**African American History Timeline: 1619 - 2008**

**1619** The first African American indentured servants arrive in the
American Colonies. Less than a decade later, the first slaves are
brought into New Amsterdam (later, New York City). By 1690, every colony
has slaves.

**1739** The Stono Rebellion, one of the earliest slave revolts, occurs
in Stono, South Carolina.

**1793** Eli Whitney's (1765 -- 1825) cotton gin increases the need for
slaves.

**1808** Congress bans further importation of slaves.

**1831** In Boston, William Lloyd Garrison (1805 -- 1879) begins
publication of the anti-slavery newspaper the *Liberator* and becomes a
leading voice in the Abolitionist movement.

**1831 -- 1861** Approximately 75,000 slaves escape to the North using
the Underground Railroad.

**1846** Ex-slave Frederick Douglass (1818 -- 1895) publishes the
anti-slavery *North Star* newspaper.

**1848** Augustus Saint Gaudens (1848 -- 1907) is born in Ireland. His
family soon emigrates to the United States.

**1849** Harriet Tubman (c. 1820 -- 1913) escapes from slavery and
becomes an instrumental leader of the Underground Railroad.

**1850** Congress passes another Fugitive Slave Act, which mandates
government participation in the capture of escaped slaves.

Boston citizens, including some of the wealthiest, storm a federal
courthouse in an attempt to free escaped Virginia slave Anthony Burns
(1834 -- 1862).

**1857** The *Dred Scot v. Sanford* case: congress does not have the
right to ban slavery in the states; slaves are not citizens.

**1860** Abraham Lincoln (1809 -- 1865) is elected president, angering
the southern states.

**1861** The Civil War begins.

**1863** Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation proclaims that all
slaves in rebellious territories are forever free.

**1863** Massachusetts 54^th^ regiment of African American troops led by
Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (1837 -- 1863) marches out of Boston on May
28th, heading into combat.

**1865** The Civil War ends.

Lincoln is assassinated. Seventeen-year-old Augustus Saint Gaudens is so
moved by the sight of Lincoln's body lying in state that he views it
twice.

The 13^th^ Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery, is
ratified.

The era of Reconstruction begins.

**1866** The "Black Codes" are passed by all white legislators of the
former Confederate States. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act,
conferring citizenship on African Americans and granting them equal
rights to whites.

The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Tennessee.

**1868** The 14^th^ Amendment is ratified, defining citizenship. This
overturns the *Dred Scot* decision.

**1870** The 15^th^ Amendment is ratified, giving African Americans the
right to vote.

**1877** The era of Reconstruction ends.

A deal is made with southern democratic leaders which makes Rutherford
B. Hayes (1822 -- 1893) president in exchange for the withdrawal of
federal troops from the South, and puts an end to efforts to protect the
civil rights of African Americans.

**1879** Thousands of African Americans migrate out of the South to
escape oppression.

**1881** Tennessee passes the first of the "Jim Crow" segregation laws,
segregating state railroads. Similar laws are passed over the next 15
years throughout the Southern states.

**1887** Augustus Saint Gaudens unveils the "Standing Lincoln" statue in
Lincoln Park, Chicago.

**1896** *Plessy v. Ferguson* case: racial segregation is ruled
constitutional by the Supreme Court. The "Jim Crow" ("separate but
equal") laws begin, barring African Americans from equal access to
public facilities.

**1897** Augustus Saint Gaudens unveils the Shaw Memorial in Boston
Common.

**1954** *Brown v. Board of Education* case: strikes down segregation as
unconstitutional.

**1955** In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks (1913 -- 2005) is arrested
for breaking a city ordinance by refusing to give up her seat on a
public bus to a white man. This defiant act gives initial momentum to
the Civil Rights Movement.

**1957** Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 -- 1968) and others set up the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading engine of the Civil
Rights Movement.

**1964** The Civil Rights Act is signed, prohibiting discrimination of
all kinds.

**1965** The Voting Rights Act is passed, outlawing the practices used
in the South to disenfranchise African American voters.

**1967** Edward W. Brooke (1919 - ) becomes the first African American
U.S. Senator since Reconstruction. He serves two terms as a Senator from
Massachusetts.

**1968** Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

**2008** Barack Obama (1961 - ) mounts a strong campaign to capture the
democratic nomination for the presidency.