First Reconstruction legislature (27 Blacks, 150

Ransier, Alonzo J. (1834-1882)

Alonzo Jacob Ransier, an African American Republican from South Carolina, held a series of political posts during the Reconstruction era. Ransier was born a free black man in Charleston in 1834. Little is known of his childhood and early education. At the end of the Civil War he worked as

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Source: Black Past

Aug

17

1882

Toomer, Jean (1894-1967)

Jean Toomer was born into an elite black family in Washington, D.C. in 1894. Abandoned by his father as a newborn and losing his mother to appendicitis as a teenager, Toomer spent his formative years in the home of his grandparents, P.B.S. and Nina Pinchback. P.B.S. Pinchback served as a state

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Source: Black Past

First Reconstruction constitutional convention

First Reconstruction constitutional convention (eighteen Blacks, ninety whites) opened in Montgomery, Alabama.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

5

1867

Cayton, Horace Roscoe (1859-1940)

Horace Roscoe Cayton spent nearly all his life combating racism. The child of a Mississippi slave, Cayton came of age during the Reconstruction, and post-Reconstruction eras and had already cultivated strong opinions on human, political, and civil rights by the time he settled in

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Source: Black Past

May

22

1920

W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois also known as William Edward Burghardt (b. Feburary 23, 1868) was a an African-American historian, civil rights activist and the first sociologist to ever have an article published on the rights of African-Americans. His great-grandfather was French-American and his family had

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Source: Black History Resources

History of Slavery in America

Follow the timeline to learn more about the history of slavery in the United States, including the arrival of the first African slaves to America, the federal banishment of slave importation, and the abolishment of slavery in the United

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

Reconstruction program announced

President Andrew Johnson announced his program of Reconstruction. It required ratification of the 13th amendmant, but did not guarantee black suffrage.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

May

29

1865

West, Allen (1961- )

In 2010, retired lieutenant colonel Allen West became the first black Republican to represent Florida in Congress since Rep. Josiah T. Walls, who served during Reconstruction. Congressman West was born on February 7, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia to Herman and Elizabeth West. His father was a career

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Source: Black Past

Feb

7

1961

DuBois, William Edward Burghardt (1868–1963)

Educator, essayist, journalist, scholar, social critic, and activist W.E.B. DuBois, was born to Mary Sylvina Burghardt and Alfred Dubois on February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He excelled in the public schools of Great Barrington, graduating valedictorian from his high school in

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Source: Black Past

Aug

27

1963

Ragsdale, Marguerita (1948- )

Marguerita Dianne Ragsdale was born in April 1948 in Richmond, Virginia to Lillie and Vernon Ragsdale and raised alongside her five sisters on a farm in McKenney, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. After starting her undergraduate work at Virginia State University in Petersburg, she transferred to

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Source: Black Past

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), organization composed mainly of American blacks, but with many white members, whose goal is the end of racial discrimination and

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

African American History and Women Timeline 1870-1899

[Previous] [Next] Women and African American History: 1870-1899 • 15th Amendment to the US Constitution gave the right to vote without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude -- but the Amendment did not apply to African American women (or any other women) • Susan McKinney Stewart,

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Source: ThoughtCo

Reconstruction of the South began with the

Reconstruction of the South began with the registering of Black and white voters in the South. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan ordered registration to begin in Louisiana on May 1 and to continue until June 30. Registration began in Arkansas in May. Other states followed in June and July. By the end of

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Source: Blackfacts.com

May

1

1867

Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected

Walter Fauntroy takes office as the first elected Congressional representative from the District of Columbia since Reconstruction.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Apr

19

1971

Challenging Caste and Race: The Campaign for Integrated Higher Education in the Reconstruction Era

In her new book, Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education, sociologist Christi M. Smith reveals a largely forgotten history of early efforts to integrate higher education in the years following the Civil War. This history pushes us to consider the relationship

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Source: Black Past

Gibbs, Jonathan (1827-1874)

Born a freeman in Pennsylvania in 1827, Jonathan Gibbs was the son of Maria Jackson and the Methodist minister, Jonathan

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Source: Black Past

Lewis Temple

Lewis Temple was born in 1800 as a slave in Richmond, Virginia. He obtained his freedom and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1829 where he worked as

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Source: Black History Resources

Norfolk State University (1935- )

Norfolk State University (NSU), one of the largest historically black universities in the nation, was founded in 1935. The university began as the Norfolk State Unit, a branch of Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. This college was the only predominantly black institution of higher

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Source: Black Past

List of African-American U.S. state firsts

African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. African-Americans initial achievements in various fields historically establish a foothold, providing a precedent for more widespread cultural change. The shorthand phrase for this is breaking the color

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Source: ThoughtCo

Jefferson, William J. (1947-- )

William J. Jefferson is a former Democratic politician who represented Louisiana’s Second Congressional District from 1991 to 2009. He was the first African American congressman elected from the state since Reconstruction. His career ended in a bribery scandal that resulted in his conviction in

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Source: Black Past

Jun

4

2007

Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar (1823-1915)

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1823, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs apprenticed as a carpenter. By his early 20s he was an activist in the abolition movement, sharing platforms with Frederick Douglass and helping in the Underground Railroad. Black intellectual ferment of the era gave him

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Source: Black Past

Apr

17

1823

Edward Waters College [Jacksonville] (1866- )

Edward Waters College was founded in 1866 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) for the education of newly freed slaves. Located near downtown Jacksonville, Florida, the college currently sits on 23 acres and houses Centennial Hall (a nationally registered historic structure), the

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Source: Black Past

PBS Pinchback, born

Pickney Benton Stewart Pinchback was born in rural Georgia. Pinchback entered Louisiana politics after the Civil War and became lieutenant governor of that Reconstruction Era state. For 43 days he actually served the office of governor of the state.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

May

10

1837

Andrew Young elected to Congress

On this date in 1972, Barbara Jordan of Houston and Andrew Young of Atlanta, become the first African Americans from the south elected to Congress since Reconstruction.

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Source: Blackfacts.com

Nov

17

1972

Bertonneau, E. Arnold (1834-1912)

Arnold Bertonneau was a New Orleans wine merchant, black soldier, and is best known as one of the first African American participants in Louisiana’s Reconstruction period. In 1862-63, Bertonneau was a captain in the 1st Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards. This volunteer black regiment

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Source: Black Past

(1871) Congressman Joseph H. Rainey, “Speech Made in Reply to An Attack Upon the Colored State Legislators of South Carolina..."

Joseph H. Rainey, “Speech Made in Reply to An Attack Upon the Colored State Legislators of South Carolina by Representative Cox on New York,” 1871

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Source: Black Past

Nicodemus, Kansas (1877- )

Nicodemus, Kansas was founded in 1877 at the end of the Reconstruction Period. It soon became one of the most famous mostly black communities in the country formed by freedpeople migrating west. Nicodemus is located on the plains in the northwest corner of the state along the Solomon River in

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Source: Black Past

Robinson, Max (1939-1988)

Max Robinson was an American broadcast journalist for ABC News and served as a co-anchor for ABC World News Tonight. He was the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the history of American television. He was also one of the original founders of the National Association of Black

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Source: Black Past

Dec

20

1988

Racial segregation in the United States

Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, includes the segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines. The expression most often refers to the legally or

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Source: ThoughtCo

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was the seminal post-Reconstruction Supreme Court decision that judicially validated state sponsored segregation in public facilities by its creation and endorsement of the “separate but equal” doctrine as satisfying the Constitutional requirements provided in

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Source: Black Past

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