{"slug": "african-americans", "label": "African Americans", "wikipedia": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans", "wikidata": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49085", "qid": "Q49085", "description": "Americans with sub-Saharan African ancestry", "entries": 50, "years": 38, "span": [1711, 2014], "span_label": ["1711 CE", "2014 CE"], "topics": [{"title": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "count": 9}, {"title": "Culture & Society", "count": 9}, {"title": "Crime & Justice", "count": 8}, {"title": "Exploration & Expansion", "count": 5}, {"title": "Conflict & Security", "count": 4}, {"title": "Deaths", "count": 4}, {"title": "Health & Medicine", "count": 3}, {"title": "Religion & Belief", "count": 3}, {"title": "Technology & Infrastructure", "count": 2}, {"title": "Births", "count": 1}, {"title": "Science & Discovery", "count": 1}, {"title": "Climate & Environment", "count": 1}], "also_known_as": ["African American", "African-American", "African-Americans", "Afro American", "Black American", "Black Americans"], "related": [{"slug": "rome", "label": "Rome", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "priesthood-in-the-catholic-church", "label": "Priesthood in the Catholic Church", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "mississippi", "label": "Mississippi", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "president-of-the-united-states", "label": "President of the United States", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "barack-obama", "label": "Barack Obama", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "supreme-court-of-the-united-states", "label": "Supreme Court of the United States", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "major-league-baseball", "label": "Major League Baseball", "shared": 2}, {"slug": "united-states", "label": "United States", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "democratic-party-united-states", "label": "Democratic Party (United States)", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "republican-party-united-states", "label": "Republican Party (United States)", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "new-york-city", "label": "New York City", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "boston", "label": "Boston", "shared": 1}], "items": [{"year": 1711, "year_label": "1711 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "September 10", "text": "September 10 (also dated September 12) – John Lawson, Christoph von Graffenried, two African American slaves and two Native Americans leave on an exploration expedition from New Bern, North Carolina, and travel north by canoe up the Neuse River.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364260988#July–September", "title": "1711", "revid": 1364260988, "section": "Events › July–September"}}, {"year": 1711, "year_label": "1711 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "September 16", "text": "September 16 (approximate date) – Tuscarora natives kill Lawson. Von Graffenried and one African American slave are known to have been set free.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1364260988#July–September", "title": "1711", "revid": 1364260988, "section": "Events › July–September"}}, {"year": 1731, "year_label": "1731 CE", "section": "Births", "date": "November 9", "text": "November 9 – Benjamin Banneker, African-American astronomer, surveyor of the District of Columbia (d. 1806)", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369560841#Births", "title": "1731", "revid": 1369560841, "section": "Births"}}, {"year": 1816, "year_label": "1816 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "December 9", "text": "December 9–21 – The American Colonization Society is established, to support the emigration of free African Americans to Africa.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1363267979#October–December", "title": "1816", "revid": 1363267979, "section": "Events › October–December"}}, {"year": 1820, "year_label": "1820 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "February 6", "text": "February 6 – A group of 86 free African American colonists sail from New York City to Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a goal of creating a home for freed American slaves, to be called \"Liberia\".", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368795492#January–March", "title": "1820", "revid": 1368795492, "section": "Events › January–March"}}, {"year": 1820, "year_label": "1820 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "February 6", "text": "February 6 – 86 free African American colonists sail from New York City to Freetown, Sierra Leone.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369634628#Events", "title": "1820 in the United States", "revid": 1369634628, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1831, "year_label": "1831 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": null, "text": "African American actor Ira Aldridge tours Ireland.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1351177495#Arts_and_literature", "title": "1831 in Ireland", "revid": 1351177495, "section": "Arts and literature"}}, {"year": 1858, "year_label": "1858 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": null, "text": "About 600 African-Americans from California move to Victoria, British Columbia by invitation of Governor James Douglas as part of the gold rush migration. One of them, Mifflin Gibbs, later plays a key role in persuading British Columbia to become part of Canada. Douglas declares Emancipation Day, August 1, the anniversary of the end of slavery in the British Empire, as the colonies' first official holiday August 1, to the chagrin of the white American element in the colony, though Victoria's West Indian police force, recruited by Douglas, was necessarily disbanded because of the hostility from the numerous Americans in the emerging city. Also among the African-Americans who came with the gold rush was Isaac \"Ikey\" Dixon, whose brawl in his Yale barbershop and subsequent safe-custody arrest triggered off the events known as McGowan's War, and who soon after became a noted and popular columnist for the Barkerville newspaper The Cariboo Sentinel.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1349957477#Events", "title": "1858 in Canada", "revid": 1349957477, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1863, "year_label": "1863 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "May 28", "text": "May 28 – American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American regiment, leaves Boston to fight for the Union.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1363782030#May", "title": "1863", "revid": 1363782030, "section": "Events › May"}}, {"year": 1864, "year_label": "1864 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "April 12", "text": "April 12 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Pillow – Confederate forces kill most of the African American soldiers who surrender at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369213895#April", "title": "1864", "revid": 1369213895, "section": "Events › April"}}, {"year": 1867, "year_label": "1867 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "January 8", "text": "January 8 – African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365231456#January", "title": "1867", "revid": 1365231456, "section": "Events › January"}}, {"year": 1868, "year_label": "1868 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "July 28", "text": "July 28 – The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted, including the Citizenship Clause and the Equal Protection Clause, legally, if not actually, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and equal protection, and all persons in the United States due process of law.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1363668193#July", "title": "1868", "revid": 1363668193, "section": "Events › July"}}, {"year": 1870, "year_label": "1870 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "February 3", "text": "February 3 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing African American men the right to vote, is passed.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1362496807#February", "title": "1870", "revid": 1362496807, "section": "Events › February"}}, {"year": 1870, "year_label": "1870 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "February 26", "text": "February 26 – Wyatt Outlaw, the first African American town commissioner in Graham, North Carolina, is lynched by mob of Ku Klux Klan on Alamance County courthouse square.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1358721184#January–March", "title": "1870 in the United States", "revid": 1358721184, "section": "Events › January–March"}}, {"year": 1872, "year_label": "1872 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "December 9", "text": "December 9 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American to govern a U.S. state.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371307490#December", "title": "1872", "revid": 1371307490, "section": "Events › December"}}, {"year": 1877, "year_label": "1877 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "June 15", "text": "June 15 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370239819#June", "title": "1877", "revid": 1370239819, "section": "Events › June"}}, {"year": 1879, "year_label": "1879 CE", "section": "Health & Medicine", "date": "June 21", "text": "June 21 – Infielder William White plays in one game for the Providence Grays and in conjecture becomes the first African American to play MLB.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369651189#Events", "title": "1879 in the United States", "revid": 1369651189, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1886, "year_label": "1886 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "March 17", "text": "March 17 – A white mob storms a courthouse in Carroll County, Mississippi, killing 23 African Americans.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372679431#March", "title": "1886", "revid": 1372679431, "section": "Events › March"}}, {"year": 1886, "year_label": "1886 CE", "section": "Religion & Belief", "date": "April 24", "text": "April 24 – Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the United States to identify himself publicly as African American, is ordained in Rome.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372679431#April", "title": "1886", "revid": 1372679431, "section": "Events › April"}}, {"year": 1886, "year_label": "1886 CE", "section": "Religion & Belief", "date": "April 24", "text": "April 24 – Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the U.S. to identify himself publicly as African American, is ordained in Rome.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372679856#Events", "title": "1886 in the United States", "revid": 1372679856, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1893, "year_label": "1893 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": null, "text": "Booker T. Washington High School (Houston) is founded as \"Colored High\", the first African-American high school in Houston, Texas.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369946190#Date_unknown", "title": "1893", "revid": 1369946190, "section": "Events › Date unknown"}}, {"year": 1895, "year_label": "1895 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": null, "text": "W. E. B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340527919#Undated", "title": "1895 in the United States", "revid": 1340527919, "section": "Events › Undated"}}, {"year": 1899, "year_label": "1899 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "August 10", "text": "August 10 – Marshall \"Major\" Taylor wins the world 1 mi professional cycling championship in Montreal, securing his place as the first African American world champion in any sport.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371393177#August", "title": "1899", "revid": 1371393177, "section": "Events › August"}}, {"year": 1919, "year_label": "1919 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": "September 30", "text": "September 30 – Elaine massacre: An estimated 100 to 800 African Americans are killed in Elaine, Arkansas, by white mobs and vigilante militias assisted by federal troops in \"the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history and possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States\".", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373508849#September", "title": "1919", "revid": 1373508849, "section": "Events › September"}}, {"year": 1930, "year_label": "1930 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "August 7", "text": "August 7 – Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana. They are hanged; James Cameron survives. This will be the last recorded lynching of African Americans in the Northern United States.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370463000#July–September", "title": "1930 in the United States", "revid": 1370463000, "section": "Events › July–September"}}, {"year": 1931, "year_label": "1931 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": "March 25", "text": "March 25 – Ida B. Wells, African-American anti-lynching crusader (b. 1862)", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371310518#March", "title": "1931", "revid": 1371310518, "section": "Deaths › March"}}, {"year": 1936, "year_label": "1936 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "August 3", "text": "August 3 – 1936 Summer Olympics: African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373216494#July–August", "title": "1936", "revid": 1373216494, "section": "Events › July–August"}}, {"year": 1940, "year_label": "1940 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "April 7", "text": "April 7 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368818987#April", "title": "1940", "revid": 1368818987, "section": "Events › April"}}, {"year": 1944, "year_label": "1944 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "June 16", "text": "June 16 – At age 14, African-American teenage boy George Stinney Jr. becomes the youngest person ever executed by electric chair in the United States. His conviction was vacated 70 years later, in 2014, due to him not receiving a fair trial.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370022611#June", "title": "1944", "revid": 1370022611, "section": "Events › June"}}, {"year": 1946, "year_label": "1946 CE", "section": "Technology & Infrastructure", "date": "July 25", "text": "July 25 – In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men shoot and kill two African-American couples, near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372058859#July", "title": "1946", "revid": 1372058859, "section": "Events › July"}}, {"year": 1947, "year_label": "1947 CE", "section": "Technology & Infrastructure", "date": "February 3", "text": "February 3 – P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371901060#February", "title": "1947", "revid": 1371901060, "section": "Events › February"}}, {"year": 1947, "year_label": "1947 CE", "section": "Health & Medicine", "date": "April 1", "text": "April 1 – Jackie Robinson, the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371901060#April", "title": "1947", "revid": 1371901060, "section": "Events › April"}}, {"year": 1947, "year_label": "1947 CE", "section": "Health & Medicine", "date": "April 1", "text": "April 1 – Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American Major League Baseball player since the 1880s.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373146686#April–June", "title": "1947 in the United States", "revid": 1373146686, "section": "Events › April–June"}}, {"year": 1951, "year_label": "1951 CE", "section": "Climate & Environment", "date": "December 17", "text": "December 17 – We Charge Genocide, a petition describing genocide against African Americans, is delivered to the United Nations.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368856437#December", "title": "1951", "revid": 1368856437, "section": "Events › December"}}, {"year": 1955, "year_label": "1955 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "January 7", "text": "January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371173508#January", "title": "1955", "revid": 1371173508, "section": "Events › January"}}, {"year": 1955, "year_label": "1955 CE", "section": "Conflict & Security", "date": "March 2", "text": "March 2 – Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American girl, refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is carried off the bus backwards, while being kicked, handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station. She becomes a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle (1956), which rules bus segregation to be unconstitutional.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371173508#March", "title": "1955", "revid": 1371173508, "section": "Events › March"}}, {"year": 1964, "year_label": "1964 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "June 14", "text": "June 14 – Freedom Summer, a volunteer Civil Rights project in the United States intended to promote voter registration for as many African Americans as possible in Mississippi, begins with orientation sessions for the 300 volunteers at Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371069587#June", "title": "1964", "revid": 1371069587, "section": "Events › June"}}, {"year": 1965, "year_label": "1965 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "August 6", "text": "August 6 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law, outlawing literacy tests and other discriminatory voting practices that have been responsible for widespread disfranchisement of African Americans.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368843670#July–August", "title": "1965", "revid": 1368843670, "section": "Events › July–August"}}, {"year": 1967, "year_label": "1967 CE", "section": "Religion & Belief", "date": "June 13", "text": "June 13 – Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall is nominated as the first African American justice of the United States Supreme Court.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370160888#June", "title": "1967", "revid": 1370160888, "section": "Events › June"}}, {"year": 1967, "year_label": "1967 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": "July 23", "text": "July 23–31 – 12th Street Riot: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city: 43 are killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370160888#July", "title": "1967", "revid": 1370160888, "section": "Events › July"}}, {"year": 1967, "year_label": "1967 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "August 30", "text": "August 30 – Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He is the first African American to hold the position.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370160888#August", "title": "1967", "revid": 1370160888, "section": "Events › August"}}, {"year": 1967, "year_label": "1967 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "November 7", "text": "November 7 – Carl B. Stokes is elected Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American elected mayor of a major United States city.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1370160888#November", "title": "1967", "revid": 1370160888, "section": "Events › November"}}, {"year": 1984, "year_label": "1984 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "December 22", "text": "December 22 – Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in the Bronx borough of New York City. They demand five dollars from Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime in the United States.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371242779#December", "title": "1984", "revid": 1371242779, "section": "Events › December"}}, {"year": 1986, "year_label": "1986 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "December 20", "text": "December 20 – Three African Americans are assaulted by a group of white teens in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York. One of the victims, Michael Griffith, is run over and killed by a motorist while attempting to flee the attackers.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373510075#December", "title": "1986", "revid": 1373510075, "section": "Events › December"}}, {"year": 1989, "year_label": "1989 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "August 23", "text": "August 23 – Murder of Yusef Hawkins in a shooting in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, sparking racial tensions between African Americans and Italian Americans.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369557705#August", "title": "1989", "revid": 1369557705, "section": "Events › August"}}, {"year": 1989, "year_label": "1989 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": "November 7", "text": "November 7 – David Dinkins becomes the first African-American mayor of New York City.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1369557705#November", "title": "1989", "revid": 1369557705, "section": "Events › November"}}, {"year": 2005, "year_label": "2005 CE", "section": "Deaths", "date": "October 24", "text": "October 24 – African-American civil rights activist Rosa Parks dies of natural causes.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368527363#October", "title": "2005", "revid": 1368527363, "section": "Events › October"}}, {"year": 2008, "year_label": "2008 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "November 4", "text": "November 4 – 2008 United States presidential election: Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama defeats Republican candidate John McCain and is elected the 44th President of the United States, making him the first African-American to be elected to the office.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1372634791#November", "title": "2008", "revid": 1372634791, "section": "Events › November"}}, {"year": 2009, "year_label": "2009 CE", "section": "Geopolitics & Diplomacy", "date": "January 20", "text": "January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to hold the office.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1367728140#January", "title": "2009", "revid": 1367728140, "section": "Events › January"}}, {"year": 2014, "year_label": "2014 CE", "section": "Crime & Justice", "date": "December", "text": "African-American teenage boy George Stinney Jr.'s conviction of murdering two white girls back in 1944 is vacated due to him having received an unfair trial.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373534475#December", "title": "2014", "revid": 1373534475, "section": "Events › December"}}]}