British colonies settled in North America brought the first black slaves from Africa to Virginia in 1919. The invention of the gin increased the demand for slave labor in the South.
This situation, which lasted for 200 years, ended with the prohibition of bringing slaves to the country from abroad in 1808.
With the separation of the South from the USA in 1861, the confederation was established and the civil war started.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln published the “Declaration of Freedom”. He declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate states.
Civil war ended in 1865. Lincoln died as a result of the assassination. Article 13 of the US Constitution prohibited slavery.
In 1868, with Article 14 of the Constitution, all African Americans were given the right to citizenship.
In 1870, black men were given the right to vote.
In 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled that apartheid is constitutional.
In 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first Negro to play in the National Baseball League of America.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman ordered the desegregation of the US military.
In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white on bus in Alabama. Her arrest brought about a year-long and very prominent boycott led by Martin Luther King. Blacks did not take buses for 1 year and went to their jobs by walking collectively.
In 1963, Martin Luther King was arrested and imprisoned during human rights demonstrations in Alabama, the same year he sparked the freedom struggle of blacks with his famous speech titled “I Have a Dream” in Washington.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Human Rights Act. Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1965, human rights activist Malcolm X was killed. Human rights demonstrations in Alabama were repressed using violence. The Right to Vote Act passed Congress.
In 1966, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts became the first black senator to be elected after the reconstruction period that followed the civil war.
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was appointed by President Johnson as the first black supreme court judge.
In 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1990, Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia, becoming the country’s first black governor.
June 2008 – Illinois Senator Barack Obama was elected Democratic presidential candidate.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, outpacing rival Republican Party candidate John McCain in the presidential race.
Carol Oldford
