1868 - John Willis Menard: the first African-American elected to Congress
John Willis Menard, abolitionist, author, journalist and politician, was born in 1838 in Kaskaskia, Illinois, to French Creole parents....
1877 - Nicodemus Town Company is established
Benjamin Pap Singleton, born a slave in Tennessee, had a mission after the Civil War. He wanted former slaves to leave the South for a...
1880s to 1930s - Maggie Lena Walker (Activist, President of Penny Saving Bank of St. Luke)
Maggie Lena Walker was grand secretary of the Independent Order of St. Luke, an organization dedicated to the social and financial...
1890 - Penny Savings Bank of Birmingham, the first black-owned bank in Alabama
The Penny Savings Bank, founded by Reverend William Reuben Pettiford in Birmingham in 1890, was the first black-owned and black-operated...
1890s - Who Was Ida B. Wells?
Ida Bell Wells (July 16, 1862 to March 25, 1931), better known as Ida B. Wells, was an African-American journalist, abolitionist and...
1893 to 1987 - Elizabeth Cotten, This African American folk legend won her first Grammy at age 90
The fact that “Freight Train,” Elizabeth Cotten’s humble and beautiful classic song, was almost never recorded is a sad reminder that for...
1897 - Jack Johnson: The first black heavyweight champion of the world
Jack Johnson, the first African American and first Texan to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world, was born the second of...
1900s - Granny Midwives
Long before doctors and hospitals, granny midwives were the incredible force who helped birth America. Watch: #blackcommunity #BlackPower...
1906 - The making of Black Wallstreet: The most famous and prosperous black urban community in the U
The Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, grew into the most famous and prosperous black urban community in the United States during the...
1910 to 1970 - Great story of the Great Migration of black Americans out of the South
Everyone thinks of wars and the Great Depression, but not often the Great Migration, the movement of black Americans out of the South in...