BRI's Plainest Demands of Justice

Black History Timeline

BRI's Black History Timeline follows Plainest Demands of Justice: Documents for Dialogue on the African American Experience, a social studies resource highlighting the African American experience from the colonial period to present day.

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The Declaration of Independence and the Promise of Liberty and Equality for All: Founding Principles and the Problem of Slavery

Analyze primary source documents to determine the extent to which the writing of the Declaration of Independence contributed to the quest to end slavery in the United States in the Founding era.

What Happened in Black History from 1776-1791

More from the Promise of Liberty and Equality for All Lesson

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Text on a webpage about the Declaration of Independence and its principles related to liberty and justice.

Document titled "Primary Source" with a petition to the Massachusetts Legislature from January 13, 1777.

Text discussing primary sources related to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence's impact on slavery.

Image of a document outlining primary sources related to slavery and the Declaration of Independence.

Playlist

Full Primary Source Set: Promise of Liberty and Equality

Text discussing the United States Constitution and its connection to principles of liberty, equality, and justice.

Playlist

Abbreviated Primary Source Set: Promise of Liberty and Equality

Text from an article discussing the Declaration of Independence and the rights of individuals in a historical context.

Essay

Intro Essay: The Promise of Liberty and Equality

1137 Words

Graphic organizer outlining connections between the Declaration of Independence and slavery, with guiding questions and directions.

Activity

Graphic Organizer: Promise of Liberty and Equality

Text-based infographic outlining principles of the Declaration of Independence and slavery. Includes a sorting table.

Activity

Concluding Analysis: Promise of Liberty and Equality

Slavery and the Struggle for Abolition from the Colonial Period to the Civil War

How did legislators, courts, and individuals interact with and interpret the principles of liberty and justice in the quest to end slavery from colonial times to the outbreak of the Civil War?

What Happened in Black History from 1791-1865

1791

Benjamin Banneker sends a letter to Thomas Jefferson about Black equality.

1794

Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.

1803

United States acquires the territory of Louisiana from France through the Louisiana Purchase.

1812

War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain begins.

1814

Francis Scott Key pens The Star-Spangled Banner.

1820

U.S. Congress enacts the Missouri Compromise.

1830

President Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act into Law.

1845

Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

1846

Mexican American War.

1851

Sojourner Truth delivers her “Ain’t I a Woman?”  speech.

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

1854

U.S. Congress repeals the Missouri Compromise with the Kansas- Nebraska Act .

1857

U.S. Supreme Court delivers the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford .

1859

John Brown delivers his final statement at his sentencing hearing for his failed raid at Harpers Ferry.

1861

U.S. Civil War begins.

1863

President Lincoln sings the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Lost Promise of Reconstruction and Rise of Jim Crow

To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans from Reconstruction to the end of the nineteenth century?

What Happened in Black History from 1860-1896

1865

Major General Gordon Granger’s arrival in Texas represents the federal government’s final fulfillment of the Emancipation Proclamation, or “Juneteenth”.

1865

The ratification of the 13th Amendment. 

1866

Many individuals attack Freedmen’s Bureau, which is established to aid formerly enslaved African Americans and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War.

1868

The ratification of the 14th Amendment. 

1869

African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) Pastor S. B. Williams reports the atrocities to North Carolina Governor Holden.

1870

The ratification of the 15th Amendment. 

1874

Thomas Nast publishes political cartoon “The Union as It Was” in Harper’s Weekly.

1875

Congressman James T. Rapier delivers a speech in support of the Civil Rights Act.

1881

Clara Barton founds the Red Cross.

1892

Immigration center is established on Ellis Island, New York City.

1894

Frederick Douglass delivers his “The Blessings of Liberty and Education” speech in Manassas, Virginia.

1895

Booker T. Washington delivers his “Atlanta Exposition Address”.

1896

U.S. Supreme Court delivers the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. 

The Struggle Continues: Stony the Road

To what extent did the Founding principles become a reality for African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century?

What Happened in Black History from 1896-1941

1896

Ida B. Wells publishes her pamphlet “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases”.

1903

W.E.B. Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk.

1915

Booker T. Washington publishes My View of Segregation Laws.

1917

U.S. enters WWI .

1917

10,000 African Americans march down 5th Avenue in New York for The Silent Parade.

1920

The ratification of the 19th Amendment.

1921

Tulsa Race Massacre.

1924

Immigration Restriction Act excludes Asians and limits Europeans.

1929

Wall Street Crash starts Great Depression. 

1933

The New Deal is launched.

1936

Langston Hughes publishes “Let America Be America Again”.

1939

WWII Begins.

1941

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

1941

A. Philip Randolph delivers “The Call to Negro America to March on Washington”. 

1942

Bayard Rustin publish his essay “Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow”.

1942

Executive Order 9066 authorizes internment for Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

1945

The U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, WWII ends, and the United Nations is formed. 

Continuing the Heroic Struggle for Equality – The Civil Rights Movement

To what extent did Founding principles of liberty, equality, and justice become a reality for African Americans in the civil rights movement?

What Happened in Black History from 1954-1967

1954

U.S. Supreme Court delivers the decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

1955

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the “Montgomery Bus Boycott” speech.

1960

Black college students establish the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

1962

Cesar Chavez founds the National Farm Workers Association .

1963

John Lewis delivers his “March on Washington” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

1963

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

1963

Malcolm X delivers his “Message to the Grassroots” speech in Detroit, Michigan.

1963

President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, TX .

1964

U.S. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act.

1965

U.S. Congress passes the Voting Rights Act.

1965

Bloody Sunday - state troopers, local police, and deputized locals attack peaceful protesters attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

1967

U.S. Supreme Court delivers the decision in Loving v. Virginia.  

More from the Continuing the Heroic Struggle for Equality Lesson

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Text from a presentation titled "Primary Source" featuring Richard Wright's "Black Boy" with discussion questions about civil rights.

A text-based image discussing the role of primary sources in the civil rights movement and its founding principles.

Text from a presentation slide discussing the Founding principles and their relevance to African Americans during the civil rights movement.

Text on a document titled "Primary Source" discussing the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case and civil rights themes.

Playlist

Full Primary Source Set: The Civil Rights Movement

Slide featuring a 1955 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. about the Montgomery Bus Boycott and civil rights principles.

Textual content from a document titled "Primary Source" about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee founding statement.

Slide titled "Primary Source" featuring Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech and discussion questions.

Playlist

Abbreviated Primary Source Set: The Civil Rights Movement

A large crowd gathers at the Reflecting Pool, with the Washington Monument in the background. Black and white photo.

Essay

Intro Essay: The Civil Rights Movement

2800 Words

Graphic organizer outlining questions related to the civil rights movement and founding principles of liberty and equality.

Activity

Graphic Organizer: The Civil Rights Movement

A table with analysis questions about the Civil Rights Movement and its relation to liberty, equality, and justice.

Activity

Concluding Analysis: Civil Rights Movement

Where Do We Go From Here?

To what extent did Founding principles become a greater reality for African Americans in the latter half of the twentieth century to today? What work must still be done?