Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Inc. ~ Building a Better Tomorrow ~ One Young Man at a Time
America's Story, begins with Our Story
TIMELINES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
The westernmost part of subregion Africa is composted of 18 countries from which the majority of America's slaves originated; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Libera, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Saint Helena, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome' and Principe, and Togo. In ancient times several of these countries develop great empires with thriving economies exporting goods such as cotton, leather and especially gold. However, as gold poured into nations such as Carthage, and Morocco, western nations took notice. Not only did western nations take notice, they set sail to engage in direct trade, what would start out with a quest for gold, would end with the greatest forced relocation of peoples from one continent to another; generating enormous wealth and expansion of empires to North and South America.
1324 Mansa Musa, ruler of the empire of Mali, makes his fabled pilgrimage to Mecca, dispensing gifts of gold, consequently word of West African wealth spreads through North Africa and Europe
1493 Askia Mohammed leads the Songhai Empire and over the next 36 years extends its control over most of West Africa. Trade in enslaved Africans becomes a major business during his rule.
1502 Portugal transports the first cargo of slaves to the Western hemisphere
1400-1500 Black people first came to the New World as guides, interpreters, explorers
1619 First slave ship enters into Jamestown, VA
1621 Dutch West Indies Co. given a monopoly on the transatlantic slave trade
1640 English colonies begin to enact punitive laws to discourage slaves and indentured servants from running away.
1662 In Virginia, the children of slave women and Englishmen shall be bond or free according to the mother’s status.
1663 In Gloucester, VA, a major slave revolt by slaves and indentured servants.
1663 In Maryland, slaves must serve for their entire life.
1664 Baptism does not alter slave status.
1688 First recorded protest vs. slavery by a white group in the English colonies by Quakers in Germantown
1672 King Charles II charters Royal African Company with exclusive rights to provide the colonies with Africans
1705 Virginia confers upon Blacks the status of real estate
1724 New Orleans establishes the “Black Codes” with 55 articles to regulate slave behavior
1745 Jean Baptiste Point du Sable establishes a trading post that evolves into the City of Chicago
1770 Crispus Attucks was one of the first men killed in the Revolutionary War
1775 First Anti-Slavery Society is organized in Philadelphia
1778 Virginia outlaws the trafficking of slaves into the commonwealth
1779 Virginia Assembly passes Thomas Jefferson’s “A Bill Concerning Slaves” restricting white women who bear mulatto children to leave the commonwealth with their children
1787 Constitutional Convention Determines slaves to be 3/5 of a free man for purposes of taxation and representation
1792 Construction of the white House in D.C. requires an influx of slave laborers
1793 First fugitive slave law is passed by Congress
1797 Congress rejects the NC slave petition by freed Blacks to end slavery
1800 City of Boston refuses to support Black schools
1804 Underground Railroad begins. Virginia forbids all evening meetings of slaves
1807 Eli Whitney introduces the Cotton Gin, machinery that separates seed from boll.
~Congress passed a law to abolish the importation of slaves from Africa
1808 Louisiana court declares that marriage between slaves cannot be recognized under the law, setting a southern state precedent
1816 American Coloniazation Society is founded in D.C. to send free Blacks back to Africa
~AME church is organized by Rev. Richard Allen
1820 Missouri Compromise separates slave and free states
1822 Liberia established
~Denmark Vesey plans slave insurrection in Charleston, South Carolina
1831 First National Negro Convention meets in Philadelphia to improve the status of Blacks
~Rev. Nat Turner’s slave insurrection in Southampton, Virginia
~Mississippi declares that it is unlawful for any slave, free Negro, or mulatto to preach the Gospel. 39 lashes to violators
1832 Alabama law that there will be a fine of $250-500. For anyone who teaches a Black to spell read or writes.
1837 The price of a healthy male field slave (18-25) is $1,300.
Congress passes a resolution ceding authority over slave laws to the states
1839 Mutiny on the outlaw slave ship, L’Amistad
~Anti-Slavery Society founded
1847 Liberia declares independence
1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland, but returns to lead three siblings to freedom. She made 18 trips as a “conductor”
1850 New Fugitive slave Laws that state a slave could be captured in the northern states for return to master.
1854 Ashmun Institute established. Later known as Lincoln University
~Father James Augustine Healy was the first African American Priest in North America; was ordained at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris
1857 DRED SCOTT versus JFA Sanford case settled by US Supreme Court declaring that African Americans are not citizens; t hat residence in a free state does not bestow freedom
1859 John Brown raids Harper’s Ferry, Virginia
1861 Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, declares that slavery is necessary to self-preservation.
1862 President Lincoln announces the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, which abolishes slavery as of January 1, 1863 in the seceded states of the Confederacy.
1865 The 13th Amendment officially abolishes slavery in the U.S.
1866 “Black Codes” begun to regulate and control Blacks in the former Confederate states are established by all-white legislators.
~In Pulaski, Tennessee the Ku Klux Klan is started to control Blacks through campaigns of terror and intimidation to minimize Reconstruction influence in the South.
~Freedman’s Bureau is established by the War Department
~General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 that assigns areas of land in South Carolina and Florida for
Blacks not to exceed 40 acres. President Andrew Johnson reverses the order.
1866 The Civil Rights Act grants equal rights. The 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection
1867 The Reconstruction Act places Confederate states under Federal military rule
1869 The 15th Amendment guarantees Blacks the right to vote
1870 Military recruitment of Black men to fight in Indian Wars in the West. They became known as “Buffalo Soldiers”
1875 The Civil Rights Act Guarantees equal rights in public accommodations and in service on jury.
1881 Tennessee segregates railcars. Other states follow with “Jim Crow” laws
1883 The Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional.
1890 Mississippi Plan requires literacy tests to vote.
1896 The Plessy vs. Ferguson case decides that “separate but equal” accommodations are a “reasonable” solution to prevent the mingling of the races.
~Political compromise ends Reconstruction
1900 Booker Taliaferro Washington publishes his autobiography, “Up from Slavery”
~A generation after emancipation, 8.8 million Blacks are counted in the U.S. Census; 7.9 million Blacks live in the South
1903 The Niagara Movement begins in Canada. The movement will give birth to the NAACP in 1909.
1909 Explorer, Matthew Henson, erects the American flag at the North Pole on expedition with Perry
1910 The City of Baltimore approves a city ordinance designating boundaries of Black and white neighborhoods
~Beginning of major migration of Blacks from the southern states to the north for jobs, safety, etc. 350,000 Blacks are employed in manufacturing and industrial jobs
1911 National Urban League is founded
1913 President Woodrow Wilson institutes Federal segregation of the workplace, restrooms and lunchrooms.
1916 Marcus Garvey starts his “Back To Africa” Movement.
1917 East St. Louis, Illinois race riot results in the death of 40-200 Blacks. There were so many race riots that summer in the north that it was called “Red Summer”
1918 400,000 Black men serve in the military in World War I; 200,000 see action in France
1919 Pan-African Congress was organized in Paris, France by W.E.B. Dubois.
Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. was organized by Marcus Garvey
1925 Asa Philip Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a labor organization.
1926 Annual Negro History Week established by the Assoc. for the Study of Negro Life and History by Carter G. Woodson
1930 Immigration of foreign born Blacks to the US since 1910 results in 1.5% of Blacks being from the Caribbean.
1934 Costigan Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill defeated in U.S. Congress
1948 President Truman integrates the Armed Forces
1954 The Supreme Court rules on the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, strikes down the “separate but equal” doctrine begun in 1896
1955 Arrest of Rosa Parks precipitates the successful 381 day Montgomery bus boycott united 50,000 Blacks to walk or carpool The Civil Rights Act creates a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department and a Civil Rights Commission.
1960 The Civil Rights Act outlaws interference with desegregation orders and voter rights.
~The Supreme Court declares segregation in bus/rail travel unconstitutional
~50% of Blacks live outside of South for the first time in history
1964 The Civil Rights Act creates the EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which prohibits discrimination by business and employers.
1965 The Voting rights Act enforces the 15th Amendment. Massive voter registration.
~Voting rights March in Selma.
~SNCC organized by Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) for Alabama Voter Registration
1966 Black Panther Party organized by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland.
1968 The Civil rights Act prohibits housing discrimination
1976 Alex Haley publishes “Roots”; most watched TV miniseries the next year of all time.
~Interest grows in genealogy.
1978 The Regents of the University of California vs Bakke strikes down the quota system in university admissions
1995 Regents vote to end Affirmative Action in university admissions
1996 Proposition 209 bans affirmative action in government employment and college admission
1998 Washington state and Florida ban affirmative action
1999 Racial Profiling by New Jersey Police exposed
2001 Settlement in New Jersey Profiling Case
*We invite our current generation to provide important historic facts to be inputted from the turn of the century (2000) to the present. Please use the contact form below.
" We Have Come this Far by Faith "