clips that appear to
show they were murdered. Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were
both shot and killed in situations where they were not do doing
anything to warrant police action. The shootings sparked the Black
Lives Matter movement to launch protests across the nation in
response to the ongoing history of police shootings of Black
people shown on video clips that appear to show police executed
the men. Those protests flared up in Dallas where 5 police
officers were shot and killed by Micah Xavier Johnson who is
claimed to have told police he wanted to kill White police
officer's because of the killing of the two Black men earlier.
President Obama went to Dallas to speak at the memorial of the
slain officer's to give condolences but to also reinforce that
Black lives also matter in America.
* 12 Black and Hispanic police officers file a lawsuit against the
city of New York and the police department for racial
discrimination. The officer's claim that the department and their
supervisors force them to harass and arrest Black and Hispanic
people under the arrest quota system the department has. The
officer's claim that if they refused to comply of didn't reach the
quota, they themselves were punished and harassed within the
department.
* Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay, the boxer and civil
rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and
then spent a lifetime living up to the billing has died. He was
Arguably boxing's most celebrated athlete, heavyweight champion
Muhammad Ali was also known for his public stance against the
Vietnam War. Ali became an Olympic gold medalist in 1960 and the
world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964 after beating Sonny
Liston. Following his suspension in 1967 for refusing military
service, Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title two more times during
the 1970s, winning famed bouts against Joe Frazier and George
Foreman along the way. Ali devoted much of his time to
philanthropy, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
The three-time heavyweight champion finished his career with a

record of 56-5 and said that he could "Float like a butterfly and
sting like a bee".

SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THE MANY PHOTOS OF BLACK


HISTORY. THIS IS A LIVING DOCUMENT AND WILL BE

UPDATED AND CORRECTED PERIODICALLY WITH NEW AND


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AS MORE IS FOUND.

INVENTIONS CREATED, INSPIRED or CONTRIBUTED TO BY BLACKS

According to U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Patent and


Trademark Office Blacks have registered the following
inventions. Blacks are also responsible for the following ideas or
technology leading to an improved invention even though they may
not have filed the patent or received recognition because they had
no rights as slaves, former slaves or just because they were
Black. Blacks have been denied recognition because of their color,
but their ideas sprang forward and flourished while others took
credit for their work. During slavery, most Blacks were denied
formal education and in fact many laws were passed in the South
prohibiting slave literacy in the aftermath of various slave
rebellions. This limited education and training meant that, for
the most part, Blacks were shut out of professional occupations
and confined to working in industries deemed acceptable for them,
such as domestic services, manual trades and agriculture. This
list does not even address the breakthroughs and contributions
made in the area of science, medicine and agriculture because of
African Americans. The majority of these inventions or ideas came
about in the 1800s and early 1900s and have flourished today and
made our world a better place. Many have evolved over the years.
1st Successful Open Heart Surgery
3-D Illusion Transmitter
3-D Graphics Technology
3rd Rail for Train Tracks
Air Conditioner Unit
Airborne Radar System
Aircraft Locating Beacon (Black Box)
Antioxidant
Arithmetic Unit for Digital Computers
Artillery Round
Asphalt Paving Vehicle
Auto Cut-off Switch
Auto Fishing Device
Automatic Air Brake
Automatic Gear Shift
Automatic Refrigeration System
Baby Carriage
Bicycle Frame
Billiard Rack
Biodegradable Soap Elements
Bio-Synthesis
Biscuit Cutter
Blood Plasma Storage
Bookcase
Bottle
Breathing Device

Breech Loading Canon


Bridle Bit
Bubble Machine
Cardiac Stent Design
Carbon Filaments for Light Bulbs
Cataract Laserphaco Probe
Cellular Phone
Chamber Commode
Chemical Fuel Cell
Chemical Gas Mask
Churn
Closed-Circuit Television Security System
Clothes Dryer
Coin Counting Tube
Comb / Hairbrush
Compressed Air Gun
Cotton Planting Machine
Curtain Rod & Support
DC Voltage Converter
Denture
Disposable Syringe
Door Stop
Dry Cleaning Process
Dust Pan
Egg Beater
Electro Acoustic Transducer Electric Microphone
Electric Lamp Bulb
Electric Railway
Electric Resistor
Elevator
Eye Protector
Farmers Almanac
Farming Technology Applications
Fire Escape Ladder
Fire Extinguisher
Fire Fighters Helmet
Folding Bed
Folding Chair
Folding Chair Imaging
Food Preservatives
Foot Warmer
Fountain Pen
Furniture Castor
Galvanic Battery
Game Table
Gas Burner
Gas Mask

Gas-Turbine Air Compressor


Golf Tee
Guitar
Hair Brush
Hair Care and Beauty Products
Hand Gun
Hand Stamp
Heating Furnace
Helicopter
Hobby Horse
Home Security System
Horse Shoe
HVAC Technology
Hydraulic Jack
Ice Cream Scoop
Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer
Improved Rotary Steam Engine
Improved Train Toilet
Improved Whaling Harpoon
Incubator
Induction Telegraph System
Inoculation Procedure
Internet Networking
Iron Alloy
Ironing Board
IBM Personal Computer
ISA Bus - Computers
Key Chain
Kneading Machine
Knee Brace
Lantern
Laserphaco Probe
Lawn Mower
Lawn Sprinkler
Lemon Squeezer
Life Preserver
Liniment
Liquid-Fueled Rocket Engine
Lock
Lubricating Cup
Luggage Carrier
Lunch Pail
Machine Gun
Mail Box
Maritime Steam Engine
Mobile Refrigeration Unit
Mop

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

* Credits & Sources -

The information and photographs


contained in this document were compiled, condensed and edited
from numerous Historical Sources to include studies by
Archaeologists, Paleontologists, Egyptologists, Geologists, Info
Please Almanac, Archaeology Info, Encyclopedia Britannica, Encarta
Encyclopedia, Numerous Educational Institutions, U.S. Census
Bureau, Scholars of Black History, U.S. Government Historical
Archives, The Library of Congress, The National Park Service, The
PBS Channel, NOVA, A & E Network, The BBC, The Black Collegian,
Black Weekly, African American Registry, African American Almanac,
The Journal of African History, The Intercultural Press, National
Archives and Records Administration, The Discovery Channel, The
African American History Channel, The History Channel, The
National Geographic Channel, The National Slavery Museum, Black

Past, Jet Magazine, Crisis Magazine, The Smithsonian, Your Black


World, N.Y. Times and various Websites and individual Authors
dedicated to History which are too numerous to list individually.
Modern day articles were taken from various reputable media
sources such as MSNBC, CNN, The Associated Press, Time Magazine,
Essence Magazine, Newsweek, Atlanta Black Star, Washington Post,
Oxford African-American Studies Center, Black Time Travel, Black
Then, The Root, On The Black List, The African History Network,
American Slavery, Black Enterprise and many others.
I Do Not take any personal claim or credit for what is contained
in this document. I give full credit to all the contributing
sources and authors. I am merely a messenger of free knowledge and
documented known Black History and I have presented it in a manner
that bridges the gap between Africa and America in a format that
is easy to read and follow. All the information was authored by
reputable sources and individuals. Individual author names are not
included due to the vast time of history covered. I could not list
each individual as the list would be too numerous. Periodic
corrections are made when errors or contradictions are found.
* The United States is called the land of the free and the home of
the brave. She is a rich, powerful and arrogant country that was
built from the blood, sweat, and tears of People of Color. The
concept that All Men Are Created Equal only applies to the White
race. Africans were enslaved, tortured, raped, oppressed,
dehumanized, beaten, lynched and striped of their heritage. Native
American Indians were hunted down, displaced, massacred, raped and
infected with diseases. The White race invaded this country like a
swarm of locusts leaving nothing but death and destruction in
their wake. Races of color were used for manual labor to build
Americas infrastructure, yet they were not allowed to share in
the fruits of their labor. The tyranny, atrocities and carnage
committed by the White race on People of Color goes unspoken,
unremembered and untaught even though it has been documented
throughout history. The events of the past are told by the victors
and it is their story (HIS Story) that is remembered. Joseph Campbell
- 2003

Written and presented by Joseph Campbell starblazers@msn.com in


honor of Black History, Culture and Heritage. Please share this
information with others. Knowledge is free and history is ours to
learn from and be proud of despite its White-washing by America
and Europe. Free your mind from mental slavery.

This is an example of the stolen and whitewashed


history that belongs to and originated in Africa
with Black people.

The U.S. is a nation committed to independence and freedom who


used slave labor to achieve those goals. Slaves built the
Whitehouse and slave labor fueled the economy as the country's
leaders talked about equality and the right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. 12 U.S. Presidents owned slaves under
the U.S. Flag while following the ideals of the Declaration of
Independence for America which excluded Black people. Without the
contributions of African Americans, that fledgling nation would
have remained a fledgling colony of Great Britain. The U.S.
Governments (Special Virus Cancer Program) AIDS Project flowchart
was designed to kill Blacks: Africa was systematically depopulated
for 400 years thru slavery. Africa is now the least populated
continent in the world with a density one-sixth of Europes.
Africas death rate is more than twice that of Europe. Africas
death rate should also be one-sixth of Europes. Africas birth
rate is nearly 3 times that of Europe but the infant mortality
rate is 5 times higher in Africa than in Europe.

THE END

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