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African American History Timeline
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1773
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Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin.
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1777
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American troops, including Black slaves, defeated British troops.
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1849
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The Ohio legislature passed "Black Laws" designed to restrict the legal rights of free blacks.
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1865
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Union Gen. William T. Sherman issues a field order setting aside 40-acre plots of land, "40 acres and a mule," in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida for African Americans to settle.
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1868
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James Dunn was elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana.
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1869
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Colored National Labor Union, 1st Black labor convention.
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1870
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Jonathan Jasper Wright is elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. He is the first African American to hold a major judicial position.
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1881
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Tennessee State Legislature votes to segregate railroad passenger cars.
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1909
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First Black pro Basketball team.
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1914
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Phi Beta Sigma International Fraternity was founded.
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1947
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John Lee becomes first commissioned African American officer in the US.
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1952
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The Supreme Court first heard the case of Brown v. Board of Education.
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1954
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Alain Locke died. A writer, philosopher and intellectual, who was the first African-American Rhodes Scholar and strong supporter of African-American arts, he wrote about the Harlem Renaissance in The New Negro.
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1957
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Garfield High School becomes first Seattle high school with more than 50 percent non-white student body.
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1955
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Marian Anderson became the 1st African American singer to perform as a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
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1963
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Birmingham church bombed.
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1965
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President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act.
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1967
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Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson. He is the first Black Associate Justice.
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1938
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Mauritius(Africa) becomes an independent nation.
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1978
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Seattle becomes the largest city in the United States to desegregate its schools without a court order.
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1983
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Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the world’s first open-heart surgery on James Cornish.
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1989
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Boxer Mike Tyson becomes the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World by defeating challenger Frank Bruno of England.
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1992
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Alex P. Haley, author of “Roots” and “Autobiography of Malcom X,” died in Seattle, Washington.
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2001
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Lewis beat Holyfield on points to win the WBC and IBF title.
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2001
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The UK Census reported that 565876 people stated their ethnicity as Black.
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2002
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The number of Black-owned businesses totaled nearly 1.2 million.
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2005
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Barack Obama was sworn into the U.S. Senate as the third African-American Senator. He served on the Foreign Relations and Veteran’s Affairs Committee.
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2008
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By the fall there were 2.5 million Black students enrolled in college.
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