History of Slavery and Institutional Racism By Region
Daylighting Erased or Whitewashed History is an Important Element of Repair
The whitewashing and erasure of our common history is damaging to Black and white people alike. To fully participate in the movement for reparations, it is important that white families revisit and relearn our common history framed through a racial justice lens. Whether your family enslaved others or benefitted indirectly, we all need to understand how the foundations of institutional racism relate to both our families' and our country's early history.
Below, you will find links to research materials organized by state. As you research your family's genealogy, pause to review the historic context and conditions in which they lived. Compare these conditions to the ones faced by African American contemporaries.
We're all familiar with our typical family "boot strap" or origin stories.
How will your family's story change as your understanding of history changes?
PushBlack Podcast: Interview with Clint Smith, author of "How the Word is Passed," on the importance of understanding our common history of slavery.
"Only by acknowledging the full extent of slavery's grip on U.S. Society - its intimate connections to present day wealth and power, the depth of its injury to black Americans, the shocking nearness in time of its true end - can we reconcile the paradoxes of current American life.”
Douglas A. Blackmon
The South
Historical Summary
Slavery became central to Alabama's economy and social structure in the early 19th century. Enslaved Africans and their descendants were forcibly brought to Alabama through the domestic slave trade after the transatlantic trade was banned in 1808. They provided the labor necessary for Alabama to become a cotton-producing powerhouse, with plantations such as the Gaineswood Plantation in Demopolis and the Forks of Cypress Plantation in Florence. Enslaved people also worked in industries like lumber, brickmaking, and mining. As a result, white planters and industrialists became wealthy.
Alabama, like many Southern states, seceded from the Union in 1861 to protect the institution of slavery. The state played a significant role in the Confederacy, contributing troops and resources to the Southern cause. After the Civil War, Alabama, like the rest of the South, enacted Jim Crow laws. Despite emancipation in 1865, white landowners implemented sharecropping and convict-leasing systems to maintain control over African Americans and their labor. The rise of Black Codes and, later, Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation and denied African Americans basic civil rights. Public facilities, schools, transportation, and voting access were segregated, ensuring white supremacy remained entrenched. During this period, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) emerged as a violent force in Alabama, using terror to suppress African American political and social advancements during Reconstruction and beyond.
Alabama's history also includes instances of racially motivated violence, such as the Eufaula Massacre of 1874 and other less-documented attacks on Black communities. The KKK gained significant influence during the early 20th century, with chapters operating openly across the state. Intimidation tactics, lynchings, and bombings targeted African Americans who sought to challenge racial hierarchies. Alabama also saw the establishment of sundown towns, where African Americans were excluded or violently driven out after dark, further enforcing racial segregation and economic exclusion.
The Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century brought national attention to Alabama's systemic racism. Events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham Campaign, and the Selma to Montgomery marches highlighted the state's entrenched racial injustices and the bravery of activists fighting for change. While these efforts led to landmark legislative victories, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and racial violence continues to influence Alabama's societal and economic landscape today.
Enslavement
History of slavery in Alabama - Wikipedia
slavery - Encyclopedia of Alabama
Slavery in Montgomery (eji.org)
Alabama in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction in Alabama | Encyclopedia of Alabama
Industries Using Slave Labor or Convict Leasing
Turpentine Industry in Alabama - Encyclopedia of Alabama
Plantation Agriculture - Encyclopedia of Alabama
Convict-Lease System - Encyclopedia of Alabama
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror Campaigns
Alabama | Lynching In America (eji.org)
The 1901 version of the Alabama State Constitution states “The new Constitution eliminates the ignorant Negro vote and places the control of our government where God Almighty intended it should be — with the Anglo-Saxon race,” John Knox, the president of the constitutional convention, said in a speech encouraging voters to ratify the document that year.
Eufaula, Alabama Massacre - Equal Justice Initiative Reports
Alabama Archives Sundown Towns - History and Social Justice
ADAH: Alabama Moments (The Ku Klux Klan During Reconstruction---Details)
Nov. 3, 1874: White League Attacks Black Voters - Zinn Education Project
Personal Narratives
Former Alabama slaves tell their tales in university archives (montgomeryadvertiser.com)
Most Black McGruders can trace lineage back to slave in Alabama
Slavery, Black Codes, and Jim Crow Laws
Here is a list of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws enacted in Alabama, sorted by date:
1. Black Codes of 1865: Following the end of the Civil War, Alabama enacted Black Codes to restrict the rights and freedoms of newly freed African Americans. These codes imposed restrictions on labor contracts, curfews, and vagrancy laws targeting African Americans.
2. Segregation on Railroads Act of 1891: This law mandated segregated seating on trains, with separate cars for African Americans and whites. It enforced racial segregation in public transportation and limited African Americans' access to equal accommodations.
3. Separate Car Act of 1895: This law expanded segregation to streetcars, requiring separate seating and accommodations for African Americans and whites. Violations of the law resulted in fines or imprisonment.
4. Poll Tax: In 1901, Alabama amended its state constitution to implement a poll tax. This tax disproportionately affected African Americans, as it required individuals to pay a fee in order to vote, effectively suppressing their voting rights.
5. Miscegenation Laws: Alabama had laws prohibiting interracial marriage and relationships. These laws, in place until 2000, criminalized marriages between individuals of different races.
6. Separate School Laws: Beginning in the late 19th century, Alabama implemented laws mandating racial segregation in schools. These laws created separate and unequal education systems for African American and white students, with African American schools receiving fewer resources and inferior facilities.
7. Grandfather Clause: In 1901, Alabama implemented a "grandfather clause" that exempted individuals from literacy tests and other voting restrictions if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the abolition of slavery. This effectively excluded African Americans from voting due to their ancestors' enslaved status.
8. Residential Segregation: Alabama enforced racial segregation through various residential segregation laws and practices. These measures, including redlining and discriminatory housing practices, limited African Americans' access to housing and perpetuated segregation.
It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive, and there were numerous other discriminatory laws and practices in Alabama that enforced racial segregation and limited the rights of African Americans during the Jim Crow era.
AlabamaLawsGoverningSlaves.pdf (state.al.us)
Birth of Jim Crow in Alabama 1865-1896, The (escholarship.org)
Black History Timeline
1831
Alabama makes it illegal for enslaved or free blacks to preach.
1881
On the Fourth of July 25-year-old Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute in central Alabama.
1896
In September George Washington Carver is appointed director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute. His work advances peanut, sweet potato, and soybean farming.
1901
Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up From Slavery is published.
1909
The Knights of Peter Claver, the first permanent national black Catholic fraternal order, is founded in Mobile, Alabama.
1931
The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama. Their trial begins on April 6.
1932
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment begins under the direction of the U.S. Public Health Service. The experiment ends in 1972.
1941
The U.S. Army creates the Tuskegee Air Squadron who will soon be known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
1943
The first black cadets graduate from the Army Flight School at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.
1943
The black 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen) flies its first combat mission in Italy.
1952
Tuskegee Institute reported no lynchings in the United States for the first time in 71 years of tabulation.
1955
Rosa Parks refuses to relinquish her bus seat to a white man on December 1, initiating the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Soon afterwards Dr. Martin Luther King becomes the leader of the Boycott.
1955
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the 26 year old pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association which leads the year-long boycott against the city's racially segregated bus line.
1956
Autherine Lucy is admitted to the University of Alabama on February 3. She is suspended on February 7 after a riot ensues at the university to protest her presence. Lucy is expelled on February 29.
1956
On April 10 popular entertainer Nat King Cole is assaulted on stage during a segregated performance at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama.
1957
The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was founded at a mass meeting in Birmingham, Alabama.
1961
Riots on the University of Georgia campus in September fail to prevent the enrollment of the institutions first two African American students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter (Gault).
1963
Martin Luther King, Jr. writes his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" on April 16.
1963
On May 3, Birmingham police use dogs and fire hoses to attack civil rights demonstrators.
1963
Despite Governor George Wallace's vow to block the schoolhouse door to prevent their enrollment on June 11, Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes at the University of Alabama. They are the first African American students to attend the university.
1963
On September 15, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is bombed in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls: Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, ages 11-14.
1965
On March 7, six hundred Alabama civil rights activists stage a Selma-to-Montgomery protest march to draw attention to the continued denial of black voting rights in the state. The marchers are attacked by Alabama State Troopers.
Books
Weren't No Good Times: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Alabama by Horace Randall Williams
Slavery in Alabama by James Benson Sellers
Slavery in America - Women in Slavery - Alabama by Anonymous
Slavery in America - Women in Slavery - Alabama (part 2) - ILLUSTRATED by Emma Thomas
Podcasts
Former slaves in Alabama in 1936-1937 with slave song "waitin on you
Film/Video
Alabama's Black History: Part 1
Alabama History African Slave Trade
Last Slave Ship the Clotilda found in Alabama. Importing Africans as Slaves was illegal in 1808
Plantations
List of plantations in Alabama - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Alabama • FamilySearch
Alabama Slave Records blackwallstreet.org
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Slavery in Florida began during the Spanish colonial period in the 16th century and expanded significantly under British and later American control. The Spanish initially enslaved Native Americans and later enslaved Africans to work in agriculture and as domestic laborers. When Florida became a British colony in 1763, the transatlantic slave trade intensified, with enslaved Africans brought to the region to work on plantations and in emerging industries. By the time Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, slavery was deeply entrenched in its economy and society.
Florida's enslaved population primarily worked on plantations producing cotton, sugar, and rice, the backbone of the state's agricultural economy. Major plantations included the Kingsley Plantation near Jacksonville and the Gamble Plantation in Ellenton. The enslaved also labored in other industries, such as timber and cattle ranching.
Florida joined the Confederacy in 1861, seceding from the Union to protect the institution of slavery. After the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, the state implemented Black Codes to control and exploit freed African Americans. These laws restricted their movement, employment opportunities, and rights, effectively continuing racial oppression under a different guise. As the Reconstruction period ended, Florida adopted Jim Crow laws, enforcing racial segregation in public spaces, schools, and transportation while systematically disenfranchising Black citizens through poll taxes and literacy tests.
During the 20th century, the Civil Rights Movement challenged Florida's Jim Crow system. Activists and organizations fought for the desegregation of schools and public facilities, voting rights, and economic equality. Despite these efforts, systemic racism persisted in many forms, including discriminatory housing practices and unequal access to education and employment.
Enslavement
History of slavery in Florida - Wikipedia
Florida Secession (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Florida in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
FLORIDA IN THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION (floridahistory.org)
Institutional Racism, Racial Terror Campaigns
Florida | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Rosewood Massacre decimates Black Florida community | January 1, 1923 | HISTORY
PBS - Freedom Never Dies: The Story of Harry T. Moore - Florida Terror - The Klan in Florida
Florida Sundown Towns Archives - History and Social Justice
Personal Narratives
Florida Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery from interview with slaves (genealogytrails.com)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Here is a list of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws enacted in Florida, sorted by date:
1. Black Codes of 1865: Following the end of the Civil War, Florida enacted Black Codes to restrict the rights and freedoms of newly freed African Americans. These codes imposed restrictions on labor contracts, curfews, and vagrancy laws targeting African Americans.
2. Civil Rights Act of 1866: Although not specific to Florida, this federal law sought to protect the civil rights of African Americans. However, it faced limited enforcement and resistance in Florida, where Black Codes persisted.
3. Segregation on Railroads Act of 1887: This law mandated segregated seating on trains in Florida, enforcing racial segregation and limiting African Americans' access to equal accommodations.
4. Separate Car Act of 1889: This law expanded segregation to streetcars, requiring separate seating and accommodations for African Americans and whites. Violations of the law resulted in fines or imprisonment.
5. Poll Tax: In 1889, Florida implemented a poll tax that required individuals to pay a fee in order to vote. This tax disproportionately affected African Americans, as it served as a barrier to voting and effectively suppressed their political participation.
6. Literacy Tests: Florida introduced literacy tests as a requirement for voting in 1889. These tests were used to disenfranchise African Americans by imposing high standards and often administered in a discriminatory manner.
7. Grandfather Clause: In 1901, Florida implemented a "grandfather clause" that exempted individuals from literacy tests and other voting restrictions if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the abolition of slavery. This clause disproportionately excluded African Americans from voting due to their ancestors' enslaved status.
8. Residential Segregation: Florida enforced racial segregation through various residential segregation laws and practices. These measures, including redlining and discriminatory housing practices, limited African Americans' access to housing and perpetuated segregation.
It is important to note that this list is not exhaustive, and there were numerous other discriminatory laws and practices in Florida that enforced racial segregation and limited the rights of African Americans during the Jim Crow era.
Excerpts from Florida State Constitution [Florida's "Black Codes"] (1865) - US History Scene
Black History Timeline
1738 The first permanent black settlement in what will become the United States is established by fugitive slaves at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), Florida.
1817 Escaped slaves from Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama join the military campaign of the Florida Seminoles to keep their homelands.
1889 Florida becomes the first state to use the poll tax to disenfranchise black voters.
1900 In January James Weldon Johnson writes the lyrics and his brother John Rosamond Johnson composes the music for Lift Every Voice and Sing in their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida in celebration of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. The song is eventually a
1904 Educator Mary McLeod Bethune founds a college in Daytona Beach, Florida that today is known as Bethune-Cookman University.
1923 On January 4, the small, predominately black town of Rosewood, Florida is destroyed by a mob of white residents from nearby communities. The attack would be known as the Rosewood Massacre.
1951 Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP official, is killed by a bomb in Mims, Florida, on December 25.
1964 On February 25, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) wins the first of three world heavyweight championships in a bout with Sonny Liston in Miami, Florida.
1967 Renee Powell becomes the first African American woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour.
1972 The first Haitian boat people arrive in south Florida.
1980 On May 17-18 rioting breaks out in Liberty City, Florida (near Miami) after police officers are acquitted for killing an unarmed black man. The riot which generates 15 deaths is the worst in the nation since Detroit in 1967.
1980 The Mariel boatlift transports 125,000 Cubans to Florida including a large number of Afro-Cubans.
1983 On August 30, Guion (Guy) S. Bluford, Jr., a crew member on the Challenger,becomes the first African American astronaut to make a space flight.
1986 On January 28, Dr. Ronald McNair and six other crew members die when the space shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1989 In March Frederick Drew Gregory becomes the first African American to command a space shuttle when he leads the crew of the Discovery.
1992 On September 12, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison becomes the first African American woman in space when she travels on board the space shuttle Endeavor.
Black Townships
Black History Month: Historic Black Communities | Florida State Parks
Aug. 15, 1887: All-Black Town of Eatonville Incorporated - Zinn Education Project
Articles
History of slavery in Florida - Wikipedia
Five Insane Facts About Slavery and Black History in Florida | Miami New Times
Florida’s Culture of Slavery – Florida Humanities
Negro Slavery in Florida on JSTOR
Books
Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation by Larry Eugene Rivers
Slavery and Plantation Growth in Antebellum Florida, 1821-1860 by Julia Floyd Smith
Slavery and white servitude in East Florida, 1726-1776. by Wilbur Henry Siebert
Podcasts
Acknowledging Florida's History of Slavery : NPR
Film/Video
The Changing Same | American Documentary
The Ocoee Massacre: A Documentary Film | WFTV
Plantations
Plantations in Florida - Wikipedia
Kingsley Plantation - Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Florida • FamilySearch
University of South Florida Africana Heritage Project
Tampa Library hosts largest Black genealogy program (baynews9.com)
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Georgia (U.S. state) - Wikipedia
Georgia in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Georgia during Reconstruction - Wikipedia
Reconstruction in Georgia | New Georgia Encyclopedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Georgia | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
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Georgia's 1868 Black Codes: Shortly after the Civil War, Georgia enacted Black Codes that restricted the rights and freedoms of newly emancipated African Americans, including limiting their ability to own property and engage in certain occupations.
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Georgia's Separate Car Act of 1879: This law mandated racial segregation on public transportation, requiring separate accommodations for African Americans and whites.
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Georgia's Poll Tax and Literacy Test Laws: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Georgia implemented poll taxes and literacy tests as voting requirements. These laws disproportionately targeted African Americans, effectively suppressing their political participation.
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Georgia's Jim Crow Laws on Segregation: Georgia, like other Southern states, enacted a series of laws enforcing racial segregation in various public spaces, including schools, parks, theaters, and restaurants.
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Georgia's Racial Purity Laws: In the early 20th century, Georgia passed laws aimed at preserving racial purity and preventing interracial relationships. These laws criminalized marriages and sexual relations between people of different races.
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Georgia's Grandfather Clause: Georgia implemented a grandfather clause in 1908, which exempted individuals from literacy tests and other voting requirements if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the abolition of slavery. This clause disproportionately excluded African Americans from voting due to their ancestors' enslaved status.
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Georgia's County Unit System: In 1917, Georgia implemented a county unit system that gave rural counties greater voting power than urban areas. This system effectively limited the political influence of African American voters, who were concentrated in urban centers.
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Georgia's Segregation of Public Schools: Georgia enforced racial segregation in public schools through various laws and practices, denying African American students equal educational opportunities.
Slavery Laws in Early Georgia, 1754-1775 (genealogytrails.com)
Georgia Jim Crow (sourcesfinding.com)
Black History Timeline
1739 Nineteen white citizens of Darien, Georgia petition the colonial governor to continue the ban on the importation of Africans into the colony, calling African enslavement morally wrong.
1773 The Silver Bluff Baptist Church, the oldest continuously operating black church, is founded in Silver Bluff, South Carolina near Savannah, Georgia.
1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in Georgia which he patents on March 13. The development of the cotton gin provides a major boost to the slave-based cotton economy of the South.
1832 The Georgia Infirmary, founded by white philanthropists in Savannah, is the first hospital in the United States dedicated to black patient care.
1852 The Jackson Street Hospital in Augusta, Georgia is established as the second medical facility dedicated solely to the care of African American patients.
1863 Susie King Taylor of Savannah is the first black Army nurse in U.S. history.
1865 With the approval of the Georgia Legislature on December 6, the 13th Amendmenttook effect and outlawed slavery throughout the United States and its possessions.
1867 Morehouse College is founded in Atlanta on February 14.
1881 Spelman College, the first college for black women in the U.S., is founded on April 11 by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles.
1892 The National Medical Association is formed in Atlanta by African American physicians because they are barred from the American Medical Association.
1895 Booker T. Washington delivers his famous Atlanta Compromise address on September 18 at the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition. He says the Negro problem would be solved by a policy of gradualism and accommodation.
1895 Three black Baptist organizations, the Foreign Mission Baptist Convention of the United States (1880), the American National Baptist Convention (1886) and the Baptist National Educational Convention (1893) combined at Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta
1906 The Atlanta Race Riot on September 22-24 produces twelve deaths; ten blacks and two whites.
1919 The Ku Klux Klan is revived in 1915 at Stone Mountain, Georgia, and by the beginning of 1919 operates in 27 states. Eighty-three African Americans are lynched during the year, among them a number of returning soldiers still in uniform.
1923 Marcus Garvey is imprisoned for mail fraud. He is sent to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta in 1925.
1928 The Atlanta Daily World begins publication in November.
1937 Hugh Morris Gloster founds the College Language Association (CLA) in Atlanta, Georgia.
1945 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12.
1949 Businessman Jesse Blayton, Sr., establishes WERD-AM, the first black owned radio station. It begins broadcasting in Atlanta on October 3.
1958 On January 12, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is organized in Atlanta with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as its first President.
1966 In May, Stokely Carmichael becomes chairman of SNCC at its headquarters in Atlanta and publicly embraces the concept of black power.
1966 On November 8, Julian Bond wins a seat in the Georgia State Senate. However he is denied the seat by the Georgia Legislature because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond is eventually seated after a bitter court battle.
1966 Ruby Doris Smith Robinson becomes Executive Director of SNCC.
1967 H. Rap Brown becomes chairman of SNCC on May 12 at its headquarters in Atlanta.
1973 On October 16, Maynard H. Jackson, Jr. is elected the first black mayor of Atlanta.
1974 On April 8, Henry (Hank) Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 715th home run surpassing Babe Ruth to become the all-time leader in home runs in major league baseball.
1975 The Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta) becomes the only black medical school established in the United States in the 20th Century. The first dean and president of the Morehouse School of Medicine is Dr. Louis Sullivan who later becomes the U.S. Surgeo
1975 Lee Elder becomes the first African American golfer to compete in the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
1980 Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters wins the American Book Award.
1987 Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole becomes the first African American woman president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
1988 On November 4, Comedian Bill Cosby announces his gift of $20 million to Spelman College. This is the largest donation ever made by a black American to a college or university.
1995 Dr. Helene Doris Gayle becomes the first woman and the first African American Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
1997 On April 13, golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. At 21 he is the youngest golfer ever to win the title. He is also the first African American to hold the title.
2001 In November Shirley Clarke Franklin becomes the first African American woman to head the government of a major Southern city when she is elected mayor of Atlanta.
Articles
History of slavery in Georgia (U.S. state) - Wikipedia
Slavery in Antebellum Georgia | New Georgia Encyclopedia
Slavery in Colonial Georgia | New Georgia Encyclopedia
Pre-Revolutionary Slavery – Georgia Historical Society (georgiahistory.com)
Georgia - Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction | Britannica
African American Journey - Underground Tours Of Savannah
Books
On Jordan's Stormy Banks: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Georgia by Andrew Waters
Cultivating Race: The Expansion of Slavery in Georgia, 1750-1860 by Watson W. Jennison
Podcasts
Slavery and the Colony of Georgia
I Was A Slave - John Brown - Slave Life in Georgia Part 3
I Was A Slave - John Brown - Slave Life in Georgia Part 4
Film/Video
Georgia Stories | The Growth of Slavery | PBS
Battle of Atlanta: Slavery’s role in antebellum Atlanta
Plantations
List of plantations in Georgia (U.S. state) - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Georgia • FamilySearch
Georgia Slave Records blackwallstreet.org
Georgia in the Civil War • FamilySearch
Georgia's Slave Population in Legal Records
They Had Names – African Americans in early Liberty County, Georgia, Records
Reparative Action:
Support Athens Reparations Action: Watch Linnentown Documentary
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Kentucky - Wikipedia
Kentucky in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction/Readjustment — Freedom Park (louisville.edu)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
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1833: The Kentucky Legislature passes a law prohibiting African Americans, both free and enslaved, from gathering in groups of five or more without a white person present.
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1866: Kentucky enacts a Black Code that imposes strict labor contracts on African Americans and imposes penalties for "vagrancy" if contracts are not adhered to.
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Late 19th century: Kentucky adopts segregation laws that mandate the separation of races in public transportation, including trains, buses, and streetcars.
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1891: Kentucky enacts a law requiring separate schools for African American children and providing significantly less funding and resources compared to white schools.
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1904: The Day Law is passed in Kentucky, prohibiting the education of white and Black students in the same school or institution. This law effectively reinforced segregation in education.
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1908: The Racial Integrity Act is passed in Kentucky, which codifies the "one-drop rule," stating that any individual with any African ancestry, regardless of appearance, is classified as Black.
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Early 20th century: Kentucky implements laws that mandate separate seating areas for African Americans in public facilities, including theaters, restaurants, and hotels.
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1920s: Kentucky introduces various voting restrictions, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, that disproportionately affect African American voters and restrict their access to the ballot.
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1932: The Kentucky legislature passes a law making it illegal for white and Black individuals to marry or engage in sexual relationships.
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1948: Kentucky finally repeals its anti-miscegenation law, which had prohibited interracial marriages.
Black History Timeline
1875 Jockey Oliver Lewis wins the first Kentucky Derby race. Over the next 27 years fourteen black jockeys would ride the wining horse at the Derby.
1902 In May jockey Jimmy Winkfield wins the Kentucky Derby in an era when African American jockeys dominate the sport.
1945 Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. is named commander of Goodman Field, Kentucky. He is the first African American to command a military base.
Black History Timeline in Kentucky:
1790s: The early African American presence in Kentucky was primarily enslaved individuals who worked in agriculture, mining, and domestic service.
1804: The state of Kentucky passes a law prohibiting the importation of enslaved individuals for sale.
1816: The African Baptist Church is established in Lexington, becoming one of the first Black churches in Kentucky.
1830s: A vibrant community of free African Americans grows in Louisville, engaging in various trades and businesses.
1850: The Fugitive Slave Act is passed by the United States Congress, intensifying efforts to capture and return escaped slaves in Kentucky.
1865: The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, officially frees enslaved individuals in Kentucky.
1866: Kentucky establishes the State University for Colored Persons, known today as Kentucky State University, to provide higher education opportunities for African Americans.
1879: Berea College, located in Madison County, becomes the first integrated college in the South, admitting African American students.
1891: Louisville hosts the National Baptist Convention, a significant gathering of African American religious leaders and activists.
1904: Louisville's Walnut Street becomes a thriving hub for African American businesses, commonly known as "Black Wall Street."
1920s: The Harlem Renaissance influences Kentucky's African American artists, writers, and musicians, fostering cultural expression and creativity.
1935: The Kentucky Negro Educational Association (KNEA) is founded to advocate for improved educational opportunities and resources for Black students.
1954: The landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education rules that segregated schools are unconstitutional, leading to efforts to desegregate schools in Kentucky.
1960s: African American civil rights activists in Kentucky, including members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), lead protests and demonstrations to combat racial segregation and discrimination.
1964: Kentucky-born civil rights activist and journalist Alice Allison Dunnigan becomes the first African American woman to receive White House press credentials.
1983: The Muhammad Ali Center is established in Louisville to honor the life and achievements of the renowned boxer and activist, Muhammad Ali, who was born and raised in Kentucky.
2000: The National Underground Railroad Museum opens in Maysville, Kentucky, highlighting the state's role in the Underground Railroad and honoring the freedom seekers and abolitionists who traversed its paths.
2020: Protests against racial injustice and police violence sweep across Kentucky and the nation following the deaths of Breonna Taylor, a young African American woman, and other victims of police brutality.
Articles
History of slavery in Kentucky - Wikipedia
Slavery Laws in Old Kentucky | ExploreKYHistory
African American Slave Owners in Kentucky · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database
Kentucky’s Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom - KET Education
Series traces impact of slavery and Jim Crow oppression in Kentucky (hoptownchronicle.org)
Books
Slavery in Kentucky, 1792-1865 by Ivan Mcdougle
A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760-1891 by Marion Brunson Lucas
Podcasts
Episode 1: Hidden History – The Reckoning (reckoningradio.org)
Film/Video
Historians share the turbulent journey of slavery in Kentucky | Wdrb-video
My Old Kentucky Home's Secret Slave History
Plantations
List of plantations in Kentucky - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Kentucky • FamilySearch
For Genealogists | KHS For Me | Kentucky Historical Society
Kentucky Genealogy – Kentucky Genealogy
Kentucky Birth Certificate, Death Record, Marriage license and other vital records
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Louisiana - Wikipedia
Louisiana in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction: A State Divided
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
The "Code Noir" refers to the legal code that governed slavery in French colonies, including Louisiana, during the colonial period. Here is a list of significant dates related to the Code Noir in Louisiana:
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1685: The Code Noir was officially promulgated in France, outlining regulations for slavery and the treatment of enslaved individuals in French colonies. It was later adopted and enforced in Louisiana.
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1724: A revised version of the Code Noir was introduced in Louisiana, reaffirming and expanding upon the regulations governing slavery and the treatment of enslaved individuals.
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1769: Spain took control of Louisiana from France, and although they abolished the African slave trade, the provisions of the Code Noir continued to govern slavery in the region.
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1803: Louisiana was acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The Code Noir remained in effect but was gradually superseded by U.S. laws and regulations over time.
It's important to note that the Code Noir was not a specific set of laws enacted in Louisiana but rather a legal code that governed slavery in French colonies, including Louisiana, during the colonial period. It was eventually superseded by the laws and practices of subsequent colonial powers and the United States.
Here is a list of Jim Crow laws enacted in Louisiana, sorted by date:
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Separate Car Act of 1890: Enacted in Louisiana, this law mandated racial segregation on trains, requiring separate accommodations for African Americans and whites.
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Louisiana's 1894 Separate Car Act: This law expanded segregation to streetcars, requiring separate seating and accommodations for African Americans and whites.
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Louisiana's 1898 Grandfather Clause: Louisiana implemented a grandfather clause, which exempted individuals from literacy tests and other voting requirements if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote before the abolition of slavery. This clause disproportionately excluded African Americans from voting due to their ancestors' enslaved status.
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1898 Separate Car Act Amendment: An amendment to the Separate Car Act further reinforced segregation on trains, explicitly allowing for the arrest and punishment of individuals who violated the law.
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Louisiana's 1908 Jim Crow Laws: Louisiana implemented a series of laws enforcing racial segregation in various public spaces, including schools, parks, theaters, and restaurants.
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Racial Purity Laws: In the early 20th century, Louisiana, like other Southern states, passed laws aimed at preserving racial purity and preventing interracial relationships. These laws criminalized marriages and sexual relations between people of different races.
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Voter Suppression Laws: Louisiana, along with other Southern states, implemented poll taxes and literacy tests as voting requirements, effectively suppressing the political participation of African Americans.
Roman Roots of the Louisiana Law of Slavery: Emancipation in American Louisiana, 1803-1857 (lsu.edu)
Black Code - History of the Codes of Louisiana - LibGuides at Law Library of Louisiana
Jim Crow & Segregation | 64 Parishes
Black History Timeline
1716 The first enslaved Africans arrive in Louisiana.
1718 New Orleans is founded by the French. By 1721 the city has more enslaved black men than free white men.
1724 The French colonial government in Louisiana enacts the Code Noir, the first body of laws that govern both slaves and free blacks in North America.
1811 Andry's Rebellion on January 8-11. A slave insurrection led by Charles Deslondes, begins on the Louisiana plantation of Manual Andry.
1814 Six hundred African American troops are among the U.S. Army of 3,000 led by General Andrew Jackson which defeats British forces at the Battle of New Orleans. The black troops were led by Major Joseph Savary, the highest ranking black officer in the histor
1861 On May 2, black men in New Orleans organize the First Louisiana Native Guard of the Confederate Army. In doing so they create the first and only military unit of black officers and enlisted men to pledge to fight for Southern independence. By February 186
1864 On October 4, La Tribune de la Nouvelle Orleans (the New Orleans Tribune) begins publication. The Tribune is the first black-owned daily newspaper.
1866 Police in New Orleans supporting the Democratic Mayor storm a Republican meeting of blacks and whites on July 30, killing 34 black and 3 white Republicans. Over 150 people are injured in the attack.
1868 Opelousas, Louisiana is the site of the Opelousas Massacre on September 28, in which an estimated 200 to 300 black Americans are killed by whites opposed to Reconstruction and African American voting.
1868 On November 3, John Willis Menard is elected to Congress from Louisiana's Second Congressional District. Menard is the first African American elected to Congress. However, neither he nor his opponent will be seated due to disputed election results.
1872 Lt. Governor Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback of Louisiana serves as governor of the state for one month from December 1872 to January 1873. He is the first African American to hold that position.
1873 On Easter Sunday more than 100 African Americans were killed in northwest Louisiana while defending Republicans in local office against white militia. The incident became known as the Colfax Massacre. Later that year in what would be known as the Coushatt
1895 White terrorists attack black workers in New Orleans on March 11-12. Six blacks are killed.
1898 In January the Louisiana Legislature introduces the Grandfather Clause into the state's constitution. Only males whose fathers or grandfathers were qualified to vote on January 1, 1867, are automatically registered. Others (African Americans) must comply
1900 The New Orleans Race Riot (also known as the Robert Charles Riot) erupts on July 23 and lasts four days. Twelve African Americans and seven whites were killed.
1953 On June 19, Baton Rouge, Louisiana African Americans begin a boycott of their city's segregated municipal bus line.
1978 On September 15, Muhammad Ali becomes the first boxer to win the heavyweight championship three times when he defeats Leon Spinks at the Superdome in New Orleans.
1985 Grambling State University's football coach Eddie Robinson becomes the coach with the most wins in college football history.
2005 On August 30, Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast, taking an estimated 1,700 lives. The vast majority of the deaths are in Louisiana including heavily African American New Orleans.
Articles
History of slavery in Louisiana - Wikipedia
Slavery In Louisiana | Whitney Plantation
Louisiana | Slavery and Remembrance
Identity Restored to 100,000 Louisiana Slaves - The New York Times
Slavery in French Colonial Louisiana | 64 Parishes
The Enslaved | Destrehan Plantation
272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? - The New York Times
Books
Podcasts
Remembering New Orleans' Overlooked Ties To Slavery : NPR
Film/Video
Descendants of Slave, Slave Owners Meet in Louisiana - YouTube
Plantations
List of plantations in Louisiana - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Louisiana • FamilySearch
GU272 Descendants Association - Welcome
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Slavery in Mississippi became the foundation of the state's economy and society from its earliest days of settlement in the early 18th and 19th centuries. The transatlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to the region, and Mississippi's fertile soil made it ideal for cotton cultivation. By the early 19th century, Mississippi had become one of the largest cotton producers in the world, earning the nickname "The Cotton Kingdom." Enslaved individuals labored on sprawling plantations, such as the Windsor Plantation near Port Gibson and the Arlington Plantation in Natchez, and on plantations in the Mississippi Delta area enduring brutal conditions to generate immense wealth for white landowners.
Mississippi seceded from the Union on January 9, 1861, becoming a key member of the Confederacy during the Civil War. The state witnessed significant battles, including the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863, which marked a turning point in the war as Union forces gained control of the Mississippi River. Following the Confederacy's defeat, Mississippi implemented Black Codes to restrict the freedoms of newly emancipated African Americans, effectively preserving many aspects of slavery. These laws limited mobility, labor rights, and access to land, forcing many freed individuals into exploitative sharecropping arrangements that perpetuated economic dependence.
During Reconstruction, groups fomenting violence and terror like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the White League violently opposed African American political and social progress. These groups terrorized Black communities, using intimidation, lynching, and massacres to suppress voter turnout and dismantle Reconstruction efforts. The Clinton Riot of 1875 is one example of racially motivated violence during this period, where armed white mobs attacked African Americans participating in a political rally, leaving dozens dead. As federal oversight waned, Mississippi entrenched segregation through Jim Crow laws, mandating racial segregation in schools, transportation, and public facilities while disenfranchising African Americans with poll taxes and literacy tests.
Sundown towns, where African Americans were forbidden to remain after dark, also became a hallmark of racial exclusion in Mississippi. Communities like Drew and Sumner openly practiced these policies, using violence and intimidation to enforce racial boundaries. The brutal lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 in Money, Mississippi, became a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, drawing attention to the state's pervasive racial violence. Despite the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which included Freedom Summer and the assassination of racial justice activist Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi's legacy of racial violence and systemic discrimination continues to shape its social and economic landscape. The long fight for equality remains central to the state's modern history.
Enslavement
History of Mississippi - Wikipedia
Mississippi Secession (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Mississippi in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction | Mississippi Encyclopedia
Lynchings in Mississippi: A History, 1865-1965 0786464410, 9780786464418 - DOKUMEN.PUB
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Mississippi Archives Sundown Towns - History and Social Justice
White Leagues | Mississippi Encyclopedia
Sept. 4, 1875: Clinton, Mississippi Massacre - Zinn Education Project
Meridian race riot of 1871 - Wikipedia
Dec. 7, 1874: Vicksburg Massacre - Zinn Education Project
Slave Narratives
Prayin' To Be Set Free: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Mississippi by Andrew Waters
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Here is a list of significant Mississippi Black codes enacted during the Reconstruction era, sorted by year:
1. 1865: Mississippi's Black Codes: In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Mississippi enacted Black Codes to regulate the behavior and rights of newly freed African Americans. These codes aimed to maintain a system resembling slavery and restrict the newly gained freedoms of African Americans.
2. 1865: Vagrancy Law: Mississippi implemented a vagrancy law that allowed authorities to arrest and fine African Americans for being unemployed or lacking a visible means of support. This law effectively targeted African Americans and subjected them to forced labor or imprisonment.
3. 1865: Apprentice Law: Mississippi's Apprentice Law empowered local officials to apprentice African American orphans and children of destitute parents to white individuals. This law often resulted in the forced labor and exploitation of African American children.
4. 1865: Labor Contracts: Mississippi required African Americans to enter into labor contracts, which bound them to work for specific employers under certain conditions. These contracts were often heavily skewed in favor of the employers, perpetuating exploitative labor practices.
5. 1865: Curfew Laws: Mississippi enacted curfew laws that restricted the movement and activities of African Americans during specific hours, primarily at night. These laws aimed to exert control over African American populations and limit their social interactions.
6. 1865: Firearms Restrictions: Mississippi imposed stringent restrictions on African Americans' ability to possess firearms, limiting their ability to defend themselves and reinforcing their vulnerability to violence and discrimination.
It's important to note that these Black codes were eventually invalidated or modified as a result of federal intervention and the Civil Rights Act of 1866. However, their legacy had a significant impact on the lives and rights of African Americans in Mississippi during the Reconstruction era.
(1866) Mississippi Black Codes
Here is a list of significant Jim Crow laws enacted in Mississippi, sorted by year:
1. 1888: Mississippi's Separate Car Act: Enacted in 1888, this law mandated racial segregation on trains, requiring separate accommodations for African Americans and whites.
2. 1890: Mississippi's New Constitution and Disfranchisement: Mississippi passed a new state constitution that included provisions aimed at disenfranchising African American voters. These provisions, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and understanding clauses, effectively suppressed African American political participation.
3. 1890: Mississippi's Separate School Law: Mississippi implemented a law mandating racial segregation in public schools, requiring separate schools and facilities for African American and white students.
4. 1900: Mississippi's Miscegenation Law: This law prohibited interracial marriages and relationships, making them illegal in Mississippi.
5. 1908: Mississippi's Jim Crow Laws: Mississippi implemented a series of laws enforcing racial segregation in various public spaces, including schools, parks, theaters, and restaurants.
6. 1917: Mississippi's Pig Laws: The Pig Laws in Mississippi disproportionately targeted African Americans by criminalizing minor offenses such as petty theft or trespassing. These laws were used to subject African Americans to imprisonment and forced labor on farms and plantations.
7. 1920s: Mississippi's White Primary Laws: Mississippi implemented laws and practices that allowed political parties to exclude African Americans from primary elections, effectively denying them the ability to participate in the political process.
8. 1930s: Mississippi's Voter Suppression Tactics: Mississippi employed various voter suppression tactics, including the use of poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation, to disenfranchise African American voters and maintain white political dominance.
Microsoft Word - 3 Segregation Mississippi Jim Crow.doc (bringinghistoryhome.org)
On Mar 16, 1995: Mississippi Ratifies 13th Amendment, 130 Years After its Adoption (eji.org)
Black History Timeline
1870 Hiram R. Revels (Republican) of Mississippi takes his seat in the U.S. Senate on February 25. He is the first black United States senator, though he serves only one year, completing the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.
1875 Federal troops are sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi in January to protect African Americans attempting to vote and to allow the safe return of the African American sheriff who had been forced to flee the city.
1875 Blanche Kelso Bruce (Republican) of Mississippi becomes the first African American to serve a full six year term as senator when he takes his seat in the United States Senate on March 3.
1890 On November 1, the Mississippi Legislature approves a new state Constitution that disenfranchises virtually all of the state's African American voters. The Mississippi Plan used literacy and understanding tests to prevent African Americans from casting ba
1900 By 1900 nearly two-thirds of the landowners in the Mississippi Delta were black farmers, most of whom had bought and cleared land after the Civil War.
1955 Fourteen-year-old Chicago resident Emmett Till is lynched while vacationing in Money, Mississippi on August 28.
1955 On May 7 Reverend George W. Lee, an NAACP activist, is killed in Belzoni, Mississippi.
1956 The Mississippi Sovereignty Commisison is formed in Jackson, the state captial, to maintain racial segregation in Mississippi.
1959 On April 26, Mack Charles Parker is lynched near Poplarville, Mississippi.
1962 On October 1, James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. On the day he enters the University, he is escorted by U.S. marshals after federal troops are sent in to suppress rioting and maintain order.
1963 On June 12, Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers is assassinated outside his home in Jackson.
1964 The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizes the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
1964 On June 21 civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are abducted and killed by terrorists in Mississippi.
1966 On June 5, James Meredith begins a solitary "March Against Fear" for 220 miles from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi to protest racial discrimination. Soon after crossing into Mississippi Meredith is shot by a sniper. Civil Rights leaders including Martin
1970 On May 15, two students, Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, are killed by police in a confrontation with students at Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi.
1997 In June, Harvey Johnson, Jr. was sworn in as the first black mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.
Articles
Slave Trade | Mississippi Encyclopedia
General_Narrative.pdf (behindthebighouse.org)
Slavery in Mississippi on JSTOR
Slavery in Antebellum Mississippi - Mississippi Humanities Council (mshumanities.org)
University of Mississippi Slavery Research Group | Slavery at UM (olemiss.edu)
Reconstructing Mississippi | Facing History and Ourselves
The Mississippi Delta’s History of Black Land Theft - The Atlantic
Books
Forgotten Time: The Yazoo-Mississippi Delta After the Civil War by John C. Willis
Slavery in Mississippi by Charles S. Sydnor
I Am Nobody's Slave – HarperCollins
Podcasts
Lee Hawkins unpacks family history and intergenerational trauma in new podcast | MPR News
Film/Video
Sharecropping in Mississippi | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
Mississippi's War: Slavery and Secession | MPB
Plantations
List of plantations in Mississippi - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Mississippi • FamilySearch
Genealogy | Mississippi Department of Archives & History (ms.gov)
Historical Summary
Slavery was pivotal in North Carolina's history, dating back to the early 18th century. The state was involved in the transatlantic slave trade, with Port Bath, Port Beaufort, Port Brunswick, and Wilmington serving as ports for the arrival of newly enslaved Africans. The state's economy became heavily dependent on slave labor, with industries such as agriculture, mining, and textile manufacturing benefiting from the exploitation of enslaved people.
The primary crops cultivated using slave labor in North Carolina included cotton, tobacco, and rice. Cotton, in particular, became a significant cash crop due to its profitability, and enslaved individuals experienced grueling work on cotton plantations. Prominent plantations in North Carolina included Somerset Place, Stagville, and the Hayes Plantation, which relied heavily on enslaved labor to maintain agricultural enterprises.
North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861, joining other Southern states in the Confederacy during the American Civil War. This secession was motivated by the desire to protect the institution of slavery, deeply ingrained in the state's economy and society. Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, North Carolina, like many Southern states, implemented Jim Crow laws to enforce racial segregation and discrimination. These laws mandated separate facilities for African Americans and whites in public spaces, education, and transportation, perpetuating racial inequality and disenfranchisement.
Enslavement
History of slavery in North Carolina - Wikipedia
North Carolina in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
North Carolina During Reconstruction| NCpedia
North American Slave Narratives (unc.edu)
Industries Using Slave Labor, Convict Leasing
North Carolina and the Turpentine Trail | Coastal Review
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
North Carolina Slave Narratives - East Carolina Roots
North-Carolina-Slave-Narratives-Part-1.pdf (eastcarolinaroots.com)
eastcarolinaroots.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/North-Carolina-Slave-Narratives-Part-2.pdf
North Carolina Slave Narratives by Work Projects Administration
Raleigh slave story, family found by city historian at museum
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
North Carolina. Slaves and Free Persons of Color. An Act Concerning Slaves and Free Persons of Color
Black History Timeline
Nineteenth-Century North Carolina Timeline | NC Museum of History
Timeline for Reconstruction | NCpedia
1818 Thomas Day of North Carolina is considered the first widely known furniture and cabinet maker in the United States.
1831 North Carolina enacts a statute that bans teaching slaves to read and write.
1892 First intercollegiate football game between African American colleges takes place between Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University) and Livingston College.
1898 On November 10, in Wilmington, North Carolina, eight black Americans were killed as white conservative Democrats forcibly removed from power black and white Republican officeholders in the city. The episode would be known as the Wilmington Riot.
1898 The North Carolina Mutual and Provident Insurance Company of Durham, North Carolina and the National Benefit Life Insurance Company of Washington, D.C. are established.
1901 The last African American congressman elected in the 19th Century, George H. White, Republican of North Carolina, leaves office. No African American will serve in Congress for the next 28 years.
1942 While teaching at Livingstone College in North Carolina, Margaret Walker publishes For My People, which she began as her master's thesis at the University of Iowa.
1942 The U.S. Marine Corps accepts African American men for the first time at a segregated training facility at Camp Montford Point, North Carolina. They will be known as the Montford Point Marines.
1960 On February 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro begin a sit-in at Woolworth's Drug Store to protest company policy which bans African Americans from sitting at its counters.
1960 On April 15, 150 black and white students gather at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
1969 Howard N. Lee becomes the first African American mayor of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At the time he is the first African American mayor of a predominately white Southern city.
1982 The struggle of Rev. Ben Chavis and his followers to block a toxic waste dump in Warren County, North Carolina launches a national campaign against environmental racism.
1983 Harvey Bernard Gantt becomes the first African American mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Articles
The Growth of Slavery in N Carolina | NCpedia
NC Runaway Slave Advertisements
The Free Negroes of North Carolina - The Atlantic
Entwined with slavery: A brief local history
Beyond The Beach: African-American History in Coastal Carolina - CoastwatchCoastwatch
Fellow Examines Life In North Carolina Under Jim Crow | Wilson Center
Books
Slavery in North Carolina, 1748-1775 by Marvin L. Michael Kay
Slavery in Wilkes County, North Carolina by Larry J. Griffin
Jim Crow in North Carolina: The Legislative Program from 1865 to 1920 by Richard A Paschal
Podcasts
Perspectives on History - North Carolina Slave Voices
The Civil War and Reconstruction | NC Museum of History
Episode 289: Marcus P. Nevius, Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp
Film/Video
BlackProGen LIVE! Ep 109: Tracing the Trade: Slavery in North and South Carolina
Using North Carolina Cohabitation Records to research your African American ancestors
Reunion of Slave descendents on plantation in North Carolina
How the legacy of the African slaves brought to North Carolina still affect States
Plantations
List of plantations in North Carolina - Wikipedia
‘Persistence and survival’: One of NC’s largest plantations tells story of slavery - UNC Media Hub
The Impacts of Stagville: How slaves and slaveholders have shaped North Carolina - UNC Media Hub
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for North Carolina • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of South Carolina - Wikipedia
South Carolina Declaration of Secession - Wikipedia
South Carolina in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction in South Carolina - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
South Carolina slave codes - Wikipedia
Slave Code of South Carolina, May 1740
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
1663 In South Carolina every new white settler is granted twenty acres for each black male slave and ten acres for each black female slave he or she brings into the colony.
1690 South Carolina enacts its first laws regulating slave movement and behavior.
1694 The success of rice cultivation in South Carolina encourages the importation of larger numbers of enslaved laborers especially from Senegal and other rice producing regions of West Africa.
1695 Rev. Samuel Thomas, a white cleric in Charleston, South Carolina, establishes the first school for African Americans in the British North American colonies.
1708 Africans in South Carolina outnumber Europeans, making it the first English colony with a black majority.
1721 South Carolina limits the vote to free white Christian men.
1735 South Carolina passes laws requiring enslaved people to wear clothing identifying them as slaves. Freed slaves are required to leave the colony within six months or risk reenslavement.
1739 The first major South Carolina slave revolt takes place in Stono on September 9. A score of whites and more than twice as many black slaves are killed as the armed slaves try to flee to Florida.
1741 South Carolina's colonial legislature enacts the most extensive slave restrictions in British North America. The laws ban the teaching of enslaved people to read and write, prohibits their assembling in groups or earning money for their activities. The la
1790 Free African Americans in Charleston form the Brown Fellowship Society.
1822 Denmark Vesey is arrested for planning a slave rebellion in South Carolina.
1834 South Carolina bans the teaching of blacks, enslaved or free, in its borders.
1860 On December 20, South Carolina secedes from the Union.
1862 The Port Royal (South Carolina) Reconstruction Experiment begins in March.
1862 In May the coastal pilot Robert Smalls escapes Charleston, South Carolina with The Planter, a Confederate vessel and sixteen enslaved people.
1863 On July 18, the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, the first officially recognized all-black military unit in the Union army, assaults Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina in an unsuccessful effort to take the fortification. Sergeant William H. C
1863 Robert Smalls of Charleston, South Carolina, is the first and only African American to be commissioned a captain in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.
1865 On January 16, General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15 which gives 400,000 acres of abandoned coastal land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to formerly enslaved people. This order becomes the basis for subsequent "40 acres and
1876 Race riots and other forms of terrorism against black voters in South Carolina over the summer including the infamous Hamburg Massacre where blacks are killed while celebrating the Fourth of July, prompt President Grant to sent federal troops to restore o
1968 On February 8, three students at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg are killed by police in what will be known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
Articles
South Carolina African-Americans: 1525 to 1865
Slavery in Charleston: A chronicle of human bondage in the Holy City | Special Reports |
Slavery in South Carolina | History of American Women
Slavery History In Charleston | Walks Of Charleston
Slavery and Civil Rights - South Carolina History - Subject Guides at South Carolina State Library
Books
James Henry Hammond and the Old South: A Design for Mastery by Drew Gilpin Gaust
The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina by John Andrew Jackson
Podcasts
Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina
Stuff You Missed in History Class - The Incredible Escape of Robert Smalls
Looking for Jack - UofSC News & Events | University of South Carolina
Film/Video
African American History in the Lowcountry
South Carolina: Rights to Ancestral Land
Rare Vintage Photos of Slavery in Antebellum South Carolina From the 1850s/1860s
Black Slave Owner and Breeder in South Carolina ~ The Interesting Story of William Ellison
A look at the Underground Railroad Tree in the Guilford Woods
Plantations
List of plantations in South Carolina - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for South Carolina • FamilySearch
ENSLAVEMENT-TO-CITIZENSHIP - Home
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Slavery (tennesseeencyclopedia.net)
Tennessee in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Tennessee - The Civil War and Reconstruction | Britannica
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
SLAVE LAWS OF TENNESSEE. (genealogytrails.com)
Excerpts From Tennessee Black Codes (1865) - US History Scene
(1866) Jim Crow Laws: Tennessee, 1866-1955 • (blackpast.org)
Black History Timeline
1864 The Fort Pillow Massacre takes place in West Tennessee on April 12. Approximately 300 of the 585 soldiers of the Union garrison at Fort Pillow are killed including many after the Union forces surrender. Only 14 Confederate soldiers die in the battle.
1865 The Ku Klux Klan is formed on December 24th in Pulaski, Tennessee by six educated, middle class former Confederate veterans. The Klan soon adopts terror tactics to thwart the aspirations of the formerly enslaved and their supporters.
1866 Fisk University is founded in Nashville, Tennessee on January 9.
1866 On May 1-3, white civilians and police in Memphis, Tennessee kill forty-six African Americans and injure many more, burning ninety houses, twelve schools, and four churches in what will be known as the Memphis Massacre.
1871 On October 6, Fisk University's Jubilee Singers begin their first national tour. The Jubilee Singers become world-famous singers of black spirituals, performing before the Queen of England and the Emperor of Japan. The money they earn finances the constru
1875 On February 23rd Jim Crow laws are enacted in Tennessee. Similar statutes had existed in the North before the Civil War.
1876 On October 13 Meharry Medical College is founded in Nashville by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Church.
1881 In January the Tennessee State Legislature votes to segregate railroad passenger cars. Tennessee's action is followed by Florida (1887), Mississippi (1888), Texas (1889), Louisiana (1890), Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia (1891), South Carolina (1
1894 The Church of God in Christ is founded in Memphis by Bishop Charles Harrison Mason.
1905 Nashville African Americans boycott streetcars to protest racial segregation.
1912 W.C. Handy published "Memphis Blues" sheet music in Memphis
1946 Dr. Charles S. Johnson becomes the first African American president of Fisk University in Nashville.
1946 Charles Spurgeon Johnson, President of Fisk University in Nashville, becomes the first African American President of the Southern Sociological Society.
1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4. In the wake of the assassination 125 cities in 29 states experience uprisings. By April 11, 46 people are killed and 35,000 are injured in these confrontations.
1992 In March Willie W. Herenton was elected the first African American mayor of Memphis, Tennessee.
Articles
The Legal Status of Free Negroes and Slaves in Tennessee (jstor.org)
The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
Life in Slavery | The Tennessee Magazine
Tipton-Haynes Historic Site | George Haynes & Slavery in Northeast Tennessee
Tennessee’s Slave History Lives in Old Newspapers, New Book | The Tennessee Magazine
Books
Runaways, Coffles and Fancy Girls: A History of Slavery in Tennessee by Bill Carey
Mighty Rough Times I Tell You: Personal Accounts of Slavery in Tennessee by Andrea Sutcliffe
Podcasts
Film/Video
Stolen Stories: Reclaiming the lives of East Tennessee slaves
The Untold Story of the Maney Family Slaves: A Case Study of Slavery in Murfreesboro
Stolen Stories | Reclaiming the lives of Tennessee slaves
Plantations
List of plantations in the United States - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Tennessee • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in West Virginia - Wikipedia
West Virginia in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
A Timeline of African Americans in West Virginia (wvculture.org)
1619. In August, the first 20 African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia for the use of British colonists. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 6.
1775. On November 7, Virginia Governor Dunmore authorized the recruitment of free African Americans into the British Army. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 59.
1778. On May 29, following a brief retreat after the attack on Fort Randolph in Point Pleasant, Mason County, Native American warriors attacked Fort Donnally in present Greenbrier County. Militiamen John Pryor and Philip Hammond, disguised as Native Americans, traveled from Fort Randolph to Fort Donnally, notifying residents of the impending attack. At one point, Hammond and Dick Pointer, one of Colonel Donnally's slaves, allegedly held off the attackers by themselves. Troops from Camp Union commanded by Matthew Arbuckle and Samuel Lewis ended the attack the following day. In 1795, the Virginia General Assembly freed Pointer from slavery in appreciation for his actions. Source: Rice, West Virginia: A History, 41.
1832. On January 20, Charles Faulkner of Berkeley County delivered a speech before the Virginia General Assembly in which he denounced slavery on economic grounds. William Lloyd Garrison began publishing the speech annually in his abolitionist newspaper Liberator, as an example of anti-slavery sentiment in the South. Source: Doherty, Berkeley County, U.S.A., 125.
1835. On October 14, John Templeton, John Moore, Stanley Cuthbert, and Ellen Ritchie were charged with illegally teaching African Americans to read in Wheeling. This incident was among twelve such cases in Wheeling. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 126.
1847. In 1847, the Reverend Dr. Henry Ruffner, from Kanawha County, and President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, delivered his "Address to the People of West Virginia" on the abolition of slavery for western Virginia for economic reasons. Source: Rice, West Virginia: A History, 104.
1859. On October 16, John Brown and his followers seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County. Their goal was to ignite a slave rebellion and establish a colony for runaway slaves in Maryland. The raid was a disaster for Brown. He and his men were trapped in a small engine house and local slaves did not revolt as expected. Ironically, the first casualty of the raid was a free black baggage handler, Heyward Shepherd, who was shot when he confronted the raiders. Brown was hanged for treason in Charles Town on December 2, after declaring slavery would not be abolished without great bloodshed. Source: Bushong, Historic Jefferson County, 179-189.
1862. On January 27, Ohio County minister and convention delegate Gordon Battelle proposed that the new state constitution provide for the gradual abolition of slavery rather than the immediate abolition he had proposed on 2 December 1861. This version of the proposal became the basis of the Willey Amendment. Source: Rice, West Virginia: A History, 145.
1862. On July 14, the West Virginia Statehood bill was passed by the Senate, changing the slavery provision of the West Virginia Constitution to allow for the gradual emancipation of slavery. After Senator Charles Sumner had demanded that immediate emancipation be included in the final bill, Waitman Willey proposed the compromise for gradual emancipation, which passed. John Carlile, after attempting to block or delay passage of the bill, voted against it, due to the inclusion of the Willey Amendment (although Carlile was a slave owner himself, his statehood bill also provided for slave emancipation). Senator Benjamin Wade noted that Carlile's "conversion" was "greater than that of St. Paul." Source: Rice, West Virginia: A History, 147-148.
1863. On January 1, President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in areas of rebellion, but did not apply to states loyal to the Union, including the future state of West Virginia.
1863. On July 15, the governor approved an act giving African Americans the same rights to criminal trial as whites. However, blacks were denied the right to serve on a jury. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1863. On December 9, the governor approved an act forbidding residency of any slave who entered the state after June 20, 1863. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1865. On February 3, the governor approved an act abolishing slavery, providing for the immediate emancipation of all slaves. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1867. In 1867, Freedmen's Bureau officials reported 7 African-American schools existed in the Kanawha Valley -- at Buffalo (Putnam County), Tinkersville, Chappel Furnace, Oakes Furnace, Campbell's Creek, and two in Charleston, with 241 students enrolled. Source: Stealey, "Reports of Freedmen's Bureau District Officers on Tours and Surveys in West Virginia," West Virginia History, 149.
1867. On January 16, West Virginia Legislature ratified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting full citizenship to African Americans. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1867. On October 2, Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, admitted its first students. Storer was the first African- American college in West Virginia. The institution had been established by the Free Will Baptist church as a school for runaway slaves during the Civil War. In 1867, Storer was incorporated by the state as a school for African Americans under the leadership of the Rev. Nathan C. Brackett. Storer trained many prominent black educators and lawyers during its nearly ninety-year history. Source: Bushong, Historic Jefferson County, 267.
1869. On March 23, the West Virginia State Senate ratified the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by a vote of 10 to 6, with 6 either absent or abstaining. The Fifteenth Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote. The previous day, the House of Delegates ratified the amendment by a vote of 22 to 19. The approval of the amendment caused many conservative Republicans to ally with the Democrats, leading to approval of the Flick Amendment, which enfranchised former Confederates. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 192-193.
1872. On May 20, an Ohio County circuit court indicted Taylor Strauder, a Wheeling carpenter, for murdering his wife. During the court's July term, Strauder was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. This case was eventually tried in the United States Supreme Court, in which it was ruled unconstitutional to try an African American in a court system which forbade eligible African Americans from serving on juries as was the case in West Virginia. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 204.
1873. On March 12, the governor approved acts authorizing that only white males over the age of 21 could serve on juries, despite a petition presented by Charles Arter from 64 African Americans in Jefferson County who wanted to serve as jurors. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1873. On June 11, Charleston Mayor Snyder and the city council appointed Ernest Porterfield as a police officer, the first African American to receive a public job in Kanawha County and possibly West Virginia. Within one hour, the remainder of the white police force, including Chief Rand, resigned. Rather than ask for Porterfield's resignation, Snyder hired a new force. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 202.
1877. On June 27, at the request of Charleston politicians Republican Romeo H. Freer and Democrat John E. Kenna, Booker T. Washington of Malden, Kanawha County, began a lecture tour of the state, encouraging African Americans to vote for Charleston as the permanent state capital. Since West Virginia's creation, the state capital had alternated between Charleston and Wheeling. In August 1877, voters selected Charleston as the permanent state capital over Clarksburg or Martinsburg.
1881. On February 3, the governor approved a bill, allowing all eligible voting citizens, including African Americans, to be jurors. In their October 1879 Taylor Strauder decision, the U.S. Supreme Court had found the West Virginia law forbidding African Americans from serving on juries to be unconstitutional. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature; Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 206.
1888. On September 13, discontented with the Republican, Democratic, Union Labor, and Prohibition parties, 49 African-American delegates convened in Charleston and nominated their own election ticket, consisting of the following: W. H. Davis of Kanawha County for governor; E. A. Turner of Brooke County for auditor; Alfred Whiting of Hampshire County for treasurer; T. M. Thurston of Hampshire County, Edward Turner of Brooke County, Albert Alexander of Hampshire County, John A. Jefferson of Kanawha County, and John Jordan of Mason County as presidential electors. An Executive State Committee was formed, consisting of the following: H. C. Hawkins, W. S. Peen, John Rose of Mason County, Albert Alexander, W. A. Hunter of Barbour County, E. A. Turner, Peyton Murry of Kanawha County, Aaron Jordan of Pocahontas County, and Alex Davis of Upshur County. This was the first major election in the state in which African Americans became a significant voting force. After the election, Democrats accused Republicans of bringing in African Americans from Virginia to vote illegally for Nathan Goff. Accusations pointed to voting irregularities in Mercer County, McDowell County, Wyoming County, Fayette County, and Raleigh County. These and other accusations of fraud caused a dispute over the election results. Democrat A. B. Fleming was finally determined to be the winner in 1890, over a year after the election. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 207-210.
1891. On March 4, the West Virginia Legislature passed an act establishing the West Virginia Colored Institute at Institute in Kanawha County. The West Virginia Colored Institute, later renamed West Virginia State College, became one of the leading black institutions of public learning in the nation. It was created following the state's rejection of a proposal to take over Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County. The act was approved by the governor on March 17. Source: Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1895. On February 21, the West Virginia Legislature passed an act establishing the Bluefield Colored Institute, which later became Bluefield State College, Mercer County. The act became law without the approval of the governor on February 28. The school's Board of Regents consisted of the following members: State Board of Education Superintendent Virgil A. Lewis; J. C. Bradey of Wheeling; G. M. Bowers of Martinsburg, Berkeley County; W. M. Mahood of Princeton, Mercer County; and J. S. Marcum of Huntington. The Executive Committee consisted of the following members: Judge D. E. Johnson of Bluefield and Dr. J. C. Hughes and W. H. Straley of Princeton, all from Mercer County. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 243-244; Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1896. Voters elected the first African American to the legislature, Christopher Payne of Fayette County. Source: Sheeler, "The Negro in West Virginia Before 1900," 211.
1898. On November 16, the trial of Williams v. Board of Education of Tucker County began. Carrie Williams was a black teacher in the segregated school system of Tucker County. The board of education tried to save money by cutting African-American school term from eight to five months. Williams taught for the entire eight-month term and sued the board for the extra three-months' pay. Williams' lawyer J. R. Clifford argued that African-American schools should receive the same funding and have the same rights as white schools. Williams' court victory was the first in the nation to determine discrimination on the basis of color to be illegal. Source: Trotter, Honoring Our Past, 184-186.
1900. On January 31, the West Virginia Legislature incorporated the West Virginia Colored Orphan's Home in Bluefield. Before opening the following year, the Rev. Charles E. McGhee had moved the site of the home to Huntington. Source: Ambler, A History of Education in West Virginia, 700-701.
1902. On November 4, James M. Ellis was elected to the House of Delegates from Fayette County, becoming the second African American elected to the West Virginia Legislature. Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 41.
1906. African-American physicians founded the West Virginia Medical Society.
1906. From August 15 to August 19, the second meeting of the Niagara Movement convened at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County. Led by W. E. B. DuBois, this movement was the forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Source: Spirit of Jefferson, August 14, 1906, 3 (Harpers Ferry National Historical Park History Database).
1913. Dr. B.H. Stillyard became the first African American member of Wheeling's Bicameral City Council, which ran from 1863 through 1917.
1915. In 1915, 78 African Americans from West Virginia were attending colleges outside the state because no West Virginia college would admit them. In 1929, the West Virginia Collegiate Institute and the Bluefield Colored Institute conferred the state's first college degrees to African Americans.
1919-1921. Between 1919 and 1921 T. G. Nutter, Harry Capehart, and T. J. Coleman, three African-American legislators, were responsible for the creation of several state-funded institutions for blacks. The West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls in Huntington and the West Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Boys in Lakin, the West Virginia Colored Deaf and Blind School at Institute, and the West Virginia Hospital for Colored Insane at Lakin were all given state funding. The institutions were to be run by African Americans. Other publicly funded institutions for African Americans included the West Virginia Home for the Aged and Infirmed Colored Men and Women in Huntington, the West Virginia Colored Orphans Home in Huntington, and the West Virginia Colored Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Denmar. Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 58-62; Acts of the West Virginia Legislature.
1921. In 1921, the Negro Bureau of Welfare and Statistics was created under Dr. T. Edward Hill. The bureau's goal was to assist African Americans economically, such as providing help in purchasing farms. The agency existed until 1957.
1925. On March 19, the first West Virginia Athletic Union state basketball tournament began at the West Virginia Colored Institute gym at Institute, Kanawha County. Eleven of the state's twenty-four African-American high school basketball teams participated. On the 21st, Lincoln High School of Wheeling defeated Kimball High School 25 to 24 to win the first championship. Barnett, "West Virginia's Separate But Equal High School Basketball Tournament," 1.
1925. D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation was scheduled to open at the Rialto Theatre in Charleston on April 1. In late March, several African-American leaders protested the showing of the film on the grounds it violated a 1919 state law prohibiting any entertainment which demeaned another race. Mayor W. W. Wertz and the West Virginia Supreme Court supported their argument and prevented the showing of the film. Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 70-71.
1928. In 1928, Minnie Buckingham Harper was appointed to the House of Delegates, becoming the first African-American woman to serve in a legislative body in the United States. She was appointed to fill the unexpired term of her husband, E. Howard Harper, of Welch, McDowell County. Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 44.
1930. On March 30, the New-Kanawha Power Company broke ground on the Hawks Nest Tunnel and Dam, part of the New River power project, with an estimated 800 men employed. Over the next five years, at least 476 workers, mostly migrant African Americans from the South, died from silicosis, a disease caused by inhaling silica rock particles. The deaths were attributed to inadequate safety practices by the contractors, Rinehart and Dennis, who were employed by the Union Carbide Corporation. Some of the dead were buried in a mass grave to hide the actual number of casualties. Fifty years later, one study placed the death toll as high as 764, making it the worst industrial disaster in United States history. Source: Cherniack, The Hawks Nest Incident, 104; McKinney, Elkem Metals: Ninety Years of Progress in the Kanawha Valley, 30-31.
1931. On December 10, two African Americans accused of killing two white constables were forcibly removed from the Greenbrier County jail and lynched by a mob of white men. Following several convictions for the lynching, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld a 1921 anti-lynching law drafted by Harry J. Capehart and T. G. Nutter. Source: Posey, The Negro Citizen of West Virginia, 78-80.
1939. On September 11, West Virginia State College President John Warren Davis received approval from the Civilian Aeronautics Authority in Washington, D.C., to establish a Civilian Pilot Training Program at the college, the first African-American college in the country to do so. In the summer of 1940, West Virginia State College became the first black college to enroll white trainees into its flight program, a precedent for integrating the military. Among those enrolled were George Spencer Roberts, who became the first African-American appointed to the United States Army Air Corps. Source: Withrow: From the Grove to the Stars, 140- 145.
1942. On June 26, Governor Matthew Neely, State Superintendent of Black Schools D. T. Murray, and West Virginia State College President John Warren Davis dedicated Camp Washington-Carver in Fayette County as the state's African-American 4-H Camp.
1947. Luther Bennett Ferguson was named mine foreman at the Riverton coal mine in Crown Hill, becoming the first African-American foreman in the state. Source: Charleston Gazette, May 9, 1991.
1950. Elizabeth Simpson Drewry of McDowell County became the first African-American woman elected to the House of Delegates. She served until 1964. Source: West Virginia Blue Book.
1954. On May 17, the United States Supreme Court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision prohibiting segregation of schools based on race. Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall represented Brown, while the boards of education of several southern states were represented by Clarksburg native John William Davis. The decision prompted the gradual desegregation of West Virginia's public schools and colleges. West Virginia State College quickly integrated whites into its program; Bluefield State College integrated more slowly. The state withdrew funding for Storer College, which closed within a matter of years. The Brown decision also resulted in the integration of public institutions and the discontinuance of agencies such as the Negro Bureau of Welfare and Statistics. Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," vi.
1954. On June 1, State School Superintendent W. W. Trent sent letters to all county public school superintendents, suggesting proper methods of school integration:
As segregation is unconstitutional, boards of education, in my opinion, should begin immediately to reorganize and re-adjust their schools to comply with the Supreme Court's decision. In some instances where there are but few Negro pupils, and where all buildings at this time are accommodating a maximum number of pupils, and in some instances a number too large for convenient accommodation considerable time may be required before segregation is entirely eliminated.
Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," 7.
1954. On September 14, West Virginia NAACP Charleston Branch president Willard A. Brown spoke to African Americans at the White Sulphur Springs Baptist Church, concerning the decision of the Greenbrier County Board of Education to maintain segregated schools. During the meeting, white protestors shut off the lights and fired guns outside the church. A U.S. Supreme Court decision the following month placed more pressure on school systems which resisted desegregation. Consequently, all counties in West Virginia, including Greenbrier, began integrating schools by January 1956. However, White Sulphur Springs students voted to hold their prom in December instead of May to prevent African Americans from attending the annual affair held at The Greenbrier. Despite such incidents, the desegregation of West Virginia's public schools was less turbulent than most other southern states.
1957. On March 14, Park Central High School of Bluefield defeated Byrd-Prillerman High School of Amigo to win the final West Virginia Athletic Union (African-American) High School Basketball Tournament. Source: Barnett, "West Virginia's Separate But Equal High School Basketball Tournament," 9, 27.
1957. On September 4, the Hampshire County Board of Education became one of the last in the state with black students to integrate its schools, when it admitted four African Americans to Romney High School and Capon Bridge Elementary School. At approximately the same time, Jefferson County and Hardy County also integrated. Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," 37.
1958. In March, the Rev. Joseph H. King, an African-American minister from New Jersey, announced a Charleston restaurant was the first to refuse him service on a trip from Birmingham, Alabama. That same month, several African-American boxers walked out of the All West Virginia Amateur Boxing Tournament, sponsored by the Charleston Gazette. The protest occurred because one of the boxers was asked to sit in the balcony of the American Legion Armory rather than on the main floor. Gazette promotion manager James Dent resolved the situation, stating the newspaper would not permit the arena to be segregated. Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," 54-55.
1958. On August 11, the state's first chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was formed in Charleston and began boycotts of the Woolworth, Kresge, and Newberry five-and-ten-cent stores which refused to serve African Americans at their lunch counters. The following month, the five-and-ten-cent stores integrated. CORE targeted other cities, including Bluefield and Huntington. Boycotts led to the integration of restaurants, department stores, and movie theaters, although some businesses remained segregated until the late 1960s. Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," 55, 65.
1958. In December, former Garnet High School coach James R. Jarrett was named head basketball coach at Charleston High School, the first African American in the state to be appointed head coach at a previously all-white public school. Source: Johnson, "Integration in West Virginia Since 1954," 44.
1959. On March 31, a study by the West Virginia Advisory Committee on behalf of the United States Commission on Civil Rights reported little progress in the state since 1954 in regards to employment of African Americans. Only one black engineer was employed in the Kanawha County chemical industry, despite the large number graduated in that field from West Virginia State College.
1959. Beatrice Ann Prince (Thomas) graduated from the Ohio Valley General Hospital School of Nursing on September 4, becoming the first Black graduate. She married Clyde Thomas a year later, and was the first African American nurse to be hired by the Ohio County School District.
1961. The West Virginia Human Rights Commission was created by the legislature to fight racism. The leading commissioners were Chairman Thomas W. Gavett and Executive Director Howard W. McKinney. In 1961, 50 percent of restaurants, 70 percent of hotels and motels, and 85 percent of pools in the state still discriminated against African Americans. Source: "First Annual Report of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission."
1966. By 1966, nearly all of the hospitals in the state had agreed to end discriminatory practices, due in large part to the work of the West Virginia Human Rights Commission.
1971. Clyde Thomas became the first African American elected to Wheeling City Council in the modern era, under the non-partisan City-Manager Government (1917-present) on June 1. A former professional football player, he served four consecutive terms and was the city's first Black vice-mayor.
1972. On December 22, Arnold Miller became the first native West Virginian to head the United Mine Workers (UMW) union. He appointed Levi Daniel president of District 29 in southern West Virginia, the first African-American district president in the history of the UMW.
Books
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1810 75 percent of the African Americans in Delaware are free. This is the largest percentage of free blacks in a slave state. Emancipation
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Slavery and freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865 by William H. Williams
A House Divided: Slavery and Emancipation in Delaware, 1638-1865 by Patience Essah
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Episode 242: David Young, A History of Early Delaware - Ben Franklin's World
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Black History Timeline
1634 Slavery is introduced in Maryland.
1641 Mathias De Sousa, an African indentured servant who came from England with Lord Baltimore, is elected to Maryland's General Assembly.
1663 Maryland slave laws rules that all Africans arriving in the colony are presumed to be slaves. Free European American women who marry enslaved men lose their freedom. Children of European American women and enslaved men are enslaved. Other North American c
1664 Maryland establishes slavery for life for persons of African ancestry.
1664 Maryland enacts the first law in Colonial America banning marriage between white women and black men.
1671 A Maryland law states that the conversion of enslaved African Americans to Christianity does not affect their status as enslaved people.
1681 Maryland laws mandate that children of European servant women and African men are free.
1752 Twenty-one year old Benjamin Banneker of Maryland constructs one of the first clocks in Colonial America, the first of a long line of inventions and innovations until his death in 1806.
1798 Joshua Johnston of Baltimore, Maryland becomes the first black portrait painter to gain widespread recognition in the United States
1829 The Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first permanent order of black Catholic nuns, is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
1834 Henry Blair of Maryland received a patent from the U.S. government for developing a mechanical corn planter.
1849 Harriett Tubman escapes from slavery and begins her efforts to rescue enslaved people.
1869 Isaac Myers organizes the Colored National Labor Union in Baltimore.
1892 The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper is founded by former slave John H. Murphy, Sr.
1910 On December 19, the City Council of Baltimore approves an ordinance segregating black and white neighborhoods. This ordinance is followed by similar statutes in Dallas, Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Norfolk, Virginia, Oklahoma C
1935 On November 5, the Maryland Supreme Court rules in Murray v. Pearson that the University of Maryland must admit African Americans to its law school or establish a separate school for blacks. The University of Maryland chooses to admit its first black stud
1943 The Naval Academy at Annapolis and other naval officer schools accept African American men for the first time.
1949 In June Wesley Brown becomes the first African American to graduate from the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
1963 Iota Phi Theta Fraternity is founded on September 19 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
1976 The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis admits women for the first time in June. Janie L. Mines becomes the first African American women cadet to enter. She graduates in 1980.
1987 Neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson makes medical history when he leads a seventy-member surgical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in a 22 hour operation separating Siamese twins (the Binder twins) joined at the cranium.
1987 On December 8, Kurt Lidell Schmoke became the first African American elected mayor of Baltimore by popular vote.
2000 Rev. Vashti M. McKenzie becomes the first woman bishop of the African Methodist Zion Church.
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Home - Slavery & Freedom in Maryland - Research Guides at University of Maryland Libraries (umd.edu)
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Books
Coal, Iron, and Slaves: Industrial Slavery in Maryland and Virginia, 1715$1865 by Ronald L. Lewis
Slavery in Maryland Briefly Considered by John L. Carey
A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland by The Maryland State Archives
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah Hopkins Bradford
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BBC 4 In Our Time Complete Series - Frederick Douglass
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(HD Quality) Ground Zero; Maryland In the Civil War
A short video of the Brodess plantation in Maryland where Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved
Harriet Tubman: A Maryland Story
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History of slavery in Virginia - Wikipedia
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Virginia Ordinance of Secession (April 17, 1861) - Encyclopedia Virginia
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A list of transcribed narratives by enslaved and formerly enslaved Virginians
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List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
1607 Jamestown is founded in Virginia.
1619 Approximately 20 blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies.
1624 The first African American child born free in the English colonies, William Tucker, is baptized in Virginia.
1642 Virginia passes a fugitive slave law. Offenders helping runaway slaves are fined in pounds of tobacco. An enslaved person is to be branded with a large R after a second escape attempt.
1651 Anthony Johnson, a free African American, imports several enslaved Africans and is given a grant of land on Virginia's Puwgoteague River Other free African Americans follow this pattern.
1655 Anthony Johnson successfully sues for the return of his slave John Casor, whom the court had earlier treated as an indentured servant.
1657 Virginia amends its fugitive slave law to include the fining of people who harbor runaway slaves. They are fined 30 pounds of tobacco for every night they provide shelter to a runaway slave.
1662 Virginia reverses the presumption of English law that the child follows the status of his father, and enacts a law that makes the free or enslaved status of children dependent on the status of the mother.
1663 Black and white indentured servants plan a rebellion in Gloucester County, Virginia. Their plans are discovered and the leaders are executed.
1663 A planned revolt of enslaved Africans and indentured servants is uncovered in Gloucester County, Virginia.
1664 In Virginia, the enslaved African's status is clearly differentiated from the indentured servant's when colonial laws decree that enslavement is for life and is transferred to the children through the mother. Black and slave become synonymous, and enslave
1667 Virginia declares that baptism does not free a slave from bondage, thereby abandoning the Christian tradition of not enslaving other Christians.
1670 The Virginia Assembly enact law that allows all non-Christians who arrive by ship to be enslaved.
1672 Virginia law now bans prosecution for the killing of a slave if the death comes during the course of his his or her apprehension.
1676 Nathaniel Bacon leads an unsuccessful rebellion of whites and blacks against the English colonial government in Virginia.
1680 Virginia enacts a law that forbids all blacks from carrying arms and requires enslaved blacks to carry certificates at all times when leaving the slaveowner's plantation.
1682 A new slave code in Virginia prohibits weapons for slaves, requires passes beyond the limits of the plantation and forbids self-defense by any African Americans against any European American.
1691 Virginia enacts a new law which punishes white men and women for marrying black or Indians. Children of such interracial liaisons become the property of the church for 30 years.
1705 The Colonial Virginia Assembly defined as slaves all servants brought into the colony who were not Christians in their original countries as well as Indians sold to the colonists by other Native Americans.
1727 Enslaved Africans and Native Americans revolt in Middlesex and Gloucester Counties in Virginia.
1758 The African Baptist or Bluestone Church is founded on the William Byrd plantation near the Bluestone River, in Mecklenburg, Virginia, becoming the first known black church in North America
1762 Virginia restricts voting rights to white men.
1774 First African Baptist Church, one of the earliest black churches in the United States, is founded in Petersburg, Virginia.
1775 On Nov. 7, Lord Dunmore, British Governor of Virginia declares all slaves free who come to the defense of the British Crown against the Patriot forces. Dunmore eventually organizes the first regiment of black soldiers to fight under the British flag.
1800 On August 30, Gabriel Prosser attempts a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia.
1802 James Callender claims that Thomas Jefferson has for many years past kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves, Sally Hemings. His charge is published in the Richmond Recorder that month, and the story is soon picked up by the Federalist press around
1831 Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia, killing at least 57 whites.
1865 Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.
1882 The Virginia State Assembly established the first state mental hospital for African Americans and locates it near Petersburg.
1883 On November 3, white conservatives in Danville, Virginia, seize control of the local racially integrated and popularly elected government, killing four African Americans in the process.
1888 Two of America's first black-owned banks, the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain United Order of the Reformers, in Richmond, Virginia, and Capital Savings Bank of Washington, D.C, open their doors.
1900 In September Nannie Helen Burroughs leads the founding of the Women's' Convention of the National Baptist Convention at its meeting in Richmond, Virginia.
1903 Maggie Lena Walker founds St. Lukes Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia.
1963 Wendell Oliver Scott became the first black driver to win a major NASCAR race, the Grand National (now Winston Cup) race.
1977 On March 8, Henry L. Marsh III became the first African American mayor of Richmond, Virginia
1989 On November 7, L. Douglas Wilder wins the governorship of Virginia, making him the first African American to be popularly elected to that office. On the same day David Dinkins and Norm Rice are the first African Americans elected as mayors of New York and
1990 Marcelite Jordan Harris is the first black woman brigadier general in the U.S. Army and the first woman to command a mostly male battalion.
1997 Lois Jean White is the first African American to be elected president of the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA).
2000 Lillian Elaine Fishbourne is the first black woman admiral in the U.S. Navy.
Articles
Slavery | Virginia Museum of History & Culture
Slavery in America Didn't Start in Jamestown in 1619 | Time
In 1619 enslaved Africans first arrived in colonial Virginia. Here's the history
The Origins of Slavery in Virginia
First Enslaved Africans Arrive in Jamestown Colony
The lies our textbooks told my generation of Virginians about slavery
Slavery and the Making of America . The Slave Experience: Responses to Enslavement
Books
History of Slavery in Virginia by James Curtis Ballagh
1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy by James Horn
Arrival of the First Africans in Virginia by Ric Murphy
Podcasts
1619 Episode 1: The Fight for a True Democracy
Slave Trail Podcast (virginiatrekkers.com)
Newly Democratic Virginia Legislature Hopes To Repeal Jim Crow-Era Laws : NPR
Film/Video
1619: The First Africans in Virginia and the Making of America (Part 1)
Mapping Virginia's Slave Dwellings: Preserving Black History with Street View
Unearthed & Understood | Slavery an the University of Virginia
Slavery in Virginia in 1619-1860 - by Greg Carroll
Plantations
List of plantations in Virginia - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Virginia • FamilySearch
Genealogy Research for African Americans
Virginia Memory - Chancery Records Index
Our Family History (slaveryinventorydatabase.com)
Questions for Research and Reflection:
The Northeast
Historical Summary
Slavery in Connecticut began in the early 17th century and played a significant role in the colony's development. The transatlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to New England ports, including New London and New Haven. Enslaved individuals worked on farms, in households, and in light industry, providing the labor necessary to fuel Connecticut's economy.
The crops grown with enslaved labor in Connecticut primarily included corn, wheat, and flax, staples of the region's economy. In addition to agriculture, enslaved individuals worked in shipbuilding, ironworks, and other industries tied to the maritime trade.
Connecticut passed a gradual emancipation law in 1784, which aimed to phase out slavery by freeing the children of enslaved mothers once they reached adulthood. However, total abolition was slow, with some enslaved well into the 19th century. After slavery officially ended, systemic racism persisted in Connecticut. Black residents faced discrimination in housing, education, and employment, as well as social exclusion, which mirrored the struggles of African Americans in other Northern states.
During the Jim Crow era, Connecticut practiced de facto segregation, even though it did not implement formal segregation laws like those in the South. Black residents were often relegated to segregated neighborhoods through redlining and denied access to quality schools and jobs. Despite these barriers, Connecticut became a center for Black activism, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement, as individuals and organizations worked to dismantle systemic racism and secure equal rights for African Americans in the state.
Enslavement
History of slavery in Connecticut - Wikipedia
Connecticut in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Civil War and Reconstruction 1850-1877 | Connecticut History |
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Life of James Mars, a slave born and sold in Connecticut | Library of Congress
Venture Smith, from Slavery to Freedom | Connecticut History |
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
SlaveryTimeline_CT-1.pdf (fairfieldhistory.org)
Objects in the Dark, 1638-1775: The Black Codes (hartford-hwp.com)
Connecticut’s Jim Crow Law – The Shoeleather History Project
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
1650 Connecticut legalizes slavery. Rhode Island by this date has large plantations worked by enslaved Africans.
1660 A Connecticut law prohibits African Americans from serving in the militia.
1775 General George Washington reverses his earlier policy of rejecting the services of slaves and free blacks in the army. Five thousand African-Americans serve during the Revolutionary War including two predominantly black units in Massachusetts, one in Conn
1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island adopt gradual emancipation laws.
1798 Venture Smith's A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America appears as the first slave narrative written by the person in bondage. Earlier narratives were written by
1818 Connecticut disfranchises black voters.
1876 In May, Edward Alexander Bouchet receives a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from an American university and only the sixth American to earn a Ph.D. in physics.
Articles
Slavery and Abolition | Connecticut History |
Slavery in Connecticut, ended only in 1848, had a long history
Chapter One: The Plantation Next Door
Connecticut Abolitionists (U.S. National Park Service)
Slavery in Connecticut (slavenorth.com)
About - Slavery in Connecticut - LibGuides at The Westport Library
Slavery in Connecticut, ended only in 1848, had a long history
Books
History of Slavery in Connecticut by Bernard Christian Steiner
Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice, and Survival by Matthew Warshauer
Podcasts
15 Minute History: Episode 105: Slavery and Abolition
Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition - Ben Franklin's World
Film/Video
African Americans in Connecticut - The Colonial Era to The Civil War 1998
Connecticut Woman Explains Why She’s Suing Harvard For Family Photos | Connecticut Public
The World Is Watching: Woman Suing Harvard for Photos of Enslaved Ancestors Says History Is At Stake
Sites
Black Heritage Trail - Explore New London
The Yale & Slavery Research Project
New Haven Museum » The Final Sale of Slaves
Witness Stones Shed Light On New Haven's History Of Enslavement Downtown
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Connecticut • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Slavery – Maine: An Encyclopedia
Maine in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Maine History Online - 1850-1870 The Civil War
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Slave Narratives
19th century abolitionist and slave narrative literature in the Maine Women Writers Collection
The story of the Dorchester County slave who escaped to Maine
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Black History Timeline
1795 Bowdoin College is founded in Maine. It later becomes a center for Abolitionist activity; Gen. Oliver O. Howard (Howard University) graduated from the college; Harriet Beecher Stowe taught there and began to write Uncle Tom's Cabin while there (in 1850)
1854 James A. Healy is ordained in France as the first black Jesuit priest. He becomes Bishop of Portland, Maine in 1875, a diocese that includes all of Maine and New Hampshire, and holds that post for 25 years.
Articles
New Book Reveals Lost History of Slavery in Maine – Black Heritage Trail
In Maine, Restoring History Long Hidden - The New York Times
https://www.maine.gov/doe/sites/maine.gov.doe/files/inline-files/2020_11_30_Maine DOE MSM.pdf
Maine's Role in the Slave Trade: Little-Known History of Slave Trading in New England
1764-1865 | African American History in Maine | Maine State Library
Maine’s statehood is irrevocably tied to the defining issue of its time: Slavery
Cumberland and the Slavery Issue
Books
Maine's Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People by H.H. Price
Podcasts
Maine's Role in the Slave Trade: Research Uncovers Significant Slave Trading in New England
Film/Video
Maine's Complex Relationship with the Slave Economy & the Global Slave Trade
Freedom’s Woods: The African American Community of Peterborough in Warren, Maine
Maine History Series - The Civil War (Led by David Cheever)
Plantations
List of plantations in Maine - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Maine • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Massachusetts - Wikipedia
Massachusetts in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Slavery in Massachusetts (slavenorth.com)
Emancipation in Massachusetts (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
From Bondage to Belonging: The Worcester Slave Narratives by B. Eugene McCarthy
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Slavery in Massachusetts (historyofmassachusetts.org)
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Massachusetts Historical Society: The Case for Ending Slavery (masshist.org)
- 1630 Massachusetts Bay Colony institutes a fugitive law that allowed for runaways to be protected if they ran away due abuse by masters.
- 1634 Africans were imported into colony as slaves
- 1638 John Winthrop notes in his diary that on December 12 the ship Desire brought into Boston the first shipment of slaves from Barbados. The Africans were probably traded for with Native American captives, as this was a common practice in Massachusetts Bay to get rid of troublesome Native Americans.
- 1641 Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery. This is done through the passage of the Body of Liberties. Under section 91 it states:
There shall never be any bond slavery, villeinage, or captivity amongst us unless it be lawful captives taken in just wars, and such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us. And these shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of God established in Israel concerning such persons cloth morally require. This exempts none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authority.
http://www.constitution.org/bcp/mabodlib.htm
(This became part of the Articles of New England Confederation, with this, this legalizes the slave trade in Massachusetts and eventual the rest of New England.) - 1670 The Bodies of Liberties was amended to include the enslavement of a slave woman's offspring to be a legal slave. This guarantees that offspring of all slaves were considered as the same legal status as their mother, a slave.
- 1672 The British Parliament charted the Royal African Company (RAC). This company would have a monopoly on the slave trade between Africa and America. All slaves were to be brought to America only through this company.
- 1680 On October 31, the General Court of Massachusetts (which was the governing body of the Colony) passed a law that required all ships that were bringing any cargo of slaves to the colony to obtain permission from the governor. John Usher, and John Saffin, and four others develop and implement a plan to circumvent the Royal African Company's monopoly and import slaves into Massachusetts. They were successful in bring slaves and selling them in 1681.
- 1698 Parliament took away The Royal African Company's monopoly of the slave trade. As a result, the slave trade was open to all corporations willing to pay a duty to the RAC. New England merchants became heavily involved in the slave trade. Because of this action the Triangular trade was born.
Massachusetts changes its colonial tax code so that the legal status of a slave is considered as property, not as a person. - 1700 Judge Samuel Sewall publishes a pamphlet entitled The Selling of Joseph, which was the first Anti-slavery article published in New England. Sewall wrote the article, which attacks the idea of slavery and the slave trade, in response to John Saffin, a wealthy merchant, refusal to grant a slave named Adam his freedom. Saffin promised Adam his freedom once he completed a seven year hiring out to another person. A legal case ensued, in which Adam sues for his freedom. Judge Sewall organizes the Boston Committee of 1700; the goal of this anti-slavery society was to have the passage of high duties placed on the importation of slaves.
- 1701 John Saffin writes a response to Sewall‘s The Selling of Joseph, entitled A Brief and Candid Answer to a late Printed Sheet Entitled the Selling of Joseph. In his response, Saffin defends his actions and attacks Sewall's condemnation of slavery.
- 1703 Adam was wins his freedom.
- 1705 Massachusetts enacts a duty of £ 4 on all slaves imported to the colony.
Massachusetts enacts a law against interracial marriages.
Judge Sewall responses to John Saffin's 1701 pamphlet by reprinting an English pamphlet from the The Athenian Oracle which condemns the slave trade. - 1707 Massachusetts imposes a 5 shilling fine on any free blacks that helps any run-away slaves.
Freed black were allowed to join the militia. - 1717 Cotton Mather creates a school to educate Indian and slave youths.
- 1722 First smallpox inoculation in America administered in Boston. The idea of inoculation came from Cotton Mather's slave, named Onesimus, who describe how African tribes had used inoculation to treat diseases. The procedure helped save many lives of during the epidemic.
- 1731 George II instructs all royal governors to prohibit the laying of duties on the importation of slaves.
- 1742 On April 15, a divorce was granted to a slave named Boston. He charged that his wife cheated on him with a white man and that she bore his child.
- 1750 Crispus Attucks escapes from slavery.
Parliament modifies their slave trading policies by allowing any individual to engage in the slave trade by paying a duty to the RAC. This allows more people to be involved in the slave trade. (The duty imposed in 1698 and 1750 went to the RAC, who were responsible for maintaining West African forts and factories. These were the places were slaves would be picked up for shipment to the Americas.) - 1771 Massachusetts Colonial assembly passes a resolution calling for the end of the importation of African slaves into the colony. Governor Thomas Hutchinson refuses the measure.
- 1773 During the American Revolution, numerous groups of slaves and freeman in Massachusetts petition the colonial legislature and the governor for their freedom. None of the petitions succeeded.
- 1781 On August 22, a court in Great Barrington issued its ruling on the case of Brom and Bett v. Ashley. Brom and Bett were two slaves of John Ashley that sued for their freedom in the spring of 1781. Mum Bett (Elizabeth Freeman) was born a slave in upstate New York in 1742. She was given to John Ashley of Sheffield, MA. She sued for her freedom, after an incident in which Ashley's wife, Annetje, attempted to beat her sister with a shovel. Mum Bett , while trying to block the blow she received serious injuries. That spring Mum Bett asked Theodore Sedgwick, an attorney, to file suit for her freedom.(Borm also joined in suing for his freedom.) Sedgwick argued that slavery was illegal under the new Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which include a Declaration of Rights that stated: All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. The jury agreed with this argument and Brom and Bett were issued their freedom.
- 1783 On July 8, slavery was effectively abolished in Massachusetts, with the ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Commonwealth v. Jennison case. A slave named Quock Walker sued his owner for his freedom. The court ruled that he was free and the Commonwealth brought suit for wrongful imprisonment of Walker by Jennison. The court used the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, that state "all men are born free and equal", as the basis for saying that slavery was abolished under the Massachusetts Constitution, which include the Declaration of Rights.
- 1787 First cotton factory in the United States was established in Beverly, MA.
- 1788 Massachusetts declares the slave trade illegal, after an incident in which 6 freed blacks were kidnapped and sent to Martinique. Governor John Hancock helps secure their release.
- 1805 William Lloyd Garrison was born on Dec. 10 in Newburyport, MA.
- 1829 David Walker's An Appeal to the Colored People of the World was published in Boston.
- 1831 The Liberator began publication in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison.
- 1833 January 21, The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded by William Lloyd Garrison
- 1835 On October 21st, Garrison is attacked by a mob at Faneuil Hall.
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was founded. - 1836 In the case the Commonwealth v Aves, the court ruled that any slave brought into state boundaries was legally freed.
- 1838 John Quincy Adams introduced 350 antislavery petitions to the House of Representatives. This violated the "gag rule" in which no bills could be introduced to debate the issue of slavery.
- 1841 John Quincy Adams defends the Amistad Africans at the Supreme Court. The courts ruled that they were illegally kidnapped and order them set free.
- 1850 Compromise of 1850 was debated and passed in Congress. This Bill allowed California to enter the Union as a "free" state, prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia, established the Utah and New Mexico territories and allowed them to use the idea of popular sovereignty, passed a stronger Fugitive Slave law. In which Southern could recapture runaway slaves in the North, and required Northern to help in their capture.
- 1851 February 15, Shadrach Minkins, a capture runaway under the new F.S.L, was rescued by a group of black abolitionist. This was a major case in how the North would respond to the F.S.L.; Shadrack Minkins was returned to slavery.
Abolitionist Charles Sumner was elected to the Senate for Massachusetts.
Thomas Sims, a fugitive slave, was captured in Boston. He was returned to Georgia. - 1854 Congress debated and enacts the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Senator Sumner calls it the "worst and best bill" ever passed in Congress.
May 24, the fugitive slave Anthony Burns was arrested in Boston.
On June 3rd, Anthony Burns was escorted by 2,000 federal troops as over 50,000 Bostonians lined the streets from his jail to Long Wharf. Burns was transported back to Virginia. - 1855 Citizens of Massachusetts raised money to buy Anthony Burns from his Virginia master.
Massachusetts enacts "Personal Liberty laws", these called for the prohibition of state officials from assisting in the capture or return of fugitive slaves. These were designed to go against the Fugitive Slave law of 1850. - 1856 May 19, Senator Charles Sumner was attacked and beaten with a cane on the floor of the Senate. Sumner was attacked by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina. The attack happened after Sumner delivered his "Crime against Kansas" speech, in which he insulted Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, who was Brooks's uncle.
- 1860 November 6, Abraham Lincoln is elected 16th President of the United States.
December 20th, South Carolina becomes the first states to succeed from the Union. - 1861 April 12, Confederate forces bombard Fort Sumter in Charlestown harbor, South Carolina which is the start of the Civil War.
Sources:
Rodriguez, Junius P. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, Vol. I, ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California, 2007.
Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts by George Henry Moore
Making Slavery History: Abolitionism and the Politics of Memory in Massachusetts by Margot Minardi
Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts by Elise Lemire
Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North by C.S. Manegold
Podcasts
Short Story Collection 13 by Various - Slavery in Massachusetts
WBJ Podcast: Slavery & the Central Mass. economy | Worcester Business Journal
American Revolution Podcast: Episode 058: Slavery and Liberty
Film/Video
How was Massachusetts involved in the Slave Trade?
Ebony & Ivy: Slavery & the Troubled History of America's Universities (w/ Prof. Craig Steven Wilder)
Northern Slavery in Beverly Massachusetts Black History Ep 7
Plantations
Category:Plantations in Massachusetts - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Massachusetts • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of New Hampshire - Wikipedia
American Civil War: New Hampshire in the Civil War
Slavery in New Hampshire (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism
Slave Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
The Racist Roots of New Hampshire's Concealed Carry License Law (ammoland.com)
Black History Timeline
1643 The New England Confederation reaches an agreement that makes the signature of a magistrate sufficient evidence to reenslave a suspected fugitive slave.
1859 Harriett Wilson of Milford, New Hampshire publishes Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, the first novel by an African American woman.
Articles
Slavery in New Hampshire: Profitable godliness to racial consciousness
The Slave Trade in New Hampshire
"The Slave Trade in New Hampshire" | American Friends Service Committee
On Nov. 12, 1779, 20 black slaves in Portsmouth sent a petition
Slavery in New Hampshire | History of American Women
Books
Slavery the Underground Railroad in New Hampshire by Michelle Arnosky Sherburne
New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren
Podcasts
In New England, Recognizing A Little-Known History Of Slavery : NPR
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for New Hampshire • FamilySearch
NH History – Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire (blackheritagetrailnh.org)
New Hampshire in the Civil War • FamilySearch
Film/Video
New Hampshire Slave Trade part 1
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in New Jersey - Wikipedia
New Jersey in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Timelines: Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
When Jim Crow Plagued Jersey (njmonthly.com)
Articles
Princeton & Slavery | Legislating Slavery in New Jersey
Secret history of a northern slave state: How slavery was written into New Jersey's DNA
Slavery In New Jersey | The Slave Dwelling Project
TRADING IN JERSEY SOULS: on JSTOR
afro-americans-in-nj-short-history.pdf
juneteenth-exhibit.pdf (durandhedden.org)
Slavery in New Jersey (slavenorth.com)
New Jersey Enforces Its Amistad Law - Education Next
Black N.J. lawmakers seek reparations for slavery - WHYY
In New Jersey, Old Slave Quarters vs. New Homes - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Slavery in New Jersey | History of American Women
Part 1 – Early Settlement And The Rise Of Slavery In Colonial Dutch New Jersey
Books
Stories of Slavery in New Jersey by Rick Geffken
Way Down South Up North by E. Frederic Morrow
Podcasts
New Jersey Apologizes for Slavery : NPR
Film/Video
Revisiting Camden's dark past in the slave trade | Video
Camden introduces markers to remember its part in slave trade (radio.com)
Slavery in New Jersey: The "Free State" That Wasn't
Slave Ships on the Delaware: A Story of Camden, NJ
Slavery & Segregation at the Jersey Bayshore
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for New Jersey • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Slavery in New York dates back to the 17th century, beginning with the Dutch immigrants to New Amsterdam. The Dutch West India Company brought enslaved Africans to the colony as early as 1626, using them for tasks such as construction, farming, and the building of infrastructure, including the wall that gave Wall Street its name. These enslaved individuals were integral to the colony's economic development, as the Dutch relied heavily on their labor to establish and maintain the growing settlement.
As New Amsterdam became New York under British control in 1664, slavery expanded further. Enslaved people continued to work in a variety of industries, including agriculture, shipping, and skilled trades. While New York's colder climate did not support the large-scale plantation agriculture seen in the South, crops like corn, barley, and wheat were grown using enslaved labor. Enslaved individuals also labored in urban environments, performing domestic work, craftsmanship, and dock labor, making New York City a significant hub of the Northern slave economy.
Although New York began a gradual abolition of slavery in 1799, full emancipation did not take effect until 1827. Following the abolition of slavery, Black New Yorkers faced severe discrimination in housing, employment, and education. New York also had its own "Black Codes," informal laws and practices that restricted the rights of African Americans, mirroring the institutionalized racism seen in other parts of the country.
During the Jim Crow era, New York experienced subtler forms of racial segregation compared to the South, but systemic racism remained pervasive. African Americans in New York often faced de facto segregation, particularly in housing and education, enforced through redlining, restrictive covenants, and discriminatory public policies. Despite these problems, New York became a significant center for Black activism, with the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement helping to challenge systemic racism and redefine the state's cultural and social landscape.
Enslavement
History of slavery in New York (state) - Wikipedia
New York in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Slavery in New York (slavenorth.com)
Emancipation in New York (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
5 Classic and Heartbreaking Narratives by Enslaved People
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
New York Slave Laws of the Colonial Period (umkc.edu)
New York slave codes - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
1603 Mathieu Da Costa, a free black explorer, guides the French through parts of Canada and the Lake Champlain region of what is now New York state.
1613 Jan Rodriquez, a free sailor working for a Dutch fur trading company is assigned to live with and trade among the Native Americans on the island of Manhattan.
1625 The first enslaved Africans arrive in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City) with the Dutch West India Company. They quickly become the city's first municipal labor force, clearing land of timber, cutting lumber, cultivating crops, and cons
1636 Dutch minister Everadus Bogardus summons a teacher from Holland to Manhattan Island to provide religious training to Dutch and African children. This is the first example of educational efforts in Colonial North America which are directed toward persons o
1645 Dutch colonists transfer some of their landholdings in New Amsterdam to their former enslaved Africans as compensation for their support in battles with Native Americans. A condition of the land transfer, however, is the guarantee of a specified amount of
1650 The Dutch West India Company introduces new rules concerning slavery in New Netherlands. After gaining freedom, former slaves, for example, are required to give fixed amounts of their crops to the company. After the English capture of the colony, greater
1653 Enslaved African and Indian workers bulid wall across Manhattan Island to protect the Dutch colony from British invasion. The site of the wall is now Wall Street.
1682 New York enacts its first slave codes. They restrict the freedom of movement and the ability to trade of all enslaved people in the colony.
1685 New York law forbids enslaved Africans and Native Americans from having meetings or carrying firearms.
1702 The New York Assembly enacts a law which prohibits enslaved Africans from testifying against whites or gathering in groups larger than three on public streets.
1704 French colonist Elias Neau opens a school for enslaved African Americans in New York City.
1711 A public slave market opens in New York City at the east end of Wall Street.
1712 The New York City slave revolt begins on April 6. Nine whites are killed and an unknown number of blacks die in the uprising. Colonial authorities execute 21 slaves and six commit suicide.
1712 New York City enacts an ordinance that prevents free blacks from inheriting land.
1741 During the New York Slave Conspiracy Trials, New York City officials execute 34 people for planning to burn down the town. Thirteen African American men are burned at the stake and another 17 black men, two white men and two white women are hanged. Sevent
1761 Jupiter Hammon, a Long Island enslaved person, publishes a book of poetry. This is believed to be the first volume of poetry written and published by an African American.
1784 The New York African Society, a spiritual and benevolent association, is created by free blacks in New York City.
1785 New York frees all slaves who served in the Revolutionary Army.
1785 The New York Society for the Promoting of the Manumission of Slaves is founded by prominent New Yorkers including John Jay and Alexander Hamilton.
1787 On July 13, Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance, which establishes formal procedures for transforming territories into states. It provides for the eventual establishment of three to five states in the area north of the Ohio River, to be considered equ
1787 The U.S. Constitution is drafted. It provides for the continuation of the slave trade for another 20 years and required states to aid slaveholders in the recovery of fugitive slaves. It also stipulates that a slave counts as three-fifths of a man for purp
1787 Free blacks in New York City found the African Free School, where future leaders Henry Highland Garnett and Alexander Crummell are educated.
1790 Census of 1790 (First Census of the U.S. Population): Total population, 3,929,214, Black Population: 757,208 (19.3%) including 59,150 free African Americans.
1794 New York adopts a gradual emancipation law.
1809 New York recognizes marriage within the African American community.
1812 Two African American regiments are formed in New York to fight in the War of 1812.
1821 New York maintains property qualifications for African American male voters while abolishing the same for white male voters. Missouri disfranchises free black male voters.
1821 Thomas Jennings of New York City became the first African American to receive a patent from the United States government. His patent came because he developed a process for dry cleaning clothes.
1821 The African Grove Theater Group, the first black acting company, is founded in New York City.
1823 The African Grove Theater performs The Drama of King Shotaway, the first play written by an African American, Wiliam Henry Brown.
1827 Freedom's Journal begins publication on March 16 in New York City as the first African American owned newspaper in the United States. The editors are John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish.
1827 Slavery is officially abolished in New York.
1834 African Free Schools are incorporated into the New York Public School system.
1834 David Ruggles, abolitionist activist, opens the first African American bookstore in the nation, in New York City.
1843 Rev. Henry Highland Garnet delivers his controversial "Address to the Slaves" at the National Negro Convention meeting in Buffalo, New York, which calls for a servile insurrection.
1843 Sojourner Truth and William Wells Brown begin their campaigns against slavery.
1845 William Henry Lane (Master Juba) of New York City is the first acclaimed black dance performer.
1847 Frederick Douglass begins publication of The North Star in Rochester, New York.
1848 On July 19-20, Frederick Douglass is among the handful of men who attend the first Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York.
1850 The American League of Colored Workers, formed in New York City, is the first African American labor union in the United States.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, which becomes a best selling book and a major influence on the Anti-Slavery Movement.
1852 Martin R. Delany publishes The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States.
1853 Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (the Black Swan) debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and performs before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace a year later.
1853 William Wells Brown of Buffalo, New York, becomes the first African American novelist when he publishes Clotel, or the President's Daughter. The novel is published in England, however and thus he is not considered the first published black novelist in th
1855 Frederick Douglass is nominated by the Liberty Party of New York for the office of secretary of state. He is the first black candidate in any state to be nominated for a statewide office.
1863 The New York City draft riots erupt on July 13 and continue for four days, during which at least 100 of the city's residents are killed. This remains the highest death toll in any urban conflict in the 19th or 20th Centuries.
1877 On June 15, Henry O. Flipper became the first African American to graduate from West Point.
1885 On June 25, African American Priest Samuel David Ferguson is ordained a bishop of the Episcopal Church at a ceremony at Grace Church, New York City.
1892 On June 15 operatic soprano Sissieretta Jones becomes the first African American to perform at Carnegie Hall.
1892 In October activist Ida B. Wells begins her anti-lynching campaign with the publication of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law and in All Its Phases and a speech in New York City's Lyric Hall
1898 The National Afro-American Council is founded on September 15 in Rochester, New York. The organization elects Bishop Alexander Walters as its first president.
1899 The Afro-American Council designates June 4 as a national day of fasting to protest lynching and massacres.
1901 On October 11, when Bert Williams and George Walker record their music for the Victor Talking Machine Company, they become the first African American recording artists.
1903 W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folks is published on April 27. In it Du Bois rejects the gradualism of Booker T. Washington, calling for agitation on behalf of African American rights.
1904 Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, who trains at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Munich with Dr. Alois Alzheimer, becomes a widely published pioneer in Alzheimers disease research. Fuller also becomes the nations first black psychiatrist.
1905 The Niagara Movement is created on July 11-13, by African American intellectuals and activists, led by W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter.
1906 On December 4, seven students at Cornell University form Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first college fraternity for black men.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed on February 12 in New York City, partly in response to the Springfield Riot.
1909 On April 6, Admiral Robert E. Peary and African American Matthew Henson, accompanied by four Eskimos, become the first men known to have reached the North Pole.
1909 On December 4, the New York Amsterdam News begins publication.
1910 The National Urban League is founded in New York City on September 29. The League is organized to help African Americans secure employment and to adjust to urban life.
1910 The first issue of Crisis, the official publication of the NAACP, appears on November 1. W.E.B. Du Bois is the first editor.
1916 Marcus Garvey founds the New York Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Association with sixteen members. Four years later the UNIA holds its national convention in Harlem. At its height the organization claims nearly two million members.
1917 Nearly 10,000 African Americans and their supporters march down Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on July 28 as part of a silent parade, an NAACP-organized protest against lynchings, race riots, and the denial of rights. This is the first major civil rights demons
1917 In August, A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen found The Messenger, a black socialist magazine, in New York City.
1919 Claude McKay publishes "If We Must Die," considered one of the first major examples of Harlem Renaissance writing.
1919 Father Divine founds the Peace Mission Movement at his home in Sayville, New York.
1920 The decade of the 1920s witnesses the Harlem Renaissance, a remarkable period of creativity for black writers, poets, and artists, including among others Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston.
1920 Former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson opens the Club Deluxe in Harlem. Two years later gangaster Owney Madden buys the club and changes its name to the Cotton Club.
1920 Marcus Garvey leads the first international convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association which he calls the International Convention of Negro Peoples of the World. The meeting is held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1921 Shuffle Along by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake opens on Broadway on May 23. This is the first major play of the Harlem Renaissance.
1921 Harry Pace forms Black Swan Phonograph Corporation, the first African American-owned record company in Harlem. His artists will include Mamie and Bessie Smith.
1921 One of the earliest exhibitions of work by African American artists, including Henry Ossawa Tanner and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, is held at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.
1922 The Harmon Foundation is established in New York City to promote African American participation in the fine arts.
1923 In September, the Cotton Club opens in Harlem.
1923 The National Urban League publishes its first issue of Opportunity, A Journal of Negro Life. The magazine, edited by Charles S. Johnson, quickly becomes a forum for artists and authors of the Harlem Renaissance.
1924 Photographer James Van Der Zee begins his career by capturing images of Marcus Garvey and the UNIA.
1925 The New Negro by Alain Locke is published in New York City.
1926 The Carnegie Corporation purchases Arturo Schomburg's collection of books and artifacts on African American life. The collection becomes the basis for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
1929 Fats Waller's musical, Aint Misbehavin, opens on Broadway.
1931 Walter White is named NAACP executive secretary. Soon afterwards the NAACP mounts a new strategy primarily using lawsuits to end racial discrimination.
1931 William Grant Still becomes the first black symphony composer to have his music performed by a major symphony orchestra when the Rochester, New York, Philharmonic Orchestra presets "The Afro-American Symphony" in concert.
1934 W.E.B. Du Bois resigns from the NAACP in a dispute over the strategy of the organization in its campaign against racial discrimination. Roy Wilkins becomes the new editor of Crisis magazine.
1934 Zora Neale Hurston's first novel, Jonahs Gourd Vine, is published.
1934 After operating under a number of names, the Apollo Theater opens under its current name in Harlem.
1935 On March 20, the Harlem Race Riot, a one day riot erupts leaving two people dead.
1935 On December 24, Mary McLeod Bethune calls together the leaders of 28 national womens organizations to found the National Council of Negro Women in New York City.
1938 On June 22, Joe Louis beats Max Schmeling in a rematch of his 1936 defeat by the German boxer.
1938 Jacob Lawrence holds his first solo exhibition at the Harlem YMCA and completes his Toussaint L'Overture series.
1939 Bill Bojangles Robinson organizes the Black Actors Guild.
1939 Jane M. Bolin becomes the first African American woman judge in the United States when she is appointed to the domestic relations court of New York City.
1940 Richard Wright publishes his first novel, Native Son.
1940 Dr. Charles R. Drew presents his thesis, Banked Blood at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The thesis includes his research which discovers that plasma can replace whole blood transfusions.
1940 The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is established in New York City.
1942 Hugh Mulzac becomes the first African American captain in the American Merchant Marine.
1944 Frederick Douglass Patterson establishes the United Negro College Fund on April 25 to help support black colleges and black students. The fund is incorporated in New York.
1944 Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, is elected to Congress from Harlem in November.
1945 Nat King Cole becomes the first African American to have a radio variety show. The show airs on NBC.
1947 On April 10, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers becomes the first African American to play major league baseball in the 20th Century.
1947 The NAACP petition on racism, An Appeal to the World, is presented to the United Nations.
1947 John Hope Franklin's From Slavery to Freedom is published. The work will become the most popular textbook on African American history published in the 20th Century.
1948 Timmie Rogers, comedian, dancer, and singer, launches the first all-black variety show, Sugar Hill Times, on CBS Television.
1950 On May 1, Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago becomes the first African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize. She wins the prize in Poetry.
1950 Juanita Hall became the first African American to win a Tony award. She was honored for her role in the Broadway play, South Pacific.
1952 Ralph Ellison publishes Invisible Man.
1953 On December 31, Hulan Jack becomes the first African American borough president of Manhattan. At the time he is the highest ranking black elected official in the nation.
1953 James Baldwin publishes his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Go Tell It On The Mountain.
1953 Ralph Bunche becomes the first African American president of the American Political Science Association.
1954 Malcolm X becomes Minister of the Nation of Islam's Harlem Temple 7.
1955 On January 7 Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera
1956 On November 11, Nat King Cole becomes the first African American to host a prime time variety show on national television. He appears on NBC.
1956 Harry Belafonte's "Calypso," released by RCA Records, is the first album in history to sell more than one million copies.
1957 Perry H. Young becomes the first black pilot for a commercial passenger airline (New York Airways). The following year, 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor becomes the first commercial passenger airline flight attendant (Mohawk Airlines).
1958 The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is formed in New York.
1958 Louis E. Lomax becomes the first African American newscaster for a major network station. He is hired by WNTA-TV in New York City.
1958 Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to win the U.S. Open tennis championship in Forest Hills.
1959 Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" opens in New York on March 11 with Sidney Poitier in the starring role. It is the first play by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
1959 Ella Fitzgerald and William "Count" Basie become the first African American performers to win Grammy awards.
1962 Ernie Davis, a running back at Syracuse University, becomes the first African American athlete to receive college football's Heisman Trophy.
1964 On March 12, Malcolm X announces his break with the Nation of Islam and his founding of the Muslim Mosque in Harlem. On June 28 he founds the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City.
1965 Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, New York on February 21.
1965 Alex Haley publishes The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
1966 On January 25th Constance Baker Motley is appointed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson to the Federal Bench in New York City. She becomes the first African American woman elevated to a Federal judgeship.
1967 On April 4, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church, New York City. It is his first public criticism of the Vietnam War.
1968 Arthur Ashe becomes the first African American to win the Men's Singles competition in the U.S. Open.
1968 In November Shirley Chisholm of New York is the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
1969 The Ford Foundation gives one million dollars to Morgan State University, Howard University, and Yale University to help prepare faculty members to teach courses in African American studies.
1969 On May 5, Moneta Sleet, Jr. of Ebony magazine, becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Photography.
1969 Jimi Hendrix headlines the Woodstock Musical Festival near Bethel, New York between August 15 and August 18. Over 500,000 people attend what is to that point the largest musical concert in history.
1970 On February 18, Bobby Seale and six other six defendants (popularly known as the Chicago Seven) are acquitted of the charge of conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1970 The first issue of Essence magazine appears in May.
1970 The first issue of Black Enterprise magazine appears in August.
1970 On October 12, Charles Gordone becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play, "No Place to Be Somebody."
1971 On September 9, nearly 1,200 inmates seize control of half of the New York State Prison at Attica in what will be known as the Attica Prison Riot. Four days later 29 inmates and ten hostages are killed when state troopers and correctional officers suppres
1971 Leroy Satchel Paige becomes the first former Negro Leagues baseball player inducted int the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York.
1971 Beverly Johnson is the first black woman to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine (Glamour).
1972 Over the summer New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm makes an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She is the first African American to campaign for the nomination.
1973 The National Black Feminist Organization is established by Eleanor Holmes Norton.
1974 The largest single gift to date from a black organization is the $132,000 given by the Links, Inc., to the United Negro College Fund on July 1.
1975 John Hope Franklin is the first African American elected president of the Organization of American Historians (OAH). Four years later he will be the fiirst African American elected president of the American Historical Association (AHA).
1976 Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan becomes the first African American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention which meets that year in New York City.
1979 The Sugar Hill Gang records "Rappers Delight" in Harlem.
1979 Franklin Thomas is named president of the Ford Foundation.
1982 Bryant Gumbel is named anchor of The Today Show, becoming the first African American to hold the post on a major network.
1983 Alice Walker's The Color Purple wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
1984 Russell Simmons forms Def Jam Records in Harlem.
1986 Spike Lee releases his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, initiating a new wave of interest in black films and African American filmmakers.
1987 Rita Dove wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
1987 On August 6, Reginald Lewis orchestrates the leveraged buyout of Beatrice Foods to become the first African American CEO of a billion dollar corporation.
1987 On October 28, Brigadier General Fred A. Gordon is appointed Commandant of the Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
1987 August Wilson's play, Fences, wins a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award.
1989 Bill White becomes the first African American league president when he is chosen to head Major League Baseball's National League.
1989 Mahlon Martin becomes the first African American to head the Rockefeller Foundation.
1990 August Wilson wins a Pulitzer Prize for the play The Piano Lesson.
1991 Julie Dash releases Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film by an African American woman.
1992 William "Bill" Pinkney becomes the first African American and only the fourth American to singlehandedly navigate a sailboat around the world.
1996 On April 9, George Walker becomes the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music. The winning composition, "Lilies for Soprano or Tenor and Orchestra," is based on a poem by Walt Whitman.
1997 Wynton Marsalis's "Blood on the Fields" becomes the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer Prize in Music.
1999 On September 10, Serena Williams wins the U.S. Open Womens Singles Tennis Championship in Flushing Meadows, the first African American woman to do so since Althea Gibson's win in
1999 Maurice Ashley becomes the world's first black chess grandmasters, the game's highest rank.
2008 On March 17, David A. Paterson, is sworn in as Governor of New York upon the resignation of the prior governor, Elliott Spitzer. Paterson is the first legally blind American Governor, the first black Governor of New York State, and only the fourth black
Articles
Hidden History - Slavery in the Hudson Valley? - Stories - Vassar College
Sharing NY's slave stories helps reconcile our past
A SHORT HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN NYC — NYC URBANISM
Dating the Start and End of Slavery in New York – New York Slavery Records Index (cuny.edu)
The Hidden History of Slavery in New York | The Nation
New York City's Slave Market | The New York Public Library (nypl.org)
Jim Crow in New York | Brennan Center for Justice
How New York City became the capital of the Jim Crow North - The Washington Post
Books
Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York by Andrea C Mosterman
In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863 by Leslie M. Harris
Slavery in New York by Ira Berlin
Somewhat More Independent: The End Of Slavery In New York City, 1770 1810 by Shane White
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan by Jill Lepore
Podcasts
New York Colony - Enslaved people podcast
Slavery and Resistance in New York Podcast - New York Almanack
Film/Video
New York City Slave Market (Wall Street)
Slavery and New York - The Untold Story by Kevin Harris
Sites to Visit
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for New York • FamilySearch
New York Slave Records By State blackwallstreet.org
Slavers of New York – The Decolonial Atlas
Research Sites
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture | The New York Public Library
New Amsterdam History Center - New Amsterdam History Center
The Slavers of NY (@slaversofny) • Instagram photos and videos
Slavery in the Colonial North - Historic Hudson Valley
Black History Month In New York State Parks | New York State Parks and Historic Sites Blog
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Pennsylvania - Wikipedia
Pennsylvania in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Slavery in Pennsylvania (slavenorth.com)
Emancipation in Pennsylvania (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Racism in Pennsylvania (slavenorth.com)
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
William Parker Recalls How He Escaped Slavery - The Atlantic
The Slave Narrative and the Stamp Act, or Letters from Two American Farmers in Pennsylvania on JSTOR
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Pennsylvania Legislation Relating to Slavery (gettysburg.edu)
Jim Crow Laws: Oregon and Pennsylvania | AmericansAll
Black History Timelines
1688 Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania denounce slavery in the first recorded formal protest in North America against the enslavement of Africans.
1696 Quaker religious leaders warn that members who own slaves may be expelled from the denomination.
1711 Great Britain's Queen Anne overrules a Pennsylvania colonial law prohibiting slavery.
1750 Anthony Benezet persuades fellow Philadelphia Quakers to open the first free school for black children in the colonies.
1758 A school for free black children is opened in Philadelphia.
1775 The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage holds the first of four meetings in Philadelphia on April 14. This is the first abolitionist meeting in North America. In
1784 the organization becomes the Pennsylvania Abolition Societ
1776 A passage in the Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson at the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, condemned the slave trade. The controversial passage is removed from the Declaration due to pressure from the southern colonies
1780 Pennsylvania adopts first gradual emancipation law. All children of enslaved people born after Nov. 1, 1780 will be free on their 28th birthday.
1787 Richard Allen and Absalom Jones form the Free African Society in Philadelphia.
1792 Benjamin Banneker's Almanac is published in Philadelphia. It is the first book of science published by an African American.
1793 The United States Congress enacts the first Fugitive Slave Law. Providing assistance to fugitive slaves is now a criminal offense.
1794 Mother Bethel AME Church is established in Philadelphia by Richard Allen.
1796 On August 23, The African Methodist Episcopal Church is organized in Philadelphia.
1800 The United States Congress rejects 85 to 1 an antislavery petition offered by free Philadelphia African Americans.
1810 The African Insurance Company of Philadephia is the first black-owned insurance company in the United States.
1815 Richard Allen officially creates the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first wholly African American church denomination in the United States.
1817 Francis Johnson of Philadelphia becomes the first black bandleader and composer to publish sheet music. In 1837 he becomes the first American to perform before Queen Victoria in England.
1830 African American delegates from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia meet in Philadelphia in the first of a series of National Negro Conventions to devise ways to challenge slavery in the South and racial discrimination in the North.
1831 Jarena Lee's The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, A Coloured Lady, was the first autobiography by an African American woman.
1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society is established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1837 The Institute for Colored Youth is founded in Southeastern Pennsylvania. It later becomes Cheyney University.
1837 The Philadelphia Vigilence Committee is organized to help fugitive slaves escape their pursuers.
1838 Pennsylvania disfranchises black voters.
1854 On October 13, Ashmun Institute, the first institution of higher learning for young black men, is founded by John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson. In 1866 it is renamed Lincoln University (Pa.) after President Abraham Lincoln
1886 The Knights of Labor, founded and headquartered in Philadelphia, reaches it peak membership of 700,000 with approximately 75,000 African American members.
1904 Sigma Pi Phi (the Boule) is founded in Philadelphia on May 15 by four wealthy African American college graduates.
1907 Alain Locke of Philadelphia, a Harvard graduate, becomes the first African American Rhodes Scholar.
1907 The Pittsburgh Courier is established by Edwin Harleston, a security guard and aspiring writer. Three years later attorney Robert Vann takes control of the paper as its editor-publisher.
1918 On July 25-28, a race riot in Chester, Pennsylvania claims five lives, three blacks and two whites.
1918 On July 26-29, in nearby Philadelphia, another race riot breaks out killing four, three blacks and one white.
1927 Floyd Joseph Calvin, a Pittsburgh Courier journalist, becomes the first black radio talk show host when he begins broadcasting from WGBS in Pittsburgh.
1938 In November Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia becomes the first African American woman elected to a state legislature when she is chosen to serve in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
1941 Mary Lucinda Dawson founds the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh.
1984 On January 2, W. Wilson Goode becomes the first African American mayor of Philadelphia.
1985 In May, Philadelphia's African American mayor, Wilson Goode, orders the Philadelphia police to bomb the headquarters of MOVE, a local black nationalist organization. The bombing leaves 11 people dead and 250 homeless.
1988 In September, Temple University offers the first Ph.D. in African American Studies.
1997 On October 25 African American women participate in the Million Woman March in Philadelphia, focusing on health care, education, and self-help.
Articles
Slavery in Pennsylvania (slavenorth.com)
Abolition of Slavery | PHMC > Our Documentary Heritage
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia | Slavery and the Slave Trade
Slavery in Pennsylvania - Friends Journal
Slavery in Pennsylvania | History of American Women
Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 · George Washington's Mount Vernon
Slavery in Colonial Pennsylvania on JSTOR
Books
Slavery the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania by Cooper H Wingert
Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath by Gary B. Nash
African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990 by Emerson I Moss
Podcasts
The Quaker abolitionist who was disowned for condemning slave owners - The Washington Post
Episode No. 1 – The Germantown Protest of 1688 – Found in Philadelphia
Film/Video
The Real History of Slavery in Pennsylvania (Fort Hunter Slave Cemetery
Germantown Anti Slavery History,Pennsylvania (mirror)
The Pennsylvania Slave Trade Marker Ceremony - Charles L. Blockson
Plantations
Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia | Plantations (philadelphiaencyclopedia.org)
Category: Pennsylvania Slave Owners (wikitree.com)
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Pennsylvania • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of Rhode Island - Wikipedia
Rhode Island in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws: Rhode Island, South Carolina and South Dakota | AmericansAll
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
RI Black Heritage Society - Rhode Island Civil Rights Timeline (wildapricot.org)
Rhode Island African Heritage & History Timeline: 17th through 19th Centuries (1696heritage.com) (exerpt below)
1636 Providence settlement is established
1639 Newport settlement is established on southern end of Aquidneck Island.
1640 Dr. John Clarke grants land to the Town of Newport to establish a Common Burying Ground for all residents regardless of race, creed and class.
1652 Colony of Rhode Island adopts a law abolishing African slavery, where “black mankinde” cannot be indentured more than ten years. The law is largely unenforced.
1660 Charles II, King of England orders the Council of Foreign Plantations to devise strategies for converting slaves and servants to Christianity.
1660 – 1730 Narragansett’s largest land-owning planters include Updike, Hazard, Champlin, Robinson and Stanton that own at least 1,000 acres. By 1730, enslaved Africans represent about 15% of areas total population.
1663 On July 8th, King Charles II grants the Colony of Rhode Island a Charter that guarantees religious toleration.
1676 As a direct outcome of the King Phillip’s War (1675-1676), surviving Natives are enslaved in Rhode Island.
1680 According to the colonial census, there were 175 Native and Negro slaves in Rhode Island.
1683 On March 30th, Negro servant Salmardore is emancipated by his master John Champlin in Newport.
1696 The first documented slave ship the Boston bound, “Sea Flower” arrives in Newport.
A Negro named Peter Pylatt was executed at Newport for the crime of rape, after which his body was hung in chains on Miantonomi Hill.
1703 Rhode Island General Assembly adopts an early “Negro Code” to restrict activities of free and servant Negros and Indians stating, “If any negroes or Indians either freemen, servants, or slaves, do walk in the street of the town of Newport, or any other town in this Colony, after nine of the clock of night, without certificate from their masters, or some English person of said family with, or some lawful excuse for the same, that it shall be lawful for any person to take them up and deliver them to a Constable.”
1705 A Negro burying section of the Common Burying Ground is established. It is later known to the African American community as “God’s Little Acre.”
1708 Enslaved Africans outnumber indentured white servants in Newport 10:1
1709 A duty of three pounds was placed on every Negro imported into the colony.
1709 – 1809 Rhode Island merchants sponsored nearly 1,000 slaving voyages to the coast of Africa and carried over 100,000 slaves to the New World. Before the American Revolution, Newport was the leading slave port and after would be Bristol. Rhode Island’s slave traders transported more slaves than the other British North American colonies combined during the 18th century.
1713 Rhode Island merchants introduced rum on the African coast; the “new” liquor quickly becomes a chief source for trade of slaves.
1714 Colony of Rhode Island enacts a law that bans any ferryman from transporting a slave “without a certificate in their hand from their master or mistress or some person in authority.”
1715 The General Assembly of Rhode Island officially authorizes African enslavement by requiring a listing of imported slaves and a per head fee payment to the Naval Officer upon arrival.
1725 In Warwick, Rhode Island on July 28, 1725, Hager, a “negro” slave, was willed 10 shillings and her children were bequeathed 5 shillings each by Captain Peter Green.
1739 Venture Smith who was born Broteer Furro from Guinea is brought to Newport as a 10 year old slave boy. He would later as a free man author, “Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America, Related by Himself.”
1741-1763 Several of Newport’s most important civic structures, Old Colony House, Redwood Library, Brick Market and Touro Synagogue are built with the participation of enslaved and free African skilled labor.
1743 The Reverend Honyman of Newport Trinity Church in a June 1743 letter reports that his church is in very flourishing and improving condition, “there are in it a very large proportion of white people and one hundred Negroes who constantly attend the worship of God.”
The Reverend James McSparren of Narragansett’s St. Paul’s Church noted that “70 slaves and Indians were members of his church.
1750 The General Assembly of Rhode Island enacts a law that “prevents all persons keeping house within this Colony from entertaining Indian, Negro or Mulatto slaves or servants.”
1752 In December of that year, Cuffee Cockroach an enslaved African cook of Jaheel Brenton prepared a feast that featured a sea turtle stew for a community gathering held at Fort George, on Goat Island. The “Turtle Frolic” became an annual celebration.
1755 Africans represent approximately 20% of entire Newport population.
1756 Newport Africans begin to assemble each June at corners of Thames and Farewell Streets to elect a “Negro Governor” – a mixture of European and African traditions. This West African tradition is later seen in Boston, Providence, Portsmouth, NH and Connecticut.
1750-1780 Hundreds of Africans in Newport are converted into Christianity as part of the Great Awakening Religious Movement sweeping across American Colonies. Trinity Church, along with First and Second Congregational Churches lead the conversion activities.
1758 Sarah Osborn establishes a school for religious and civic instruction for white and black children under the support of Newport’s Second Congregational Church.
1763 Rev. Marmaduke Brown of Trinity Church opens a school for African children.
1766 A group of free and enslaved Africans take a picnic in Portsmouth led by Caesar Lyndon, personal secretary and clerk for Governor Josiah Lyndon.
1767 Phyllis Wheatley of Boston, America’s earliest African woman poet has her first poem published in the Newport Mercury newspaper in 1767. During the time, Wheatley is close friend of fellow African woman of Newport Obour Tanner.
1768 Signed by “A True Son of Liberty,” an article appears in the Newport Mercury Newspaper under the caption, “If you say you have the right to enslave Negroes, because it is for your interests, why do you dispute the legality of Great Britain enslaving you?”
1772 Mary Brett with support from Trinity Church opens a second school for African children at her High Street (Division Street) home in Newport.
Mintus Northrup is born into slavery in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. He is the father of Solomon Northrup, author of “12 Years A Slave.”
British Customs Schooner, HMS Gaspee is looted and burned off the coast of Warwick. One of the participants is enslaved Aaron Briggs from Prudence Island.
1773 Fortune, listed as an “abandoned Negro,” reportedly set fire to the Long Wharf in Newport causing £80,000 in damage. He is executed for his crime.
1774 Africans John Quamino and Bristol Yamma are sent to study at College of New Jersey (the future Princeton University) to train as Christian Missionaries. These will be the first Africans to attend college in America. The plan is devised by Rev’s Samuel Hopkins and Ezra Stiles of Newport.
1776 American Revolution begins.
Rev. Samuel Hopkins of First Congregational Church in Newport authors “A Dialogue Concerning the Slavery of Africans” that he presents to the Continental Congress stating slavery is incongruous to the ideals of American civil and personal liberty.
In a June 6, 1776 letter from John Quamino of Newport to Moses Brown of Providence, Quamino thanking him for emancipating his servants and his “boundless benevolence with regards to the unforfeited rights of the poor and unhappy Africans of this province.”
1778 The 1st Rhode Island Regiment is reformed including 132 enslaved and free African and Indian men. Later to be called the “Black Regiment” they fight with great valor in the Battle of Rhode Island in August, 1778.
1780 A group of free African men meet in the Newport home of Abraham Casey and form the Free African Union Society, the first such society in America.
1781 Rhode Island General Assembly rules in favor of a petition of Quarco Honyman, former slave to the Honyman family that he had served his country during the war and is deemed a free man.
1784 General Assembly of Rhode Island grants the gradual emancipation of slaves. Slaves born before 1784 were to remain slaves for life.
1785 Eleanor Eldridge, a free Mulatto woman was born in Warwick and would go on to become a well-known land and business owner in Providence. In 1838 her memoirs are published describing the life of a free African American woman in Rhode Island.
1786 John Brown of Providence in a November 26, 1786 letter to his brother Moses states, “I lately heard several respectable people say that the merchants of Newport scarcely earned any property in any other trade, that all the estates that had ever been acquired in that town had been got in the trade in slaves from Guinea.”
1787 Anthony Taylor, President of the African Union Society sends letters promoting the return to Africa by free Africans in Newport. In the letter, Taylor describes the situation for Africans in Rhode Island as “strangers and outcasts in a strange land.”
Anthony Taylor and Salmar Nubia of Newport send a letter to Cato Gardner and London Spear of Providence instructing them to urge their fellow African Union Society members to not participate in the African slave trade.
1789 New Goree community is established in Bristol, RI by free Africans. Today the neighborhood is bordered by Wood and Bay View Avenue.
Members of the Free African Benevolent Society in Newport actively develop a plan to return to Africa.
1790 The Providence Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery is incorporated.
1792 African Charity “Duchess” Quamino dies in Newport; recognized as the “Pastry Queen of Rhode Island” and one of the most successful African women entrepreneurs of her time. Her marker is inscribed by Reverend William Ellery Channing.
1793 Sixty-three former members of the Rhode Island 1st (Black) Regiment petition to receive pensions for service during the American Revolution.
1800 Five free Africans own homes on the section of Pope Street in Newport between Spring and Thames streets referred to as “Negro Lane.”
James DeWolf of Bristol is one of the most active slave traders in America during late 18th and early 19th centuries.
1800 -1870 During that era and led by the Hazzard family, 84 “Negro cloth” mills opened in Rhode Island. Rhode Island industrialists bought and processed slave-picked cotton, while southern slaveholders purchased Rhode Island manufactured cloth for themselves and their slaves.
1803 Former enslaved African Nkrumah Mireku becomes the first published African musical composer in America; songs include “Crooked Shanks” and the religious anthem “The Promise.”
1808 In March the Free African Benevolent Society of Newport establishes the first free African school (private) in America on School Street.
1809 The Free African Female Benevolent Society is established in Newport with founding members including Obour Tanner and Sara Lyna.
1812 During the War of 1812, free African Hannibal Collins of Newport along with other African sailors were present at the Battle of Lake Erie under the command of Newport Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
1814 The narrative of William J. Brown of Providence is published. Entitled The Life of William J. Brown with Personal Recollection of Incidents in Rhode Island.
1819 African Union Society in Providence evolves into the African Meeting House and later Congdon Street Baptist Church.
1822 Black men are barred from voting in Rhode Island.
1824 The Free African Benevolent Society evolves into the Union Colored Congregational Church located in old Baptist Meeting House on Division Street.
Hardscrabble, a predominately black community in Providence is rocked by a race riot.
1826 On January 4th, led by Nkrumah Mireku (aka Newport Gardner) and Salmar Nubia (aka Jack Mason) a group of Newport Africans set sail for Africa settling in Liberia. The entire party dies of coastal fever within one year.
1830 Pond Street Free Baptist Church organized in Providence, RI
1831 Snow Town, the Providence neighborhood that replaces Hardscrabble, is the scene to a second major race riot.
1838 First public school for black children is established on Meeting Street in Providence.
1839 The Providence Shelter for Colored Children is organized.
1842 At the November session of the General Assembly of Rhode Island meeting at Newport, the Rhode Island Constitution is revised and ratified giving African American men among others the right to vote.
1846 The summer of 1846, African American businessman, George T. Downing opens a restaurant on Bellevue Avenue in Newport to cater to the emerging summer resort market.
1850 African Church located on Wood Street in Bristol, RI. Building also housed a school for Black children.
1856 Thomas Howland becomes first Black elected to public office in Providence as Warden of the Third Ward.
George T. Downing builds the Sea Girt Hotel along a Bellevue Avenue commercial block that would bear his name.
1859 James Howland of Jamestown dies as the last slave in Rhode Island at the age of 100 years.
1860 Isaac Rice homestead in Newport is used as an Underground Railroad stop.
1861 The American Civil War begins.
1863 The 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored) is organized in Providence, Rhode Island.
Newport and Providence African American leaders begin a movement to fully integrate public schools in Rhode Island.
1865 A group of Newport philanthropists, including George T. Downing underwrite the purchase of land to become Touro Park on Bellevue Avenue.
The 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment is mustered out at Portsmouth Grove.
1866 Dr. Harriet A. Rice was born to George and Lucinda Rice in Newport. She graduated as a top student at Newport’s Rogers High School and in 1882 went on to become the first African American student to graduate from Wellesley College. Soon after she would earn a medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School. During WWI, she was a physician serving the French Army.
1867 Mary Jackson is born in Providence. She would later work as a statistician at state Labor Department and during WWI, was appointed as a Special Worker for Colored Girls on the YWCA War Work Council.
George T. Downing successfully leads the integration of public schools in Rhode Island.
1869 Rev. Mahlon Van Horne assumes the pastorate of Union Colored Congregational Church on Division Street in Newport.
1870 The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified prohibiting the restriction of voting rights “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
1871 Painter Edward Bannister and his wife Christiana settle in Providence. He is part of founders of Providence Art Club and RISD.
1872 Rev. Van Horne becomes the first African American member of the Newport School Board.
1875 In July 1875 the Congdon Street Baptist Church building is completed in Providence.
St John’s Episcopal Church in Newport is founded at the Point Neighborhood home of African American Peter Quire.
1882 The Daisy Tonsorial Parlor is established at 148 Bellevue Avenue by African American business and civic leader, Fredrick E. Williams.
1883 On October 15th, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional and declared that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from discriminating.
1885 Rev. Van Horne of Newport becomes the first African American member of the General Assembly of Rhode Island.
1885-90 George T. Downing is member of the committee responsible for the Bellevue Avenue extension to Bailey’s Beach in Newport.
1887 Dr. Harriet A. Rice of Newport becomes the first African American to graduate Wellesley College. Soon after, she earned a medical degree at the University of Michigan.
1888 Sisseretta Jones of Providence becomes an international singing star.
1890 Rhode Island enacts a law that establishes the “Home For Aged Colored Women.” Christina Bannister is the leader of the effort and later the home would bear her name as Bannister House in Providence.
1891 The first Black owned and operated newspaper in New England, Torchlight, is established by John Minkins in Providence.
1892 Over 160 documented African American lynching’s in America; the highest annual total in history.
1893 The Breakers Mansion, Newport’s grandest summer cottage is built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. The Newport Gilded Age has arrived.
J T Allen and his brother David arrive in Newport and soon established the Hygeia Spa at Easton’s Beach and dining facility in the Perry Mansion on Touro Street.
1894 Dr. Marcus Wheatland becomes the first known African-American physician to live and practice in Rhode Island. Dr. Wheatland was nationally recognized as an early radiology specialist.
John Hope graduates from Brown University and later becomes President of Morehouse College.
1896 United States Supreme Court issues Plessy v. Ferguson ruling decided that “separate but equal” facilities satisfy Fourteenth Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow segregation laws.
President William McKinley appoints Rev. Van Horne of Newport to become U.S. Consul to St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies, serving through the Spanish American War.
1897 Newport born Dr. M. Alonzo Van Horne graduates from Howard Medical School and becomes the first African American dentist in Newport practicing at 47 John Street and later at 22 Broadway.
1898 During the Spanish America War sixteen regiments of black volunteers nationally are recruited and four see combat.
1899 Members of the (African American) Women’s League Newport gather led by Mary Dickerson who owns a dress shop on Bellevue Avenue.
and
1652 Rhode Island enacts first anti-slavery law in the British colonies. The law limits slavery to ten years.
1778 The 1st Rhode Island Regiment comprised of enslaved and free black men is formed. It is the first and only all-black military unit to fight on the Patriot side in the American Revolution
1780 The Free African Union Society is created in Newport, Rhode Island. It is the first cultural organization established by blacks in North America.
1822 Rhode Island disfranchises black voters.
1842 Frederick Douglass leads a successful campaign against Rhode Island's proposed Dorr Constitution which would continue the prohibition on black voting rights.
Slavery, emancipation and Black freedom in Rhode Island, 1652-1842 (uiowa.edu)
How Slavery Persisted in New England Until the 19th Century - HISTORY
A Northern Family Confronts Its Slaveholding Past | History | Smithsonian Magazine
Tracing Center | James DeWolf and the DeWolf Family
Rhode Island History & the Slave Trade.pdf (rihs.org)
Books
James DeWolf and the Rhode Island Slave Trade by Cynthia Mestad Johnson
The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island And The African Slave Trade, 1700 1807 by Jay Coughtry
Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island by Christy Clark-Pujara
Podcasts
Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island - Ben Franklin's World
Rhode To The Slave Trade - Rhode to the slave trade
Slavery and the Northern Economy | Learning for Justice
Film/Video
Hidden Truths: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Rhode Island
Hidden Truths: Slavery and the Slave Trade in Rhode Island
URI: Slavery in Rhode Island - Dr. Clark-Pujara
Filmmaker Uncovers Her Family's Shocking Slave-Trading History, Urges Americans to Explore Own Roots
Faced and Traced Slavetrading in her Family History - Meet Katrina Browne
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Rhode Island • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Vermont - Wikipedia
Vermont in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Slavery in the Constitution
Removing Slavery From Vermont's Constitution - The Atlantic
Vermont Senate votes to remove slavery from Constitution (burlingtonfreepress.com)
Personal Narratives
Williamson: Douglass in Vermont | Vermont Public Radio (vpr.org)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Background: As early as 1837 the term Jim Crow was used to describe racial segregation in Vermont. Source Importantly, it should be noted that all white Vermonters were preceded by the original Vermonters, before Vermont was Vermont: Native Americans. Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery, but after the Civil War, former slaves could not afford to travel all the way to Vermont to buy land. But for the most part, when African Americans came north, they went to work in cities, in industrial jobs. And even when Vermont’s industries got going, with mills and quarries, black were not in the labor pool. Source Between 1913 and 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced anti-miscegenation laws. Vermont never enacted them.
Black History Timeline
Vermont African American Heritage Trail 2017 Web (vermonthumanities.org)
1777 On July 8, Vermont becomes the first political jurisdiction in the United States to abolish slavery.
1804 Lemuel Haynes is the first African American to receive an honorary degree in U.S. history when Middlebury College awards him a Master's Degree at its second commencement.
1877 George Washington Henderson of the University of Vermont is the first African American elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest humanities honor society in the U.S.
Articles
The History Of Slavery In Vermont, Across New England | Vermont Public Radio
Vermont 1777: Early Steps Against Slavery | National Museum of African American History and Culture
Slavery in Vermont (slavenorth.com)
Vermont's 1777 slavery ban had a complicated reality
The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont — Vermont Historical Society
African American History in New England — Vermont Folklife Center
On Jul 02, 1777: Vermont Abolishes Slavery But Enacts Laws Restricting Rights of Formerly Enslaved
In This State: Historian finds imprecise end to slavery in Vermont - VTDigger
Vermont religious leaders ask state to remember enslaved
VHS8402PowerOfErasure.pdf (vermonthistory.org)
Books
The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810 by Harvey Amani Whitfield
Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburgh, 1790-1890 by Elise A. Guyette
Daisy Turner's Kin: An African American Family Saga by Jane C. Beck
Podcasts
The History Of Slavery In Vermont, Across New England | Vermont Public Radio (vpr.org)
Film/Video
North of Slavery: African-Americans in Vermont, 1760-1860
Harvey Amani Whitfield: Slavery in Vermont
The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont: Harvey Whitfield
02/19/20 The Abolitionist Movement in VT during the 1800's on 'Across The Fence' (history)
Black History: Vermont Abolish Slavery and Walter Francis White
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Vermont • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
The Midwest
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of Arkansas - Wikipedia
Slavery - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Arkansas in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Arkansas Slave Narratives (genealogytrails.com)
Slave Narratives Arkansas Vol 3 by Work Projects Administration
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Slave Codes - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Post-bellum Black Codes - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Jim Crow Laws - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Black History Timeline
1858 Arkansas enslaves free blacks who refuse to leave the state.
1934 The Southern Tenant Farmers Union is organized by the Socialist Party.
1957 In September President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to ensure the enforcement of a Federal court order to desegregate Central High School and to protect nine African American students enrolled as part of the order. Th
Articles
African Americans - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Slavery and the Defining of Arkansas on JSTOR
Slavery in Arkansas | The Slave Dwelling Project
The Underground Railroad And Slave Locations In Arkansas
Slaveholders and Slaves of Hempstead County, Arkansas
What Did Slavery Look Like in Arkansas? New Exhibit Has Answers
Books
Negro Slavery in Arkansas by Orville W. Taylor
Slavery and Secession in Arkansas: A Documentary History by James J. Gigantino II
Bullets and Fire: Lynching and Authority in Arkansas, 1840-1950 by Guy Lancaster
Moaning Low: From Slavery to Peonage. Involuntary Servitude in the Arkansas Delta by Van Hawkins
Ruled by Race: Black White Relations in Arkansas From Slavery to the Present by Grif Stockley
Podcasts
History Unraveled #9 with Dr. Kelly Jones - Slavery in Arkansas
Film/Video
Slavery, Arkansas and the Civil War
Dream Land: Little Rock's West 9th Street
Elaine Massacre: The bloodiest racial conflict in U.S. history
Uncovering the History of Slavery at the Lakeport Plantation
Plantations
List of plantations in the United States - Wikipedia
Plantations / Slavery - HIST 4583: Arkansas History - Research Guides at University of Arkansas
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Arkansas • FamilySearch
Arkansas African American Records – Arkansas Genealogy
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Illinois - Wikipedia
Illinois in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Illinois Indiana (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Stories Of The Enslaved In Illinois | NPR Illinois
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
100 Best Documents at the Illinois State Archives (cyberdriveillinois.com)
Black History Timeline
1847 David Jones Peck is the first African American graduate of a U.S. medical school. He graduates from Rush Medical College in Chicago.
1890 The Afro-American League is founded on January 25 in Chicago under the leadership of Timothy Thomas Fortune.
1891 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founds Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first African American-owned hospital in the nation.
1893 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful operation on a human heart in his Chicago hospital. The patient, a victim of a chest stab wound, survives and lives for twenty years after the operation.
1905 The black weekly newspaper, The Chicago Defender, is founded by Robert Abbotton May 5.
1908 On August 14, the Springfield Race Riot breaks out in Springfield, Illinois, the home town of Abraham Lincoln. Two blacks and four whites are killed. This is the first major riot in a Northern city in nearly half a century.
1915 In September, Carter G. Woodson founds the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in Chicago.
1917 The East St. Louis Race Riot begins on July 1 and continues to July 3. Forty people are killed, hundreds more injured, and 6,000 driven from their homes.
1919 The Associated Negro Press is established in Chicago by Claude A. Barnett on March 2.
1919 The twenty five race riots that take place throughout the nation prompt the term, Red Summer. The largest clashes take place on May 10 in Charleston, South Carolina, July 13 in Longview, Texas, July 19-23 in Washington, D. C, July 27-Aug. 1 in Chicago, Se
1921 Jesse Binga founds the Binga State Bank in Chicago. It will become the largest African American bank in the nation before it collapses during the 1929 Stock Market Crash.
1925 On August 2, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids is organized with A. Philip Randolph as its first president.
1925 The American Negro Labor Congress is founded in Chicago in October.
1927 Chicago businessman Abe Saperstein forms the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team in Chicago on January 30.
1928 On November 6, Oscar DePriest, a Republican, is elected to Congress from Chicagos South Side. He is the first African American to represent a northern, urban district.
1932 Gospel Composer Thomas Dorsey writes "Take My Hand, Precious Lord."
1936 The first meeting of the National Negro Congress takes place in Chicago on February 14, 1936. Nearly 600 black organizations are represented.
1937 The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Maids is recognized by the Pullman Company.
1937 On June 22, boxer Joe Louis wins the heavyweight championship in a bout with James J. Braddock in Chicago.
1937 In October, Katherine Dunham forms the Negro Dance Group, a company of black artists dedicated to presenting aspects of African American and African-Caribbean Dance. The company eventually becomes the Katherine Dunham Group.
1942 The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago by James Farmer, Jr., George Houser, Bernice Fisher, James Russell Robinson, Joe Guinn, and Homer Jack.
1945 Ebony magazine, created by Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company, published its first issue on November 1.
1951 On May 24, a mob of 3,500 whites attempt to prevent a black family from moving into a Cicero, Illinois apartment. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson calls out the Illinois National Guard to protect the family and restore order.
1951 Johnson Publishing Company publishes the first issue of Jet, a weekly news magazine for an African American audience.
1953 When he joins the Chicago Bears Willie Thrower becomes the first black NFL quarterback in the modern era.
1955 Chuck Berry, an early breakthrough rock and roll artist, records "Maybellene" with Chicago's Chess Records.
1967 Albert William Johnson is the first African American awarded a dealership from a major automaker when he opens an Oldsmobile dealership in a predominately black neighborhood in Chicago.
1969 On December 4, Chicago police kill Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke.
1971 On December 18, Rev. Jesse Jackson founds People United to Save Humanity(PUSH) in Chicago.
1971 Johnson Products, a hair care company, becomes the first black-owned company to be listed on a major U.S. stock exchange (AMEX).
1978 Max Robinson becomes the first black network anchor when he begins broadcasting for ABC-TV News from Chicago.
1983 On April 12, Harold Washington is elected the first black mayor of Chicago.
1985 Gwendolyn Brooks of Chicago is named U.S. Poet-Laureate. She is the first African American to hold that honor.
1986 The Oprah Winfrey Show with Oprah Winfrey as the talk show host, becomes nationally syndicated.
1991 On January 15, Roland Burris becomes the first black attorney general of Illinois. From 2009 to 2011 he serves as U.S. Senator from Illionis, completing the unexpired term of Barack Obama who is elected President of the United States.
1992 On November 3, Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois becomes the first African American woman elected to the United States Senate.
1999 On January 13, after thirteen seasons and six NBA championships, professional basketball star Michael Jordan retires from the game as a player.
2004 On November 2, State Senator Barack Obama is elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. He becomes the second African American elected to the Senate from that state and only the fifth black senator in U.S. history.
Articles
Early Chicago: Slavery in Illinois | WTTW Chicago
Slavery in Illinois (state.il.us)
Slavery in early Illinois: The untold battle to keep the state free
Slavery and the Law in Illinois, 1720-1865 – Madison County Historical Society
Illinois’ Underground Railroad
Slavery in Illinois: Slave Owners, Abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad
Illinois Issues: Slave State | NPR Illinois
'Old Slave House' Still Standing - But For How Long? | NPR Illinois
Illinois Issues:Slave State | Illinois Public Media News | Illinois Public Media
Books
Bondage in Egypt: Slavery in Southern Illinois by Darrel Dexter
Podcasts
The Historical Realities of Slavery in Illinois | The 21st Show | Illinois Public Media
Stories Of The Enslaved In Illinois | Peoria Public Radio
Illinois Issues: Slave State | NPR Illinois
Film/Video
Illinois Freedom Project Episode 2: A Bad Start
Chicago and the largest slavery reparations settlement in US history
The Underground Railroad in Illinois
Illinois Stories | Jacksonville Underground Railroad Tour | WSEC-TV/PBS Springfield
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Illinois • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Indiana - Wikipedia
Indiana in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Illinois Indiana (slavenorth.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Inquire Indiana: What's The History Of Racism In Indiana? | News - Indiana Public Media
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
IHB: Indiana and Fugitive Slave Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Historical Timeline of Slavery in Indiana | News | heraldbulletin.com
1815 Abolitionist Levi Coffin establishes the Underground Railroad in Indiana. Eventually it will spread across the North with routes originating in the South and stretching to British Canada.
1911 Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity is founded at Indiana University on January 5.
1922 Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority is founded on November 12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1967 On November 13, Carl Stokes and Richard G. Hatcher are elected the first black mayors of Cleveland and Gary, Indiana, respectively.
1972 On March 10-12 several thousand African Americans gather in Gary, Indiana, for the first National Black Political Convention.
Articles
IHB: Slavery in Indiana Territory
The Underground Railroad in Indiana | National Geographic Society
Slavery Before Statehood | Moment of Indiana History - Indiana Public Media
Almost a Free State: The Indiana Constitution of 1816 and the Problem of Slavery on JSTOR
Early Black Settlements by County (indianahistory.org)
Indiana’s Journey to Becoming a Slave-Free State | OrangeBean Indiana
Black history: Indiana's role in the Underground Railroad (indystar.com)
Books
Levi Coffin: Quaker Breaking Bonds of Slavery in Ohio and Indiana by Mary Ann Yannessa
Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad by Levi Coffin
Podcasts
Black Codes in Indiana - Media Collections Online
Film/Video
Abolition and the Underground Railroad - Introduction to Madison, Indiana
In a forgotten plot in an abandoned Indiana cemetery, a slave is 'freed' at last
Plantations
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Indiana • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Iowa - Wikipedia
Migration of Blacks to Iowa 1820-1960 on JSTOR
Iowa in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Remembering slave narratives | News - Southeast Iowa Union - Washington | Mount Pleasant | Fairfield
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Laws and African-American Iowans | Iowa PBS
history-education-pss-underground-fugitive-transcription.pdf (iowaculture.gov)
Black History Timeline
1925 The National Bar Association, an organization of black attorneys, is established on August 1 in Des Moines, Iowa.
1942 Charity Adams Earley becomes the first black woman commissioned officer in the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACs) while serving at Fort Des Moines.
Articles
Laws and African-American Iowans | Iowa PBS
Underground Railroad in Iowa | IDCA (iowaculture.gov)
Slavery in Iowa Territory (uiowa.edu)
Iowa and the Underground Railroad (iowaculture.gov)
The Causes of the Civil War | Iowa PBS
5 Places That Were Part Of The Underground Railroad In Iowa
Alexander Clark and Early Abolitionists | Iowa PBS
Books
Necessary Courage: Iowa's Underground Railroad in the Struggle against Slavery by Lowell J. Soike
Who’s Who In The Anti-Slavery and Underground Railroad Networks in Fairfield, Iowa by Rory Goff
Podcasts
Iowa’s Underground Railroad in the Struggle against Slavery | Iowa Public Radio
Film/Video
The Underground Railroad in Iowa and Iowa City
Genealogy
African American Resources for Iowa • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Slavery in Kansas Territory - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society
History of slavery in Kansas - Wikipedia
Kansas in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Civil War in Kansas - Kansas Historical Society (kshs.org)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
The Kansas Slave Code, Part One « Freedmen's Patrol (wordpress.com)
Acts of the Bogus Legislature, Part Two « Freedmen's Patrol (wordpress.com)
Acts of the Bogus Legislature, Part Three « Freedmen's Patrol (wordpress.com)
Jim Crow Laws: Kansas and Kentucky | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
African Americans in Kansas - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society (kshs.org)
1854 Bleeding Kansas is an outgrowth of the controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Between 1854 and 1858 armed groups of pro- and anti-slavery factions often funded and sponsored by organizations in the North and South, compete for control of Kansas Territo
1877 In July, 30 African American settlers from Kentucky establish the town of Nicodemus in western Kansas. This is the first of hundreds of all or mostly black towns created in the West.
1879 Approximately six thousand African Americans leave Louisiana and Mississippi counties along the Mississippi River for Kansas in what will be known as the Exodus.Henry Adams and Benjamin "Pap" Singleton were two of the major leaders of the Exodus.
1990 Carole Ann-Marie Gist of Detroit, Michigan becomes the first African American to win the Miss USA pageant.
Articles
Slavery - The Kansas-Nebraska Act & the Underground Railroad (mayhewcabin.org)
Pro-Slavery Movement in Kansas – Legends of America
Kansas enters the Union - HISTORY
Bleeding Kansas | History, Effects, & John Brown | Britannica
Bleeding Kansas - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society (kshs.org)
Underground Railroad - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society (kshs.org)
Underground Railroad | Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865
Aboard the Underground Railroad-- Fort Scott National Historic Site
Books
Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era by Nicole Etcheson
Race and Politics: "Bleeding Kansas" and the Coming of the Civil War by James A. Rawley
With New Focus On Kansas City, Kansas, Underground Railroad Site, Here's A Name To Know |
Podcasts
bleeding kansas | (civilwarpodcast.org)
John Brown: Part 1 (radio.com)
Film/Video
Bleeding Kansas and the Origins of the Civil War | C-SPAN.org
Dawn of Day: Stories from the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad in Kansas
Clarke: Underground Railroad in Kansas
Slaves seek freedom through NE Kansas underground railroad
Sound Smart: Bleeding Kansas | History
Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border - September 3, 2013
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Kansas • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Slavery in the Northwest Territory - Absolute Michigan
Michigan in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Michigan in the Civil War | Detroit Historical Society
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Detroit woman who organized 'Slaves Narratives' at Library of Congress passes away at 106
Detroit Through Slavery: The Untold Path - Word In Black
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Anti-Slavery Movement in Michigan - Michiganology
1855 : Michigan Pushes Back Against Fugitive Slave Law – Michigan Day by Day (msu.domains)
Jim Crow Laws: Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Mississippi | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
1854 The Republican Party is formed in Jackson, Michigan in the summer in opposition to the extension of slavery into the western territories. The Slavery Controversy
1897 The first Phillis Wheatley Home is founded in Detroit. These homes, established in most cities with large African American populations, provide temporary accommodations and social services for single African American women. Black Organizations
1925 On September 9, Ossian Sweet, a Detroit physician, is arrested for murder after he and his family kill a member of a white mob while defending their home. The Sweet family is represented at their trial by Clarence Darrow and acquitted of the charge. Racial Violence
1930 Wallace Fard Muhammad founds Black Muslim movement in Detroit in 1930. Four years later Elijah Muhammad assumes control of the movement and transfers the headquarters to Chicago. 20th Century Black Religion
1935 The Michigan Chronicle is founded in Detroit by Louis E. Martin. The Black Press
1943 The Detroit Race Riot, June 20-21, claims 34 lives including 25 African Americans. Other riots occur in Harlem, Mobile, Alabama, and Beaumont, Texas. Racial Violence
1959 On January 12, Berry Gordy, Jr., founds Motown Records in Detroit. Black Business
1967 On July 23, the Detroit Race Riot erupts. Between July 23 and July 28, 43 are killed, 1,189 are injured and over 7,000 are arrested. Racial Violence
1970 Dr. Clifton Wharton, Jr., is named president of Michigan State University on January 2. He is the first African American to lead a major, predominately white university in the 20th Century. Black Education
1973 On Nov. 6, Coleman Young is elected the first black mayor of Detroit. Black Politics
1975 Wallace D. Muhammad assumes control of the Nation of Islam after the death of his father, Elijah Muhammad. He changes the organizations direction and its name to the World Community of al-Islam. 20th Century Black Religion
1975 William Venoid Banks becomes the first African American to own a television station when he launches WGPR-TV in Detroit. Radio and Television
1976 Clara Stanton Jones of Detroit becomes the first African American elected President of the American Library Association. Black Education
Articles
Detroit's dark secret: Slavery | Michigan Today (umich.edu)
mich-hist-miles.pdf (mappingdetroitslavery.com)
Uncovering the History of Slavery in Detroit ‹ Literary Hub
Underground Railroad | Detroit Historical Society
Explore the Underground Railroad in Jackson, Michigan
BATTLE CREEK AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD | Michigan History
Books
The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits by Tiya Miles
MICHIGAN'S CROSSROADS TO FREEDOM: The Underground Railroad in Jackson County by Linda Hass
The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave by Henry Bibb
Podcasts
Underground Railroad | Michigan Radio
This Michigan woman was a conductor on the Underground Railroad | Michigan Radio
Film/Video
Digging Detroit: Episode16 - Slavery in Detroit
Slavery In Detroit- Michigan History- EMU
Underground Railroad: The Michigan Connection
Early Kalamazoo: Michigan's Underground Railroad
Digging Up the Underground Railroad: Archaeological Remains in Southwest Michigan
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Michigan • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Minnesota - Wikipedia
The Civil War (1861-1865) | Historic Fort Snelling | MNHS
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Slavery in the Constitution
Personal Narratives
Jerry Sears: A Story of Slavery in Minnesota – Hennepin History Museum
Joseph Farr Remembers the Underground Railroad in Minnesota | History Education MN (mnhs.org)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws: Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and Mississippi | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
African Americans in Minnesota | MNopedia
Articles
Enslaved African Americans and the Fight for Freedom | Historic Fort Snelling | MNHS
Minnesota was tainted by slavery, too | MinnPost
St. Cloud professor unearths history of slavery in Minnesota | MPR News
Slavery in Minnesota | Explore Minnesota
Slavery in Minnesota | The Slave Dwelling Project
Following the tracks of Minnesota's Underground Railroad - StarTribune.com
‘Degrees of Freedom’ chronicles black history in Minnesota during the post-Civil War era | MinnPost
Books
Slavery's Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State by Christopher P. Lehman
Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865–1912 by William D. Green
Podcasts
Minnesota's History of Slavery, feat Dr. Christopher P. Lehman - A Here & Now Podcast
Episode 43: Unearthing the U’s ties with slavery – The Minnesota Daily
The Untold Story of African American History in St. Cloud, Minnesota with Christopher Lehman
Critics object to Minneapolis laws against spitting and lurking | MPR News
Film/Video
Slavery in Minnesota: Dr. Christopher Lehman explains Minnesota's economic relationship with slavery
North Star: Minnesota's Black Pioneers | Full Documentary
Minnesota's Dark History of Lynchings
Northern Slaves: How the U.S. Brought Slavery to Minnesota with Walt Bachman
Minnesota's History of Slavery, feat Dr. Christopher P. Lehman - A Here & Now Podcast
History Revealed: Exploring the Historical Roots of Racism in MN
Slavery in Minnesota | Rondo Neighborhood | Black History | Acoma Gaither
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Minnesota • FamilySearch
Minnesota in the Civil War • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Missouri - Wikipedia
Missouri in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction Politics in Missouri | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery's Echoes - Interviews with Former Missouri Slaves | Missouri State Parks (mostateparks.com)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Laws Concerning Slavery in Missouri (mo.gov)
Slave Codes in Missouri - Wikipedia
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Missouri Jim Crow (sourcesfinding.com)
Black History Timeline
Missouri Digital Heritage: Timeline of Missouri's African American History (mo.gov)
| 1720 | Phillippe Francois Renault brought the first enslaved Africans to the lead mining districts of colonial Missouri. | |
| 1724 |
French King Louis XV issued an "Edict Concerning the Negro Slaves in Louisiana," known as the "Black Code." This code continued under the Spanish regime. |
|
| 1769 | Spanish Governor General Alejandro O'Reilly prohibited Indian slavery in Upper Louisiana; Africans continued to be enslaved. Legal issues arose as to the status of persons of mixed Indian and African ancestry. | |
| 1787 | The Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery in territory north of the Ohio River. Many slave owners in that area moved west of the Mississippi River into Spanish-controlled territory to avoid losing slaves | |
| 1789 | Born a slave in Virginia (May 3), John Berry Meachum later became known for his work in St. Louis as an educator and abolitionist |
|
| 1798 | James P. Beckwourth, famous black fur trapper and mountain man, was born in Virginia. His family moved to the Louisiana Territory in 1809 | |
| 1803 | The purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France (April 30), doubled the size of the United States. President Jefferson established a territorial government to govern the new lands | |
| 1804 |
The new territorial government enacted a series of laws known as the "Black Code" or "Slave Code." These were largely based on Virginia's slave code. The Missouri code made no distinction between slaves and other personal property |
|
| 1807 |
The Louisiana Territory enacted legislation allowing persons wrongfully enslaved to sue for freedom (June 27) |
|
| 1817 | Free blacks living in the Missouri Territory were legislatively prohibited from traveling freely and from gathering in meetings due to white fear of rebellion. | |
| 1818 | Missouri applied for admission to the union as a slave state. | |
| 1820 | Missouri statehood became a national controversy as Congress debated the future status of slavery in the land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. The "Missouri Compromise" allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, thus keeping the balance of slave and free states equal in Congress. Although Missouri was allowed to enter as a slave state, the remaining portion of the Louisiana Purchase area north of the 36° 30' line, Missouri's southern border, was to be forever free of slavery. | |
| 1821 | Missouri became the 24th state of the United States of America (August 10). | |
| 1821 | The American Colonization Society founded the colony of Liberia in western Africa for freed slaves. | |
| 1823 | The Missouri General Assembly authorized each county to establish slave patrols to guard against slave plots and insurrections. | |
| 1824 | The Missouri General Assembly retained territorial legislation enabling persons held in slavery illegally to sue for their freedom (December 30). | |
| 1824 | In the slave freedom suit Winny v. Whitesides, the Missouri Supreme Court established the judicial precedent of "once free, always free" to determine the outcome of such freedom suits. | |
| 1827 | In Merry v. Tiffin & Menard, the Missouri Supreme Court held that a slave was emancipated by residence in any territory where slavery was prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. | |
| 1829 | In Trammel v. Adams, the Missouri Supreme Court determined that residence in Illinois entitled a slave to freedom even if s/he came to Missouri afterward. | |
| 1834 | William Wells Brown escaped slavery in St. Louis, later becoming an abolitionist and America's first African American novelist. | |
| 1835 | All free blacks and mulattoes, aged seven to twenty-one, were legislatively ordered by Missouri's General Assembly to be bound as apprentices or servants. | |
| 1835 | To remain in Missouri, all free blacks were required to obtain a "free-license" from the county court. | |
| 1834 | In the Missouri Supreme Court, the case of Margurite v. Pierre Chouteau, Sr., officially ended Indian slavery in Missouri. | |
| 1836 | The descendants of Marie Jean Scypion, an Afro-Indian slave in colonial Missouri, were awarded freedom by the Jefferson County Circuit Court based on their Native American ancestry following legal battles that lasted over three decades. The Missouri Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court upheld the decision in 1838. | |
| 1836 | In Rachel v. Walker, the Missouri Supreme Court held that if an officer of the United States Army takes a slave to a territory where slavery is prohibited, he forfeits his property. | |
| 1836 | After he fatally stabbed a deputy sheriff, Francis McIntosh was brutally lynched in St. Louis, earning the city a reputation for lawlessness and barbaric behavior (April 28). | |
| 1837 | Elijah Lovejoy, abolitionist clergyman and St. Louis newspaper editor, died defending his press from a mob siege in Alton, Illinois (November 7). | |
| 1837 | The Missouri Supreme Court, in Jennings v. Kavanaugh, ruled that an owner was not liable for the criminal acts of his slave property. |
|
| 1839 | Tom Bass was born a slave in Boone County; later became nationally-known equestrian (January 5). | |
| 1839 | James Milton Turner was born a slave in St. Louis County (August 22). He became Missouri's most prominent African American leader after the Civil War, promoting black education. He also served as U.S. Minister to Liberia. | |
| 1846 | The constitutionality of the "free-license" law was upheld. | |
| 1846 | Dred and Harriet Scott initiated a suit for freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. Under Missouri statutes, the suit was allowed based on previous residence in a free territory (Wisconsin) before return to the slave state of Missouri (April 6). | |
| 1847 | The Missouri legislature passed a law prohibiting the education of blacks, free or slave. | |
| 1847 | Hiram Young purchased his freedom and settled in western Missouri. His Independence-based business, making yokes and wagons for westward expansion, was one of the largest in Jackson County by 1860. | |
| 1854 | Augustus Tolton, born a slave in Ralls County, Missouri, became the first recognized African American Catholic priest in the United States (April 1). | |
| 1854 | President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing "popular sovereignty" to determine whether a territory would be a slave or free state. This act set the stage for the violent Kansas-Missouri border wars where Missouri "Border Ruffians" and Kansas "Jayhawkers" transformed a frontier quarrel over slavery's borders into a national issue (May 30) | |
| 1855 | Elizabeth Keckley purchased her freedom in St. Louis; she was later employed by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (November 15). | |
| 1855 | Celia, a Callaway County slave, was executed for the murder of her sexually abusive owner, Robert Newsom (December 23). | |
| 1857 | U.S. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney handed down the Dred Scott decision (March 6). The case, which originated in St. Louis, intensified the sectional controversy regarding the expansion of slavery. Taney concluded that Scott lacked standing in court because he lacked U.S. citizenship. In Taney's opinion, slaves as well as free blacks, would never be able to become U.S. citizens; hence, Scott had no standing to sue in a court of law. Taney also took the opportunity to argue that each state had the right to determine the status of slaves, and that Congress had exceeded its powers in forbidding slavery in certain areas of the Louisiana Purchase; therefore, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. | |
| 1858 | The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis, published by Cyprian Clamorgan, profiled St. Louis free African American society. | |
Continued on site
Articles
Slavery in Missouri - Gateway Arch National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Slaves and Emancipation | The Civil War in Missouri
A Look Back • The day that Missouri finally freed its slaves | History |
1860 Map Shows Missouri's Slave Population | News Blog
Ozarks Afro-American History Museum Online | Ties that Bind · Slavery in the Ozarks
Slavery in St. Francois County, Missouri
Underground Railroad | Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865
Missouri trail leads into a gold mine of black history
Books
Dred Scott's Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America by Andrew P. Napolitano
On Slavery's Border: Missouri's Small Slaveholding Households, 1815–1865 by Diane Mutti Burke
Bleeding Kansas: Slavery, Sectionalism, and Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border by Michael Woods
Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie by R. Douglas Hurt
Podcasts
The Civil War (1861-1865): A History Podcast - #03 MISSOURI COMPROMISE
Our Missouri - Episode 39: "Slavery on the Periphery" – Kristen Epps (Border Wars, Part 6)
Dred and Harriet Scott – America's National Parks Podcast
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect: American Pendulum II
Film/Video
Negroes to Hire: Slave Life in Missouri
"Missouri Life" demo - Slave Houses of Little Dixie segment
Slavery and Missouri Compromise in early 1800s | US History | Khan Academy
KETC | Living St. Louis | Dred Scott Update
Plantations
List of plantations in the United States - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Missouri • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Nebraska - Wikipedia
Nebraska in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
1921 Race Massacre Survivors | johnhopefranklin
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Jim Crow Laws: Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire | AmericansAll
Black History Timelines
Blacks in Nebraska timeline | Local | journalstar.com
The black experience in selected Nebraska counties, 1854-1920 (unomaha.edu)
1854 — Census lists 13 African Americans, likely slaves, in Nebraska Territory; total Nebraska population was 2,732.
1861 — Nebraska Territory bans slavery; number of blacks begins to grow.
1870 — 789 African Americans reported in Nebraska; by 1890, the number had risen to 8,900.
1871 — First all-black colony settles in Franklin County near Lovely Creek. All of the town’s money is lost when treasurer loses his pocketbook. Settlers leave and their town, named Grant, never takes shape.
Most early black pioneers lived in towns and worked as laborers housekeepers, cooks and porters. They moved near or into the state’s larger towns to work as hired hands, in housekeeping or at hotels and restaurants. Few black pioneers tried farming on their own, which required capital they didn’t have. Those that did claim homesteads mostly came one by one in the early 1870s, scattering statewide.
1877, 1879 — African Episcopal churches founded in Sidney and Nebraska City, respectively.
1877 — Reconstruction ends; federal troops leave South; old regimes of southern rule enact racist laws. Former slaves flee to Midwest with little money and no idea what to expect, said historian Todd Arrington of Homestead National Monument near Beatrice.
1879 — Mass exodus of black families, known as the Exodusters, heads west. In March and April alone, 6,200 Exodusters arrived in St. Louis en route to Kansas and Nebraska.
May 1879 — Lincoln State Journal reporter writes from Wyandotte County, Kan., of 700 penniless, hungry black men wandering banks of Missouri River. The virtual refugees were drawn by rumors of free land and start-up money for ex-slaves; no such incentives existed here.
Plattsmouth took up a collection and sent 163 blacks to Nebraska City, “where they were needed and could be used,” according to Nemaha County’s African American Community, by Patrick Kennedy (Nebraska History, Spring 2001). In May 1879, Nebraska City News reported a “terrible scare” when 450 black people came to town, hoping to settle there. Tecumseh also turned away about 40 black settlers. Even progressive newspapers expressed fears about yellow fever being spread by black refugees as deadly outbreaks had recently hit the South. But Nebraskans weighed their anxieties against a need for people and cheap labor.
July 1879 — Committee of supportive whites welcomes 42 black refugees to Lincoln, according to the 1940 “Negroes of Nebraska.”
1879-80 — Small numbers of black families settle in Plattsmouth, Omaha, Nebraska City and other trade and transportation hubs. Others go to areas with open homestead land.
1880s — Black community forms north of Aurora, following the lead of David Patrick, a respected early black settler who later served as an elder at a primarily white church, and a well-liked barber named Graves. Settlers well accepted by white neighbors.
About 14 black families settle along the Wheeler/Holt County line. Other settlements can be found in central and western counties.
Settlements spring up when the U.S. 9th Cavalry — nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers for their thick black hair — arrives at Fort Robinson near Crawford and Fort Niobrara near Valentine. They include soldiers’ families, veterans and employees of businesses started to serve the soldiers, including saloons, brothels and gambling houses.
Valentine newspaper stories said all-black brothels were targeted by police; Crawford newspapers related various racially motivated incidents against blacks as well.
1889 — 200 black pioneers spend winter in Harlan County.
1890s — Farmers flee for jobs in town, even as industries and businesses lay off workers. Census indicates blacks in Nebraska are among hardest hit.
1900 — Four black farmers remain in Holt County. Other slaves-turned-farmers went to larger Nebraska cities, where jobs connected with the railroads were drawing blacks.
1904 — Kinkaid Act helps stem tide of black settlers away from farms.
Racial attitudes turn negative after World War I. Black workers had filled voids in the wartime labor force, and work places and neighborhoods had become more integrated. But post-war racial tensions flared in larger cities. Lynchings at North Platte and Omaha may have scared some black settlers out of the state.
1920 — DeWitty’s population has dwindled to 90.
1930 — 90 percent of Nebraska blacks live in Lincoln or Omaha.
1936 — DeWitty’s last black settler, Albert Riley, moves away. One last descendant of the settlers owns land in the area, leasing it to a rancher, until 1986.
Sources: “Negroes in Nebraska II: The Black Experience in Selected Nebraska Counties 1854-1920,” James D. Bish, 1989 master’s thesis; “Negroes in Nebraska,” a Nebraska Writers Project funded by the Works Project Administration; “Nemaha County’s African American Community,” by Patrick Kennedy, Nebraska History, Spring 2001.
Articles
Slavery - The Kansas-Nebraska Act & the Underground Railroad (mayhewcabin.org)
The Law that Ripped America in Two | History | Smithsonian Magazine
African American Settlers (nebraskastudies.org)
Sheldon's History and Stories of Nebraska - Slavery in Nebraska
African Americans in Nebraska History | History Nebraska
Nebraska’s Underground Railroad Path – Odyssey Through Nebraska
1921 Tulsa Race Massacre - Tulsa Historical Society & Museum
A History of Emancipation Day and Juneteenth in Omaha – North Omaha History
Books
The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 by Tim Madigan
Podcasts
Meet The Last Surviving Witness To The Tulsa Race Riot Of 1921 : Code Switch : NPR
Ep. 3 | Confronting the Past| Smithsonian Institution
The Underground Railroad in Nebraska (1011now.com)
Film/Video
The Tulsa Race Riots | Black History in Two Minutes
Black Wall Street - Full Documentary
Black Wall Street • Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921 Full Documentary "We will NEVER FORGET"
VERY RARE Footage of Black Wall Street, Before The 1921 Tulsa Race Riot
African American Migration (nebraskastudies.org)
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Nebraska • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
newsletter_fall_2015_web.pdf (ndstudies.gov)
The Civil War in North Dakota | State Historical Society of North Dakota Blog (nd.gov)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Articles
North Dakota Black History | Prairie Public Broadcasting
newsletter_fall_2015_web.pdf (ndstudies.gov)
Books
African-Americans in North Dakota: Sources and Assessments: Newgard, Thomas
Podcasts
North Dakota Black History | Prairie Public Broadcasting
Film/Video
Being a Person of Color in North Dakota
Genealogic Research
African American Resources for North Dakota • FamilySearch
Dakota Territory in the Civil War • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in South Dakota - Wikipedia
vol-07-no-3-black-people-in-south-dakota-history.pdf (sdhspress.com)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Articles
S.D. borders can be traced to battle over slavery (argusleader.com)
Migration to Deadwood, Dakota Territory · Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (uky.edu)
South Dakota African American History Museum | Experience Sioux Falls
Books
Forgotten Lives: African Americans in South Dakota by Betti Carol VanEpps-Taylor
Podcasts
Dakota Midday: American Slave Narratives | SDPB Radio
Black South Dakota Pioneers : NPR
Film/Video
Black History Matters in South Dakota | Laura Renée Chandler | TEDxSiouxFalls
Inside The SD African American History Museum
Genealogy:
Dakota Territory in the Civil War • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Race in Ohio 1802-1860 (slavenorth.com)|
Ohio in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Reconstruction - Ohio History Central
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
SLAVE NARRATIVES OHIO by Various
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
(1804) Ohio Black Codes • (blackpast.org)
The Long Struggle for Freedom Rights | Ohio History Connection
Black History Timeline
1802 The Ohio Constitution outlaws slavery. It also prohibits free blacks from voting.
1804 In 1804 the Ohio legislature passes the Ohio Black Codes and in doing so becomes the first non-slaveholding state to place restrictions exclusively on its African American residents.
1829 More than half of Cincinnati's African American residents are driven out of the city by white mob violence. The Cincinnati riots usher in a more than century-long period of white violence against Northern black urban communities.
1832 Oberlin College is founded in Ohio. It admits African American men, black women and white women. By 1860 one third of its students are black.
1850 On August 27, Lucy Stanton of Cleveland completes the course requirements for Oberlin Collegiate Institute (now Oberlin College) and becomes the first African American woman to graduate from an American college or university.
1851 Sojourner Truth delivers her famous "Aren't I a Woman" speech at the Women's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio on May 29.
1855 In November, John Mercer Langston is elected town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio, becoming the first black elected official in the state of Ohio.
1856 Wilberforce University becomes the first school of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans. It is founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Daniel A. Payne becomes the institution's first president.
1862 Educator Mary Jane Patterson is generally recognized as the first African American woman to receive a B.A. degree when she graduated from Oberlin College in 1862. Lucy Stanton Day Sessions graduated from Oberlin twelve years earlier but was not in a prog
1884 Granville Woods founds the Woods Railway Telegraph Company in Columbus, Ohio. The company manufactured and sold telephone and telegraph equipment.
1886 The American Federation of Labor is organized on December 8 in Columbus, Ohio. All major unions of the federation excluded black workers.
1914 Cleveland inventor Garrett Morgan patents a gas mask called the Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. The mask, initially used to rescue trapped miners, is eventually adopted by the U.S. Army.
1916 On July 25, Garrett Morgan uses his newly invented gas mask to rescue men trapped after an explosion in a tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie.
1923 On November 20, Garrett T. Morgan patents a caution light which improves the traffic signal.
1963 Former tennis champion Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to compete in a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament in Cincinnati.
1975 On October 12, Frank Robinson becomes the first black Major League Baseball manager when he takes over the Cleveland Indians.
1987 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Articles
Ohio Was Not Home-Free For Runaway Slaves - Cincinnati Magazine
Fugitives from Slavery - Ohio History Central
Underground Railroad - Ohio History Central
Underground Railroad in Ohio | History of American Women
Black, White & Beyond: Multiculturalism in Greater Akron, An Interactive History
ABOLITIONISM | Encyclopedia of Cleveland History |
Books
The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Early Ohio by Stephen Middleton
Historic Black Settlements of Ohio by David Meyers
Levi Coffin: Quaker Breaking Bonds of Slavery in Ohio and Indiana by Mary Ann Yannessa
Podcasts
Episode 10: “OHIO v. SLAVERY” (Underground Railroad) is HERE! CLICK TO LISTEN – OHIO v. the WORLD
Film/Video
Columbus Neighborhoods: The Great Migration
The Underground Railroad in Ohio
Akron Ohio Celebrates Local Black History 2020
Notgrass History: Freedom Center Slave Pen - Cincinnati, OH
Slavery and the Ohio River - Rivers Virtual Tour
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Ohio • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
slavery in Wisconsin | Wisconsin Historical Society
Black History in Wisconsin | Wisconsin Historical Society
Wisconsin in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Wisconsin's Involvement in the Civil War | Wisconsin Historical Society (wisconsinhistory.org)
Institutional Racism
Race in Wisconsin (slavenorth.com)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Black History Timeline
Black History in Wisconsin | Wisconsin Historical Society (wisconsinhistory.org)
lack History of Wisconsin, Part 1: Roots (spectrumnews1.com)
Black History of Wisconsin, Part 2: Breaking Chains (spectrumnews1.com)
Black History of Wisconsin, Part 3: Movement (spectrumnews1.com)
Articles
Slavery In Wisconsin | The Slave Dwelling Project
The Untold Story of Black Suffrage in Wisconsin
Experience History: The Underground Railroad in Wisconsin
The Freedmen of Wisconsin - America's Black Holocaust Museum
How the rescue of Joshua Glover in Wisconsin helped speed up the end of slavery
“BLACK HISTORY: THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN WISCONSIN.”
The Underground Railroad in Wisconsin | Wisconsin Historical Society (wisconsinhistory.org)
Underground Railroad & the Civil War | Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum
5 (More) Wisconsin African-Americans You Should Know About
Books
Freedom Train North: Stories of the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin by Julia Pferdehirt
Podcasts
Searching for a Fuller Picture of Wisconsin's Abolitionist History | WUWM
Why Is Milwaukee So Bad For Black People? : Code Switch : NPR
Film/Video
Black History Month: Slavery in Wisconsin
Joshua Glover: And the End of Slavery | Wisconsin Biographies
Wisconsin Black Historical Society
Milwaukee murals revisit stories of slavery in Wisconsin
WPT University Place: Wisconsin's Underground Railroad
Sunday Morning Spotlight: Morning Star Production's Underground Railroad
Genealogical Resources
African American Resources for Wisconsin • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
The Southwest
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Confederate Arizona - Wikipedia
Arizona Organic Act - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Timeline: Explore Black history in Arizona | Arizona PBS (azpbs.org)
Articles
"SLAVERY MUST DIE": Radical Republicans and the Creation of Arizona Territory on JSTOR
Arizona’s Confederate Roots | Civil War Emancipation
Black Leaders Fight to Remove Arizona's Confederate Monuments | Colorlines
Government for Arizona Territory | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
2 Arizona Confederate Monuments Removed
Books
Edmund G. Ross: Soldier, Senator, Abolitionist by Richard A. Ruddy
The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico & Arizona 1861-1862 by Robert Lee Kerby
Podcasts
AZ: The History of Arizona podcast - Episode 38: A good month to be a rebel
AZ: The History of Arizona podcast - Episode 40: Taking Tucson
Film/Video
History of the confederacy in Arizona
American Civil War 150th Anniversary This Day in History: Territory of Arizona Joins the Confederacy
Black History in Southern Arizona - YouTube
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Arizona • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
The history of anti-Black systemic racism in New Mexico intertwines with the broader narrative of racial discrimination in the United States. While New Mexico did not have a large enslaved population before the Civil War due to its arid climate and different economic activities, it did experience racial tensions and discriminatory practices.
In 1859, New Mexico enacted "Black Codes" that imposed various restrictions on African Americans and people of African descent, including limitations on property ownership and voting rights, foreshadowing the racial discrimination that would persist in the state.
After the Civil War, there were no significant migrations of Southerners escaping to New Mexico with the enslaved, as occurred in some Western states. However, as African Americans sought opportunities in the West during the Reconstruction era, they faced obstacles and racism in New Mexico, as in many other parts of the country. Segregation was prevalent in schools and public spaces, and discriminatory hiring practices limited employment opportunities for Black individuals. Also, Confederate Monuments have existed in the state and are gradually being taken down.
Enslavement
History of slavery in New Mexico
Slavery in the Far West (CA, CO, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA) | Encyclopedia.com
new mexico slavery - Fort Union National Monument
New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
United States V. Don Pedro Leon Lujan et al.: 1851-52 | Encyclopedia.com
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
The New Mexico Territory Slave Code (1859-1862) • (blackpast.org)
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Articles
The New Mexico Territory Slave Code (1859-1862)
Monuments to Civil War dot New Mexico » Albuquerque Journal
Union forces halt Confederates at Battle of Glorieta Pass - HISTORY
Confederate monuments removed from New Mexico highways
Long before King, black settlers in New Mexico had a dream | Local News | santafenewmexican.com
Books
Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800-1850 by Andrés Reséndez
Edmund G. Ross: Soldier, Senator, Abolitionist by Richard A. Ruddy
Slavery in the Southwest: Genizaro Identity, Dignity and the Law by Robert William Jr. Piatt
New Mexico's Buffalo Soldiers, 1866-1900 by Monroe Lee Billington
Podcasts
LISTEN: Genizaros And New Mexico's Legacy Of Slavery
new mexico | (civilwarpodcast.org)
Civil War Podcast, Episode 98 |
Film/Video
Forgotten Battles: The Civil War New Mexico Campaign of 1862
Three Minutes in History: Battle of Glorieta Pass
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for New Mexico • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Oklahoma - Wikipedia
Slavery | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (okhistory.org)
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Tulsa race massacre - Wikipedia
Personal Narratives
Young slave's story retold Black history in state began in Indian nations (oklahoman.com)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws in Oklahoma (oklahoman.com)
Black History Timeline
African Americans | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (okhistory.org)
Articles
Slave Revolt of 1842 | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (okhistory.org)
The Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation (1842) • (blackpast.org)
I’m a descendant of the Cherokee Nation’s black slaves. Tribal citizenship is our birthright.
All-Black Towns | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture (okhistory.org)
Throwback Tulsa: The 13 historic all-Black towns that remain in Oklahoma
1921 Tulsa Race Massacre - Tulsa Historical Society & Museum (tulsahistory.org)
Underground Railroad in Indian Territory? | Archives | muskogeephoenix.com
Books
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford
The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Tim Madigan
Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 by Scott Ellsworth
Acres of Aspiration: The All-Black Towns in Oklahoma by Hannibal B. Johnson
Podcasts
Episode 114: Slavery in Indian Territory
Ep. 9 | Confronting the Past| Smithsonian Institution (si.edu)
Radio Diaries: Last Witness: Surviving the Tulsa Race Riot
5 Things - Tulsa, Teaching Black history from Black perspectives
Film/Video
Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial
Rarely Seen Images Of Tulsa Race Riots
What startup communities can learn from the Black Wall Street | Anthony Frasier | TEDxBarnardCollege
Mass grave discovered in Tulsa - May be victims of 1921 race massacre
Founded by Former Slaves, Oklahoma’s All-Black Towns Struggle to Survive
Before the Land Run: The Historic All-Black Towns of Oklahoma
Red Richardson The WPA Oklahoma Slave Narratives
Plantations
List of plantations in the United States - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Oklahoma • FamilySearch
Oklahoma Slave Records By State - - blackwallstreet.org
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Texas - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
The Slave Narratives of Texas by Ron Tyler
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
(1866) Texas Black Codes • (blackpast.org)
Microsoft Word - 3 Segregation Texas Jim Crow.doc (bringinghistoryhome.org)
Black History Timeline
1836 Texas declares its independence from Mexico. In its Constitution as an independent nation, Texas recognizes slavery and makes it difficult for free blacks to remain there.
1845 Texas is annexed to the United States.
1865 On June 19, enslaved African Americans in Texas finally receive news of their emancipation. From that point they commemorate that day as Juneteenth.
1865 Twenty thousand African American troops are among the 32,000 U.S. soldiers sent to the Rio Grande as a show of force against Emperor Maximilian's French troops occupying Mexico. Some discharged black soldiers join the forces of Mexican resistance leader B
1886 Norris Wright Cuney becomes chairman of the Texas Republican Party. He is the first African American to head a major political party at the state level in U.S. history
1887 The National Colored Farmers' Alliance is formed in Houston County, Texas.
1906 On August 13 in Brownsville, Texas, approximately a dozen black troops riot against segregation and in the process kill a local citizen. When the identity of the killer cannot be determined, President Theodore Roosevelt discharges three companies of black
1917 On August 23, the Houston Mutiny and subsequent riot erupts between black soldiers and white citizens; two blacks and 11 whites are killed. Twenty-nine black soldiers are executed for participation in the riot.
1963 President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas on November 22.
1978 Jill Brown becomes the first black female pilot for a commercial passenger airline (Texas International Airlines).
1995 On May 6, Ron Kirk won the mayoral race in Dallas, becoming the first African American mayor of the city.
1997 In December, Lee Patrick Brown becomes Houston's first African American mayor.
1998 On June 7, churchgoers discover the dismembered body of James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas. It is later determined that three white supremacists chained Byrd, who is black, to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged him to his death.
Articles
The African American Story | Texas State History Museum
Juneteenth Celebrated - HISTORY
Slavery in Early Texas. I (jstor.org)
TSHA | Slavery (tshaonline.org)
A Glimpse of Life on Antebellum Slave Plantations in Texas on JSTOR
The Little-Known Underground Railroad That Ran South to Mexico - HISTORY
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: A STUDY OF THE ROUTES TO THE OKLAHOMA INDIAN TERRITORY AND MEXICO (uh.edu)
The Birth of Juneteenth; Voices of the Enslaved | Library of Congress Blog (loc.gov)
Books
Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, 1800-1850 by Andrés Reséndez
An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821--1865 by Randolph B. Campbell
African Americans in Central Texas History: From Slavery to Civil Rights by Bruce A. Glasrud
South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War by Alice Baumgartner
Podcasts
Episode 115: Andrew Torget, The Early American History of Texas - Ben Franklin's World
048 The Southern Vision of a Vast Empire of Slavery (inthepastlane.com)
The Underground Railroad Helping Slaves Escape...to Mexico | The Takeaway | WNYC Studios
Film/Video
Unlikely Connections: Texas Cattle, California Gold, and Slavery in Antebellum Texas
Plantations
Plantation houses in Texas - Wikipedia
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Texas • FamilySearch
Texas Slave Records blackwallstreet.org
Notes on Texas' Largest Slaveholders, 1860 on JSTOR
Questions for Research and Reflection:
The West
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in California - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Cajon Pass brought first black pioneers to San Bernardino Valley – San Bernardino Sun (sbsun.com)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Pacific Bound: California’s 1852 Fugitive Slave Law • (blackpast.org)
California Once Tried to Ban Black People - HISTORY
CA Jim Crow (studythepast.com)
jim crow laws california-a timeline - www.salimcrowe.com
Black History Timeline
1849 The California Gold Rush begins. Eventually four thousand African Americans will migrate to California during this period.
1888 On April 11, Edward Park Duplex is elected mayor of Wheatland, California. He is believed to be the first African American mayor of a predominantly white town in the United States.
1906 The Azusa Street Revival begins in the former African Methodist Episcopal Church building at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles in April. The revival, led by black evangelist William J. Seymour, is considered the beginning of the worldwide Pentecostal Moveme
1913 Bert Williams plays the lead role in Darktown Jubilee, making him the first African American actor to star in a motion picture.
1932 The Los Angeles Sentinel is founded by Leon H. Washington.
1932 Dudley Murphy releases the film The Emperor Jones starring Paul Robeson.
1940 On February 29, Hattie McDaniel receives an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her role in Gone With the Wind. She becomes the first black actor to win an academy award.
1945 The United Nations is founded in San Francisco on April 25.
1948 On October 1, the California Supreme Court voids the law banning interracial marriages in the state.
1964 Sidney Poitier wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film, "Lilies of the Field." He is the first African American male actor to win in that category.
1965 The Watts Uprising (also known as the Watts Rebellion) occurs in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles on August 11-16. Thirty four people are killed and one thousand are injured in the five day confrontation.
1965 Maulana Karenga founds the black nationalist organization US in Los Angeles following the Watts Uprising.
1966 On October 15, The Black Panther Party is formed in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.
1968 New York Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated on June 5 in Los Angeles.
1968 San Francisco State University establishes the nations first Black Studies Program in September.
1969 Robert Chrisman and Nathan Hare publish the first issue of The Black Scholar in November.
1970 The San Rafael, California courthouse shooting on August 7 results in the death of Judge Harold Haley and three others including Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of imprisoned Black Panther George Jackson. UCLA Philosophy Professor Angela Davis is im
1972 Wilt Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers becomes the first National Basketball Association player to score over 30,000 points during his career.
1973 On May 29, Thomas Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles in the modern era. He is reelected four times and thus holds the mayors office for 20 years.
1974 On November 5, Mervyn Dymally is elected Lieutenant Governor of California along with George Brown who is elected Lieutenant Governor of Colorado the same day. They are the first African Americans to hold these posts in the 20th century.
1980 In January Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. becomes the first African American Speaker in a state legislature when he is selected for the post in the California Assembly. Brown holds the Speakership until 1995 when he is elected Mayor of San Francisco.
1982 Michael Jackson's album, Thriller, is released. It will eventually sell 45 million copies worldwide, becoming the best selling album in music history.
1983 Robert C. Maynard become the first African American to own the major daily newspaper in a large city when he becomes the majority stockholder of the Oakland Tribune.
1984 In August Carl Lewis wins four Gold Medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles, matching the record set by Jesse Owens in 1936.
1984 In September The Cosby Show starring Bill Cosby makes its television debut. The show runs for eight seasons and will become the most successful series in television history featuring a mostly African American cast.
1989 Art Shell becomes the first African American head coach in National Football League (NFL) in the post-World War II era when he is hired to lead the Oakland Raiders.
1990 Donna Marie Cheek becomes the first black member of the U.S. Equestrian Team.
1991 On March 3, Los Angeles police use force to arrest Rodney King after a San Fernando Valley traffic stop. The beating of King is captured on videotape and broadcast widely prompting, an investigation and subsequent trial of three officers.
1992 On April 29, a Simi Valley, California jury acquits the three officers accused of beating Rodney King. The verdict triggers a three day uprising in Los Angeles called the Rodney King Riot that results in over 50 people killed, over 2,000 injured and 8,000
1994 On June 12, O.J. Simpson's former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman are found stabbed to death. O.J. Simpson emerges as the leading suspect and is subsequently arrested on June 17 after a two hour low speed pursuit of Simpson and hi
1995 On October 3, after an eight month televised trial, O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the charges of murder in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
1996 On November 5, California voters pass Proposition 209 which outlaws affirmative action throughout the state.
2002 In March, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars for best actress and best actor for their portrayals in Monster’s Ball and Training Day respectively.
2003 Significant population shifts and reduced resistance to residential integration result in more African Americans living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Seattle than in their city limits.
Articles
California, a "Free State" Sanctioned Slavery - California Historical Society
Campaign Unveils Hidden History of Slavery in California – Next City
Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California (aclu.org)
Op-Ed: California's forgotten slave history - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Pacific Bound: California’s 1852 Fugitive Slave Law • (blackpast.org)
"The Unknown History of the 19th Century California Underground Railroa" by Yollette Merritt
Highlighting an early Californian abolitionist (sanquentinnews.com)
African Americans in the Gold Rush | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
Slavery Era Insurance Registry (ca.gov)
Books
The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War by Leonard L. Richards
Force Of A Feather by DeEtta Demaratus
Podcasts
The Hidden History of Slavery in California | KQED
Film/Video
The Little-Known History of Slavery in California: Lynette Mullen at TEDxEureka
California Bound: Slavery on the New Frontier, 1848–1865
The History Of Slavery In California With Professor Jean Pfaelzer
Allensworth: The First All Black Town in California
The Journal of Negro History: Delilah L Beasley - Slavery in California
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for California • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Slavery played a limited but telling role in the early history of Colorado, which was influenced by the broader patterns of systemic racism and forced labor in the United States. While the Colorado Territory was not a hub for the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved African Americans were brought to the region during and after the Civil War by planters fleeing Southern states. These individuals often worked as domestic servants, laborers, or in agriculture, mining, and cattle ranching, which became the predominant industries employing African Americans, alongside other marginalized groups. The Colorado Territory was formed in 1861; Colorado became a state in 1876.
Systemic racism impacted African Americans in Colorado throughout the 20th century and into the present.
In the 1920s, Colorado became a significant hub for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which wielded substantial political and social influence in the state. The KKK targeted African Americans, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, promoting a message of white supremacy and nativism. The organization infiltrated local and state government, with Denver Mayor Benjamin Stapleton being one of the most prominent figures associated with the Klan. Stapleton, while publicly distancing himself from the group later, benefited from its support during his election campaigns. The KKK's impact in Colorado extended to law enforcement and the judicial system, enabling systemic discrimination and intimidation of minority communities. Although the Klan's power waned by the late 1920s due to scandals and public backlash, its legacy of racism and division left a lasting mark on Colorado's political and social fabric, contributing to systemic inequities that persisted for decades.
Although Colorado did not adopt as many Jim Crow laws as did the Deep South, miscegenation laws were on the books from 1864 through the 1930s, and sundown towns were ubiquitous. As was true throughout the Rocky Mountain West, de facto segregation and racial inequality were widespread.
Enslavement
The Civil War and the Origins of the Colorado Territory on JSTOR
Colorado History: The creation of the Jefferson Territory
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Historical Marker in Denver Memorializes Racial Terror Lynching of 15-Year-Old Boy (eji.org)
Sundown Towns Colorado Archives - History and Social Justice
Slavery in the Constitution
Personal Narratives
11 Black Coloradans’ Stories of Emancipation | History Colorado
Barney Ford: From Slavery to Success – Colorado Virtual Library
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state Colorado- Wikipedia
Colorado Archives Sundown Towns- History and Social Justice
Black History Timelines
African American Coloradans | History Colorado
Black History & Heritage | History Colorado
1907 Madam C.J. Walker of Denver develops and markets her hair straightening method and creates one of the most successful cosmetics firms in the nation.
1975 General Daniel Chappie James of the Air Force becomes the first African American four star general.
1991 On June 18, Wellington Webb becomes the first African American mayor of Denver, Colorado.
Black Townships
Articles
How Colorado became the first state to abolish slavery (togethercolorado.org)
Seeking a New Life: Blacks in Post-Civil War Colorado on JSTOR
Black History Month: African Americans migrated west looking for new opportunities in the 1860s
List of Underground Railroad sites - Colorado - Wikipedia
8 places to celebrate black history in Colorado | History Colorado
Dearfield, CO Ghost Town – near Greeley | Weld County (uncovercolorado.com)
This Colorado ghost town was once an oasis for black lives in the Jim Crow era | OutThere Colorado
Five Points Black Neighborhood | Articles | Colorado Encyclopedia
Books
African Americans of Denver by Ronald J. Stephens
Clara Brown: The Rags to Riches Story of a Freed Slave by Julie McDonald
Podcasts
Episode 24 – African American History in Colorado (unco.edu)
Film/Video
Losing Ground | Special Investigations | Rocky Mountain PBS B2
Colorado Experience: Mr. Barney Ford
Black History of the West : Colorado Five Points & The Rossonian Hotel
Archdiocese Of Denver Taking The Next Step To Make Former Slave Colorado's First Saint
Plantations
Famous African Americans
African Americans | Colorado Encyclopedia
African American Coloradans | History Colorado
Colorado Black Cowboys and Horseman Association | The HistoryMakers
Our History | BAWM (bawmhc.org)
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Colorado • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Idaho in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Black Oral History Collection (usg.edu)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws: Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
160201_ssta_0800AM_Attachment_2.pdf (idaho.gov)
Articles
Unique History Museum Tells Story of Idaho’s Black Community | ISI (idahoseniorindependent.com)
Idaho Ebony: The African American Presence in Idaho State History on JSTOR
First African-American woman in Boise honored | Idaho Statesman
Yes, Idaho, you do have black history | The Spokesman-Review
Books
African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Martineau Wagner
Blacks in Idaho's White Press: 1863-1916 by Mamie Oliver
Podcasts
Why Idaho's Racist History Matters: Part 1 | Boise State Public Radio
Why Idaho's Racist History Matters: Part 2 | Boise State Public Radio
Did Idaho Have Any Housing Discrimination Laws During The Jim Crow Era? | Boise State Public Radio
Film/Video
Viewpoint: Idaho Black History Museum tells thought-provoking story | ktvb.com
'These things are to be expected': The history of Black Americans in Idaho
Navigating Story: A Black Man's Guide to Surviving in North Idaho. | Tyler Sea | TEDxCoeurdalene
South 13th Street: Boise's Forgotten Black Neighborhood - Trailer #1
A look at racism in eastern Idaho 57 years after the civil rights movement
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Idaho • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Montana - Wikipedia
Montana in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws: Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
African Americans in Montana Timeline (mt.gov)
The Erosion of the Racial Frontier: Settler Colonialism and the History of Black Montana, 1880-1930
Montana Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the Battlefield by Ken Robison
Podcasts
Film/Video
STAGECOACH MARY : FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO DELIVER U.S. MAIL
Hidden Figures: Stagecoach Mary (Mary Fields)
Montana’s African American Heritage Resources
African Americans and Montana’s Equine Heritage
Montana Territory and the Civil War
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Montana • FamilySearch
mhs.mt.gov > Shpo > AfricanAmericansheritageresources
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Nevada in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
How the Confederacy claimed Southern Nevada during Civil War
Slavery in the Far West (CA, CO, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA) | Encyclopedia.com
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Timeline of African-American Legal History in Nevada (1861-2011) (unlv.edu)
Black History Timeline
150+ Facts About The Northern Nevada African American Experience | Our Story, Inc.
Podcasts
You Can't Live There: A Long Struggle For Black Rights In Las Vegas | Nevada Public Radio (knpr.org)
Film/Video
The 36th Star: Nevada's Journey from Territory to State
Genealogy
Nevada African American Records - Nevada Genealogy
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
History of slavery in Utah - Wikipedia
Negro Slavery in the Utah Territory on JSTOR
Utah in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
KUED documentary reveals Utah's racist past - The Salt Lake Tribune (sltrib.com)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
List of Jim Crow law examples by state - Wikipedia
Black History Timeline
Black History | Utah Historical Markers
History of African Americans in Utah - Wikipedia
Slavery in the Constitution
Removing Slavery From The Utah Constitution (Constitution Amendment C) [CC]
Personal Narratives
Story Of Former Slave, Utah Settler Forgotten No More | KUER
New grave marker to honor African American slave who helped Mormon pioneers build their Utah Zion
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
(1852) The Utah Territory Slave Code • (blackpast.org)
Black History Timeline
Utah History Encyclopedia (uen.org)
Articles
Utah African American History Encyclopedia
The Mormons Sit Out the Civil War - The New York Times
The Mormons and Slavery: A Closer Look | Pacific Historical Review | University of California Press
Books
Force Of A Feather by DeEtta Demaratus
Podcasts
The Civil War and Utah, Slave Narratives and "Barracoon"
Film/Video
Slavery and Race in Early Utah Territory
Opening The West: Reconstruction and Western Expansion 1865-1877 | (1968)
Utah History | Utah's Freedom Riders | PBS
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Utah • FamilySearch
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
Enslavement
Wyoming in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Slavery in Wyoming Teaching History.org
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Personal Narratives
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Black History Timeline
Articles
Trails Center celebrates Black History month with display of Wyoming history
Buffalo Soldiers in Wyoming and the West | WyoHistory.org
Everything About Wyoming - Emerging Civil Rights Movement in Wyoming by Ibach and Moore
Museum Exhibit Tells The Story Of Wyoming's Only All-Black Town | Wyoming Public Media
Liz Byrd, First Black Woman in Wyoming's Legislature | WyoHistory.org
Books
Podcasts
Wyoming's Black Pioneer Community That Disappeared | Wyoming Public Media
"They Knew They Were Free": Remembering African American History In The West | Wyoming Public Media
Film/Video
Liz Byrd, Her Legacy - Our Wyoming
Empire, An African American Community in Wyoming by Andi Powers
A Tribute To Wyoming's African-American Pioneers (kingfm.com)
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Wyoming • FamilySearch
Wyoming African American Records - Wyoming Genealogy
Questions for Research and Reflection:
The Pacific Northwest
Historical Summary
Oregon has a complex history of racist policies and discrimination against African Americans. Here's a summary of some key examples:
- Black Exclusion Laws: In the mid-19th century, Oregon enacted a series of laws known as the Black Exclusion Laws. These laws prohibited African Americans from residing in the state and mandated their expulsion—the laws aimed to establish Oregon as a racially homogeneous state and discourage African American migration.
- Racially Restrictive Covenants: In the early 20th century, racially restrictive covenants were prevalent in Oregon. These contractual agreements prohibited homeowners from selling or renting their properties to African Americans and other non-white individuals. They reinforced residential segregation and limited housing opportunities for African Americans.
- Ku Klux Klan Influence: In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) gained significant influence in Oregon. The KKK targeted African Americans and other minority groups, promoting white supremacy and engaging in intimidation and violence. The KKK's presence contributed to racial tensions and discrimination against African Americans in the state.
- School Segregation: Oregon had a history of racially segregated schools, particularly in cities like Portland. African American students often faced unequal resources, facilities, and educational opportunities compared to their white counterparts. The Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 led to the eventual desegregation of schools in Oregon.
- Housing Discrimination and Redlining: African Americans in Oregon experienced discrimination in housing and faced redlining practices, similar to other parts of the United States. Redlining involved denying loans and services to African American communities or designating them as high-risk areas. These practices contributed to racial disparities and limited economic opportunities.
- Police Brutality and Racial Profiling: African Americans in Oregon have also faced incidents of police brutality and racial profiling. Communities of color have experienced disproportionate targeting by law enforcement, leading to heightened tensions and calls for police reform.
Enslavement
Oregon State's history during the Civil War is unique in that it did not directly participate in the conflict as a state and officially remained loyal to the Union. Here is a summary of Oregon State's history during the Civil War, including any history of slaveholders bringing enslaved people into the state:
- Oregon's Position on Slavery: By the time of the Civil War, Oregon had already established itself as a free state. In 1844, Oregon's provisional government passed the "Lash Law," which excluded African Americans from residing in the territory. While the law was repealed in 1845, it reflected the prevalent racial attitudes and exclusionary practices of the time.
- Limited Enslaved Population: The number of enslaved individuals in Oregon during the Civil War was relatively small compared to other states. The 1860 U.S. Census recorded only a few dozen enslaved people in Oregon Territory. Slavery did exist in some parts of Oregon, but it was not as pervasive as in states farther south.
- Racial Discrimination and Exclusion: Despite Oregon's free status, racial discrimination and exclusionary practices against African Americans persisted. African Americans faced significant barriers to land ownership, employment, and equal treatment. Discrimination and racial violence were present, especially in areas with larger African American populations, such as Portland.
- Opposition to Abolition: While Oregon officially remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, factions within the state sympathized with the Confederacy and opposed abolition. These sentiments reflected a broader range of political beliefs within the state and did not necessarily involve direct support for slavery.
Oregon in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
On Jun 26, 1844: Oregon Territory Bans Free Black People (eji.org)
Oregon black exclusion laws - Wikipedia
The Black Laws of Oregon, 1844-1857 • (blackpast.org)
State of Oregon: Black in Oregon - National and Oregon Chronology of Events
Idaho Ebony: The African American Presence in Idaho State History on JSTOR
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Explore The Map | Lynching In America (eji.org)
Priced Out | Portland’s History of Segregation and Redlining - Full Documentary
New research by PSU grad student reveals racist covenants across Portland | Portland.gov
Portland Racial Covenants - Google My Maps
Ku Klux Klan (oregonencyclopedia.org)
KKK meets with Portland leaders, 1921 (oregonhistoryproject.org)
Personal Narratives
State of Oregon: Black in Oregon - Robin and Polly Holmes
Blacks in Oregon (oregonencyclopedia.org)
Black Cowboys in Oregon (oregonencyclopedia.org)
Louis Southworth (1829–1917) (oregonencyclopedia.org)
Ben Johnson (1834–1901) (oregonencyclopedia.org)
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Oregon Is Now The Only Remaining State With Old Jim Crow Jury System | Above the Law
Jim Crow Laws: Oregon and Pennsylvania | AmericansAll
Black History Timeline
1844: Oregon's provisional government passes the "Lash Law," which excludes African Americans from residing in the territory. Although repealed in 1845, it reflects prevalent racial attitudes and exclusionary practices.
Late 1800s: Lynchings and Vigilante Justice. Oregon experienced several instances of racially motivated violence and lynchings, targeting African Americans and other minorities. One notable incident is the 1902 lynching of Alonzo Tucker in Coos Bay, who was accused of assaulting a white woman.
Early 20th century: Racially Restrictive Covenants. Racially restrictive covenants became common in Oregon, particularly in Portland. These covenants prohibit homeowners from selling or renting properties to African Americans and non-white individuals, reinforcing segregation and limiting housing opportunities.
1922: The Oregon Compulsory Education Act. This law mandated that all children between 8 and 16 attend public schools. While not explicitly racially targeted, it disproportionately affected Black students who faced discrimination in public education.
1920s-1930s: Ku Klux Klan Influence. The Ku Klux Klan gains significant influence in Oregon during this period. The KKK promotes white supremacy, engages in acts of intimidation, and targets African Americans and other minority groups.
1924: Oregon's Klan-backed ballot initiative. The initiative, Measure 3, sought to ban private schools and religious institutions, which primarily affected Catholic and parochial schools. The measure had racist undertones, targeting immigrant communities and their educational institutions.
Mid-20th century: Discrimination and Segregation. African Americans in Oregon face discrimination and segregation in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Despite being a non-Jim Crow state, informal practices and attitudes contribute to racial disparities and limited opportunities for African Americans.
1960s: Civil Rights Movement and Activism. African American communities in Oregon actively participate in the Civil Rights Movement, advocating for equal rights and challenging discriminatory practices. Activists like Edwin C. Berry and others lead efforts to combat racial injustice.
State of Oregon: Black in Oregon - National and Oregon Chronology of Events
Articles
Yes, there were black slaves in the Pacific Northwest. Historians are making our region confront it
York, Enslaved African travelled with Lewis & Clark - Wikipedia
Unique History Museum Tells Story of Idaho’s Black Community
State of Oregon: Black in Oregon - Slavery: A National and Oregon Summary
Black Exclusion Laws in Oregon (oregonencyclopedia.org)
Holmes v. Ford (oregonencyclopedia.org)
"Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory": An Excerpt | OSU Press
02_Smith_Oregon-s-Civil-War_115_2_Summer-2014.pdf
Books
Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory by R. Gregory Nokes
African American Women of the Old West by Tricia Martineau Wagner
Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon by Kenneth R. Coleman
The Racist History of Portland, the Whitest City in America - The Atlantic
Podcasts
Oregon was America’s first and only state to begin as 'whites-only' - The Washington Post
The Palenque Podcast - Episode 25: Oregon - The All White State
The Oregon Exclusion Laws | The Untold History |
Disabuse Podcast - Episode 15: Slavery in Oregon with Greg Nokes
Offbeat Oregon History podcast - Civil War plotters hoped to get Oregon, West Coast to secede
Film/Video
Black exclusion laws and Oregon's racist history
PBS 1991: Oregon's Black Exclusion Laws
Oregon’s Black Pioneers: Full Documentary
Why Aren't There More Black People in Oregon? A Hidden History
Oregon's African American History
Oregon’s Enigmatic Black History
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Oregon • FamilySearch
Welcome to the Oregon Genealogical Society website! (oregongs.org)
Oregon State Genealogical Societies list (gswco.org)
GFO:Genealogical Forum of Oregon
Questions for Research and Reflection:
Historical Summary
While Washington State did not have the same extensive system of Jim Crow laws as Southern states, it did have a history of racist policies and discrimination against African Americans. Here's a summary of some key examples:
- Sundown Towns: Several towns in Washington State, including Spokane and Bellingham, had unwritten but enforced rules that prohibited African Americans from residing in or entering the city after sundown. These practices aimed to maintain racial segregation and exclude African Americans from certain communities.
- Like many other parts of the United States, Washington State experienced redlining, a discriminatory practice by which banks and insurance companies denied services and loans to African American communities or designated them as high-risk areas. Redlining contributed to socioeconomic disparities and limited opportunities for African Americans in terms of housing, education, and economic mobility.
- Restrictive Housing Covenants: In the mid-20th century, racially restrictive housing covenants were common in Washington State. These agreements, often enforced by neighborhood associations, prohibited homeowners from selling or renting their properties to African Americans or other non-white individuals. Such practices reinforced residential segregation and limited housing options for African Americans.
- Discrimination in Employment and Public Accommodations: African Americans faced discrimination in employment and public accommodations, such as restaurants, theaters, and hotels. Segregated facilities and unequal treatment were prevalent, restricting African Americans' access to certain jobs and public spaces.
- Seattle School Boycott: In 1966, African American parents in Seattle organized a historic boycott of public schools, protesting against racially discriminatory practices and unequal treatment of African American students. The boycott, known as the "Freedom Education Project," drew attention to the racial inequities within the education system and helped lead to reforms.
Enslavement
During the Civil War, Washington Territory, which later became Washington State, played a relatively minor role compared to other parts of the country. During this period, it remained a distant frontier region with a small population and limited economic significance. However, there were some instances of slaveholders bringing enslaved people into the state. Here's a summary of Washington State's history during the Civil War:
- Limited Involvement: Due to its geographical distance from the main theaters of the Civil War and its small population, Washington Territory had limited direct involvement in the conflict. The region was only established as a territory in 1853 and was sparsely settled.
- Slavery in Washington Territory: When Washington Territory was created, it prohibited slavery through its territorial laws. However, some individuals who held enslaved people in other states or territories brought them to Washington, where enforcement of anti-slavery laws was limited. These instances were relatively rare compared to states where slavery was more deeply entrenched.
- The Fugitive Slave Act: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a federal law that required the return of escaped enslaved individuals to their owners, was in effect in Washington Territory during the Civil War. This law allowed slaveholders to pursue enslaved people who had made their way to the region, but law enforcement was sporadic.
- Union Support: overall, Washington Territory supported the Union cause during the Civil War. The territorial government and most residents aligned with the Union and opposed the secessionist movement. The territory raised Union volunteer regiments to contribute to the war effort.
Civil War and Washington Territory - HistoryLink.org
Charles Mitchell, Slavery, and Washington Territory in 1860 • (blackpast.org)
Washington in the American Civil War - Wikipedia
Institutional Racism and Racial Terror
Personal Narratives
Explore the Story of Charles Mitchell, an Antebellum Slave in Washington Territory
Slavery, Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws
Black History Timeline
1844: George Washington Bush becomes the first African American to settle in the Washington Territory, establishing a homestead near present-day Tumwater.
1865: The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, is enforced in the Washington Territory, officially freeing enslaved people.
1889: Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States. African Americans contribute to the state's growth by participating in industries such as logging, railroads, and agriculture.
1900s: Black communities begin to form in cities like Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, and Vancouver, as African Americans migrate to the state in search of job opportunities and better lives.
1942: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese Americans are forcibly relocated to internment camps. Some Black families move into previously occupied homes and neighborhoods in Seattle's Central District.
1948: The Seattle chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded, advocating for racial equality and working to combat segregation and discrimination in the city.
1963: The Central Area Civil Rights Committee (CACRC) is established in Seattle, focusing on fighting housing discrimination and promoting equal opportunities for African Americans.
1965: The Seattle Urban League is founded to address social and economic disparities faced by Black communities through advocacy, education, and direct services.
1968: The Fair Housing Act is passed, prohibiting housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.
1984: Norm Rice becomes the first African American mayor of Seattle, serving two terms from 1990 to 1998.
Washington black history: A timeline (seattlepi.com)
Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest (washington.edu)
1871 George Washington, an early black settler in Washington Territory becomes the first African American to found a predominately white town when he establishes Centerville, later Centralia, Washington.
Articles
A Little-Known Story of Slavery in Washington Territory
KUOW - Charles Mitchell: A Slave In Washington State
Slavery? Yes, it did happen here. As did escapes. | Crosscut
Escaping Slavery in Washington Territory | History News Network
Books
African Americans in Spokane by Jerrelene Williamson
Free Boy: A True Story of Slave and Master by Lorraine McConaghy
Podcasts
A Righteous Decision — Welcome To Olympia
Film/Video
Schmidt House History talks - Black History of Washington State
CityStream: Preserving Seattle's African American history
Genealogical Research
African American Resources for Washington • FamilySearch