The 20 Most Important Events - in African American history

Ebony, Dec, 1999

1900

United States population: 75,994,575. Black population: 8,833,994, 11.6 percent. African-Americans were segregated officially in the South and unofficially in the North, where most downtown facilities and hotels were closed to Blacks. There were no Black mayors or major public officials, and there were no Black managers and/or salesmen in corporate America. One hundred and six Blacks were lynched in 1900, the year James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson composed "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing."

1. May 31, 1909

Approximately 300 Blacks and Whites met at the United Charities Building in New York City and organized the NAACP. James Weldon Johnson became the first Black secretary in 1920.

2. 1915

Great Migration to the North changed the demographics and the future of Black and White America, bringing millions of African-Americans to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Harlem and other Northern industrial centers.

3. Nov. 6, 1928

Oscar DePriest elected to 71st Congress from Chicago's South Side, becoming the first Black congressman from the North and the first Black in Congress since the end of the first Reconstruction. By 2000, there were 39 Blacks in Congress, including 14 women.

4. Oct. 29, 1929

Collapse of stock market and beginning of "The Great Depression" traumatized Black America, which suffered astronomically high unemployment rates. The event also had a marked and lasting effect on the climate for Black businesses, which made extraordinary progress, especially in banking and insurance, before the Crash.

5. World War II

World War II forced fundamental changes in the world's racial climate. In response to widespread protests over discrimination in war industries and the armed services, and a threat of a March on Washington, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941, banning racial and religious discrimination in war industries, government training programs and government industries. This was the first major action by the federal government in favor of Blacks since the Civil War. On July 26, 1948, in response to widespread Black protests and a threat of civil disobedience, President Harry Truman issued two executive orders, ending racial discrimination in federal employment and requiring equal treatment in the armed services. During the World War II period, which inaugurated a new world in Africa, Asia and the West Indies, Blacks made gains in most areas. More than 1,150,000 Blacks were inducted or drafted into the armed services. There were 7,768 Black commissioned officers on August 31, 1945, including the first Black general in the regular army, B.O. Davis Sr. Postwar racial conflicts, the GI bill, which helped create a new middle class, and the rising tide of color in the world changed the American racial dialogue.

6. Oct. 15-21, 1945

Fifth Pan-African Congress met in Manchester, England, and set the stage for the rebirth of independent states in Africa and the West Indies. W.E.B. DuBois, a pioneer of the Pan-African Movement, was elected president.

7. April 15, 1947

Jackie Robinson made his debut at Ebbets Field as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team and became the first Black in the Major Leagues in modern times. The event marked the beginning of integration in professional sports and other areas of American life.

8. Sep. 18, 1948

Ralph J. Bunche named acting United Nations mediator in Palestine. On September 22, 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his successful mediation of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. He was the first Black to win the Nobel Prize.

9. May 17, 1954

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court outlawed legal segregation in the public school system. Landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, pressed by the NAACP and Black parents groups, sounded death knell for legal segregation in the United States. The decision was not strictly enforced and a great White backlash in the '80s and '90s turned the clock back in efforts to enforce desegregation in public school systems.

10. December 5, 1955

Historic bus boycott started in Montgomery, Ala., marking the emergence of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. and the beginning of the end of segregation on buses in Southern cities. This marked the beginning of the Freedom Movement, which continued through the '60s with the Sit-In Movement and Freedom Rides.

11. March 6, 1957

Independence ceremony in Ghana marked the beginning of the end of colonial rule in Africa.

12. Sept. 25, 1957

Nine Little Rock, Ark., schoolchildren were escorted to Central High School by federal troops, ending widepread efforts to stop court-enforced desegregation. On Oct. 1, 1962, James Meredith, escorted by 12,000 federal troops, entered the University of Mississippi.

13. Aug. 6, 1962

Jamaica proclaimed independent. Trinidad-Tobago celebrated its independence on August 31.

14. Aug. 28, 1963

Some 300,000 people participated in the March on Washington, the largest civil rights demonstration to that date.

15. July 2, 1964

Civil Rights Bill, with public accommodations and fair employment sections, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.